that takes care of the election of
officers and now we had i need to have a
motion to approve the minutes from the
last meeting
i make a motion that we approve the
minutes from the last meeting
commissioner smith that second
becky please
boar member smith
yes former niece
yes former bennett yes four member vega
hey abstain i wasn't able to call in
thank you boar member kaiser
i abstain as well i was not present
thank you
chairman gordon yes thank you
all right that takes care of the minutes
the next item on the agenda is public
participation
i underst i understand this evening we
only have one person who wishes to speak
but she's going to do it via a
telephone
um we're making a specialist exception
in that case
so if miss stol miss sprole is on
can you hear me
yes sir i can i'm here
all right
before you speak and i swear you in
please yes
do you swear affirm that the testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
anything but the truth under penalty of
law yes i do
all right go ahead you have two minutes
okay to the best of my knowledge my
comments will briefly supplement the
resident objection for the public record
of david 124 222
in the record and i understand hard copy
for each of the commissioners to read
and review
under cover of darkness at nighttime
this past week is a huge shock the next
morning multi-story tall high-voltage
infrastructure towers appeared in my
older neighborhood of sierra bonita and
the initial metro verde this older
neighborhood is connected by adjacent
sides of ingler road this older
neighborhood also appears from the
subject property map for tonight's
notice of public hearing
as within a mile or so of proposed new
houses
a mile or so of the proposed new houses
as i understand this is pursuant to the
plan and ongoing development
this does so to the residents of my
neighborhood
operate de facto as privileging the new
and sacrificing the old
these high voltage high towers run
through the neighborhood where i live in
striking distance of vehicular accident
on ingler road as well as virtually on
top
of the angler adjacent residential
footpath used by the neighborhood for
jogging and walking we have so many
unknowns for this as my more
extensive
objection for the record establishes
and we just don't know the level of
current high voltage rating or potential
future upgrades
we don't know as this dangerous type of
infrastructure
continues to be installed without notice
we just don't know what new high-risk
thing will be added tomorrow by el paso
electric apparently by fiat without the
city having put this through the
planning and zoning process that is what
i've been told by by phone and what's
been indicated to me in writing by
representatives for the city
this midday using giant equipment
within view of my windows and yards some
wires were strung along at least some of
the high towers visible from my house
more tomorrow more next week
more the next month next year
to put it in a planning and zoning
analogy it's like a private company
holding a questionably obtained 20-story
variance kept secret from the public
while claiming that today's project is
simply a two-story building and that's
all there ever be we have no reason to
attribute
uh entire candor to el paso electric
excuse me about two and a half years ago
miss miss bro excuse me
you're more than your two minutes
i'm very sympathetic to your problem but
you have to understand that the planning
and zoning commission is not the place
for you to bring this
what i suggest you do apparently your
your concern is with el paso electric
and perhaps maybe the construction of
what's going on out there
um they've been notified but essentially
uh it's going on in the city of el paso
and the regulatory the public regulation
commission that i've requested
information from uh has indicated that
that would never be a permit from them
and the city has told me representatives
of the city ma'am i hate to interrupt
you but you've had you've had your two
minutes i'm trying to explain to you
that this is not the venue for you to
bring this up uh what i suggest that you
do is just contact your your
councilwoman and perhaps
uh the city and and speak to them
directly about this problem
i'm sorry but it is a nice side shuffle
and we're looking into it and don't know
about the permit man ma'am that's enough
i can't i can't let you speak any longer
i'm very sorry but i have to stop you
from talking
thank you very much for your
participation but there's nothing that
we can do for you i'm very sorry
is there anybody else who wishes to
speak on any item that's not on the
agenda this evening
sir do you wish to speak
i would like to speak yes sir sure come
to the company microphone
if you could please state your name and
listen yes sir my name is doug cowan i
live in the uh
uh metro verde uh subdivision
and uh we uh uh i'm very concerned i
uh there's there's hundreds of homes
going up and obviously in this packet
today
we see that there's going to be some
more
development in that area
uh substantial
and so no i was promised two years ago
by the developer
at a meeting like this he caught me
before the meeting started and he gave
me his word
that the sonoma ranch would be completed
four lanes
angler road will be completed four lanes
prior to a single house being built
in addition to the original
metro verde subdivision
hundreds of houses have been built since
then
we have a makeshift roundabout that is
extremely dangerous i don't know how
many of you have been out there
at night but it is extremely dangerous
and
there's no lighting out there
the roundabout is put in with
makeshift cones it's a single lane it's
black asphalt without any striping
and again it's extremely dangerous i
feel like
i don't i would i would hate to stifle
growth we want to see that growth out
there it's good for everybody
but i feel like we need the
infrastructure
way before we need any more houses out
there and so before any of this gets
approved
i feel like we need to get that
infrastructure
in and without any further delays
it narrows down extremely narrow at the
tank there on sonoma ranch just
north of
and and it and it's dark it's dangerous
and it's incomplete
you have four wheelers and
you don't want to interrupt you but i
can't allow you to continue you've had
your time i'm sorry i still
show 18 seconds left okay i'm sorry i
don't have the clock in front of me go
ahead and so there's off-road vehicles
that are
out and about out there at night they
come off the dirt onto the road into
traffic i just like to express my
concern about safety
i think your point is well taken
uh
we'll direct it to the proper department
is there anyone else that needs to speak
all right that takes care of them public
participation
now we have the the next item on the
agenda is item 6.1
which is the realized las cruces
development code update and our outside
consultants are here
if they'd like to come and speak
please come to the microphone
good evening commissioners my name is
erica craycraft with freeze and nichols
and i am joining you this evening to
give you a midpoint update on the
development code update process
some introductions i mentioned my name
is erica craycraft and i'm with a firm
called frieza nichols and we are leading
the update process also joining me this
evening is the assistant project manager
don work local engineer karen perez
and fred lopez and
from quantum engineering based out of el
paso we also have on our team a local
attorney dana kyle who is helping us
with legal review throughout the process
so looking at our agenda for this
evening i'd like to start with a
reminder of the update process overview
next i'd like to share some highlights
from what we've been working on so far
on the first two chapters which are
general provisions and subdivision
regulations
and then lastly i'd be happy to answer
any questions that you may have
