Today, with all of my heart, I am inviting you to help the community of Cornville to stop the Spring Creek Ranch planned mega development project that is a threat to our beautiful Spring Creek and all of its wild inhabitants.

Please help us by asking the Yavapai County Planning & Zoning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to vote No to the Spring Creek Ranch Rezoning Application #PLA19-000008 on March 18th, 2020. 

By signing this petition you are opposing the rezoning of Spring Creek Ranch Application #PLA19-000008 from a RCU-2A to PAD.

First Application Already Denied

This project, at a slightly larger scale, was just previously denied by the Yavapai Planning and Zoning Commission on December 18th, 2019. The developers have now made a slight change to the size of their still highly dense development project and have requested another Zone Change/Zoning Map Modification through a second application to our Planning and Zoning Commission. They wish to change from an RCU-2A to PAD (Planned Area Development).

The current zoning is for about 140 residential lots; however, their amended intent is for an urban-type development of 2100 units.

A Fragile Ecosystem

Spring Creek is a beautiful clear creek in the rural town of Cornville that is just outside of Sedona, Arizona. We are a close community with rural values and a deep love for nature and our beloved Spring Creek, a fragile ecosystem with perennial flow that runs into Oak Creek and that affects all of the water irrigation systems that water the farms, foliage and animals of this area.

Proposed Density Equals the Size of Baltimore, Minneapolis, or Seattle

If rezoned with a PAD and actually developed, this Spring Creek Ranch development would be over 47 times as dense as Cornville—and over 9 times as dense as densest area in the entire county, Prescott Valley. This planned Spring Creek Ranch mega development placed inside a most delicate area of our rural community would be denser than Baltimore, Minneapolis, or Seattle!

The density proposed by the developer is wholly inappropriate for rural Cornville. In fact, it is inappropriate for the entire Verde Valley. The last census identified 3,280 residents in Cornville. Spring Creek Ranch would add approximately 4,200 new residents—effectively doubling the population here.

Below, I share with you website information that I gathered from an organization called Keep Sedona Beautiful, an agency that is committed to protecting and sustaining the unique scenic beauty and natural environment of the Greater Sedona Area through the stewardship of its members and volunteers.

Harm to Spring Creek                      

The proposed development sits in a valley that has active natural springs that form Spring Creek, and this runs through the center of the planned development’s property. Keep Sedona Beautiful asserts that this development would cause irreparable harm to Spring Creek, one of the area’s key riparian habitats. Spring Creek is the home and watering hole of many of our wild animals, birds of prey, reptiles and fish in the area.

Harm to Wildlife

There is a high potential for severely impacting threatened, endangered and other sensitive wildlife species that inhabit Spring Creek and the surrounding area, including but not limited to the endangered spikedace and Gila topminnow, as well as the threatened northern Mexican gartersnake and yellow-billed cuckoo.

Arizona Game and Fish has made the following comments concerning this proposal: “The Department’s assessment of the proposed residential community is that it would have substantial impacts on sensitive, endangered, and threatened species onsite and downstream, both within and adjacent to Spring Creek. The proposed Project is a high density residential development, resulting in groundwater withdrawals, impervious surfaces, and human visitation. These changes in land use and hydrology will likely degrade water quality and quantity in Spring Creek and Oak Creek, impacting many native species, and the character of the area for residents and for public recreation downstream.”

US Forest Service Statement

The US Forest Service states that the impacts of this proposal have “the potential to degrade the protected aquatic habitat that is important to native fish conservation. This will negatively impact the local populations of native species, including several endangered species. Spring Creek supports numerous special status wildlife species and their habitat. The western yellow-billed cuckoo and northern Mexican gartersnake are both species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Other special status species, including Regional Forester sensitive species, include the common black hawk, lowland leopard frog, Arizona toad, red bat, and Page springsnail.”

What We Are Facing Now

Although hundreds of Cornville residents, along with the Cornville Community Association, Keep Sedona Beautiful—and many other experts in the field of conservation and ecology have written letters of opposition and attended the zoning hearings to voice their concerns and opposition to this high density project that would actually double the population of Spring Creek—the developers of the high density proposal seem indifferent to all of our voiced concerns and are set on going forward with this mega planned community. 

On Dec. 19th, 2019, the Yavapai County Planning & Zoning Commission voted to recommend denial of rezoning of Spring Creek Ranch from residential to planned area development. 

Unfortunately, this was not the end of our heartfelt plight to save our community as on January 27th, 2020, the owners of the Spring Creek Ranch planned development, filed this second amended letter of intent with the zoning commission. 

High-density manufactured home sites are proposed on land with a significant slope, such as parcels 2A, 2B, 3D, 4D and 4E. Building out those sites would require terracing that would effectively destroy the existing terrain. 

The developer has failed to demonstrate that rezoning to Planned Area Development (PAD), and developing according to plan, would provide any community benefit whatsoever. This will be a gated development, not a community resource.

Another concern is the business model that the developer plans to use is one where the homeowner must buy a manufactured home, usually at a higher interest rate, and because the owner does not own the land, the developers will then lease the land on which manufactured homes sit! This is advantageous only to the landowner. Over time, the value of the homeowner’s asset depreciates while the land asset owned by the developer appreciates. 

Spring Creek Ranch New Proposal

SCR (Spring Creek Ranch) is proposed as a 282-acre master-planned community (a large-scale residential neighborhood with a large number of recreational and commercial amenities such as hiking trail, dog park, swimming pool, club house and even stores and restaurants) which will include approximately 1500 single family residential lots, of which up to 200 lots may be used for recreational vehicle visitors. Housing options will include manufactured homes and/or site built homes with a land lease starting at $650.00 a month. The project will include 400 apartment rental units and a 200-unit assisted living facility.

Impact on Water Resources

As noted by Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, it is critical that we understand water use and depletion rates, including upstream groundwater depletion and downstream surface water depletion. KSB recommends that expert evaluation be required prior to any decision on rezoning in order to properly evaluate the impact on the Spring Creek riparian habitat and how the development would impact groundwater tables.

This development would add approximately 4,200 new residents to this area, necessarily impacting water usage. At an average per capita usage of 90 gallons of water per day (USGS website), this amounts to 137,970,000 gallons of water per year.

Further Concerns and Facts

This proposal is out of conformance with the Yavapai County Comprehensive Plan. Locating a development of this size and scale along either side of Spring Creek is entirely inappropriate. The density of the development is not in keeping with the Cornville community or with the entire Verde Valley.

The proposal does not reflect smart growth nor does it provide benefits to existing communities. Instead, it places its residents on an island where their safety is at risk due to infrastructure limitations.

This proposed project is a business model which does not consider the needs of the residents of Cornville, or the rural values of the surrounding areas. We understand that there is a need for responsible growth and new housing that reflects the needs of the community. However, this is the wrong development in the wrong location.

Please help us by signing our petition today. Our time is limited and your help is greatly appreciated and needed. Help us to be victorious in our desire to keep Spring Creek, Cornville, and the entire Verde Valley, beautiful. 

Most of this information has been acquired from the website of Keep Sedona Beautiful, and I am grateful for their support and for all of the investigative work that they have done on behalf of Spring Creek and their abject opposition to this project. Please visit their website for more information. www.keepsedonabeautiful.com

Information was also gathered from the Cornville Community Association, and for more information please visit their website at www.cornvilleza.org

Thank you, Susanna Sophia Hart                                                                     Cornville, AZ