here
[Music]
i
like to call
before i do after that rather i want to
get i can get a motion to approve oh i
thought i was on
you're good
okay
did they hear what i said already
okay can i get a motion to approve the
agenda please
commissioner guerrero
motion to approve the agenda
a second
commission spent that second
becky
board member smith
yes former
vega yes
guerrero yes board member kaiser yes
chair gordon yes
all right is there any one who has a
conflict of interest
for tonight
if not okay
uh
i need a motion to approve the agenda
i'm sorry the minutes
make a motion to approve the minutes
i'll second it
but before we do that is there any
corrections
if not i have one at the top of the
minutes they have the date becky of
december 28th
should be january
uh you'll correct that
okay are there any other corrections
all right seeing none could i vote
please
guerrero
uh yes for member vega
yes board member smith
yes board member kaiser yes chairman
gordon yes thank you
okay thank you
all right now is there anyone here this
evening who wishes to address an item
that is not on the agenda this evening
you may have the opportunity to speak
you can please raise your hand if you do
all right seeing none and we'll move on
on the agenda we have three
postponements
the reason that they are there is
there is additional information that
staff requires
and because these
items have been advertised they have
been brought to the agenda
but i'm going to have to figure out what
is going to be best in order to postpone
this what i'd like to do is to get a
motion if it's agreeable to staff
that we postpone this to make a date of
your approval
catherine
commissioner members of uh the
commission that would be that would be
fine we could state it that way and be
more generalistic or we could actually
postpone these to a date certain and i
would recommend for next month's meeting
which is
march i actually don't have that in
front of me
um
let me look at a calendar
i just don't want to make it a date
certain if we still have the same
problem
that yes i mean we always run into that
it is possible that we would advertise
and then have to postpone again
i see you want to make it a date certain
i would prefer to make it a date certain
if we do it indefinitely you could
kill the project okay
so could you tell me somebody tell me
what that date is in march
let me look on my calendar bear with me
one moment
that would be the 22nd thank you you're
welcome okay thank you
thank you
all right then can i get a motion to um
postpone these items till the march 22nd
planning a zoning meeting uh mr gordon
what exactly are we postponing items i'm
sorry items 5.1 5.2 and 5.3
all right can i get him all right becky
can i get a motion please
can we briefly clarify which three items
you said
5.1 5.2
and then
i'm looking at i guess an old agenda
that would be
right but there's been a there's been an
amended agenda so it would be 5.3 why
one two and three
i'll make a motion to postpone items 5.1
5.2 5.3 until
mark the meeting march 22nd
yes
i need a second please i'll second it
board member guerrero
yes board member vega yes for member
smith
yes board member kaiser yes chair gordon
yes thank you all right then we can move
on to the consent agenda we have one
item on the consent agenda is there
anyone here who wishes to speak on this
item
if not can i get a motion to approve
the consent agenda item 6.1
commissioner i'll make a motion to
approve uh consent agenda
a second
puerto rico guerrero
yes for member vega yes board member
smith yes board member kaiser yes chair
gordon yes thank you all right thank you
and then next we move to old business
there are items 7.1 7.2 and
7.3 are under old business
what i'd like to do is to discuss
but vote separately on items 7.1 and 7.2
so i need a motion to do that
we can make a motion to combine seven
one and seven two to discuss separately
but the vote on each one
i'm sorry we can discuss them together
but we can vote on them separately
uh i make a motion to combine seven one
and seven two and vote on them
separately
commission smith that second
fourth member guerrero
yes board member vega yes board member
smith
yes member kaiser yes chair gordon yes
thank you
all right we have a presentation from
staff
bear with me while i get this opened
all right
catherine harrison rogers with staff i'm
going to go ahead and talk about the
bumblebee learning center master plan
and corresponding zone changes
this particular property is vacant and
developed it's about five and a half
acres it's located just west of holmen
road and north of bataan memorial west
with direct access off of battam
memorial west it's currently zoned r2
here is a map indicating uh it's a
little hard to see with that tan but
there's the yellow line surrounding that
it's a it's an odd shape
and that's the parcel that we're
discussing today
here's an ariel it's a little bit more
clear about where the parcel lies
um what they're proposing is both a
master plan and then corresponding zone
changes um to align with that master
plan
uh 4.12 or thereabouts is the acreage
that's proposed to be modified from r2
to c3
commercial zoning districts would
ultimately front botan memorial west
with the multi-family dwelling
residential land uses closer to that
holman roadside
there are some conditions that have been
proposed by the applicant one of which
is new
one is that the land is limited i'm
excuse me the uses are limited to the
uses specified in
attachment number three and that's
specifically for the c3 properties you
also received a handout this evening
indicating what those uses are
additionally there are limits to the
building heights
that require that no more that the
buildings can't be higher than 35 feet
this is phased ultimately if these are
to be approved this would be developed
in individual lots via the alternate
summary subdivision process which is an
administrative process
they're proposing no more than three
parcels
ultimately during staff review this met
the requirements of the subdivision code
the design standards and the zoning code
is amended
just so you have a clear picture of
what's going on the proposed c3 uses
which are those high intensity
commercial uses would be located
essentially in this area
and then the existing r2 would remain
that's the multi-family uses in this
area
staff
did send out public notice and there
were also
some other
methods of public notice that occurred
during this process
notice was sent to surrounding
properties prior to the pnz meetings of
december this was heard before and then
of course of this meeting tonight
early notification was also sent by the
applicant and i'll let the applicant
speak to what occurred at that meeting
if you would like input regarding that
and city staff did receive input from
the public via phone as well as email
um speaking about any future commercial
development and ultimately any nuisances
or impacts that occur could occur as
part of that would like to point out
that the drc the development review
committee
also did review this plan december 8th
specifically the master plan not
necessarily the zoning and that was
recommended for approval
i do want to speak to what occurred
during the december 28 2021 pnz meeting
during that time there was a lot of
input both from the commission as well
as from the public
ultimately some of the biggest
commission concerns regarded were in
regard to
access easements leading to any future
lots
and then the lack of the the details in
terms of site development there was an
interest in in really seeing sort of the
fine details and i'm going to speak a
little bit to where we are in the
process and why perhaps those details
aren't provided
the public also spoke at length
regarding their concerns about increase
in traffic the potential for increased
crime
building heights being too high for the
area
issues regarding solid waste pickup and
ultimately nuisances that could come
along with that
concerns about new lighting that may
be problematic noise land values um and
then buffering there were a couple of
other comments of course but those were
the highlights
some of the modifications that came
about as as part of that were to the
plan to the master plan in particular
and as well as a proposed condition
hearing that there were some concerns
about maybe having some buildings that
were too large blocking views things of
that nature
the applicant did
propose a condition upon themselves
to limit heights to 35 feet that would
be in keeping with the same height
limits that all of the other surrounding
properties
currently have
additionally there was some added
language on the master plan regarding
both internal and external access as
well as some detailed information
regarding the traffic assumptions at
that location
i do want to speak a little bit about
the development process and kind of
where we are or where the applicant is
in terms of the process right now
we're just at the beginning of the
process the applicant is essentially
here at master plan and zoning there are
a lot more steps that lead to those
specific site details that i know people
had a lot of questions about which is
way over here at the very very end when
construction and when building permits
ultimately come in for site-specific
development and so i did want to outline
what we're considering tonight are only
the master plan and the zoning and not
site-specific development just because
of where we are in the process and we're
not quite at that stage in terms of
having
either the engineering or the
architecture available to view
ultimately master plans are really
intended to be conceptual basically
could what's being proposed work at this
location
would it work
and then zoning of course establishes a
range of uses and the standards that go
along with that and ultimately what we
need to ask ourselves are the range of
uses appropriate at this location based
on elevate las cruces
adjacent roadway classifications the
character of the area as well as other
considerations
some other things that that i do want to
point out is again site-specific
development comes at the end of the
process and right now they can't even
design the site without having those
established regulations from which to
design from
staff
of course is not the final authority
we're just a recommending body a
recommending um entity pnz is the final
authority on the master plan and
ultimately you're recommending body to
city council for the rezoning the city
council will determine whether or not
the rezoning is appropriate at this
location
i'm requesting uh and as should happen
because these are two separate projects
that individual motions happen for each
proposal
um we are recommending approval of the
master plan and then approval with
conditions for the zone change
of course staff outlined those findings
in the staff report and they're listed
here as well
and then again some of the conditions um
have to do with uh the land uses being
limited uh you all received a handout in
regard to that as i understand it
and speaking with the applicant's
representative those have not been
changed from what's in your packet uh
they're just reiterating what uses are
are allowed and what's not allowed and
that the building heights be limited to
no higher than 35 feet
at this point
you have some options you can vote to
approve you can vote to deny yes with
conditions or to table
denial requires alternate findings that
support that denial to be articulated by
the commission
and of course we do have the applicant
here to talk about the details and maybe
answer any questions that you had
or any concerns that were brought up
from the last meeting
they do have a presentation ready and as
i understand it there are several
members of the public that also have
additional concerns or questions
that would be available to speak as well
so with that i'm happy to answer any
questions or turn it over to the
applicant
i'd like
i guess we'd like to hear from the
applicant
and it's not necessary to state your
name it's mr kirk clifton
but you should for the record
kirk clifton aicp
sauder miller and associates okay like
this where you win you know they're you
know the came
do you swear for him that the testimony
are you about to give is the truth or
nothing but the truth on the penalty of
law i do thank you thank you
okay once again my name is kirk clifton
i represent the applicant i'm with
sauder miller and associates
um
and i'm here to hopefully
guide us through the zone change and
master plan process
uh it's a pleasure to be before you on
this side of the fence it's been a while
commissioner gordon uh and staff nice to
see you once again as well
so i i'll try not to regurgitate too
much of what's already been discussed
but i i would like to point out there
are some things for the record that
should be noted
the property is currently zoned r2
the applicant has agreed that the
proposed c3 parcel will have a maximum
allowed height of 35 feet
c3 typically allows up to 60 feet in
height
and the proposed zoning of c3 commercial
high density on the parcel fronting
battan memorial only the r2 piece
remains as it was presented during the
previous hearing
and that is in this general vicinity
and as you can see neither one of these
parcels have any access to holmen road
project ariel
here's a proposed master plan as as
noted this actually shows the
demarcation between the r2
and the c3 commercial use for the master
plan
i won't go through the purpose of a
master plan but as you know as a
commission master plan does
occur when there are multiple land uses
involved or there could be potentially
an alternate summary subdivision process
utilized on the commercial property as
well
in terms of the zoning it is currently
r2
and again the c3 piece strictly fronts
on batan memorial with r2 behind it
through the process with staff and
subsequent building permits medals
an access agreement will be established
as noted on the master plan
the r2 piece will have access off bataan
memorial west and not holmen road as you