our overall purpose again though is just
to provide a status update on the
progress so far
so starting with a reminder of the
process overview you can see the items
that we are covering within the code
update scope here
while we're covering all of these
sections the major focus is on the items
that you see on the left side that's the
zoning regulation zoning map subdivision
regulations design standards drainage
and flood control and the signs
our overall process is expected to be
about a 24-month process and it is
broken into three different phases
the first phase was about the
first six months or so of the process
and that's what we've called a
diagnostic evaluation and during that
time we
reviewed your existing plans that you
had in place we conducted a lot of
interviews with your city staff and
local development community other
stakeholders within the community
and reviewed the
existing code that is in place today
and at the end of that six-month process
we assembled a diagnostic code
diagnostic
report or a memo
that outlines all of the issues that we
heard or that we identified in our
review
and with each one of those issues we had
a proposed solution that went along with
that so we brought that to the planning
and zoning commission and city council
back in august and gave a presentation
on that that some of you may remember
and got initial direction to proceed
with with that as our game plan as we
started into the next phase so
again looking more at that phase one
what went into that first six months you
have several plans that the city has
adopted recently that set the policy
for moving forward and those had very
extensive community engagement efforts
one of those being primarily the elevate
las cruces comprehensive plan
also several others like the active
transportation plan the parks master
plan various neighborhood blueprint
plans all of those are being pulled
forward into this code update and
implemented within the development code
i mentioned also during phase one we
conducted code user interviews with all
of the different groups that you see
listed here on the screen
the idea of meeting with them in the
beginning was to collect
information from them about what works
well what doesn't work so well what
would they like to see addressed through
the code update
so we met with these folks back in may
and we plan to meet with them again to
get input from them
in the fall once we have a complete
draft that is ready for review and
feedback from
the users
in addition to the
interviews that we conducted with the
people who most frequently use the code
we also wanted to allow for some
additional input from the community as a
whole so
we conducted the first of two open
houses and while we would have loved for
this to have been an in-person event it
did have to go virtual
but on the upside instead of it being a
one or two day event it's able to stay
active and online we started it in may
and it's still available now
at realize las cruces dot com
and you see a preview of that here where
anyone can get onto the website
and share a comment and so whenever you
get on you can see all of the previous
comments that came before yours and you
can even respond to previous comments or
like and dislike
to allow some type of engagement between
different folks who are participating
so this is what we launched back in may
and we hope to have an in-person open
house again
this fall whenever there is a draft code
available to respond to so that is a
summary of phase one so we are currently
in phase two which is actually
developing
the draft code and eventually a zoning
map and we're about a third of the way
through the phase two process
i'll tell you a little bit more about
the drafting process in a second but
just to wrap up here with phase three
we expect that to be about a six-month
process where through that entire period
we have a complete draft code document
that's ready for review
and refinement where we will go back
again to that list of the code users go
to the open house and get as much input
as we can and work on refining that
draft before we would be bringing it to
planning and zoning commission and city
council eventually for adoption
consideration
so backing up to phase two which is
where we currently are you see on the
right side there a list of the
main chapters of the code and we work
through those one chapter at a time
so our consulting team we draft that
section or chapter
we send that to city staff and ask them
to review it they distribute it across
several different departments whatever
is most applicable to that particular
section
and we revise this section based on
their comments their reviews have been
tremendously helpful they've had to
invest a lot of time and effort in these
reviews but it has been very helpful to
us to sort of knock off the rough edges
and make sure that we are reflecting
best practices and current practices
here in the city today and they have a
solid understanding of a lot of the
issues that affect the community today
so once we get their input we revise
each one of those sections and then it
will become available
for
council and planning and zoning
commission review as well as public
review once we have gotten through that
city staff review process
so as i mentioned
we're working through these sections or
chapters at a time and our first two
that we've been working on first was
general provisions
and the second was subdivision
regulation so those are the first two
chapters that you'll see rolling out
here soon
and we'll be continuing the process
working with staff on the remaining
chapters as we move along
so as i mentioned the first of those
chapters is the general provisions
chapter
and i'd like to give you just an
overview of what we have been working on
some highlights and things that we
thought you might find interesting to
give you an idea of what goes into each
of these different chapters
so chapter one general provisions is
mainly a sort of housekeeping chapter
that
establishes the title for the
development code and
also universal procedures about how do
appeals work or how does a code
amendment happen so all of those are
in one place and also the approval and
appeal entities that comes in the form
of a table that really
simply tells you what what application
type are you trying to
pursue and who is responsible for
reviewing that recommending it approving
it who hears the appeals so it's all in
a table and much easier to understand
so within that general provisions
chapter
we are able to select an effective date
so when does the
code actually go into effect and
sometimes that is exactly
the
the day that the code is adopted it's in
effect right then but
we recommend using a transition period
of
six months is what we've recommended
sometimes it's more sometimes it's less
but this is a transitional period that
would let an applicant decide which code
they wanted to adopt or they wanted to
apply under which regulations to follow
whether it's the one
in place today or the new one that the
city will be adopting
and what this does is it allows for
time for any corrections that may need
to be made if there's any practical
implementation issues that may arise
from the new code then that would allow
a six month period where we're able to
make any final tweaks before that code
is fully in place
next on the review timelines this refers
to determination of completeness for a
complete application so how long does
city staff have to be sure that all of
the items that are required for
submittal actually got submitted
the current code doesn't address this at
all for
any zoning related applications and the
requirement for
plats is eight hours which is
not a feasible timeline and not
something that we have seen in any other
city at all
so what we have proposed is defining
the actual review time how long it
actually does take them to review the
applications both for plats and then
