In December 2018, Yavapai County was awarded a $25 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration to build a new road connecting State Route 260 with Cornville Road, dubbed Verde Connect. In July of 2019, a route for the road was selected out of several potentials under discussion after a round of public input. The proposed route would go from the traffic circle at Coury Drive and State Route 260 to Cornville Road’s intersection with Beaverhead Flats Road.
Over the past few months, the road has undergone an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, assessing how the new road would affect the surrounding areas. With the NEPA process having resulted in a Draft Environmental Assessment, now available to view at verdeconnect.com, the process opened up for another round of public input starting on April 25 and continuing through May 25.
“There have not been significant changes, but we’ve made some little adjustments here and there based on some of the comments from agencies that are involved in the process,” Yavapai County Public Works Director Dan Cherry said. “We made slight adjustments to stay off of the gas line. It’s part of the environmental analysis — there’s cultural sites.”
Those who wish to have their voice heard are invited to either comment on the website, leave a voice comment by calling 515- 0115, or by mailing written comments to the Verde Connect Project Team, care of Central Creative, LLC, 24 W. Camelback Road,#A-479,Phoenix,AZ 85013.
On May 11, the county will be hosting a four-hour public hearing on the Environmental Assessment. While normally this would be held with a public gathering to discuss, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis has led to foregoing the in-person in favor of a virtual meeting. There will be a televised livestream from 4 to 8 p.m. on May 11, accessible on Verde Valley Television either on TV or online at Facebook.com/verdevalleytv or youtube.com/verdevalleytv. The livestream will also be broadcast on the radio at AM 1600 and FM 96.3. Those who wish can listen by parking at the Yavapai County Public Works building at 4000 W. Cherry Creek Road in Camp Verde.
The public will have the opportunity to review and comment on the culmination of almost 24 years of studies and two years of engineering and cooperating agency work, according to Yavapai County representatives.
County officials state they have made 50 public presentations, and this event will give community members a complete overview of this long-term vision as the county finishes its required public scoping.
As the county finishes these last obligations under grant requirements, it will transition and move into its design and build phase.
In previous rounds of discussion over Verde Connect, some residents of the Middle Verde neighborhood in Camp Verde expressed opposition to the road project, arguing that it would destroy the remote rural character of their area.
In June 2019, the Camp Verde Town Council voted to oppose the building of the new road.
Yavapai County officials said that they are making their best effort to include those who oppose the road, who have organized themselves into a group called Verde Disconnect, in the process. Cherry said that he hopes that the road will be made in a way that still preserves the Middle Verde area as much as possible, such as limiting the speed limit and width of the road to keep the area quiet.
However, Zach Wolfe, a Middle Verde resident and leader of Verde Connect, complained that the county has not listened to their complaints as much as he would like.
“Throughout this process we have asked to be part of the solution rather than the problem,” Wolfe wrote in an email. “We asked to be considered stakeholders in the project as it directly impacts our neighborhood, and those of us that are officers of the historic OK ditch asked to be considered as well. As you can imagine we were told ‘no.’
“As of now this project is proving to be what we were always afraid it would be. A waste of time, money and resources in the Verde Valley and Yavapai county as a whole.”