can see there is no direct access
through the neighborhood or to holman
road
area traffic was briefly discussed as i
uh read through the minutes and was
briefed on the previous meeting
it should be noted that bataan memorial
west is currently designated on the
messiah valley mpo thoroughfare plan as
a minor arterial
as such the february 2022 traffic count
data
shows a daily traffic volume on
battalion memorial west of 1789 vehicles
per day
the highway capacity manual
which is
essentially the bible of all traffic
traffic engineering indicates that this
two-lane roadway will carry
40 800 vehicles per day and 1700
vehicles per hour and i just kind of
want to you know lay out the the tr the
transportation infrastructure that
currently exists
as is
the access will be granted permitted
through the new mexico department of
transportation
to bataan memorial west and the traffic
generated from the proposed master
planned area will have no impact on home
and traffic as as previously stated
access will solely be from bataan
memorial west
essentially a ride in right out
i won't go through each of these
but these are the uses that have been
stricken
from the commercial c3 high intensity i
know staff do you want me to read
through these i hope not thank you
i think the audience thanks you as well
but there are several pages it's the
entire list found within the zoning
ordinance
so as zoned as as you're all aware this
is r2
and
as it stands today you could put a what
would equate to a three-story apartment
complex
up to 35 feet in height and on the c3
piece that i'm talking about
specifically that we're requesting the
zone change on and as part of the master
plan you could get up to 62 apartment
units in that facility
and i know there were some concerns with
setbacks and bufferings and i'd like to
just briefly talk about the r2 setbacks
for these apartment structures
under r2 zoning you can get 15 dwelling
units per acre
that's a 20 foot front setback seven
foot rear and a seven foot side
35 foot maximum height
so that's as it stands today
and what we're proposing on the peace
front in batam memorial west is the c3
and what we do know today is that one of
the uses that's going to be going on
there is an early childhood education
facility called bumblebee learning
center
and this learning center is serves as a
pre-k
and up
uh facility for children and you know i
can speak for myself being a parent of
children in the las cruces public school
system and having just gone through the
covet situation
you know now more than ever we could
really use a facility like this and you
know and i would ask you to consider the
positives in this application and we're
you know
again we're not here to talk about site
design site development that comes later
on in the process as catherine
pointed out in her presentation as well
this is strictly about the zone change
and the use of the c3
conditioned with the stricken uses and a
reduced height of 35 feet
and as our you know our traffic experts
have determined there are no significant
impacts there will be no traffic
generated onto or from holmen um the
site will eventually you know
essentially capture traffic maybe coming
from the neighborhoods off holman going
into town and that's it
so with that said i'd be prepared to
answer any questions the commission may
have or staff needs any additional
information thank you anybody from the
commission you have any questions
go ahead
i have a couple of questions but i
appreciate some of the clarity around
what would happen if there wasn't a zone
change here
i was hoping if
either yourself or staff could answer
the question about the access to
the remaining r2 parcel
reading through the the staff report um
and the minutes from the la are from
when this appeared back in december it
sounded like there was a requirement to
have two forms of access
to that remaining r2
which would require some sort of access
easement across
a a private parcel to i presume holman
road i was wondering if if anyone could
sort of speak
to that component and and how that plays
into this possible zone change
excuse me
members of the commission
commissioner kaiser i would like to
speak to that absolutely provide some
clarification perhaps
i think during the discussion one of the
topics was well how are they going to
access and a number of options were laid
out there well
most likely they would go through
the existing property with an easement
established at the time of subdivision
to access that r2 another possibility
could have been going through the
private property but that's less likely
because they would have to negotiate
with a private property owner to access
through that to access holman road the
likely scenario and as was indicated
by mr clifton here was that they would
be accessing through their existing
property from batan
utilizing an access easement ultimately
established at the time of subdivision
thank you for that
um
another question about the the uh uses
um that are being proposed here
how exactly would that work it seems
like we're getting into kind of an
overlay zone territory here as far as if
this site were to be
sold at a at a later point how would
the limited uses carry over and how
would they they play out for the i guess
in perpetuity sure i'm happy to answer
that as well um this is not an uncommon
um
practice in the city of las cruces
where um a developer or the the
commission or even city council uh deems
certain uses undesirable for
adjacent neighborhoods or or generally
the location uh being discussed
and what happens is those become an
exhibit as part of the ordinance and
they are tied to that
zoning in perpetuity
thank you
i think my my last question
for the moment is
there's no question this is a tough site
to develop
but i i think to sit here and say that
there are no impacts
at all as as
that would
come as a result of this zone change i
don't think is necessarily a true
statement
um
one is
across this country we're in a desperate
need of housing
so to take away potentially 62 units on
this parcel
and have
i don't know
one or two businesses including a child
care center
that has almost no relation to the
neighborhood behind it because of the
access issues that we've just talked
about
you are going to have impacts you are
going to have traffic impacts if someone
wanted to
from the neighborhood uh send their kids
to this
this daycare center they have no choice
but to drive there's no pedestrian
access there's no other way to get to
the site safely and uh i just
want to kind of bring that up and and
that you know there are impacts here
and i'm not sure if the applicant has
considered
the types of uses and how they would
service this particular neighborhood
i guess that's just more of a comment
than a question
thank you commissioner uh mr chair
commissioner kaiser i appreciate your
comments and and
really sure there's going to be some
impacts but they're negligible and as i
demonstrated with the highway capacity
as as built today
those impacts would not be filled
there it's well below capacity
and and quite frankly you know most
working-class folks that live in the
area that would be utilizing a facility
like this probably won't be walking
they'll probably be driving on their way
to work to drop their
student off
so
you know i look at it from more of a
global land use perspective in what's in
the area and sure yes we are lacking in
some areas some residential
but there is quantifiable justification
for mixed-use development and in
essence that could potentially reduce
traffic patterns in other parts of the
city
where there could be an influx of people
dropping their children off so this is
you know
paired up with that live work play type
situation and as you've seen there's a
sea of residential out there and i can't
think of a better use
than a child care
early learning child facility such as
this
i certainly agree with the comment that
that this is a much needed service but i
think there's questions about whether or
not this is the right location at least
in my mind okay thank you
anyone else
i
have one question
the the
the application is titled a learning
center
and my concern and i asked at the last
meeting back in december as to whether
or not
this is going to be
a
care center or a learning center
i
keep carrying two different stories
and if it's going to be a learning
center at what age are they going to
start bringing in children four or five
years old three years old i mean not
going to bring in a baby that's one year
old and try to educate it
or is it going to be a day care center
and an education can somebody please
give me a definitive answer as to what
it is because this is titled bumblebee
learning center
it is indeed mr chair members of the
commission it is indeed a learning
center for children that are pre-k
and slightly younger
what i would envision it as they've they
have these these facilities in other
parts of the region
but
the las cruces public schools has a
program called dd preschool and that
begins taking in students at age three
and although they're young it's still an
educational facility so there's still a
learning aspect of them there it's not
just drop your kid off we're going to
babysit him come pick him up you know
when you're done working
it will
have an education component and that's
the whole the core of the businesses is
learning
it might be younger students but
they'll be learning while they're there
it's just it's not just a daycare
facility
okay and just one other item i have a
question
if you can go back to the map of the of
this of the r2 and c3
just to show that the
not that
the staff's map
no just the word shows the property
that's it right there is fine
it was stated that there's going to be
some kind of an easement
for people to get from
the bataan memorial
to get to us we assume they're going to
be some kind of residences in r2
and
what kind of an easement it just seems
to me that somebody's just going to
drive up through c3 and make a right
turn to go into r2
i mean it's all one property
yes mr chair members of the commission
that is accurate and you know in working
with commercial development for a number
of years now
it's it's actually quite common to have
a shared access agreement with the
budding parcel
so so essentially this will be an
approved access by the city of las
cruces which will also
include the las cruces fire department
that will provide reasonable access
two-way access to the r2 site for multi
uh medium density multi-family housing
so that'll that'll be established
um
with the plating i understand that on
there yeah that's fine
all right that's all i have is uh thank
you very much and real quick if i could
the
actual applicant is here that could tell
you a little more about the facility if
you'd like to hear it absolutely we'd
love to thank you
good evening commissioners and chairman
am i going to be sorghum or my name is
daisy leeda
daisy lita okay i have to swear you in
please do you swear for him that the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth of nothing but the truth on the
penalty of law
okay could you please speak a little
louder and into microphone so we can
hear you yes
okay so the the question was asked if we
are learning center child care or
daycare um we are a learning center
education starts in the womb so we do
work with parents even when they're
pregnant with moms
we give them the tools so that they
could
get their
or take their pregnancy
to a healthy pregnancy throughout
we do have we do serve children ages six
weeks to 12 years old and so we do serve
children
that are babies and that's when they
are learning the most so
from zero to five years old that's when
a child learns
the most and they're at their full
potential and so our mission at the
bumblebee learning center is in
collaboration with our parents in our
community it is to provide children with
quality child care and learning
experience while providing excellence
education in a healthy and safe learning
environment where children are prepared
with critical skills developmental and
social creative and emotional physical
inter intellectual skills to reach their
full potential so learning starts at the
womb
and we do
we do
you know take care of our families we
take care of our children and i pride
myself to be one of the best learning
centers in new mexico
yes did that answer your question sure
all right thank you does anybody have
any questions
all right thank you thank you
all right then we can go to the public
um is there anybody here this evening
who wishes to talk on this says please
raise your hand
just one person
all right sir would you the two people
all right we'll start we'll start the
gentleman in the back all right come
forward touch you sir yes
yeah i'll give him three minutes
we'll allow you to speak for three
minutes
just please please state your name and
let me swear you in please yes sir
jambola
okay do you swear affirm that the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth and nothing but the truth under
penalty of law yes sir
go ahead thank you thank you um
boy where to start
the
comment of no impact of home and road
traffic
i can't believe that would even be
stated that's just so ridiculous
i have a photo here
because as i had commented
in december
about traffic
this is coming off of us 70
heading north on holmen where the two
elementary schools are located
okay
so if someone's coming east on 70 going
to go to the daycare center
they have to come around and do this
i'm from the midwest michigan left
to get into this day care center how you
going to deal with that kind of traffic
on top of what we already have
how can you say there's no impact they
have obviously not been out there to see
this type of traffic
shame on them shame on them
so
at the december meeting it was suggested
and agreed the developer to meet with
the residents to discuss concerns and
objections that has never happened
there is a day care center less than
four miles on the north side of us 70.