also establishing
that review timeline for zoning that
doesn't exist at all and the point of
this is to make sure that applicants
have a reasonable expectation and
consistency on how long they can expect
the review to take
next is consolidating repeat sections
this one's pretty simple but the way
that your code reads right now there's a
lot of information that's repeated over
and over throughout different chapters
and so we've consolidated a lot of that
information for example i mentioned the
appeals section or
the notification sections instead of
having that repeated in every chapter
we've moved that once into general
provisions and just reference that
section throughout the chapters
but just wanted to point that out
because once you see the drafts
in case there was any concern about
where something went it didn't get
deleted it was just consolidated
so next moving on to the subdivision
regulations
the four sections that we have here
it has its own general provisions
housekeeping regulations that
correspond specifically to the
subdivision process it outlines the
different plat and plan types
so you know what the difference is
between the different processes and when
you would use each one
adequate public facilities refers to the
requirement to install public
infrastructure that would serve a
subdivision
and then lastly specifically the
subdivision procedures
so some of the items that we thought
that
we should bring to your attention one
thing is we have proposed a new planning
process that we've called the minor
planning process
the point of this new process is to help
streamline the
review process and plan approval process
so if a development just wants to plot
and there is
no public infrastructure that would be
required they could go ahead and bypass
the preliminary plot and move directly
to the final plot so that would help
save the applicants a step if there is
no public infrastructure being installed
next is related to the public hearings
that typically accommodate
plats and
the purpose of this proposed revision is
to accommodate state law requirements
so state law require excuse me state law
allows applicants to re waive their
required public hearing related to a
plat
your current code requires that the
public hearing happen so we recommended
amending the code to reflect state law
saying that they are allowed to waive it
if they would like
but wanted to point out that this is
specific only to plat so preliminary and
final plats
there would not be a required public
hearing
if the applicant chose to waive it but
it would still be required for master
plans
next and similarly
reflecting state law
the current code requires that the
applicant be present
at the meeting whenever a plan is being
considered
state law requires that the city
act on a plat either approve or deny the
plot within 35 days
so that can be a challenge if the
applicant doesn't show up to the meeting
either you're forced to approve it
without them or you're forced to
deny it
but even if they meet all of the
requirements for the subdivision so that
can be a potential legal issue and to
address that we would recommend
removing that requirement that they
physically attend the meeting again just
for preliminary and final plots but not
for the master plans so we could still
require the applicant to attend a master
plan meeting
next is performance security and this
refers to
a financial guarantee that a developer
will install all of the required public
infrastructure that they are required to
install
so if the city allows a developer to go
ahead and file a final plot
and start selling lots but then they
don't finish the
roads that they are required to build
for example and they
go out of business or leave town or just
lost interest in the subdivision or
whatever happens if they don't complete
their
commitment to installing that
infrastructure
this is the financial guarantee that
they give to the city where the city can
call that bond
and cash in that amount so
the city would have the funds in order
to install that infrastructure for them
so the the code currently already
requires this but it's a little bit
vague about the amount
that that bond has to be for it just
says that the amount should cover the
city's cost
and so most codes that we see it
specifically defines what that amount is
and we have recommended considering 110
of the cost of the improvements and
the extra 10 percent is because the the
city will have some level of
administrative costs uh the city is not
typically a developer so it's a little
bit more of a burden for the city to
install this infrastructure than what it
would be typically for developer
also accounting for things like
inflation over time so this is not
necessarily a new standard it's just
specifically stating what that amount is
and i believe lastly is substantial
completion there's a policy already in
place today that this is reflecting this
is just including it into the code so it
could actually be
more enforceable but the purpose of the
substantial completion policy
is to allow a
an applicant
and developer builder whenever they are
developing their site and they want to
start building their houses but they
haven't finished some of the final punch
list items in the subdivision this can
allow them to get the building permit as
they're doing things like finishing the
traffic signs or striping the roads
this does not include things like if the
infrastructure's incomplete
that does not qualify for substantial
completion it's only for
minor items like i mentioned like the
signs and so if a builder wanted to
request
the building permits that is something
that could be approved by
both the public works and community
development directors to allow them to
start pulling building permits but does
not allow anyone to actually occupy
those structures
so
next before we get into some questions i
wanted to quickly address a couple of
frequently asked questions
that we have been hearing through the
process
the first one is
why aren't all of the code users and all
of the stakeholders and the public in
general
as involved in phase two and we've heard
some concerns from the code users and
stakeholders and public in general
about how they could be more involved
there were some questions about if
there's going to be
a separate committee
that is not something that that i can
speak to our our current approach is
that
we are using the existing plans as the
foundation for the code update like i
mentioned the
elevate plan and
the active transportation plan
and the parks master plan etc
working through this phase two as i
mentioned we're working very closely
with city staff and they have a very
strong understanding of what a lot of
the local issues are on all different
sides and from all different
perspectives within the community so
they have been very helpful and continue
to be very helpful throughout this phase
two middle process
also what we're following is a very
typical process where we are getting a
lot of input in the beginning and toward
the end and working
with staff really rolling up their
sleeves through the the middle part
and again everyone's involvement is very
critical once we get to phase three when
there is a draft that's available to
respond to we would love to have
everyone provide their their thoughts
on the draft and be back at that time
next is why is this process different
from the elevate las cruces
comprehensive plan process that was very
inclusive
so comprehensive plans and development
codes
are very different documents
plans are
visionary long-range documents they're
setting public policy
and
for that reason they have extensive
community engagement where you try to
get
every member of the community involved
as much as you can to set that vision
so once that vision and those
recommendations are adopted that becomes
the city's policy
what we're doing in the development code
