The RV park apparently aims to provide affordable housing for Yavapai Community College staff and students
You may be surprised to learn that construction has begun on building a ten-vehicle RV park on the Verde Campus in Clarkdale. The construction was discreetly started in March.
Heavy equipment is already leveling the surface for the RV lot. It is anticipated that construction will be completed by the end of Spring this year.
The decision apparently reflects the concern of Community College president Dr. Lisa Rhine with the Community College’s working poor and lack of affordable housing. The argument is that by providing employees a safe and affordable place to park and live in their RVs, that this will help address the housing issue and overall may improve their quality of life.
According to a photo in the March 2023 Community College Management Facilities Newsletter, it will be called the “Verde Valley Campus Employee Housing RV Park.” (Click here to go to the facilities-management newsletter.)
The idea of building an RV parking lot on the Verde Campus was first mentioned briefly during a meeting of the Governing Board in October 2022. For those who might not have been listening very carefully to every word, the language used by Vice President Clint Ewell could have been interpreted as a project that when fully thought out by the administration would be brought to the Governing Board for approval. Typically, this is the approach used in the past. However, since October 2022 the project has moved forward discreetly and without any further discussion among the Board or information provided to them by Dr. Rhine. (You may view the one minute mention of the project at the October 2022 meeting by clicking here.)
One of the concerning aspects surrounding the decision is the absence of any mention of constructing an RV park to meet the employee housing shortage to be found anywhere in the College District-wide planning documents. For example, it is not mentioned in the Yavapai Community College Master Facilities Plan that was recently completed, nor is it mentioned in the Plan’s appendix. Furthermore, the March 2020 Housing report commissioned by the College with the consulting firm of Brailsford & Dunlavey also makes no mention of an RV park as a solution to the housing shortage apparently being experienced by employees on the Verde Campus.
Given the lack of information about the project, it is unclear how the construction is being funded, and the RV park does not appear anywhere in the current budget. Additionally, the College District Governing Board has never had it listed as a specific agenda item to discuss.
As noted above, during an hour-long discussion about student and employee housing at the October 2022 Governing Board meeting the idea of building an RV park on the Verde Campus was briefly mentioned. Third District Representative Paul Chevalier expressed his opposition to the idea at the meeting, stating that he did not think RVs belonged on campus as they would lower the quality of the campus’s appearance. Chair Deb McCasland, on the other hand, expressed support for the idea, noting that it would require only minimal investment in cement and utilities. However, no further discussion took place at the meeting.
It is important to note that Yavapai Community College is a publicly funded entity, supported by taxpayers in Sedona and the Verde Valley. As such, any project undertaken by the College, including the construction of an RV park it considers won’t cost a great deal, and with the best interests of its employees in mind, has implications for the public and their tax dollars. Therefore, the public has a right to know much more about the project and its associated costs.
Clearly, the College’s Prescott driven administration has not provided adequate information about the project to the public nor have they engaged in open dialogue with the public or the Governing Board so the views of the public and the Board are heard. As a result, many questions and concerns regarding the project remain.
Some of the questions and concerns that the public might have about the project include the following:
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- Did the College ignore the March 2020 consulting report from Brailsford & Dunlavey that said “Employees want to live off site”?
- Why wasn’t the project specifically placed on the Agenda for District Governing Board discussion and vote before it was approved?
- What is the rationale behind the project?
- Why wasn’t Third District Paul Chevalier kept informed about the decision to move forward with the project and provided any details about it?
- What impact will the RV park have on the environment and the surrounding community?
- Why wasn’t the project included in the just completed Master Facilities Plan?
- Why wasn’t the project included in the just completed Appendix to the Facilities Plan?
- Why wasn’t the Community College budget, which makes no mention of the project, amended so as to show total estimated costs of the project?
- Will the RV park be available to full-time employees?
- Will it be available to part-time employees?
- Will it be available to full-time students?
- Will it be available to part-time students?
- Will it be available to the public if it is not used by employees and students?
- Will it have water hookups? If so, at what cost to the taxpayers?
- Will it have sewer hookups? If so, at what cost to the taxpayers?
- Will it have internet hookups? If so, at what cost to the taxpayers?
- Will it have a sewer line to the Clarkdale sewer system? If so, at what cost to the taxpayers?
- Will it have outdoor sanitation facilities? If so, at what cost to the taxpayers?
- What are the construction costs associated with grading, cement, labor and materials?
- How will it be policed 24-7 to prevent break ins? If so, at what cost to the taxpayers?
- How will the unimproved dirt road be improved to handle large RVs?
- Will there be a limit on the number of families that may occupy a single RV? Or, if it is open to students, and if so, how many students per parked RV bus will be allowed? Or doesn’t it matter?
- Will there be a limit on the size of RVs that are parked there? Can they be 35 feet?
- Will it accommodate a single wide or double wide trailer home?
- Will it allow any kind of RV from tent trailers to buses?
- Will the College purchase RVS of its own to park there and rent them out?
- What will the College charge persons to park at the RV park?
- How will the money for parking be collected?
- Will the property taxes of taxpayers of the third District be used to pay to subsidize payments of those who use the RV park? Or will it pay for itself? In other words, what is the business plan for the RV park?
- Will the RV park attract the homeless and undesirables when the College is not in session during holidays and the summer? Will it become a public nuisance, especially during summer and vacation periods.
- Will such a facility affect the value of the Verde Campus in the eyes of prospective students?
- Will it affect the actual property values of the Clarkdale neighborhood adjacent to it because of noise and light pollution?
- Will the College regularly practice dust remediation caused by traffic going to and from the site on the unimproved dirt road leading to it? At what cost to taxpayers?
- What are the insurance costs associated with operating an RV park?
- How many full-time or part-time employees will be added to staff it? At what cost to taxpayers?
- What due diligence was carried out before the Prescott Executives secretly made this decision?
- What is the experience of other community colleges, if any, that have created RV parks?
- Can employees and students rent out space and then rent out their RV as an Airbnb rental?
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The College administration must address these questions and engage in open dialogue with the public and the Governing Board to ensure transparency and accountability in the decision-making process.
Below photos from Community College Facilities Management Newsletter of March 2023.
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