wouldn't it be more beneficial to build
a day care center learning center
however you want to phrase it on the
south side of us 70 as opposed to the
north side
there's also as was proposed and again
as a resident of that area
i have not been informed of any changes
to the master plan any changes to what's
coming in what's going to be put on
these parcels
so the question of
brought up in december was a self
storage facility well there's one that's
less than two miles away from this
proposed area already
and they're already expanding so why do
we need another
it was referred to a number of times
in the december meeting about elevate
las cruces and that plan that's been put
in place
and everything that was put into
developing that plant
so as per
a per the approved final document
january 30 2020 lesson
or just over two years ago it shows in
states the following figure 3.4
the proposed land area is to be used as
a suburban neighborhood definition
suburban neighborhood by the state or by
the plan
low to moderate density residual land
use
predominant land use is single family
detached dwelling but limited to areas
may be developed for multi-family
dwellings then also on figure 3.2 growth
forecast there's going to be an added 38
350 new residents between 2018 and 2045
which equals fifteen thousand three
hundred fifty new households with an
additional sixteen thousand one hundred
new housing units
all this on a report that's barely two
years old and already being asked to
change to research and discovers
what does
what designated commercial properties
now are going to be rezoned to
residential to accommodate the houses
that we're losing by changing this zone
and last but not least i know i'm
learning a little bit over
very next exit there's commercial
property already for sale it's already
zoned
so why are you coming to us when
you don't have to go two miles that's
less than a mile away
land for sale already zoned commercial
why bother us thank you for your time
thank you
in the first row
please state your name please crystal
garcia let me swear you in do you swear
firm that the testimony you're about to
give is the truth or nothing but the
truth under the penalty of law yes thank
you go ahead three minutes
all right thank you for the opportunity
to speak commissioners my name like i
said is crystal garcia i'm a local
realtor here
in the city and i actually live really
close to the subject property
and i just simply wanted to express my
support for the rezoning of this parcel
in particular for the c3 zoning
change that the learning center is
seeking
as a realtor i have seen
more and more younger families
with small children pour into our city
and in particular up highway 70
all the way up to nasa exit although i
know a lot of that is counting
there are two reasons why i'm in favor
for this change one is due to the fact
that the state of new mexico
is ranked dead last in public school
education
and in and if early education centers
like this can come and provide
the children in our communities a chance
to improve their academics by starting
them early in their education then i
don't see why anyone wouldn't want that
and then two
simply is
to accommodate the population growth as
it was just stated as cities grow
the more land is developed yes
especially ohio and
highway 70
we're going to need more amenities and i
think this is going to help that cause
so um
and then also last i believe that this
development will help just just that and
will also help complement the planned
elevate las cruces comprehensive plan
that you guys have
and that's all i have for tonight just
wanted to show my support for that
development and thank you again for
letting me speak
thank you
all right thank you
does the applicant wish to respond to
any of these comments
thank you mr chair members of the
commission uh the only statement i'd
like to make at this time is that there
will not be any storage units that
that's not even a use being considered
tonight
as i mentioned we discussed the c3 piece
and the r2 will remain r2 as zoned for
those permitted uses
is there some reason that i know we
discussed and at the december meeting
that there was
there was supposed to be an attempt
by the applicant to meet with the
community and apparently that has not
been done
can anyone answer to that
i think that it would have been nice to
have had some input from them and had
some kind of a meeting
mr chair members of the commission my
understanding is that there was
correspondence with the neighborhood
through email
no excuse me please
if you're going to speak would you
please state your name and let me swear
you in my name is michael johnson
all right do you swear affirmative
testimony you're about to give is the
truth and nothing but the truth and the
penalty of law i do thank you go ahead
early on in the process we sent emails
as part of the early notification
process to the residents
at that time we had a proposed c3 use on
the entire property that we're
discussing today the 5.1 acres as a
result of the feedback we received from
the neighborhood at that time
we've heard discussion the r2 zoning was
proposed to be a storage unit
facility
based on the feedback we got from the
neighborhood we received i think they're
part of your packet five or six emails
we changed that we we removed the self
storage units
and just left that as an r2 zoning and
that was a direct
result of the of the feedback we
received from the neighborhood at that
time
so we have just come forward to continue
to have the property that's fronting on
baton as the c3 zoning and then we would
leave the back parcel as currently
exists
so that's in response to your question
mr chairman
one other comment i would like to make
my name is michael johnson i was a
traffic engineer for the city of las
cruces
from 1984 to 2000
and then i was in charge of traffic from
2006 to 2011. so i'm very familiar with
traffic in the city of las cruces i'm
very familiar with how it acts
how it's going to respond and those
comments regarding traffic
maybe we shouldn't have made an absolute
statement that will have no impact but
the impact that these residents or this
business will have on the school traffic
of the elementary schools on holman road
is very minimal at the best
so i would like to put that on the
record and just
so we are talking that way thank you sir
all right thank you
just let me think for a minute
i realize that approving the master plan
doesn't give us any information as to
what's going on what's going to go on
this property
it might help us in thinking about
what the zoning change will mean
but
i think at this point is there i will go
back to the audience again is there
anyone else who'd like to make a comment
now considering the fact that what was
just said
all right well let's start in the first
row this lady
i will give you just a couple of minutes
to respond to his comment
be careful
can somebody help her
could you please state your name my name
is carol main all right let me swear you
in
do you swear affirmative testimony
you're about to give the truth to
nothing but the truth on the penalty of
law i do okay go ahead ma'am two minutes
okay it was our understanding as i
believe was yours we were supposed to
have a communication since the december
meeting that has not happened
they did not address that
we're
yes we responded back after we got the
email in august for it
and we talked about at the december
meeting but there has been no further
communication since december that's the
point we don't know about all these
changes until he said it right now
nobody told us anything that's all i got
to say
all right thank
thank you someone else
ma'am
please state your name i lean on breeze
all right let me swear you in please do
you swear from that testimony you're
about to give us the truth and nothing
but the truth on the penalty of law yes
go ahead two minutes
one of my concerns is
once this is if this zone rezoning
happens and these individuals decide oh
we don't want to go forward with this
learning center we want to sell this
property
even though it has the 35
foot
implementation or whatever it is that
you called it they could go in and
easily put something else in there
rather than a learning center is that
correct
i
i believe so that they can do that they
have the right to sell it it's rezoned
and that's a concern as well
with the property values going up
commercial property other you know all
properties
may be beneficial to not do a daycare or
do a learning center and we're going to
sell this and then something else come
in like
family dollar or something that we
really don't need there the problem at
the moment however is that they're very
specific in what they're talking about
on a property that is c3 that they're
going to put in a learning center
i also believe that they talked back in
december that there was also going to be
a couple of small businesses attached to
it
uh
i don't really remember being very
specific but at this point we don't know
but they're saying that that's what
they're going to do but they do have the
right to sell that property that's a
concern oh we don't know i mean we have
to go on on what what is being presented
to us this evening
right but that's always a possibility
that's why this is always a possibility
in anything
it could happen that's a concern yeah
well thank you i understand your
feelings does a gentleman want to make
another comment
but i'll only give you two minutes this
time
since you've already been sworn in just
repeat your name please john bola
um out of curiosity as far as the
learning center is concerned how many
students children do you intend to have
at this location
so seven thousand square foot building
unfortunately her answer is inaudible to
us
and to a recording person
if someone would like to just respond to
that
okay so we currently have um
facilities i currently have four
facilities and all my facilities are
under 100 children
um there's two facilities that are 50
and the other two are 100 so it's under
100 we are a five-star center we we do
strive to be the best high-quality early
learning center that you could find in
the state of new mexico and like i said
we have been
since 2007 we've been doing this for a
lot of a lot of years and that's just my
biggest um you know that's my passion to
do and i i i wouldn't sell it i really
wouldn't sell it i've been working you
know for this for a lot of years and
it's it's a dream of mine so i just want
to continue to grow
and i really don't think that there
shouldn't be anything to worry about i
understand and i understand talking to
the microphone
i understand everybody's concerned but
yeah it's it's really um
like i said it's a high quality learning
center in regards to the schools i know
that you mentioned the the parents going
in
this would alleviate actually traffic
because we have two vans or depending on
how many right we have the vans and we
get all the children so the parents go
after six to pick them up and so it
would alleviate traffic from the schools
at three
four and
when they get out
but is it possible that you can just
tell me
is that the only thing that's going to
be on this piece of property is just the
learning center excuse me sir
no my vision is for us to have the
learning center the other ones would be
um
i don't know if you've heard of third
party um intervention specialists so
that they could help the children and
the families so aprendamos trisco that's
what i would want to see
so that the children that are in my care
while they're in my care they're able to
get therapies right next to them
so we could just kind of
make it a flow like more of a
i wouldn't want anything else other than
something that would help the children
and would work hand in hand with us
all right thank you i'd like to end this
discussion now
just one item and that's it
okay
um also in december it was discussed
that there would be an easement between
the building and the residences which i
am a member i am a resident that would
be backed up against this property it
was stated 15 feet i'm curious you got
power lines does that 15 foot include
the 8 foot easement for the power lines
or is that going to be on top of so it's
actually going to be 23 feet and along
those lines why is every other
commercial property along that frontage
road 40 feet away from any residents
thank you
all right then i'd like to close this
discussion
we have another gentleman
all right sir
are you going to say something other
than what's already been said or you
just agree with has been said
be careful
all right please state your name my name
is brian breitai
please speak into the microphone i'm
usually not accused of not speaking loud
enough so my name is brian breithag all
right let me swear you when do you swear
for him that the testimony you're about
to give is the truth and nothing but the
truth under penalty of law i do all
right go ahead two minutes yes and it
won't take that long if i'm lucky i
still didn't get an answer
is it 50 or is it 100
students
this is not a point for cross discussion
if we please address the commission
and if necessary okay if necessary we'll
get an answer okay thank you
also there was a list of non-users
that mr clifton had shown he's talking
to the microphone sorry i'm sorry we
have what this is being recorded so we
she has to hear what you're saying i
understand sorry
i would like to see the list of what
they're not going to put in there
now
that's something that should have been
given to us
before this meeting
don't doesn't anybody agree or doesn't
anybody think we shouldn't have had that
anyway also
i understand that the lighting the wall
height and all this will be just
discussed at a later date when we get to
planning is that correct
yes
okay that's all i have
all right thank you
all right that is the end of discussion
are there any questions from the
commission
do you have a question
no not so much a question but just a
comment uh you know just first of all i
just want to tell everybody this here
you know we do appreciate you being here
um but unfortunately what we're
discussing is just the zoning it's not
what the property is going to be used
for so
you know just would appreciate moving
forward if we can just kind of keep that
going
that's it
all right
if not then i think that we are ready
for a vote so we have to vote on these
two particular
items 7.1 and 7.2 separately
so i'm going to need a vote on each one
catherine you have something to say
mr chair members of the commission i
just do want to remind you that there
are some recommended conditions
associated with the zoning so if a
motion is made and you are
in agreement with those conditions i
would recommend stating them
one being the height limited to 35 feet
and the other limiting the uses to
those that were outlined in attachment
number three
okay and i want to also remind everyone
that the zoning change will have to go