is pulling that forward and so we
understand that this is the city policy
that's been adopted by city council so
we are pulling that forward as much as
we can or as much as appropriate within
the development code
so again we are just implementing the
plans that were
created before
and again as i mentioned we do have
public involvement that's included as
well mainly at the beginning and toward
the end whenever there is a draft that's
available
next why aren't draft documents
available yet
the diagnostic report is available on
the website currently if anyone would
like to go see that
again that is realize las cruces dot com
and as far as the development code
drafts
they aren't available yet because they
are still being prepared as i mentioned
phase two is a
12 month long process it's a very heavy
lift to draft all of this content and
also for
staff's time to to be able to review it
so we are still working on getting that
prepared but it will be available on the
website realizelastcruises.com
as those sections are available so as i
mentioned the first two sections are
general provisions and subdivision
regulations and you can expect to see
those
available on the website
within
general provisions within a few weeks
and subdivision regulations
in probably a month or so
so those will be available on the
website
and also when can others provide input
others being anyone outside of city
staff since that's who we're primarily
working with
we ask that folks stay tuned for the
fall once we have a complete draft
that will be rolling out on the website
in the meantime as i mentioned drafts
will be available
but then in the fall is when we'll be
reaching out to the community very
proactively again
encouraging everyone to take a look at
the drafts and watch
some of the informational videos that
will come along with them to get an
understanding of what is in the code
also in the meantime i mentioned the
virtual open house it is still live
that's the
colored comments that you saw on the
screen there where you can see other
people's comments and respond to
previous comments
but in the meantime at this time we do
not have any other stakeholder meetings
planned in the meantime and when i say
stakeholder meetings that's any
code users or citizen committees or any
other group planned in the meantime the
meetings right now are
with city staff and planning and zoning
commission and city council
so um that that covers my presentation
i'd be happy to answer any questions or
take any comments that you may have
thank you
well thank you ms krakow that was a very
nice presentation i think you've covered
what you've done so far
uh but just briefly before i go to the
commission here if they have questions
the gentleman who spoke at the podium
earlier
perhaps uh this performance security
would answer your problem
it looks like the if without these codes
they'll be a hundred and 110 percent put
in to make sure that all the
infrastructure is done
i know you're shaking your head but
we'll have to see
i'm hoping that we can get this done as
quickly as possible i can't do anything
about it right now but we can talk to
the developers and we can try to
try to get things done but you know just
very difficult but perhaps maybe in the
future we'll be able to solve that
problem but i understand your concerns
all right do we have any questions from
the commission
commissioner vega
um just out of curiosity how do you come
up with 110 percent or is that a
standard across
it's a frequently used amount sometimes
it's exactly a hundred percent
but cities go into that knowing that
it's going to cost them more than 100
typically to install that infrastructure
some do 120 or even more but that's
something that we could look at and
as we are working through the drafts
items that we think could be
items of interest such as that we can
keep highlighted in the document and add
comment notes with it along
along with it to help people understand
that that's something that could be
modified as we work through it
thank you
anyone else
all right
commissioner kaiser
thank you for this presentation it's
been very uh insightful as
as the newest member of the commission
uh i can attest that the uh the binder
that i received last week was was very
large so i look forward to more
streamlining code
um i was hoping if you can go back to
the slide that had the stakeholders
listed
so i and you kind of answer partially
answered my question
later in the presentation but you talked
about
how not all stakeholders are being
engaged because city staff knows many of
the issues
but when i look at this list i see a lot
of
certain stakeholders and a lack of of
other stakeholders particularly the
development community
is heavily listed here
um so i'm just curious how this
particular list was decided
uh versus leaving some others off and i
can name specific ones
like
members of the the bicycle community
pedestrian safety around town so i'm
just wondering if you could speak that
to that a little bit more
sure
and this list represents
the folks who um participated in the
interviews there there were several
other groups that were invited to
participate that
were not able to join us
i'm not sure that a bicycle group
necessarily was included on this um
everyone is invited to i see catherine's
nodding um yes that they were likely
invited to attend but were not able to
join us
um so there were several others that we
extended the invitation to but
of course everyone's able to participate
through
the online open house but also in
relation to the bicycle community
involving the
active transportation plan and elevate
includes a lot of strong recommendations
regarding multimodal and bike
infrastructure that we are certainly
pulling forward
so although they may not have been
represented in the actual interviews um
considerations for
the bike network have been included
thank you
anyone else
all right i'd like to just say something
uh i watched the
city council meeting yesterday the
workshop rather
as i do all the time and it was
apparently a very spirited discussion
that took a couple hours to review this
and a lot of the things that were
discussed were very interesting
but my concern when i look at the
at the chart as to when things are going
to be done it looks like that the
planning and zoning commission will not
have any chance to do any input on this
until june of this year
you know considering the fact that we
have to deal with the zoning codes and
and everything every time we have a
meeting
i'm sure a lot of us have questions and
things that we'd like to see in here and
apparently we're not going to get a
chance to do this until june at the
workshop
i don't know how it can change that we
can have some input
but i think it would be important for
for some of us who have concerns to be
able to
to correspond directly with with you at
frieza nichols and
to be able to
uh ask or have some input or some of our
concerns so that you can look at them
and see whether or not it fits into what
you know your plans are because it is
very difficult there's a lot of things
that come up that we're not very happy
with they're archaic
they're old or problems that came up
with people who lived in a county now
live in the city
all these things are come up all the
time and we would very much like to be
able to have
some input
before we get to the point where perhaps
we're just going to sit at a city
council meeting
and
we'll be able to ask questions and then
at that point anything that we come up
with is not going to be determined again
until october so it's going to be quite
a ways before we have a chance to say
anything and i'm just hoping that some
ways along the line will have an
opportunity to do some input but other
than that i thank you very much for your
presentation it's very helpful to see
where we are at this point and i wish
you luck and getting everything else
done in a timely fashion
