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Sedona Council orders voter poll after heated debate over proposed 5,500‑seat amphitheater
Summary
Following intensive debate that raised planning, traffic and fiscal questions, councilors asked staff to hire a neutral pollster to survey registered Sedona voters on a narrowly worded question about a proposed 5,500-seat commercial amphitheater at the Western Gateway site and on whether housing should be included as part of future uses.
A divided but engaged Sedona City Council agreed on Dec. 18 to commission a professionally designed public-opinion poll of registered Sedona voters to test support for a proposed 5,500-seat commercial live-entertainment amphitheater at the Western Gateway site.
Council discussion ran through hours of technical detail, planning history and community reaction. Staff reminded the council that a prior master-plan outreach process had identified public-space priorities, housing options and possible amphitheater concepts; several councilors warned that a narrowly framed private proposal (referred to in the meeting as CP2) had re-entered public view in a way that risked driving community reaction before alternatives or tradeoffs were clearly vetted.
Concerns raised by councilors and staff included long-term site control, whether the scale (5,500 seats) was commercially viable in this market, the large parking and circulation footprint the proposal envisioned, impacts on public park and recreation needs, and the risk that an ill-framed ballot initiative could focus debate on extreme visual images rather than negotiated tradeoffs.
To create a clear, defensible public signal, councilors directed staff to engage a neutral pollster. The poll will be limited to registered Sedona voters and the council asked the pollster to test a narrowly scoped question that specifies size (5,500 seats), location (Western Gateway Cultural Park), and use (commercial live-entertainment amphitheater). Several councilors also asked staff and the pollster to advise whether and how a separate question about housing on the Western Gateway should be included without biasing respondent answers.
Council members emphasized they were not approving any amphitheater project by commissioning a poll; rather, they sought a narrow measure of public sentiment before proceeding with master-plan refinements and any land-use approvals. Staff said they would return with proposed poll wording and recommended methodology for council review before any mailings or ballots are distributed.
"We need to test that specific proposal and not be led by the loudest voices online," one councilor said, calling for precise, neutral survey language. Another councilor asked the pollster to confirm whether the question could be read as implying city financial support, and requested that the final draft make clear whether a response would assume public funding or a privately funded, self-sustaining project.