to the city council correct
and
in that case i should also remind
everyone who is if if the commission
does vote to approve this
zoning change then you do have the right
to appeal before city council
if you object
so then i'm going to need a motion
on 7.1
i'll make a motion to approve uh
seven point uh item number seven point
one
yes which which is a master plan
i need a second
vega a second
board member guerrero
uh
yes i approve based on uh um just
just approving him
um due to city
so i mean due to first of all i mean it
does fit the comprehensive plan um and i
mean i personally believe that they
could barbie would benefit the community
thank you board member vega
i vote yes based on staff
recommendations and it fits with the
elevate las cruces
comprehensive plan
board member smith
although yes based on staff
recommendation and also meets the
objective of the master plan
board member kaiser
yes based on staff recommendation
chair gordon
i wrote yes based on
my site visit the discussion this
evening
goes along with elevate las cruces and
our staff
recommendations so i vote yes
thank you
now i need a motion on item 7.2 which is
a zoning change
remember with conditions of the 35 foot
height and
what was the other one
uses
as outlined in attacks right number
three of the list in detachment three
right
make a motion to approve item 7.2
regarding the zone change
commission smith i second
yes based on the same uh uh reasons
earlier uh
and staff recommendation as well
board member vega
i vote yes based on the um but to
include the conditions outlined by staff
um including the height and all of the
different
um line uses that were pointed out in
attachment three
board member smith of oh yes based on
staff recommendation and also the the
changes um that were included as far as
the the height variance
remember kaiser
uh yes based on stack of recommendation
though i encourage the applicant to look
seriously into non-automotive
connectivity
to the neighborhood
chair gordon
also when again on my site visit
i also vote yes with conditions
and it does go with elevate las cruces
in that case i do vote yes thank you
so i believe that's
5-0
thank you
okay now we move on in the agenda to
item 7.3
which is the amador avenue variance
request
mr podegas
commissioner gordon members of the
commission
if i can get this launched here
vincent banegas for the record
interim planner
i will be presenting the variance
request
for 1413 east amador
avenue
the
this is uh in essence the second time
it's reached the agenda stage first time
we've gone through this
that'll we'll go through it with great
length and detail
but
it involves property at 1413 east amador
avenue
and as i will show you
it will include three
variants
aspects
to the request
it's currently a restaurant use and has
been for
some time now it's roughly
0.6 acres in size it's currently zoned
c2 which is our commercial medium
density
zoning district
and was created at least that lot was
created as part of the las cruces park
edition 29 subdivision
and the structure was constructed in
since then obviously as it's become
used as the restaurant
uh delicious restaurant in place now
there have been some renovation and some
expansion projects associated with that
over the years
and this would certainly serve as one
additional one should it be approved
in the manner presented
so the zoning map
shown here
identifies the property in red it again
c2 zoning east amandor is located here
south nevada street
located to the east
and then solano drive
at the the western location
so you do have
existing uses adjacent to it
this small
triangular piece right now is is vacant
raw land and then this structure on this
eastern
property
suffered some roof damage
and
has since been demolished so it is
presently vacant as well
but this is the property in question
you have adjoining
zoning further out
a single family residential
uses or zoning
to the east
and then you got some multi-family low
density
zoning in the form of r2
over on the west
this is the aerial map that shows the
property again
you can
see that the building
that has since been removed sits here
this is
a funeral home off to the north
and an existing i believe it's an auto
repair shop
directly to the west
and a variety
a mixture of other
both residential and commercial uses
along
east amador avenue
stretching downtown
along the way
so the the applicant has has come
forward and indicated that they're
wishing to
uh install an outdoor terrace it would
be adjacent to amador avenue
approximately 950 square feet in area
and as a result of that
that triggers an expansion of the
existing restaurant use so that
non-conforming aspects on the property
have to be brought into compliance
so what they're having to look at is
parking first of all
with the outdoor terrace being proposed
they are going to be required to provide
auto parking stalls on site
they are deficient 10
stalls and so
they can provide the 31 they originally
showed 33 but two had to be excluded due
to clear sight triangle
provisions in the code so
the variant seeks to allow a 10 stall
deviation
the front setback along amador avenue
there's a 15 foot setback required based
on the site plan that i'll show you in a
little bit
it appears as if it gets really close to
the full depth and so it's advertised as
a full 15 feet it may be a little less
than that hence the plus or minus
giving us a little latitude and then the
landscape area they're deficient
based on the expansion
they would have to provide an additional
393 square feet
of landscape area based on calculations
as it looks at both what exists and what
is proposed
all told you're looking at
3116 square feet of landscape area
required and they're going to be shy by
393 square feet
in talking with the applicant
they are able to meet the quantity
aspects in our design standards there's
calculations for landscaping
both in terms of quantity of product
installed in the landscape area
so they can meet the quantity
calculation
requirement it's just not the area
that they can meet at this point in time
so
the applicant has submitted their
request
citing the following
justification bullets if you will
basically the flexibility
that the terrorist provides
is is a substantial benefit to the
business because of pandemic related
issues
obviously there were limitations as to
how many people could be within the
building
and
having opportunities outside the
building was was considered a benefit to
the applicant and to the patrons that go
to the restaurant
there's also the
ability to enhance the patrons
dining experience there with a
restaurant by providing an outdoor
seating environment
and then also they cite that the area
where they are currently located
basically have businesses that close up
shop right about 6 pm
so this gives an opportunity to allow a
business that's opened up a
longer period of time providing some
activity to the area
this is the existing site plan
this area here is predominantly the
largest portion of their landscape area
as they have it
shown
you do have some other spots
elsewhere on site but they are much
smaller
your primary access is here
and you have other ingress egress here
at this location
so just to show you this is the area
that the next slide will identify as the
area for the proposed terrace
and this is what they provided
you see the
terrace boundary here delimited by what
will be a rock wall or
or a wall of some fashion
and you have tables
situated with these little squares
identified on the terrace area
they do show a ponding area here
as part of the review process a few
things came to light
there is some water line that is
currently encroached upon
by the existing building not to mention
what would be proposed that is a
building permit issue and will have to
be resolved at that time
i'm just pointing it out because that
was brought up during the review process
there is concern that this ponding area
may further
uh disrupt the line so they're going to
have to do something with that maybe
relocate it but again that too is a
building permit issue
but this is what they're showing there's
not going to be any physical
structure attached to the building
they're going to probably have a
removable shade canopy that they can
pull out and retract
but fire made it clear in their review
that
there was not to be anything physically
attached to the building which the
applicant is fine with
here's a few pictures of that area
this is the southern facade of delicious
as it is today
and so you're talking this area in here
where
where the terrace will be
a couple more photos
this is the
eastern facade for the most part showing
that existing ingress egress
and
the eastern facade again ingress egress
here
notice was sent to the surrounding
properties i did receive two phone calls
as of today
one was just a general inquiry they were
just simply curious as to what was being
requested and asked for clarification
another was from the
property owner of the funeral home
indicating that
they weren't opposed to what was being
requested they thought it was a
wonderful thing that
the business was growing in the manner
it was growing
but that apparently they had a
gentleman's agreement for some overflow
parking but they weren't
there was nothing formal nothing written
and they would not be allowing that to
continue
so
at least from overflow parking
from the perspective of the funeral home
that's not an option but perhaps from
the other properties within the vicinity
that can be entertained
so staff recommendation and findings
the recommendation staff provides is
conditional approval
first of all the setback variants should
be limited to just the terrorists only
not any further encroachment by any part
of the building
in the future for instance through an
addition
and also that the prop business owner
make a concerted effort to investigate
and if possible enter into a formal
shared parking agreement pursuant to
code to lessen the parking impact
and what the code allows is within 500
feet of the subject property that i
showed you
they can enter into said shared parking
agreement if
feasible if agreed to by other property
owners
the findings are as follows
basically again we're talking 0.6 acres
of land the business operated with a
temporary outdoor seating area much like
what is being proposed
and what i'm told is that there was
limited
operational
issues in terms of access parking that
kind of thing
the zoning code allows for those shared
parking agreements within the 500 foot
distance criteria
and the front yard setback variants
should only be
pertaining to the terrace and no auto
parking stall
loss
results from the placement of the
terrace it's the requirement that the
terrace provides in addition to existing
uses where that extra parking kicks in
so they're not deleting any parking it's
just it requires additional stalls
many policies also within elevate las
cruces a comprehensive plan lend support
to the request
and again
no public input was received opposing
the request
and also the landscape fauna the
softscape can be accommodated within the
landscape areas but the landscape area
issue needs to be addressed and that
only represents the 12.6 percent
of the required area
and finally
a couple more
the action would not be contrary to
section 3810k
it does in this instance
have the opportunity to provide or spur
economic development at both the
neighborhood and the city-wide level
through the generation of gross receipts
tax
and also the variances would help
bolster the business operation
and allow them to continue
to operate on site and thereby provide
some retention opportunities
oops
so your options this evening
commissioners
is to vote yes and approve
the variances as stipulated you can vote
no and deny them
please keep in mind that denial will
require your own
findings of fact and not presented
during staff review
you could vote with conditions the
condition staff proposed
was to limit the variance for the front
setback to the terrorists only and to
also require the applicant to
investigate
and
if feasible enter into a shared parking
agreement
and if you agree with those could you
please add those to your motion please
and that concludes steph's presentation
i believe the applicant's representative
is in attendance and can answer any
further questions you may have
all right thank you is there anybody for
the commission who has any questions for
mr banegas
i do
it's not so much questions but actual
gendering concern
parking um
i mean i've been to delicious quite a
few times so familiar with
the parking situation there and um i
didn't i didn't know that they kind of
gentlemen agreement shared parking with
the funeral home behind them so that's
good and i mean that's between them i
don't think that's up to us to decide
but
um you know i mean
i think the pandemic really brought a
lot of issues as far as you know
economics and business survival blah
blah blah
but this would you know definitely i
mean hopefully attract more customers
for them but i would just be really
concerned about the parking situation so
can we talk maybe just a little bit more
about that i mean i know you said that
requirement is 51 but we're lowering it
to 41. um you know how i guess how would
that affect existing parking and
existing traffic and
in there
yeah so so the
the proposed use in addition to the
existing use the after you do the
calculation it comes to a 41 auto
parking stall requirement
on site even as their proposed layout
shows
we counted up 31 legal stalls they
showed two more but those were in clear
sight triangles we had to
exclude those
so
that does raise a question you know
there's going to be 10 stalls that
aren't available that potentially could
be val of value in terms of parking
considerations for patrons
i think
in terms of the definition of the
property boundaries you know how they're
laid out that kind of thing there's
there's no
opportunity to further increase parking
on site so that's why staff propose the
shared parking agreement to help lessen
the burden
they wouldn't
i guess they could but they wouldn't
necessarily identify ten stalls to be
used by adjacent you know from from an
adjacent property
but maybe they can consider
staff parking only or something to limit
any potential damage or
just you know trash or anything like
that those were kind of some of the
things that the funeral home to the
north cited as a concern but they felt
that it wasn't just
staff it was you know patrons in general
that kind of thing so it really depends
on how they word the shared parking
agreement between the two
which we become a party to in that we
receive that document and it gets part
of the you know becomes part of the
permit record
but um
that's really their only option
i mean
in terms of lessening the impact
lessening lessening the load
what happens if they don't get it
then what you're approving is uh
minus 10 stalls so 31.