so with that thank you very much
mr chair for me
certainly
larry nichols community development for
the record
the presentation made this evening to
the commission and to the
public audience that's in attendance
uh is basically it's on the process and
the progress of what has happened up to
this point
we have mentioned that this is going to
be
a nearly a two-year endeavor
but the
the consultant working with staff
needs to put information together for
the
various reviewing agencies to have an
opportunity to see
where the inconsistencies the
redundancies
and some of the other problematic areas
of the existing code
are being updated our current code is a
2003 edition
so you can well imagine how things have
changed
in terms of development during this this
last 19 years nearly
the
there will be ample opportunity for
the commission to review and see what
work has been
accomplished from the consultant from
the staff
we won't be taking this to final
approval
until the very end
so i hope
you'll have some assurance that we will
give you ample opportunity
to help
help us developing this new new coat
thank you mr chairman
all right thank you very much we
appreciate what you've done thank you
have a safe trip
thank you
all
at right point
we have some administrative details to
do but first there are no postponements
but before we get into the agenda we
have to do some
changes we have to reorganize the agenda
first
i think perhaps i'd like to redo the
agenda by taking care of that first
before we get into the consent
first i would like to do
item i'd like to commission i think i
needed i need a
a motion to take item 10.1
and postpone that until a date certain
february 22nd
because the fact that staff has not had
the opportunity to have complete data to
to uh make this a presentation
and for us to make a decision
i make a motion to move item 10.1 to
february twenty second
i second
goal member smith
yes foreign
yes boar member bennett yes for member
vega yes board member kaiser yes
chairman gordon
yes thank you
all right the next
change i'd like to make to reorder the
agenda is to take
item 9.1 which is a 10 which is a
hickory drive special use permit
and place that before the 2700 north
main zone
change
and leaving the metroverted item 10.2
the first item of our new business
after we take care of the consent
everybody understand what i want to do
all right then i need a vote
i need a motion
i need a motion i'm sorry
commissioner smith that motion that we
move
the hickory drive
permit request to second in the agenda
i'll second
board member smith
yes former bernice
yes former member bennett yes former
vega yes former kaiser yes
chairman gordon
yes thank you
right now that we've taken care of that
administrative detail
we can
go we can go to the consent agenda
is there any do i have a motion to
approve the consent agenda is there
anybody here first who likes to speak on
the consent agenda
all right then i need a motion to
approve
i make a motion to approve the consent
agenda
a second
board member smith
yes
foreign yes board member bennett yes
board member vega yes former kaiser yes
chairman gordon
yes thank you i thank you
all right then we'll move to uh new
business
which is item 10.1 on the agenda
i'm sorry which is item 10.2 on the
agenda memo
metro verdi plan unit development
item
mr bonavento
okay
mr chairman vincent banegas interim
planner for the record
uh this case before you this evening is
the metro bear the consolidated 12-year
pud
concept plan amendment to mouthful to
say the least
it's case 210250015
so for those of you who may not be
familiar with the concept of planned
unit developments i thought a couple of
slides might be in order and i'll be
quick
the planned unit development process is
similar to our standard
development process
and it basically consists of three steps
the traditional and the pud process are
three-step processes
you have a master plan under the
traditional that kind of looks at things
at a much larger scale you have
land use of course densities intensities
major transportation
network
you have conceptual
drainage and utilities considered along
the way
its companion in the pud realm is called
a concept plan it's the concept plan
that we're going to talk about tonight
and a consolidated one at that
step two in the traditional is a
preliminary plant
it's called a final site plan in the pud
realm
and then step three they're the same
it's final plan
so
puds
basically have to comply with our growth
management policy of course
in several of the plans that we have
online
and one that we really point to is of
course the elevate las cruces
comprehensive plan
puds also afford the developer greater
flexibility in terms of design of the
proposed development
certainly in terms of land use density
they can define architectural
styles
to help help allocate open space
building arrangements things of that
nature
and
as part of this process we have to
investigate
opportunities to provide the developer
incentives in which to do the things
that we seek
pursuant to code
but we also have to obtain a community
benefit because if we're going to give
something we need something in return
for the community to to balance things
out
i touched on the key elements of the
concept plan again land use density
intensity etc but it
also looks at phasing
phasing is another element of
consideration with
with concept plans and there's certainly
other elements that can be included
the concept plan is the foundation by
which the developer proceeds with their
development proposal and they in essence
can write a zoning code of their own as
part of the the process
they can define how land uses will
interact with one another how tall
structures can be etc
so the current conditions related to
this case all the land that is under
consideration within the boundaries of
metro verde
come from the sierra north annexation
one and two
that took place in 2006
and that followed the
the systematic process of annexation
petition submitting a master plan and
then receiving initial zoning
and that's what land the developer
originally had to deal with
in 2008 part of that
development sierra norte
began to go under the pud
regime
and
we since started seeing other
uh concept plans some medals as well as
amendments
so at this point in time there's
arguably two concept plans in the works
for metro verde one is metro ver the
original and one is metrovar the south
there are some key amendments associated
with each
and so all told there's there's
basically four key documents and by
which staff looks at reviews
as it relates to processing development
requests
so all told there's five amendments some
of these are minor amendments in in
terms of our zoning code we talk about
major amendments and minor amendments
major amendments come here
ultimately go in front of city council
as well minor are administrative and
typically are the small meat and potato
type issues that staff can take care of
and
there have been some of those along the
way
the total acreage
as the present boundary dictates is 1823
1 823 acres
but with the proposal this evening
there's an additional
set amount of acreage 300 to be exact
that rises that total acreage up to 2123
there's approximately 25 percent
of the total acreage and that that
number is is flexible it's kind of
looking at the aerial to determine
what's under development presently or
what's certainly on its way to becoming
development are developed
but the vast majority of the acreage is
undeveloped as as we speak
so some of the key strategies that were
outlined in metro verde the original pud
have been carried forward there's it's
not like they
developed
separate amendment documents that
completely rewrote the rules they
carried forward the strategies that were
originally laid out
and that was seen of course when they
introduced metro verily south
and again with the companion amendments
