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Sedona Trails
A Project Planning Partnership CITY OFFICIALS AND DEVELOPERS ARE WORKING TOGETHER TO FULLFILL COMMUNITY VISION By Chuck McCollough
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THE GIANT SEDONA TRAILS project continues to move along smoothly, thanks to an innovative city-developer partnership that promises greater benefits for both. The initial phase of the 850-acre, $500-million master-plan community is slated to start this spring along FM 1518 near IH-10. “A project like this could take a year or more to get to this stage, but it is being done in a matter of months through this streamlined planning process,” said Chris Price, president of Schertz 1518 Ltd. which is developing Sedona Trails. “The traditional process is where a developer formulates a plan and goes through a very structured review and approval process as the plan is refined. That is what happens in most cities, but what we are doing here is totally unique. The City of Schertz is working with us closely all the way through the process.” David Richmond and Roy Bechtol agree with others who say the Sedona Trails planning process is rare. Between them, they have nearly 60 years of experience working with development of various kinds. “I haven’t seen anything like it in my 20 years on Planning & Zoning,” said Richmond, chairman of the City P&Z Committee. Bechtol, who has nearly 35 years of experience in land planning, landscape architecture and golf course design, is the Sedona Trails Land Planner for the Schertz 1518 Ltd. team. “A developer and city working together so closely is unheard of in my experience,” Bechtol said.
City Manager John Kessel and city staff members look over a map of Sedona Trails.
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SCHERTZMAGAZINE.COM January 2012
Originally started in spring 2006 and then stalled by the housing market collapse, the reconceptualized Sedona Trails project-planning process is moving along well as it heads into the City review and approval process. The Sedona subdivision known to most locals is several streets of houses near the intersection of FM 1518 and Lower Seguin Road. The re-engineered Sedona Trails incorporates that 2006 area into a master-plan, mixed-used community stretching from north of Lower Seguin Road all the way down to Ware-Seguin Road. With lots of open green space, lakes, trails, nearby retail and easy access to major roadways, Sedona Trails will serve as a template for the kind of upscale planned community the city would like to see in the Schertz IH-10 sector. According to Price, the right set of circumstances, including good timing and momentum, have put Sedona Trails on its current course. “It so happens the plan we had for Sedona did not fit the current housing market and we were trying to come up with something better,” Price said. “We took a first stab at a new plan but hadn’t put many resources into the effort when made contact with the City.”
time a new city manager, John Kessel, was coming on board. The timing for all of this was fantastic.” City Manager Kessel agreed. “I have found the best development occurs in communities where there is a common vision of achieving broad goals and creating something noteworthy,” he said. “When there is a crossroad between the community’s vision and the developer’s vision and a common vision is formed, greater things are possible.” The City Manager called such a process “expanding the pie” by making a project more valuable to everyone. “Often the process is simply having a regulator, which is the city, and the regulated, which is the developer,” he explained. “Think of it as winners and losers. If the city regulates more, it get a bigger piece of the pie. If it regulates less, the developer gets a bigger piece. By growing the size of the pie, both sides get a bigger piece and a more valuable project.”
In late August, the City held the South Schertz Charrette, which produced a vision for the area.
After initial discussions between the City and developer showed there are common interests, a working committee was formed to help improve the process and develop a shared vision for Sedona Trails with City staff and developer input.
“We found that vision was the direction we wanted to go in,” Price added. “It looked like a good fit for us, and it so happens that was the
“We discussed the aggressive timeline we had with our homebuilders, who wanted to start in spring, so the working commitcontinued on page 24
January 2012 SCHERTZMAGAZINE.COM
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