yeah is there any way that we can wait
to find out if they can get this
agreement
i've talked to the applicant and and
indicated that that's going to be
an issue for us to to
consider for them to consider
at this point in time i think
you could certainly improve
two of the three three of the three one
of the three variances without you know
the others in tow
but
i would recommend taking action
either way on the
the variances as stated as presented
keep in mind that the parking agreement
is generally an issue again that's left
to the building permit
process
so it's apparent that if they don't get
this agreement
and they go ahead and put in the terrace
that they are going to be stuck with
whatever parking that will be left and
they will have to bear the fact that
potential customers will be turned away
because they don't have a place to park
that's correct sherman that's their risk
that's correct
so that should not concern us
well it it may be a
concern but that's one of the issues
that you have to weigh in the voting of
that item isn't there isn't there a
piece of property right next to it
that's vacant yes there's
there's currently
if i could find it it's just bare ground
yeah there's
there's a couple of parcels right now
this one right now
it had a
lengthy building existing building
that was torn down that was the one
demolished so that's an opportunity to
check into
uh and then over here
they're gonna have to get a little
creative as to how they use that
triangular piece
but there is an opportunity to possibly
share parking there
we have to look at code allowances to
see if parking lots would be in allowed
use
and they'd have to pave et cetera but
the possibility is there
and and you also mr chairman if i may
you also have other properties
uh on the other side which
yes you're talking about pedestrian
crossings uh that's a concern but but
there are other uh properties that could
be considered other than just the vacant
ones
all right are there any other questions
from the commission mr commissioner
kaiser
thank you chairman um just something to
consider as we're having this
conversation about parking
cars don't eat at restaurants people do
um
there's there's a lot of parking along
east amador you've got residents that
are fairly adjacent to this this parcel
um so you know i think uh one or two
fewer parking spots is not going to be a
deal breaker here
mike my question going back to
their current operating status um just
to clarify they they did have outdoor
seating were due similar to what's being
proposed since sometime in the pandemic
mr chairman commissioner kaiser yes they
had a
temporary tent
much like what was seen elsewhere in
other restaurant venues
and uh operated it in a very similar
fashion outdoor seating kind of thing
and to our knowledge in the time that
they've been operating that have there
been any complaints or issues related to
the lack of parking
mr chairman commissioner kaiser i am not
aware of any uh significant operational
issues related to traffic
or parking
thank you um
my last question going back to the
landscaping piece if you go back to
their proposal real quick
so that that proposed ponding area that
that would be essentially a catchment
basin for runoff off the parking lot is
that correct mr chairman commissioner
kaiser that's what they're intending
they were looking at putting a drop
inland somewhere in this vicinity
to capture water
from
the
impervious surface here
allowing it to drain through the pipe
and into this ponding area
but utilities concern was that there is
a water line in this general vicinity
and that that would not work
in talking with the applicant today
they indicated that that's for
illustrative purposes only and that
could be resized
according to calculation impervious area
calculation so it may not be that big
and if it does change and we can pull it
away from that water line it might work
again a building permit issue
but if if it simply does not work
they're gonna have to find another uh
area for that ponding
okay so though if i'm reading this
correctly that proposed ponding area as
proposed is
not counted in the landscape area is
that correct that is correct
so if that ponding area were to become
some sort of a bioswale rather than just
a rock or dirt hole in the ground
could that count towards their
landscaped area and maybe put them over
the requirement
mr chairman commissioner kaiser what we
generally allow is some
plantings on the upper portion of the
pond
and then down in the the
lower depth uh since it
collects all the the silt and the
oils and everything else we don't uh
allow plantings in there
thank you
has anyone else on the commission wish
to speak
is the applicant here and wish me to add
something to this
please come forward
could you please state your name and let
me sway you in please
angel ramos
do you swear affirmative testimony
you're about to give is the truth or
nothing but the truth under penalty of
law
i do
please try to speak louder and clearly
into the microphone
so we can hear you
thank you commissioner
that's okay thank you
i'm angel ramos architect for new
republic architects
we've been
solving small issues in this restaurant
for many years
we troubleshoot these technical
problems every day of the week
and to dissipate some of the concerns
that this particular property has
the owner just acquired the property to
the right of it in order to be able to
accommodate
uh additional parking so we're
we're in the process of looking into
that the calculations hasn't been done
the proposed use of the neighboring
property has not been defined
but the intent of the owner to satisfy
the requirements
provided by
mr vinegas
are there and thank you for a nice
presentation of our project
the ponding area if need be can be
relocated the civil engineer has given
us options we have impervious
surfaces that will allow for some
drainage we're not
obstructing
percolation in our new proposed
landscaping area
of course we're dealing with situation
where we're reacting
or the building and the owner are
reacting to
situations that happened during the
pandemic where more space was required
to accommodate the same number number of
people so some room to expand was
required in some instances there was a
need for outdoor parking and this is
much better than having a tent in the
parking lot
so i hope that this
makes this project
being viewed in a more favorable light
i know that timings are not always
perfect but the intent to satisfy
everything and the code is there
let me just i just have to clarify
something mr banegas please
a few minutes ago i asked you about the
vacant part
parcels next to this restaurant that
bare ground that's there now are you
telling me that the applicant has
purchased that land he now owns it
is that what you said
yes sir i found that about that
information before coming to this
meeting so that has not been presented
to us part of the backup
so really the question of parking now is
not even going to be an issue
if that's what he's going to use the
property for i would assume that he
would
mr chairman if if that is indeed the
case i wouldn't aware of that either but
if they're going to include that as part
of the overall
circulation overall operation of the
restaurant then that would satisfy
parking is the owner of the of the
restaurant here
[Music]
can he address and answer that question
he mentioned it to me a minute ago
before presenting that's the sole
purpose well that's the purpose the main
purpose of
purchasing that property
parking parking lots for those that have
studied urban planning
it's not a perfect solution
some parking lots sit vacant and they
create
the heat island effect and other things
so we're we're balancing
the requirements of the city not
overdoing uh being mindful of what
parking lots are intended to do
and um
so
i i think that we covered as best we
could every every angle
in order to make everybody happy for
this project
i myself are not concerned about the
fact that i would be willing to grant
the reduction in the number of parking
spaces but it also makes it a lot easier
for me to make a decision if i know that
the piece of property on the side of
that
existing property that they have is also
going to be used a problem for parking
it makes it
we're we're here to try to help bolster
business it's good for las cruces it's
good for the applicant
and i think that there is everything
that i would like to do to make sure
that we can do that
so if there is that
intent of the owner to put a parking lot
there then it makes the decision a lot
easier on my part
yes sir on our firm we we deal with the
technical sides every day of the week
but the owner and his business their
service providers for the community
i just
waited in that restaurant for a few
hours while the time to come to this
meeting came and i was pleasantly
surprised because there's there's people
that work there
servers that
offered me a glass of water chips and
salsa at no charge they didn't know who
i was i didn't know that i was the
architect i declined everything and
still they brought me water and they are
very pleasant
so that's the culture of that company
they're they're very accommodating
they're looking to
satisfy all the requirements of the law
just the timing sometimes are not
perfect but
i can tell you for sure that these are
people that are always
doing the right thing
well i think i can agree with that from
what you're saying but i can't envision
any reason to buy that other piece of
property other than to put a parking lot
there what are they going to do with it
build another restaurant
i don't think they would do that then
they would really have a parking problem
yes
all right is there anybody from the
public who would like to speak on this
all right seeing none
then
mr banegas from staff
mr chairman if that is indeed the case
if they've
acquired the property
to accommodate some additional parking
they would easily be able to accommodate
the landscape area as well so really it
narrows it down to the setback
all right i have to ask you a question
and
can we make this approval on a condition
that we that the property that has been
purchased and will be used as a parking
lot
council
chair commission can you please complete
the question
can we make
our vote based on a condition that
if the applicant has
purchased that vacant property next to
his current ownership of the land that
he does now his parcel
that he will build a parking lot there
so you want okay so the condition is
that you want
okay you want to require him that he has
to build a parking lot on the new parcel
well i've been told and the car our
commission has been told that he has
purchased that land and i can't see for
any reason other than to build a parking
lot i don't know what else he would put
there it would be permission to do that
at this time i don't think that that
that parcel is in contention
and i i won't
i don't think you can make a condition
just based off of some other parcel
that's not in front of this count board
well that's been brought up by the
applicant
kevin
catherine mr chair members of the
commission i i would just caution you um
to tie
basically the
the future of one parcel to another
um
in in this regard it could create some
unintended consequences
especially if the intent was to develop
something entirely different perhaps
there may be parking available for this
or maybe not
but
it's too amorphous at this point in time
to tie two individual parcels together
in that in that regard
all right thank you then i can only hope
that that's what he's going to do as far
as i'm concerned
there should be no further discussion
mr benegas anything else
mr chairman uh i was just checking with
mr ramos and
and one option the commission can do is
to either remove cons from consideration
or simply deny the
landscape area
and the variants for the additional
parking
that removes the issue from the variance
consideration they're still on the hook
through the building permit process to
accommodate that
and in talking with mr ramos the way to
solve that problem from the building
permit process is to carry it out on the
adjacent parcel
so you get out of the legality of
dealing with that parcel as part of the
condition
and it becomes an issue that has to be
resolved
and resolved at the building permit
level well personally i think that
as it stands
i think it would work
i think that they would have to
deal with the problem by
reducing the number of parking that they
have that have customers coming they
have no place to park they'll leave
if he has bought this property on the
side to put in a parking lot that
certainly solves the problem
so as far as i'm concerned i'd like to
just leave it the way it is
and if anybody has any questions or
comments from my commission
all right then i think perhaps we could
have a vote
so i need to i need a motion
i'd like to make a motion to uh approve
the variance
uh for the the parking the landscape and
the setback
uh however i would like to eliminate the
condition that the applicant have to
seek out a shared parking agreement i
think it's pretty evident in the last
however long during the covet pandemic
they've gotten along just fine i don't
see any reason why we need to add
parking to this section of amador
right second
is that acceptable and can we do that
counsel
okay so what
what exactly is the board trying to do
i would like to make a motion to approve
the variants for the parking the setback
and the landscaping however i would like
to eliminate the condition that the
applicant had to seek out shared parking
agreement
you want to eliminate that condition
that he seeks out though okay that's
correct i do not want i do not want the
applicant to need to go through that
okay that's fine
that is acceptable in that case we do
have a second then we need a vote
board member guerrero
uh yes based on uh site visit staff
recommendation and the new information
we just heard board member vega
i vote yes based on staff
recommendations um everything that's
been shared maybe you could add 10 bike
racks
if they'll find some additional
means of getting there
board member smith
hello yes based on staff recommendation
and on site visit board member kaiser
yes based on stack our staff
recommendation and consistency with
elevate loss cruises
chair gordon
i vote yes based on staff findings and
staff recommendations i
hope that this will booster their
business i think that everything that
they want to do is probably what i'm
thinking they will do
and my site visit
and according to elevate las cruces
again i vote yes so i think we have a
5-0
yes thank you 5-0 all right thank you
thank you good night
all right now we move to new business
item 8.1
the 100 south church street variance
request mr venegas you're going to do
that also
yes sir mr uh
mr chairman vince madangas interim
planner for the record i will be
presenting this item
it is a variance request
for property located at 100 south church
street
case number
21v 00500126
current conditions are as follows
the property is is
currently vacant used to be a church
use
certainly evident from the church street
side if you're viewing the property from
that location
otherwise it can be a little bit
deceiving as to where it's located
i'll show you a map and ariel in a
minute that kind of proves that point
the property is plus or minus 0.35 acres
in size
it is
zoned at ddc ms which is our downtown
development code the main street
zone
it is part of the casa lin casalinda
acres 460 subdivision
and the structure was originally built
in a according to assessor records in
1965.
so this is the subject property it is
outlined in red here
you do have your
main street
uh zoning
along either side of main street
this piece right here is part of the
civic plaza so it is a civic zone
and then you have downtown
designated zoning
along these parcels here which are
adjacent to church street
and you also have them
[Music]
along here
outside the main street zoning boundary
so it's a little different from the
typical zoning that you see elsewhere in
the city but nonetheless again main
street zoning the difference between
main street zoning and the downtown
designation
is basically they're using it still
allows mixed-use retail
an assortment of uses
but it utilizes the
building layouts and the size
compatibility or criteria for buildings
that are unique or typical of the urban
core
and that's kind of the difference
between the two
so this is the property shown in the
aerial you can see that the northern
half almost northern half of the
property kind of appears as if it's
open space if you will
that's kind of where it gets a little
deceiving
this is the building footprint
that is in question
further down is the new america's
new america
school
which is at issue with this variance
request
so the variance is necessary because our
recent
adoption of cannabis related regulations
requires
facilities that will
retail cannabis related products
to be 300 feet from
where the
sale of such
product
is in terms of the building footprint to
the property line of a qualifying school
and in this case qualifying school is
pre-k all the way to 12.
