COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERSHIP REVEALS THE REASON IT DID NOT PURSUE DEVELOPING A COMMERCIAL TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOL ON VERDE CAMPUS AS RECOMMENDED BY CONSULTANTS

Leadership says that the State of Arizona would allow it only a single driving facility.  The leadership then turned its focus to the  Chino Valley Center where major improvements on developing a facility have recently been  completed.

Residents in Sedona and the Verde Valley have been questioning since 2023 why Yavapai Community College leadership was not moving  forward with constructing a commercial driver training facility on the Verde Campus, which has around 80 acres of open land available for such an endeavor.  The long-awaited answer finally emerged at the March 2025 Governing Board meeting. The leadership at that meeting indicated that some kind of a state restriction on the number of such facilities that could be built made it drop the development at the Verde Campus.

The plan to establish a commercial driver training facility on the east side of Mingus Mountain was a recommendation from highly paid consultants who contributed to (and likely wrote) Yavapai Community College’s latest Campus Master Plan more than two years ago. They estimated the project would cost approximately $936,320 to initiate.

At some point in the process—though it remains unclear when—the college became aware of a state restriction, which apparently barred it from building or operating two commercial driver training programs. At the March 26, 2025, District Governing Board meeting, officials cited this state restriction as the reason for the absence of a commercial driver training site on the Sedona/Verde side of Mingus Mountain.

Once leadership learned of the restriction, its focus—and funding—shifted to the College’s Chino Valley Center. Notably, significant updates to the development of the driver training facility have recently been completed at that Center.