Scale model of the proposed Monolithic Dome shell design for the Barbara Antonsen Memorial Park Pavilion.

by Cyndy Hardy | Sedona.biz

Sedona, AZ - February 16, 2008 -There’s no sweeter way to bring warm thoughts of summer, chuck wagon dinners, parades and Easter egg hunts on a cold February day than a vision of a 12-year-old boy winning his first pie-eating contest at Posse Ground Community Park.

John Bradshaw was that boy, some years ago, when the park was the hub of traditional small-town activity in Sedona. Today, Mr. Bradshaw is in his 30s and serves as a City Council member for a community of which few can claim similar heritage – he was born and raised here.

Whether native or not, many Sedonans know holding on to the past is important to saving Sedona’s character. Tradition is an honorable pursuit in itself; maybe more important in this city because many believe its crimson history of hardy frontier folk and simple Americana is fading to a more commercialized and urbanized image.

Barbara Antonsen was not native, but she proved one doesn’t have to be to buy in to the historical significance of ‘place.’ Ms. Antonsen arrived in Sedona in 1983. She immersed herself in volunteerism in causes cultural and politic such as Sedona Jazz on the Rocks, Sedona Arts Center, Sedona-Flagstaff Symphony League, and grassroots efforts that lead to the city’s incorporation and creation of the Sedona-Oak Creek Unified School District.

Part of Posse Ground Park was almost lost in 1990 when Yavapai College, then located at the park, tried an “institutional taking” of about 8.63 acres. Ms. Antonsen led a fight to stop the taking, succeeding when the college withdrew its option in 1993, according to historical records. The City bought the acreage the next year.

Ms. Antonsen died in 2002. Her place in Sedona history was sealed when the city named the approximately 2-acre stage area Barbara Antonsen Memorial Park in her memory. Her legacy is carried on by Friends of the Posse Grounds, an organization raising funds and designing a new stage and pavilion for weddings, picnics, art shows, band performances and more.

Here’s where this ‘feel-good’ story hits a snag. The Sedona Planning & Zoning Commission was split 5 to 2 when it approved the Friends’ Development Review Application and Conditional Use Permit on Dec. 4, 2007. Neighbors who opposed the design took the next step by appealing the decision. It is up to the City Council to hear the appeal and decide how plans for Barbara’s Park should proceed.

At the Feb. 12 City Council meeting, city staff recommended the council delay the appeal and give staff more time to collaborate with all the interested parties and devise a management and operations plan for the park; the plan to be presented at the same time the appeal is heard. The plan would address many concerns including provisions for parking, hours of operation, noise, lighting, coordination of events, maximum attendees, and amplification, according to John O’Brien, director of community development.

Several residents were not assuaged. Dale Casey has lived near Posse Ground Park for 17 years. “People already cut right through our property – not using the streets – to get to the park,” he said at the Feb. 12 City Council meeting.

One man said the pavilion will encourage business vitality and quasi-commercial uses in his neighborhood.

The sheer size of the shell has people worried about loud concerts, although Friends members say performances will comply with city noise ordinances and that the shell and surrounding landscape are specifically designed to contain and absorb even low bass tones.

“I was part of the group who met early on,” said resident David Bowers. “That proposal was reasonable. I was told it would accommodate about 150 people, that it would renovate the existing stage, that there would be no amplified music and that the stage would be used during the daytime only. What happened to that plan? This has no resemblance to what was proposed.”

Original rendering of the Barbara Antonsen Memorial Park that has now been replaced with a Monothilic Dome shell design

Today’s Antonsen Park design includes a “performance shell” that would cover about 300 people. Some estimate that 400 or more people could fit outside the shell. With roughly 140 parking spots at Posse Ground Park, neighbors are concerned that their streets will fill with the overflow.

While this is purely conjecture, the new design may reflect many residents’ appetite for a larger performing arts facility. The Sedona Cultural Park seated about 6,000 but its operators pulled the curtain in 2004 amid economic hardship. In cooperation with local advocates, the city conducted a Performing Arts & Conference Center Feasibility study in 2005 that now sits on the back burner, in part, because the City Council felt the size and price tag were too much. That called for about 1,000 seating. The council said about 600 might be more appropriate.

As of press time, the City will postpone the appeal hearing to allow staff time to prepare the operations report; unless the parties choose to have the appeal heard sooner.

“Without this middle step there will be a clear winner and loser. We want something where everyone feels they won,” City Manager Eric Levitt said.

Vice Mayor Jerry Frey disagreed that delaying the appeal was a good idea. Staff estimates about three months to complete the operations plan with no guarantee the appellants will accept it. “We could go on and on and get nothing accomplished. Let’s just hear the dang appeal,” Mr. Frey said. He was outvoted 6-1.

Related article: Sedona's Barbara's Park to utilize Monolithic Dome shell design