anything for adult education
trade schools that kind of thing is not
part of the criteria that
they would have to meet a buffer
distance for
the new america school as indicated that
is the one that the measurement was
taken from
the applicant is health nautics llc
and it in talking with the applicant's
representative and reading their
their letter variance letter
it became
evident through through that
communication that the business
is in the business of selling health
care product
they do a lot of
cbd related
compounding of product and sale a
product
but they also deal with a little bit it
sounded like a little bit the the
applicant's
representative could certainly clarify
that
but they deal with some product that has
thc
and that is the
ingredient that
that requires us to consider this this
variant's request
this is their
not so much justification letter but
their letter of intent in terms of the
variance
and what i glean from that
is
obviously they are a business that's
seeking to provide quality
health care products in this community
and they do reference some job training
programs primarily for areas or commun
communities that
are
low income
and otherwise absent of such programs
job training programs that kind of thing
this was the
the site plan that i was given
to show the relationship of the building
again you can see the open
kind of area here this is the building
in question
and so taking the measurement from the
building footprint
they're showing it at the building but
the actual uh demarcation is at the
property line
uh that was where they got the
191.5 feet i rounded down to to afford
them a little wiggle room should their
measurement be a little bit off
so that's the issue at hand
a couple of photos showing
the western facade of the property
kind of one showing from the
new america school
looking north
and from the subject property
looking south
public notice and input notice was sent
to the surrounding properties
and staff received one email a protest
to date i distributed that email that
letter that i received today
to you all before the meeting
they oppose the request it is from the
superintendent of the new america
school
generally speaking you've read it or had
a chance to read it but generally
speaking they
find that this use is
could potentially be a significant
distraction for their
students
that attend the school
so staff recommendation and findings
staff is recommending approval of the
variance request
the findings
are that
again the acreage is 0.35 acres
presently vacant
any
allowance of the variants would help
facilitate
efforts to
occupy buildings and retain businesses
in the downtown area
the zoning code
although it doesn't allow
manufacturing a product it does allow
some limited compounding of product
and
so that zone is is appropriate for what
we discussed we being myself and
the applicant's representative
the
any subsequent building modifications
pursuant to the development code or to
their business practice will require
proper permits
and all such work will be
made compliant at that time
and there are many policies and actions
within elevate las cruces that support
the request
again one letter and only one letter of
protest has been received
and
this this request is not contrary to
section 3810k which is the criteria for
decisions
because it does have the potential
for spring economic development at a
neighborhood in city-wide oops not wise
wide level due to gross receipts tax
generated by the the use
so your options this evening mr chair
commissioners is to vote yes and approve
the request as presented
you could vote no and deny and keep in
mind that denial will require
separate findings of fact not presented
by staff
and then if you have any conditions you
wish to include you could certainly cite
those as part of your motion for
approval
and that concludes steph's presentation
i believe the representative is here
should you have any further
questions all right before we do that is
anybody from the commission have any
questions of mr panegas
um i'm just curious because as we were
talking about new america school
being less than 300 feet
i believe i don't know if they still
have it right next door to this proposed
property um or a couple doors
next to it it's big brothers big sisters
um i used to volunteer there they don't
usually have kids there but do they fall
under the same i guess category
than the school does
if
mr chairman commissioner guerrero
if they're not
actually carrying out the activities of
pre-k through 12
you know what you would typically see in
a school then no
i think i'm not quite sure what their
operation does or how it operates but
but
from what i'm from what i know and what
i'm hearing now
it's it's i mean it's mainly offices but
i was just curious if
there was like the same issue thank you
is there anyone else
does the applicant wish to speak
is is are you the applicant
do you wish to speak
sure come forward please
good evening members of the commission
you'll have i'll have to state your name
and let me swear you in please
daniel g buck
all right do you swear affirmative the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth or nothing but the truth on the
penalty of law i do okay go ahead
as the sole representative of
healthnautics inc and an economic
developer by trade and someone who has
worked extensively in the oilfield
economy of southeastern new mexico as
well as the northern territory of the
state and trying to amplify the
retention of business in the
southwestern valley including dona ana
county headed to sunland park in the el
paso border
the approval of this variance could do a
lot for retaining the road map and the
future of the downtown las cruces
district which is on
the correct trajectory with what the
master plan has in
implementation in accord
with the city's ordinance
we look forward to bringing a healthy
and diverse trio to the downtown area
that includes retail
potential jobs as well as a need for the
community in the mesquite historic
district to be able to get a pedestrian
access with limited car use
to have prevailing opportunity as well
as opportunities for postgraduates that
are inhabiting that district
all right very good thank you thank you
does anybody have any questions for the
applicant
if not is there anybody from the public
who wishes to speak
i see you
please raise your hands again
four people all right we'll start over
here on the left i will give you three
minutes each
please come forward state your name and
let me swear you in
my name is susie kimball
all right do you swear or affirm that
the testimony you're about to give is
the truth and nothing but the truth
under penalty of law yes i do go ahead
thank you i serve as the governing
council president for new america school
we're not opposed to this type of
business we're not opposed we know it's
legal we know it's an economic driver we
believe in this kind of business we just
don't understand how you can easily
make a variance on the 300 feet from a
school because that variance is is
designed to to protect our students to
protect our school and what we're mostly
afraid of
traffic in that parking lot we'll share
a parking lot on the back you're showing
the front of the buildings now everybody
in our school comes in on the other side
so that parking lot is going to be full
of people it's full of our students we
have day school and night school so
we're worried about traffic we're
worried about safety and we're worried
about setting a precedent if they can
get a variance can everybody else so how
many more shops like this are going to
be within this range of the school
that's what we're concerned about we're
not anti this business we're really not
we know it's legal we know it's going to
happen we have students at our school
from 14 to 21 22 years old
we feel like this will be a disruption
to our school to our community
we oppose the variance we don't oppose
the business but we oppose the variance
because that's awfully close to our
school and the other part i have to say
about that is on the other side of our
building
is messier valley pharmacy
they've told us they're going to seek a
variance as well we share a wall with
that place
so
how easy is it going to be to get a
variance for other people as well
that's what we're concerned about
thank you
all right thank you there's someone else
on the left had one to speak
again please state your name and let me
swear you in my name is margarita porter
do you swear affirmative testimony
you're about to give is the truth
nothing but the truth on the penalty of
law i do go ahead thank you i'm
margarita porter and i'm the
superintendent of new america school las
cruces um
currently our building
the owner is fyi families youth
incorporated and they received the
notice
and they didn't give it to us we and we
inferred with
fyi about the notice and they said they
never received it
so that's why we only received um mr
banangus only received one letter of
protest because it we just found out
about it just most recently
and so i represent
um 200 students their families and their
parents um and so we
again as miss suzy said we're not
opposed to this we would just like for
this to for you all to please
require the 300 feet from a public
school just because it protects us
once
municipal court is open all of the
parking spaces are taken and we always
have to make sure that that overflow
parking isn't
people aren't parking in our parking lot
we have security guards who maintain
that and so we think that
this type of
company would also create more traffic
we're also concerned about
there we already have a lot of vagrants
in that area and so we would like to
again maintain the safety of our
students there are other real estate
available for this type of company and
we would just like to to maintain that
300 feet um because it's important to
our families to know that their children
are
300 feet away from on this type of of
company
and so i would just like for um
the commissioners to please consider
that to maintain the variance with a
distance of 300 feet thank you
all right thank you
i think the gentleman on the right side
again please state your name and let me
swear you in
mark viii
all right do you swear
or affirm that the testimony you're
about to give is nothing but the truth
on the penalty of law i do
so just as they were saying this looks
like a case of somebody made a mistake
and they want the city to fix it
there's a reason for that 300 foot
variance
i see kids walk by that building
in droves by the front opposite side
there where the parking is at
just lots of kids walking by there i
just don't think that that's a suitable
place they said 300-foot for a reason i
don't think it should be broken thank
you
all right thank you
wait next gentlemen please
please state your name and let me swear
you in my name is jay
wisner do you swear affirmative
testimony about to give us the truth and
nothing but the truth on the penalty of
law i do it for thank you go ahead
yes um i'm a retired juvenile probation
officer and i'm also the pastor
located in the
church right here right next to the new
american school you see that building
with the three crosses on it right there
so i did get a notice i didn't see on it
an email maybe i missed that where i
could reply to i got notice of the
meeting and wanted to come and reply to
that notice
i don't believe we should
give any variance either
due to the nature of the business and i
have
a few things to consider
one is and see being a youth advocate
and if anybody from the school if i
misrepresent anything please correct me
just make sure you're speaking to the
microphone so we can hear you okay
as a juvenile probation officer i have
placed
youth in that school they are structured
to the point where they can work with
kids that are at risk i don't know if
they have any at-risk kids there now
they sure did when i was
working with them i've been retired
about six years now
and i'm i'm telling you they do a great
job and i'm here in support of what
they're saying but i also want you to
consider a few other things i have a
study from a scholarly journal about the
placement of cannabis ads and store
locations and their impact their
negative impact on youth i want to leave
that with you if you would like to
consider this i have
a pile of studies to look at if you
would like
there are some
very serious issues here
once an at-risk youth
become at what are they at risk for
being system involved once their system
involved a lot of them end up tethered
to our our criminal justice system for
years to
come i'm speaking again as a retired
juvenile probation officer i worked in
this city as a juvenile probation
officer for 23 years
so i'm telling you
if we have youth that are already at
risk and they're in line of sight
right the back of this building is where
the parking lot is as the lady from the
school
represented that's where likely their
customers will park
they're not going to go around there's
nowhere to park around front there's a
there's a place for one or two cars up
front
they can't park back there and they're
not going to walk all the way around
they're going to use as we do the other
side of that building as the school does
as the entryway to that building i'm
sure
now
what i'm saying is they're not only less
than 300 feet but they are in line of
sight of any youth in that parking lot
from that school i have seen okay
i've seen students walk just past right
past the front of that building going
home
and so i would ask that you consider not
voting for that variance i think it
would be detrimental to our community
all right thank you
can i leave these with you to look at
impact of marijuana use on youth
particularly
i have in my master's degree looked up i
mean when you get
when you get peer review could you
please talk to the microphone because
she's trying to record this my apologies
when you get peer-reviewed studies these
aren't just something that the marijuana
industry pops out these are things that
that our best and brightest minds come
up with okay this and this is just not
my opinion alone
these are true academics that put these
together okay
i thank you thank you
i think the representative from the
applicant wanted to speak again
i've already been sworn in so go ahead
thank you thank you members of the
commission
as well as members of the general public
who rose concerns about our building and
the type of business that we're
spearheading in the downtown arena
health nautics is a very
minimally teach based thc based company
our products are organic and aimed at
aiding high risk individuals that suffer
from ptsd
um
regrow their inner being and their
spirituality as well as their mental
instability we currently work with
veterans at fort bliss with our products
they're held in medical professional
offices within the community
we also work very closely with people
who are vagrant we have job
opportunities that come about and we
work with previously incarcerated
individuals to offer job training
programs and reinvention into society
as we know those are heavily stricken
populations and minorities that gather
in our community with homelessness on
the rise
and i think that the school before us
is not reconciling the plan
that we offer a retention room when
people come in on the south side of our
building
we will have a check-in area it'll be
guarded
code locked and key secured
it will be
monitored by an employee who's trained
you'll have to turn in your credentials
that state your age
your licensure for buying and then
that's how you gain access to the
showroom it's not as if a student or a
minor could walk in and go buy a product
off of our shelf
as well
we can operate under hours that coincide
more helpfully with the school district
and i'd like to keep in mind that you
know churches are a wonderful asset to
our community
schools are a wonderful asset to our
community but an age group that struck
me from the new america school that was
presented was 18 to 22
and by statement of the federal law
18 is when you can start making
decisions for yourself you're considered
an adult
so i don't see how that can play into
the ruling for designation on main
