Reimagining Sedona’s “Cultural Park.” Steve Williamson welcomes Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow, City Councilmember Melissa Dunn and former Councilmember Jessica Williamson to discuss the future of the failed Cultural Park and amphitheater, which has been unused for many years.
The city purchased the 40-acre parcel with the intent of adding some much-needed housing, along with recreational and commercial venues. The city then hired a team to create a plan, which has continued to be refined in response to multiple public meetings.
The current plan for the site calls for housing in addition to the possibility of an indoor pool, a great lawn, movies, entertainment and more. As Jablow says, “This is not going to be for homeless people. This is going to be for critical employees, critical workers. We need teachers here. We need police officers. We need firefighters…we need elder care…we need nurses, we need doctors, we need X-ray technicians.”
Unfortunately, the plan has been met with resistance as the result of disinformation by some who claim there are other sites for housing. But, outside of this site, Dunn reports there are only 88 vacant parcels in Sedona and of those, only 3 are buildable.
And the need for housing is clear. Dunn says, “One out of 26 [police] officers lives within the city limits.” She adds that only two out of 8 employees at the community center, three out of 30 employees at the humane society, and three of the 27 employees at the library live in the city limits. In addition, 8 out of 87 of those qualified to work in operations in the fire district live in the district, and of those 8 only 5 live within the city limits.
What’s more, a number of those who work in the city are homeless. So, obviously Sedona has a housing problem.