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The redevelopment of a motel and the addition of a 50-unit RV Park near the intersection of Arizona State Route 64 and U.S. Route 180 in Valle is moving forward following the unanimous approval by the Coconino County Board of Supervisors on last Tuesday night.

Following a monthlong continuance of the public hearing, the board agreed with the Coconino County Planning and Zoning Commission, voting 4-0 to support a zone change from general to commercial general, as well as a conditional use permit (CUP), for Grand Canyon Hospitality LLC’s 5.76-acre parcel of land located just southwest of its Grand Canyon Inn, Restaurant and Lounge.

Opposition from Valle residents served as the key factor in the continence from Feb. 11 to March 18, with District 1 Supervisor and board Vice Chair Patrice Horstman looking for guidance from the county’s community development and legal teams regarding the board’s ability to delay a rezoning decision until a new area plan for Valle is developed.

Coconino County Attorney’s Office Chief Civil Deputy Bill Ring confirmed the need to move forward with a decision following a presentation on the application from Jess McNeely, Coconino County’s assistant director and planning manager with the Community Development Department, as well as Heather Dukes and Ellen Davis, representatives for Grand Canyon Hospitality LLC.

“The short answer is no,� Ring said a little more than an hour into the discussion in response to Horstman’s question regarding the ability to delay a decision. “In fact, in this application, as you’ve heard from our own staff, there is a comprehensive plan and there is an area plan to apply to this application. � The applicant is entitled to have his application determined by this board of supervisors, and there’s an inadequate basis to declare a moratorium or to delay the application further.�

Davis specifically noted an application must be judged based on the existing plan in place in order to avoid a due process violation and that Coconino County’s time frame to process an application is 180 days -- which would be reached in April based on the initial filing of the application in October.

“So can we wait until the Valle area plan is changed? The answer is unequivocally no,� Davis said. “We’ve run out of time, and we can’t guess what that change might be.�

Ring concurred with Davis during his statements, prompting the board to move forward with the public hearing and eventually its final decision.

Located immediately northeast of the Valle Airport, the existing Grand Canyon Motel consisted of 28 rooms and initially began operating in 1978, when the first 15 rooms for the motel were added. Zoned as general use in 1964, the parcel originally served commercial uses, with a CUP including an overnight space for travel trailers, a grocery store, a curio shop and a land sales office, according to McNeely’s presentation.

Another 13 rooms were added to the motel in 1985 after the county had rezoned the property to a new general designation, which effectively placed the parcel in a legal non-conforming status. By the early 1990s, all other uses at the property were abandoned, with only the motel remaining.

Rezoning to commercial general will allow for the 28-room motel to be remodeled and an existing storage building to be converted into five new units -- which may be used as workforce housing. The CUP allows for the development of a 50-unit RV park, with park models on the property for short-term rentals. The combined changes will shift the parcel into a legal, conforming use.

McNeely detailed why the ownership of the parcel is in need of rezoning in order to make essentially any change to the existing development, let alone expand its current use.

“They cannot make improvements beyond 50% of the current value of their property. They can’t expand, they can't add square footage or additional units to their property, and they have a certain amount of risk,� McNeely said of the property’s current non-conforming status. “If their property is damaged beyond 50% of the current value, they cannot rebuild. They cannot build back the commercial uses that are legal non-conforming. So, the solution has been common in the county to rezone properties such as this that were historically developed with commercial uses from residential zones to commercial zones.�

To the east, across SR 64, much of Valle’s commercial properties currently operate with the same commercial general zoning. Additionally, the property immediately south of the parcel in question is zoned for commercial use, and the Raptor Ranch/Bedrock City RV Park just north of the motel is seeking a similar rezoning request as it also operates as a commercial entity in an outdated general zone.

Concerns about the additional density of the property, as well as its impact on the need for water, emergency services and traffic, served as other sources of opposition to the rezoning request. A new well to support the property has been drilled and the existing wastewater system is planned for an expansion, and a traffic impact analysis will be conducted in accordance with the Arizona Department of Transportation’s encroachment permit process. High Country Fire Rescue is planned for fire and emergency services, and a 6-foot-tall solid fence will be placed around the property in order to prevent visitors to the motel and RV park from trespassing onto the Valle Airport’s property.

Though the public hearing comments were essentially split down the middle in support or against the project, wording in the existing Valle Area Plan focusing on the need to utilize existing commercially zoned land before new areas were to be rezoned served as a basis to deny the request.

Louis Lopez, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig in Phoenix, spoke on behalf of opposing property owners neighboring the property.

“It does not state that it is appropriate to deviate because the board or because staff believes that this is an existing business. That language is not in there,� Lopez said after noting the area plan’s language regarding existing commercially zoned properties. “It also does not give you the discretion to grant a zoning request in order to take a non-conforming use and make it into a conforming use for purposes of zoning change. That is an expressed violation of the (Valle Area Plan) that everyone agrees controls and governs this particular issue. So, if you make this decision, you are acting contrary to the expressed language of the (Valle Area Plan).�

Due to the protest of the zoning change by more than 20% of the property owners within 300 feet of the parcel, 75% of the board needed to approve the request in order for the application to pass. Ultimately, all four members of the board in attendance for the public hearing approved the request, matching the unanimous 7-0 approval by the planning and zoning commission in early December 2024.

“First and foremost, I want to make it extremely clear that I’m really looking forward for there to be an area plan in Valle,� Horstman said. “The 1999 area plan certainly does exist, but I know that there are many people who have lived in Valle for a long time, some that are new to Valle, that are really looking to build a community in Valle, and I want to applaud you for those efforts.�

Horstman added that with the property already operating as a commercial entity, and existing within a commercial area, she was unable to see how it would change the commercial district even if it increased the density of the property’s use.

District 3 Supervisor Tammy Ontiveros, District 5 Supervisor Lena Fowler, and District 4 Supervisor and Chair Judy Begay all echoed Horstman’s statements while explaining their support of the rezoning and CUP requests.