street
nor can i see how bars that operate just
an additional 100 feet from our building
until two in the morning who had
previously had victims of crime in the
evening
play as a
unilateral blind spot to the business
that we're in trying to help downtown
one of our
facets to bring to that building is a
multi-use district not only will we have
retail but a potential food desert
offering for the mesquite historic
district as well as the alameda district
and i was appointed last tuesday for los
esperanza's inc as the liaison for the
three districts main street commercial
the alameda district in the mesquite
historic district i'll be leading the
community watch as well as helping
intervene on crime
and i would really like to work closely
with our our community downtown that's
including the school the nonprofits fyi
and
the churches
do you know what the hours of operation
will be uh
that can be
determined by this meeting
with the contingency
i just have a comment which is it's just
it's sort of i just can't
if this if this
facility had been with had been
more than 300 feet away this this
meeting would not have been necessary
and your complaints about let's say it
was 320 feet away
you have a big church between the
facility and the school
there is a buffer there is a religious
buffer
i know from my friends who have have
cannabis licenses from the state go to
these facilities and i know that when
they go there they have told me
that when they go in they have to give
them their license they have to give
them their cannabis license and they're
taken in individually nobody can go in
with them
they buy their product they come out
they can only pay with cash you can't
even use a credit card
it's very well controlled
so
i know what you're saying and i hear
what you're saying i also hear what
people from the school are saying
and the church i appreciate your
comments
[Music]
these are just my comments it's very
difficult
considering the fact we're only talking
about 110 feet here whatever it is it's
not like we're talking about the
building right next door
so if anybody else from the commission
has any comments or any questions
[Music]
commission vegas
um i think this is for staff is the
300-foot variance the same for an
establishment that sells alcohol
mr chairs commissioner vega we believe
it's 200 feet
i'd have to look that up but if my
memory serves it's 200 feet
uh just to clarify it is actually 300
feet there are some additional um
requirements for alcohol licensing it's
300 feet from a school
a church a daycare and i believe
parks and other public spaces if i'm
correct
okay thank you
commissioner smith
yes um i'm uh
very sensitive to the the public people
who are opposing um you know this
variance but
um i've resided downtown for you know
almost 22 years since i've
moved to las cruces
i'm very familiar with the downtown area
i've watched it
you know revitalization over the over
the past decade
and
as the applicant stated
you know there are a number of bars
surrounding this area
very close to the new school
you know
yes this building is less than the 300
feet required but
you know them walking by
this building the way this building is
going to be established i i don't see
how it will have
such a negative impact on the students
especially with the statement about the
age of the students 18 to 22
at
night bars are operating at night and
they're eligible to walk into a bar
so if that's not an issue i have a
difficult time
understanding how
this building could be an issue
thank you anyone else commissioner
kaiser
uh the
the ordinance for this type of
establishment 300 foot buffer
how would that play out in the totality
of the downtown area in other words was
the intent
to exclude these establishments
from downtown
because i assume that new america has
been there
prior to the establishment of the
ordinance so
just curious if there was what the
intent behind the ordinance as it stands
now
chair members of the commission uh
commissioner kaiser there was no intent
to exclude these types of uses
from downtown there are some other areas
downtown that are far enough away from
the new americas school
the intent behind that was to be
consistent essentially with the state
regulations regarding the alcohol
distancing that's really what that
was about
thank you but it is true that there are
establishments that serve alcohol within
300 feet of this new america school
correct
i can't speak to the exact location of
those licenses
i do want to point out that the 300-foot
rule
is a state
rule specifically for alcohol while we
look at that as part of our process
the zoning code actually doesn't speak
to 300 feet specifically for alcohol
but because that's not outlined by that
was not outlined by the cannabis process
it's something that we added to our
codes just just for consistency
thank you
anyone else
well in that case i guess any further
comment
thank you members of the commission all
right thank you i guess that we're ready
for a vote
oh yes sir come on
i don't i will allow anyone to speak
since you've already been sworn in just
please speak right into the microphone
yes my name is jay wisner
the children the children that i saw
walked past were at it was at 4 30 in
the afternoon and if you go any normal
school day i don't believe they meet on
fridays
you go on to other school days
and you'll see children not adults
walking past the facility and the issue
is
if the
people buying
right there
whatever the product is
are going to be parking where the
children are walking by there's
potential for contact right there that's
the issue that i see and so
what i'm just trying to cross some of
the t's and dot some of the eyes here
says your comment you think is directed
the fact that so many children maybe get
hit by an automobile
is that what you're saying no
i didn't misunderstood you the way
children get a hold of drugs and alcohol
as adults give it to them and so there's
potential there and there's potential
since you have adults that go to new
american school with children
as well and i'm just trying to you know
i think in in the conversations we're
comparing apples and oranges and i'm
just trying to line up the apples with
the apples and oranges
again it just seems to me though that if
this was beyond 300 feet our discussions
here this evening would not be
well we wouldn't even have known that
they were going to be there
that's for sure i did i wasn't aware
and they're well within 300 feet of our
church i wasn't even aware that they're
going to be there we never got to notice
that the business was going to be there
to begin with until we got this variance
notice never got anything like that so
that's the only reason i'm here today is
because i didn't know about that until
the variance notice
all right thank you that's all i have to
say thank you dave can you comment on
that if
necessary
[Music]
yes mr chairman members of the
commission in terms of the criteria
regarding
the distance and and variances
the ordinance that was approved does
qualify
uh the allowance
uh with the 300 foot buffer this does
not meet that
so therefore it does allow variances to
be considered
variances by their very definition
should be justified
have some demonstrable hardship
associated with them
that's the typical
criteria by which
a variance is is considered
in terms of
development cases such as the variance
or zone change or any of the others
that we entertain the code is very clear
we notify property owners as identified
by the dona ana county assessors office
and so that's part of the dilemma that
new america school faced
the landlord
fyi inc
received there i checked this morning
they are on the mailing list
so
they should have received one
if they did not
then something's a miss but we did send
one out
and in terms of churches they're not
part of the criteria for notification
for distance
consideration
all right thank you
mr smith i have one more comment to make
go ahead
i once again i stated that i live
downtown i'm very familiar with this
area and just to the south of the new
america school is a new pharmacy
within a new pharmacy they have over the
counter medic medications and
the students at the new american school
have much easier access to these
over-the-counter medic medications then
they will have uh accessing
the healthcare products that will be
sold at this
at this health natick
facility
i'm once again very sensitive to your
concerns but i i
i must state that
the access that the students will have
the danger that would be posed to them
is actually
much less
at this facility
than it would be at the pharmacy that is
literally right beside your building
actually also i think it should be noted
that you can buy
products on the open market that contain
cbd which do not have
the
amount of thc that you will find in
cannabis that is sold
in a licensed establishment by the state
with a cannabis card so
all right
then can i have a motion please
someone make a motion to approve
i'll second it
board member corrado
so i'm
i'm actually going to vote no and the
only reason i'm voting no
i mean i completely agree with this kind
of business um i agree with my
commissioners as well but um i am
concerned about what the school said
about the business next door or pharmacy
next door saying they're going to seek a
variance as well so i'm only voting no
out of principle because i don't want
this to be something that is just
expanded to everyone and just be like oh
we can just go and you know they'll let
us do whatever we want so i'm voting now
board member vega
um
i i vote yes based on um information
shared today site visit having some
economic growth within the community and
the fact that i do feel that there is
some stigma attached to
marijuana products that we don't place
on alcohol
there's plenty of establishments that
are in this downtown area that will
continue to come in
that will probably seek the same type of
license so i vote yes
board member smith
hello yes based on site visit
staff recommendation
and also
just
having an understanding of
what this type of business could bring
to the downtown community
these type of facilities and businesses
are being established all over town
and
i don't think that the impact that it's
going to have
to the school it's it's going to be
of a dangerous level i think it's going
to be minimal
board member kaiser
i i am concerned uh with the precedent
that's being set here um i wish there
was some additional thought put into
the
buffer distance in the downtown to begin
with that being said these are the types
of uses that are consistent with
downtown
and i think it's consistent with elevate
las cruces and i agree with staff's
recommendations i'm voting yes
chair gordon
considering the fact that variances are
allowed
and we're only talking about 110 feet
here and if it was the 300 feet or more
this would have been a moot point i
think based on staff recommendations in
our discussion
and my knowledge of what i think is the
business and it's going to be the
business of the future it'll be a big
business here in new mexico in las
cruces and in the country if they can
legalize a lot of this i think a lot of
the illegal stuff will go away and you i
can tell you
from my friends how beneficial this is
it's unbelievable how people have been
helped
through the use of legal cannabis
so also again it just
brings another business into the
downtown area and i think that there
will be no effect i think that the
school is
should not be worried about this i don't
think it's going to be a problem and for
that reason i do vote yes
approval 4-1 thank you
okay then we move to the last two items
on the agenda item 8.2 and 8.3
which is the
the settler pass master plan and the
preliminary plot
again like earlier this evening i want
to be able to discuss these items
together
but we will vote on them separately
so
can i have a vote to to do this
please yeah i'll make a motion that we
discuss 8.2
sorry items number 8.2 and item number
8.3 together but they're voted
separately
commissioner smith that's a second
board member guerrero
yes board member vega yes board member
smith yes remember kaiser yes chairman
gordon
yes thank you
go ahead
good evening mr chair members of the
commission
my name is john castillo i'm a planner
with the city of las cruces don you're
going to have to talk me better into
that microphone sorry
my name is john i'm with the
city of las cruces in planning today
we're going to discuss the arroyos at
seddler's class master plan and the
arroyos at settlers pass
phase one preliminary plot
current conditions of the property today
it's located west of settlers pass also
known as longview lane
it's east of the future extension of
rinata boulevard and north of the rincon
hills subdivision
right now it's currently located in
council district number five it's
approximately 45.98 acres
and it's currently zoned r1b which is
our single family high density zoning
district
as it sits it's a vacant undeveloped
tract of land
uh here's a
aerial map of the
property
we can see the zoning map here
the proposal for the master plan is to
subdivide the four existing parcels into
two phases
it's going to bring 205 single family
lots attract for drainage and utilities
and it's also going to provide a 2 acre
lot
2 acre
park to the city of las cruces
as it sits right now it does meet the
requirements of the subdivision code the
design standards and the 2001 zoning
code it's also supported by elevate las
cruces
and it falls under the suburban place
type neighborhood
the proposal for the preliminary plot or
phase one is to subdivide the three
existing parcels
the one
near the
future extension of rankinada boulevard
and the two south of the larger one
that we can see right here
so these two and this one are part of
phase one
they're going to bring a 114 single
family lots and one tract for drainage
and utilities
this is uh the master plan as it sits
these are the
surrounding zoning designations and
parcels
and this is phase one of the arroyos at
settlers pass
a public notice was sent
out to all relevant agencies
they all have supported this
preliminary platinum master plan
notice was also sent out to surrounding
properties at the time of the
presentation was being created staff did
not receive any phone calls or emails
regarding questions on the development
this was also sent to our development
review committee on january 19 2022
they review subdivisions from an
infrastructure utilities and improvement
standpoint there was discussion and the
drc did recommend approval of the
proposed master plan and phase one of
the preliminary plan
staff recommends approval for the master
plan based upon review by city relevant
city staff the proposed master plan does
comply with the requirements and
standards of the city las cruces
subdivision code
the proposed residential lots comply
with all requirements of the 2001 zoning
code as amended
the subdivision is also supports and
meets the intent of elevate las cruces
comprehensive plan
and as stated earlier it was approved
by our development review committee or
drc
staff also recommends approval of the
preliminary plot based on similar
findings
today's options are to vote yes to
approve vote no to deny
vote yes with conditions or vote to
table
the representative is also here to
answer any questions if necessary
thank you anybody from the commission
have any questions
mr kaiser
a couple of questions
for you um and the department review
comments um i did not see active
transportation
uh listed there
um so at the time of this we don't have
an actual specific
workflow or review process for our
active transportation coordinator
in our permitting software
it is something that we are working on
but they have reviewed it
he did provide comments regarding
the drainage tracks being used as
multimodal system access points
which i did talk to the developer in
regards to that and we have
rectified that issue
okay that actually leads right into my
second question about that so in phase
one
uh looking at
oh
yeah there you go
um
so i guess
i can't really point but it would be
the
west northwest corner of that cul-de-sac
no other direction
there you go
how would those residents access that