we have what we have today
so provisions at this point in time
include mixed land use concepts
compact building design and development
a range of housing choices and
opportunities we have affordable housing
targets that are identified walkable
neighborhoods are an element being
considered
provisions for active and passive
recreation
multimodal transportation that
de-emphasizes pedestrian i'm sorry
automotive uh
methods of transportation
and ped safety through design
so where is this
pud
um i thought the aerial although it's
you know it's definitely showing a lot
of vacant land in the area
is bounded by the area in red
you have dragonfly on the northern most
part that's the city limit boundary on
the north uh dragonfly dragonfly lane
you have the city limits along the
western edge
you have basically angler thurman
as it's still known
mostly along the southern edge it
traverses up the city limit boundary
between existing county development
up to peachtree hills road
goes back along city limit
a portion of city limit boundaries here
up to a royal road
a royal road out
and then eventually we get back to
dragonfly so this area in its entirety
is under consideration this evening
the
zoning map
is uh i know it's it's the graphic is a
little hard to interpret it's hard to
get
2100 acres on a map
without getting a lot of clustering of
labels
but as you as you would know and expect
most of the zoning in the boundary of
tonight's concept plan consideration
is pud pud is a zoning designation in
our current 2001
las cruces zoning code as amended
that area the 300 acres that i
referenced
earlier is still under the
previous or i should say the original or
initial zoning that came forth with the
annexation process
and in there you have commercial you
have single-family residential a little
bit of multi-family and
and
manufacturing
identified
so that will become part of metro verde
if
this body sees fit
to include it and then ultimately before
city council if they choose to approve
it
the areas outside
metro verde it's a mixture of zones
anything and everything from commercial
and a little bit of office to single
family there's actually quite a bit of
single family
certainly along the south
eastern corner of the development
and
up
further east and a little north of that
area that i pointed this is horn now the
north just to orient you and then you
have a real mix of land uses taking
place here a lot of commercial activity
and again some manufacturing
and some single family as well
so the proposal this evening uh in terms
of why it's being brought forward is to
consolidate the metro verde and the
metro verde south pod concept plans and
of course their associated amendments
we're trying to put it under one
umbrella instead of the multiple
documents that currently exist
and we're also affording the developer
to update and or modify related
development pod development strategies
that are deemed prudent not only by
mr moscato but by staff
as an example of that
we are no longer taking into
consideration a concept that was
proposed
called the neighborhood mixed use
corridor or enmock as we referred to it
in in-house
but he is substituting that
in certain areas of his pud with a
neighborhood mixed-use node
and he's looking or pointing to
policy that currently exists in our
elevate
comprehensive plan
and the forthcoming rewrite of our
development code as a means to further
implement those concepts in those key
areas which is a positive thing from
steph's perspective
he's also updating some of the
transportation related matters that have
taken place changes that have occurred
some of those
some of which are tied to the voluntary
assessment district or vad
which was approved as i understand in
and as i indicated there's 300 acres
that that finger that sits out there on
the east side is going to be rolled into
the boundary and so that's that's one of
the elements uh under consideration
so how is he going to achieve this well
from a land use tabulation perspective
or the types of land uses
he's got them listed here in terms of
all the categories that pertain
within the pud
but you can see that he's providing us
the currently approved acreage
per
zoning category i call them zones they
could be planning areas if you wish
but he's got them listed some are split
zones some are individual zones but he's
got the acreages all identified
and the current percentages that pertain
to each of those
acreage categories in context to the
total
and then what the 12-year update uh
looks like how it changes and there are
some changes uh certainly not gonna
try and deceive you in in that aspect at
all there are some changes because
there's some transition issues in terms
of zones and land uses the staff is
trying to achieve
that may have been a little bit more
abrupt
in in the earlier documents
but this is kind of the tabulation of
acreage that i wanted to propose to you
i know it's not easy to read
but that's kind of the best i can do
given the context of of the graphic
these are all the zones that were on
that table in some form or fashion
i don't want to hit them all but
u3 for instance is what i consider to be
kind of the r1a
zoning
for this pud
it's a suburban
[Music]
category it allows single-family units
either attached or detached and allows
casitas accessory buildings and duplexes
on corner lots when the corner lots are
designed appropriately to
to accommodate them that's part of the
the missing middle housing we've talked
about in the past on some of the cases
that's a component of that
and mr moscato is willing to introduce
that as a concept or element in this
proposal
u4 is general urban
primarily we kind of expand the
opportunity for housing by adding patio
homes condos apartments and kind of
retired or assisted living kind of
arrangements
casitas are still allowed as well as
accessory buildings
now we get into the u5a where we're
talking the mixed-use centers
i identified one of the changes that has
taken place and this mixed-use center is
an example
you're going to have mixed uses
obviously residential office lodging and
things of that sort
u5b is where you get more office
multi-family
retail components associated with it
you also have business parks civic uses
open space and so forth
parks and trails self-explanatory
the neighborhood mixed use node i've
touched on already
and then you have the village center
which is located further north
closer to the northernmost area of the
development where it's going to be like
the
urban center of the mixed use center
ultimately tying back to existing policy
and hopefully rewritten ordinance to
implement that policy
so just a few shots of photos just to
kind of give you an idea there are some
parks uh already being
uh put in place within the development
that's a park on i believe it's called
albion drive and red hawk golf club road
kind of some of the housing on the right
photo
located at cinema nerva and red hawk
golf club road i touched on the fact
that they're trying
different styles architecture design
and so a large part of that comes into
play
you can see some of the landscaping
being implemented along the parkway etc
this may very well be i certainly didn't
add it as a result of any of the input
but this might have been the roundabout
in question that was spoken to earlier
my purpose for showing it
is just to illustrate that uh you know
development is occurring growth is
occurring
pursuant to the adopted and approved
concept plans in place today
and they're not done
a lot of development
certainly for roadways and some of the
major roadways
follows the logic that's in place with
our development codes
in the subdivision code for example if
you have this kind of speaks to the
question
raised earlier if you have an arterial
collector or higher designated roadway
that's adjacent to your development
when you develop alongside of it you're
responsible for 50 percent
