Sedona, AZ Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

Section 5.7 exists, in the Code's own words, to establish site and building design standards that foster high-quality, attractive, and sustainable development compatible with the Sedona Community Plan. Those standards apply to all development citywide under Section 1.3, but the Uptown area gets a carve-out: under Section 5.7.B(2), Uptown properties follow Section 5.7 only where a more specific standard isn't already set out in the Main Street Manual or an adopted Character Focus Area (CFA) plan. In effect, Uptown's own adopted design documents take precedence over the general citywide rulebook whenever the two overlap.

Compliance isn't optional paperwork; Section 5.7.C(1) builds review into the permitting sequence itself, requiring compliance to be checked at site plan review, or, where site plan review isn't required for a project, before a building permit is issued. That means a downtown remodel or new building can't slip through on a building permit alone if it skips the Section 5.7 or Main Street Manual standards that apply to it.

Uptown's pedestrian-oriented character also carries its own sign standards, in a separate part of the Code, that scale signage to the district's smaller storefronts rather than applying the citywide commercial sign rules outright, reinforcing that Uptown is treated as a distinct design area within the Land Development Code rather than folded into generic commercial zoning.