future park that they
share a border with
mr chair commissioner kaiser there is
and i know it's a little difficult to
see on this one but there is a tract
right here that is dedicated as a 10
foot
drainage access track also a multimodal
tract as well
okay thank you yes i definitely did not
see that
um
continuing on that line of uh thought uh
how would this relate
not only to
uh
phase two but also phase three it
appears that
there's additional development that's
going to happen to the west of that
cul-de-sac
why would there be no connectivity there
mr martinez would you like to
my name is edward martinez representing
zia engineering and environmental and
i'm representing the applicant all right
let me let me swear you in then please
do you swear from the testimony you're
about to give it the truth and nothing
but the truth under penalty of the law i
do thank you go ahead
yes commissioner kaiser
chairman gordon
the phase three four area right now is
optioned and
not actually under ownership of the
developers that's the reason it's not
part of this application at this time
however
we have done
a fairly substantial amount of work in
master planning and conceptual design of
that area
and had quite a few meetings with city
staff
not only specific to phase one and two
that's before you now but also
incorporating
what
we hope to happen within phase three
four
uh within
the phase two area
just above that cul-de-sac that you
pointed out
uh is where the two-acre park is
proposed to be that will is part of this
master plan at this time
within the phase 3-4 area
we're going to be adding an additional
acre to that park area
the reason why we don't have direct
connectivity between
the
that cul-de-sac in the phase three area
is actually because of the differential
in grades at that point in time we're
going to have actually retaining walls
along the west side of that cul-de-sac
at that area however
at the area of the park
we're actually along the ridge line at
that point in time so the grades are
much closer in elevation so we'll be
able to tie the acreage of the park
together without retaining well
separating the the
current area that we're under master
plan versus the future area
thank you for that clarification yeah
that definitely does not come through in
this plot uh plan so i appreciate it um
some other questions on access so the
the proposed i guess temporary access
off of um
uh was it wakanda
marine canal boulevard yeah so
if that's only
temporary at some point it's going to
disappear so how would residents of this
neighborhood this development
access the future commercial development
that would be to the northwest of them
it appears that if that temporary access
were to leave
they'd be forced to go
all the way around to the east and then
back around
thank you
commissioner kaiser chairman gordon
um
the temporary access that we have now
that we're proposing now
is simply based upon the ownership that
they have in place now the land that
they're optioning and the area that
we're master planning for future phases
three and four
will actually have a permanent access
point that will be approximately 300
feet
north of where we have the temporary
access coming out to ring another
boulevard so they will have direct
access to rank and now the boulevard the
reason why this is a temporary access
where we're proposing it now
is because
of the current geometry of the parcels
that they own
the ponding area that's located there
now and the existing park hill drive
we can't directly line up
that intersection
that we're coming out to park hill drive
so because we can't directly line it up
under the
codes
the codes don't allow a
offset intersection with arterials and
collectors so that's the reason why
we're going to be doing it as a
temporary access now it'll be a paved
access
but it'll be temporary
and then when they move on to phase
three which will be
we anticipate probably in within about a
36-month window
we'll close off that access point it'll
turn into either a lot or ponding
and then we're going to move the
permanent access point about 300 feet to
the north
thank you uh just a couple more
questions i promise um
i i've been here all night so i'm here
as long as you want
oh yeah i'm sure my colleagues are
anxious to go home too um
so uh
bike lanes i'm going to ask it
are they proposed where they proposed
there's currently no
no bike infrastructure on the boulevard
to the southwest
and then on settlers pass
it's it's inadequate bike lanes this is
obviously a big development and is only
growing
so i wonder if you can speak to that a
little bit more
yes commissioner kaiser
chairman gordon
i'm a bicyclist myself so
i'm
all for bicycling
um at the same time unfortunately
there's it's always a challenge to try
to get everything to fit in
and
the quite frankly the codes of the city
are not super friendly to trying to get
everything to work out at times to get
the everything in that we would like
i actually had proposed to do a
multimodal
pathway within this development and
because
[Music]
challenges with trying to get it worked
out as well as quite frankly another
part of it that the pressure that we're
dealing with
is the the
market that this development is trying
to hit is
within like the 200
hundred thousand
dollar home market
and so because of that
between the pressures of trying to keep
costs low
as well as trying to meet city standards
we weren't able to make that multi-modal
pathway work out within the development
however
i'm we are proposing to
[Music]
pave as part of this uh actually as part
of phase one we're going to be paving
the eastern half of rinconta boulevard
from
where it ends now
up to our temporary access
i'm hoping
that in the detailed design of that
we'll be able to
perhaps shrink up the median area
within
our proposed
section
and have a multi-modal pathway along the
eastern side of rinkanatha boulevard and
then as we
extend rinconada boulevard to the north
through phases three and four when when
that's developed we'll extend hopefully
that multimodal pathway at least to the
end of our our development
well if that is in fact true that
getting a multi-modal pathway built
through this development
uh it didn't happen because it was too
difficult that's deeply disappointing
it is
these things aren't these things aren't
hard to do if you prioritize it uh and i
guarantee you building a bike lane is a
heck of a lot cheaper than a four
four-lane artillery road
when you look at the per mile cost
so that is disappointing to hear but i'm
encouraged to see that you're finding
other ways to incorporate that just i
hope that we can work with staff to
really maximize that opportunity
people who purchase houses for 200 000
deserve bike lanes
no more or less than anyone else in the
city
it shouldn't be reserved for the people
who
buy into million dollar developments
million dollar home
homes like
this is a this is a basic
mode of transportation that should be
available for all income levels
um my last question i promise
uh on the
[Music]
uh the multimodal pathway access that
sort of cuts through the development i
also notice it's intended to serve as
storm water drainage
but i also noticed on one of the the
maps that was handed to us in our packet
that they're proposed to be entirely
paved as concrete
i would hope that there's an opportunity
here to look at something other than
concrete
it is not beneficial in any
measure of the term from a stormwater
perspective it only increases impervious
surface so i'd like us to find ways if
it's possible to incorporate some
permeable pavers in those sections
i've seen how some of these things are
developed throughout the city and quite
frankly i don't know who would want to
even walk through there it's just
basically an oven in the middle of the
summer when you're surrounded by
concrete
but so i just would kind of open that as
i don't know if that's a question for
staff if that can be something that can
be a condition here but i think that's
something that we should seriously look
into
there's
policies in the comprehensive plan that
point to things like this and
developments
yes
if i may commissioner
kaiser chairman gordon
i generally fully agree
with with your comments
once again one of the challenges however
is
a lot of the pavers are not necessarily
super friendly for ada compliance and we
also have to meet ada compliance
within
those those uh sections
so
that's that's one of the challenges in
trying to get to that that to work out
yeah i just encourage you to look a
little bit deeper into that because it
it's possible i've seen it
um it's it's not a groundbreaking way of
developing um for stormwater so
something to think about
agreed
anyone else
i just have one comment apparently there
is there is going to be one other
accident enter point on longview is that
correct another way in and out uh uh
chairman gordon uh yes it's uh on
longview it's actually designated i
think is settler's pass but yes and
we're going to be paving
the western half of settlers pass
through this development
okay thank you thank you
after no other questions anybody from
the public wish to speak
sir
please speak your name
my name is bruce brown and let me swear
you in please
do you swear affirmative the testimony
you're about to give is the truth or
nothing but the truth and the penalty of
law i do all right go ahead i'll give
you three minutes
i own the
northeast corner
of the end of settlers pass
where the solar panels are
so as settlers pass goes up
and basically
when the pavement ends there we have a
concern rincon hills
all ever
200 plus homes all exit onto settlers
pass
from what you're telling me there's
going to be one exit at the bottom
and one exit at the top one on settlers
pass one on ring canada when it's
finished
and there's a lot of
a lot of traffic
so that's one concern i have
okay okay
another concern is
at carson the development that is north
i think it's called carson ranch or
further up
the blacktop is going to have three
posts because the four wheelers love it
out there
is there going to be a similar
consideration at the end of the blacktop
when you do settler's pass
okay
okay very good um
the other thing is is is there will the
city is it gonna
consider patching or filling in the two
blacktop areas that will now be in line
because i can guarantee the private
owners are not going to
pay that third of a mile
let alone with
the utilities and all of that well we
can't answer that question you'll have
to direct that to the city so one of my
questions too is at the end of settlers
pass
longview technically turns left
and then again turns north
depending on what plant you're looking
at are you all going to once you do the
blacktop on sellers pass are you going
to continue the blacktop on a minor
arterial on longview
i think that's all i have thank you sir
i thank you you'd like to reply to that
thank you
and if i miss a question please let me
know
[Laughter]
uh regarding the
uh
where we terminate we'll be terminating
the pavement we'll be terminating the
pavement at our northern property
boundary
on settlers pass we're actually going to
be at this point in time the
42 and a half feet of what will be the
western side of settlers pass
is currently under ownership of this
developer the developer will be
dedicating that right away
as part of this uh plating
and
uh and will be making the improvements
along that that section for
our quarter mile basically
where
our land terminates to the north of
there
[Music]
it's currently owned by someone else
we don't have the permission from that
individual to extend payment through his
property nor quite frankly
other than transition
would there be any requirement or
necessity to so
what unfortunately is going to happen
and it happens oftentimes
throughout the city is we're going to
have we are going to end up with a
little bit of hodgepodge of payment as
you're going through settlers pass there
you're going to have
the fully paved section through rincon
hills
that currently exists you're going to
have
the half section
on the west side
where our development exists then it's
going to transition back to gravel on
the east side which is where the
right-of-way currently exists
for the next approximate i think it's a
quarter mile
and then you're going to get to pavement
again farther north where there's
another planted subdivision up there
where right away has been dedicated
so you are going to end up with a little
bit of a hodgepodge which unfortunately
we don't have control over
that's one of that's one of the problems
of development
we understand i understand that your
concern
hopefully sometime in the future it'll
all be done
so specific to your question yes where
our pavement ends
there are going to be what we call
chevron signage on
the where the pavement ends on the west
side but we're going to be having a tren
a gravel transition back to the east
side
to get back to where the road is
currently
sure
if someone could explain the phase one
phase two phase three which which is
which and four that i had not heard
according to the paper that was you know
mailed to my house
can you
go to the zoning map
that's good
yes chairman gordon if i may
our phase one area
essentially consists of
this area that i'm outlining here
which is the
southern 20 acres of this 40 acre parcel
and then a portion of this six acre
parcel here to get back to rinconata
boulevard
phase two
is this northern 20 acres here
of this 40 acre parcel
the land that they currently have option
consists of this acreage to the west
in this area here
and within that area it's broken into
what we're identifying would be a phase
three area which would essentially to a
large extent consist of the northern
portion
of that parcel
and phase four would then consist of
this what i would term this inner area
of that parcel area as well
okay thank you
well
if there is nothing else
i think we are ready for a vote
remember we are going to vote on each
item each
eight eight two eight point two and
eight point three separately
so can you please someone give me a
motion for
8.2 for the master plan
commissioner smith i vote that we vote
on 8.1 of this master plan
the commissioner had all seconded it
board member guerrera
yes
based on a
by or
sorry site drive
and uh recommendations from staff
board member vega
vote yes based on staff recommendation
board member smith
of all yes
based on staff recommendation also
board member kaiser
voting yes based on staff recommendation
consistency with elevate las cruces
though i do encourage the applicant and
staff to work on some of the issues that
were raised here
chair
gordon i vote yes based on state
recommendations and consistent with
elevate las cruces
approval 5-0 thank you
all right then now i need a motion on
the item 8.3 which is the preliminary
plot uh yeah commissioner i'll move for
approval of 8.3
a second
board member guerrero
yes based on
the same reasons for the previous vote
for member vega
vote yes based on staff recommendation
board member smith
oh yes based on staff recommendation
board member kaiser
yes based on staff recommendation and
once again encourage staff to work with
the applicant on the issues raised here
chair gordon
i vote yes based on
staff recommendation
[Music]
uh
approval 5-0 thank you
all right then that takes care of all
the items on the agenda we are now
looking at
uh
did anybody on the commission have any
comments this evening
if not how about staff announcements
thank you mr chairman and commissioner
larry nichols for the record
i just have one comment to make it's
really
an upcoming notice for you
there's going to be a presentation on
the
re to the city council on the recent
census that was taken it'll be a census
report and uh if you can we'll make sure
that you get the dates for that so that
you can listen for that
reason being is a lot of information
that census has a direct bearing on
items that come before the commission
here in the planning
and i think it's a very interesting some
of the metrics that we found in there
that's all mr chairman
all right then i'd like to get a motion
to adjourn it is now
i guess quarter tonight
make a motion to join
i will second that
we will join thank you
you