of the road improvements and the
right-of-way necessary to
to implement those improvements
if it's 100 within the boundary of your
development you're on the hook for the
whole thing
so that can speak to some of the issue
here may not speak to all of it
but certainly the developer can kind of
clarify what's going on what's taking
place and some of the timing for some of
these roads
i'm also of the understanding that
sonoma ranch peachtree hills at least in
part and red hawk golf club road were
part of that vad
the voluntary assessment district and
maybe that plays a part
in terms of what's been developed to
date
off to the right is metro park village
south of peachtree hills road you can
see some of the development
homes being built there as well
so in terms of the analysis
that took place staff certainly doesn't
find any health safety or welfare
related issues
associated with the proposal
we certainly indicated through this
presentation and through our reviews
that
the proposal this evening furthers the
concepts and strategies originally
proposed and they're being carried
forward
there may have been tweaks along the way
but they're not being
cast aside and something new and
different put in place the properties
within the suburban place type which is
characterized by moderate
density residential low density
residential
which is intermixed with some commercial
development i think in context to this
pud
that component is or that element if you
will is kind of being pushed a little
further which in my opinion is a good
thing because ultimately you've got a
lot of development
that is being proposed out there and
it'd be good to
accommodate the needs of the residents
out there by having office commercial
and
other related uses
so
the proposal was identified to align
with elevate las cruces comprehensive
plan and the companion plans
and also it is consistent with section
3849 of the
zoning code and section 3849 is the
section that talks about puds
so public notice input
suffice it to say there were
a lot of letters sent out
we
notified those
outside the boundary of the pud
and all property owners inside the
boundary of the pud so there were a lot
of letters that were sent out
and out of all of that
based on phone calls i received indoor
emails there were only two calls and
they were general inquiry
but again my information to these folks
were that
was that simply there was not
substantial change
there was some or was going to be some
change but it was going to carry forward
some of the policies and strategies that
they've already implemented so they were
happy with that
staff recommendation
is approval and it's based on the
following findings
that several major and minor amendments
have taken place within the metro verde
development
concept plans making implementation
problematic somewhat confusing at times
and consolidation certainly would play a
large part in cleaning that confusion up
it's generally compliant with section
3849 again the pud section of the code
and it addresses all the development
related issues found in 3849c
and those issues talk to land use
densities all those types of things
the proposal tries to balance the
incentives and benefits i talked about
that a little bit ago
and in terms of
the elevate specifically there are
numerous
goals policies and actions i think i
only listed goals and policies in your
case packets because if i included the
actions it would have been page's worth
quite literally
so there is substantial support with
with what's being proposed
and it speaks to issues such as mixed
land use housing variety street
connectivity multimodal style of
transportation
affordable housing
things of that nature in fact the
developer has introduced kind of a
phasing on affordable housing and
missing metal housing
that is introduced in the pud
affordable housing has been there but
he's now targeting locations
in general terms with numbers
goals if you will
to achieve that
on
the matter was taken before development
review committee
drc and drc unanimous unanimously
recommended approval
of the consolidated 12-year update to
the metro fair the pud concept plan
and they of course recommend up to you
and your options here this evening
are to vote yes
and approve
the
issue
vote no and deny if you deny it please
it will require some alternative or
alternate findings not presented by
staff
you can vote yes with conditions or vote
to table
and that mr chairman concludes staff's
presentation i'll be happy to answer any
questions you may have and mr moscato
our representative is in attendance
all right thank you
does mr moscato wish to make any
comments
[Applause]
all right
please state your name and let me swear
you in john moscato
do you swear affirmative the testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
nothing but the truth on the penalty of
law
yes i do thank you god john
good evening good evening commissioner
gordon and commissioners
just to clarify one of the points that
the speaker in the public
participation
section raised
regarding infrastructure
as
mr benegas just pointed out we have had
roughly 25
maybe a little less than 25 percent of
the property developed so far
if you look at the major infrastructure
though which is uh
much of sonoma ranch boulevard angler
road red hook golf road arroyo road most
of which were built as part of the
voluntary assessment district we've
constructed approximately 80 percent of
the major infrastructure so with less
than 25 percent
of the development we've provided
approximately 80 percent of the major
infrastructure
we've also built and dedicated to the
city handed over to the city
12 public parks
all of which were built
as people were beginning to move into
their homes so it wasn't the typical
situation that you have elsewhere in the
city where people move in they wait
years for parks we build the parks when
the development takes place
so we're actually trying to stay ahead
of
the curve in terms of infrastructure and
the last major infrastructure that i
think the
speaker earlier was referring to is what
we call sonoma ranch
mile one which is sonoma ranch boulevard
roughly from just south of england road
to peachtree hills road that's really
the only major
arterial
within the project
that one mile that hasn't been fully
built yet construction actually began on
that a couple of weeks ago actually
last week
and is scheduled to be ongoing until
it's completed later this year so that
will be the last
missing link in the major infrastructure
and that will provide two
fully built roundabouts one at sonoma
and engler one at sonoma and peachtree
hills road
with streetlights it'll be safe routes
to school with activity trails
uh parkways sidewalks
uh landscape medians everything fully
built out and and that's really uh
because of the cooperation we've had
with the city and the implementation of
the voluntary assessment district
so i hope that answers some of the
questions as far as where we are on
infrastructure what we've achieved so
far and what is
planned to be achieved in the near
future
all right thank you
members of the commission do you have
any questions that miss moscato
now when i have a couple of comments
quick questions first of all i wish we
had had this sooner than tonight to be
able to look at this
how many homes are going to be built in
here
approximately
seven to nine thousand just depending on
what the total density turns out to be
it's 2200 acres yeah
so it's actually medium density
uh
somewhere between three and a half and
four and a half units per acre
what type of commercial you think is
going to be in here
you know we have conversations with
commercial brokers all the time as far
as uh
when we're likely to be successful in
attracting commercial development
we actually had a meeting last week with
a couple commercial brokers and a
local architecture firm to put together
a presentation to try to make the area
