The City of Sedona is hampering its own efforts to develop both affordable and eco-friendly housing. This is done by adopting building and development codes that increase construction costs and ignore affordable and sustainable materials.

The Sedona Land Development Code states that the objectives of the standards set forth in the code are “sustainable, compatible with solar and other alternative energy systems, and adaptable for multiple uses to extend the life cycle of the building.” increase.”

The LDC has stated in Chapter 2, “The general design intent of this manual is to ensure that the built environment is in harmony with the natural environment.” It is supplemented. DREAM goes on to explain that the LDC’s aim is to establish standards that promote ‘sustainable development’ and ‘promote green building and design’. It also quotes from the first item in the Sedona Community Plan Vision Statement: “Sedona is known for its practices that respect and protect the natural environment.”

In 2019, the city also adopted the International Building Code, International Housing Code, and their supplements as city building codes, along with the National Electric Code.

Combined, this collection of local and national norms actively undermines the city’s stated goals regarding environmental friendliness and affordability. Examples of such interference include:

• Sedona requires all single-family homes over 1,500 square feet to have a garage. If the lot is RMH, RS-6 or RS-10, 1 car garage is allowed. All other zoning districts require a minimum two-car garage of 400 square feet. As of the end of 2022, Forbes found the average U.S. cost to build a garage to be $24,000, while his typical two-car garage cost an average of $52 per square foot. I found [LDC 5.5.D.1]
• Townhouses and single and duplex homes require an automatic fire sprinkler system. According to the National Fire Sprinkler Association, the average cost to install a residential sprinkler system is $1.35 per square foot, or about $2,000 for a 1,500-square-foot home.Ann Estimate local construction costs Created by Sedona realtors Jan Bigelow and Wally Reule, the cost of the sprinkler system is much higher, ranging from $6,000 to $20,000. [IRC R313]
• Building a new home requires a “soil classification prepared by an Arizona registered geotechnical engineer” and can cost between $1,000 and $3,000 in Yavapai County. [DREAM 1.2.C]
• New homes must have a conduit to supply 240V current to the garage or carport to enable charging of electric vehicles. The cost of an additional 240V AC installation is around $300 without a transformer. This requirement was not originally included in IBC or IRC, but was added by the City of Sedona. [City Code 15.05.040.JJ; IRC E3901.13 as amended]
• New homes should be tested for air leaks. The cost of blower door pressurization testing ranges from $300 to $400. [IRC N1102.4.1.2]
• The combined LDC, DREAM, IBC, and IRC requirements make it extremely complex for owner-builders to design and build their own homes while meeting code requirements. For example, the drawings required for building and related permit applications include surveys of existing conditions, preliminary site plans, landscape plans, lighting plans, topographic maps, vegetation maps, floors, roofs, snow and wind calculations. but not limited to: Possibly additional documentation such as grading and drainage plans prepared by licensed engineers meeting 30 detailed requirements. [DREAM 1.1.F, 1.2.C, 3.1.F.2; IBC 1603] Few new home builders – engineers, surveyors or contractors – have the skills and experience to meet these complex requirements, so they have to hire professionals to stay compliant with city codes. , which adds the cost of otherwise unavoidable design and labor costs. total cost of their home. Bigelow and Reule estimate that the research will cost him $1,200 to $5,000, while Forbes estimates that the house plans will cost him $500 to $3,500. Bankrate calculates the labor cost of a home at $40 to $80 per square foot, or about 40% of the total cost.Based on these figures, it would cost $400,000 in labor to build a 1,500-square-foot building. [build cost] Sedona homes can run anywhere from $60,000 to $160,000.
• Attached housing units, or small homes, are permitted by city ordinance, but these are limited to one per lot, must be less than 750 square feet or 50% the size of the main building, and do not include a kitchenette. but not the kitchen. They must be constructed to the same standards as the main housing units on the site. [LDC 3.4.C]
• Neither LDC nor DREAM mention or endorse the use of many alternative technologies that offer more affordability, sustainability, or both than conventional construction. Such techniques include rammed earth, cob, adobe and straw bale construction methods. recycled insulation; incineration and composting of toilets and anaerobic digesters; Passive solar heating, radiant and evaporative cooling, wind catchers, rocket mass heaters. The land-use studies of John Jeavons and Masanobu Fukuoka and the practice of urban farming using traditional methods of precolonial Arizonas. Similarly, none of these technologies are mentioned in the Sedona Climate Action Plan. In addition, Section 3.4 of the LDC limits food security and thereby sustainability by prohibiting the keeping of livestock on plots of less than one acre. Permits allow chickens on smaller parcels, but no more than 6 of his chickens or 2 hives are allowed per address. The city also prohibits the installation of wood fireplaces or stoves (wood is a natural renewable energy resource) in new homes unless they meet EPA Phase 2 standards. [City Code 15.05.070, 15.05.080]

Because the IRC includes masonry heater standards, it pays more attention to environmental awareness than Sedona’s own locally developed regulations. [including rocket mass heaters]solar thermal energy system and straw clay and straw bale method.

However, the IRC notes that “heavier forms of straw clay construction have been used for thousands of years in various parts of the world” and that the advantages of straw clay construction include “thermal performance and less environmental impact.” standards for use as non-bearing materials while recognizing that they contain

These costs do not include fees charged by the City for construction, grading, and other permits. These are additional expenses that builders need to get their permits in the first place. Bigelow and Reule estimated a minimum cost of $8,500 for the building permit alone.

The above estimate suggests that Sedona’s building code will add an additional $100,000 to $200,000 to the cost of each new home. The Code also perpetuates the use of wood, concrete and plastic in construction. In favor of using a company’s supply chain to provide standardized materials, rather than using local resources. It also prescribes practices that require increased rather than decreased resource and energy usage.

These results contrast with the Sedona leaders’ stated intentions, the CAP’s stated goals, and the text of the Code itself.