more attractive really
what the main obstacle has been is with
any area you need the rooftops first so
we've been focusing on
residential development to have the
population base
there that would make commercial
developments successful so
when is it is a difficult question
if i had to guess i'd say we'll begin
seeing some within the next couple of
years we've already sold
three commercial parcels so the the
buyers of those parcels have uh
presented concept plans to us i believe
they presented concept plans in a
pre-application meeting at the city a
while back and we're hoping that
development along red hawk gulf road
gets underway we've had discussions with
several parties for commercial
development along sonoma ranch boulevard
you know we're adding
four to 500 homes per year
so
soon we'll we'll reach that threshold
where the number of rooftops the number
of total residents would be sufficient
to support commercial development
thank you when i have one other thing
that i noticed when i looked at the map
here
that there is only
other than coming in from angle road
that's right angle road and peach
tree hills road
there is only one those are the only two
ways into this community other than
coming off of the one way from
sonoma ranch
so it's basically only three ways to get
into this
is that correct
well
at the present time that's that's
correct there are
several options
uh in the long long-range planning
that the city has with with mpo
we have
the potential for arroyo road to be
extended westward to connect to
i-25 we have we are going to be
extending hornada road uh from where it
currently ends by mesa middle school up
into the development so that'll be a
parallel corridor with sonoma ranch
boulevard
peachtree hills road heading west will
connect to ranconato boulevard
eventually
so
all of those
options for alternative access
are
in the planning stages they're on the
books as far as mpo and long-range
transportation plans
not
much of it is under our control
but it's all scheduled to be built
at some point to be determined
all i can say is it looks to me like
there's going to be a tremendous amount
of traffic coming out on on sonoma ranch
boulevard
out of here this is just a tremendous
this is a very large project john this
is very big this is massive
anyway well and over the years we've
submitted to
city public works staff transportation
staff
a number of
traffic impact analyses
and traffic studies that have been
reviewed and approved so
all of those have been
taken into consideration in the various
approvals we've gone through over the
years and and they lay out the
alternative
access points that will be achieved
in the future
all right thank you now i would i guess
we have to
go to the public could you please raise
your hand how many people would like to
speak on this issue if any
i see one two
all right
i will give you three minutes each then
to speak the
person here on my left in row number
three
please come to the podium and state your
name and let me swear you in
my name is margo sykes
i live on
golly i forgot
on high plains road okay kids let me
swing you in please check
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 all right go ahead thank you
i would like to comment
especially about what you just spoke
about
the traffic coming in and out of sonoma
ranch is horrific
almost any time of day whether it's
residents
whether it's city workers
whether it's builders
or people going to school
and it is worth your life
to go through the existing roundabout
because everything that was put in place
which was minimal
when they opened it up
is gone
there's potholes it's a terri you're
lucky to make it through with your life
and i can attest that most people
traveling from the north on sonoma ranch
do not know what a circle is and how
you're supposed to behave there
so it is extremely dangerous
to the other point that you were just
talking about
is the um
my husband and i drove around the other
day
and you realize there is really only one
access point in
and out of that entire subdivision if
there was ever a catastrophe god forbid
there is no way to exit unless you have
an off the road vehicle to get out of
there
in a hurry
so i think these things need to be moved
up a little bit before we consider
building any more or thousands more
homes out there without the proper
infrastructure in place
thank you for your time
thank you man
i believe there's a person on this side
hi my name is santi phillips
and i live on santa sabina and metro
verde let me sway you in please do you
swear affirm that the testimony you're
about to give is the truth and nothing
but the truth on the penalty of law
thank you go ahead so first i want to
thank mr moscato
for the whole parks and
green
portion of our neighborhood
i get so nervous when i talk i don't
know why but anyway um
it is a big concern about the ingress
and egress with only one
so
i think that's i just want to emphasize
the importance of that
if that's all thank you very much just
further emphasize that thank you it's
pretty dangerous
we understand thank you spoke very well
thank you very much
is there anyone else
all right then i'll come back to the
commission does anybody have any
comments or questions
commissioner kaiser
thank you chairman uh i have a question
for staff so
we talk uh and you mentioned this in
your presentation and in your staff
report as well
about the
de-emphasizing automobile travel and
emphasizing safe pedestrian and bicycle
infrastructure
in this development but
when i look at the
design guidelines
i see very vague wording to that effect
and minimal wording
the only thing i see is
anything about roads states that streets
local streets will incorporate narrow
cross-section
but there's no definition as to what
narrow is
the active transportation plan
specifically identifies
uh a recommendation a policy
recommendation of 10 and a half what 10
and a half foot
travel lanes
uh to to basically build out
the environment that's safe for
pedestrian and cyclists uh mobility
so i guess my question is is can we be
more specific here
i mean we're stating our policy goals i
don't
it would be nice to see us be more
explicit and prescriptive about what we
actually want
mr chairman commissioner kaiser
i think we can
the concept plan as it
as it is presented today
what you received is two pages
out of a 20 page document
in that document there are some
road cross sections that are identified
and it does include
the elements not only on the automobile
side but on the pedestrian side walking
trails paths
obviously the sidewalks etc
but
some of those cross sections show a more
confined cross-section
to help slow traffic down
to increase safety of the ped
pedestrian
but there's also
elements in there that speak to
parking as shared parking
and reduce the parking demand and so the
idea there is particularly in the
neighborhood centers in the village
center et cetera
the idea there is to
require an element of a parking
that is unlike what you see in our
current 2001 zoning code so parking is
going to be a little tighter in those
areas and so that's by its very nature
intended to facilitate
bicycle pedestrian type of movement
but
the full 20-page document does
speak to some of those and also
it has the cross sections dimensions and
and the types of uses along the roadways
that that facilitate or speak to the
question at hand
thank you i think i just speak for
myself here but it would be nice to be
able to see those cross-sections
if i'm if i'm being asked to vote on it
um you know it would be nice to know
what i'm actually voting for
um and
you know i appreciate the effort that
staff's put forward in that regard um
you know we're talking about complete
streets it's it's in the it's in the
elevate las cruces comprehensive plan we
obviously have the active transportation
plan
um but i think my concern is that even
with all that it still doesn't seem to
translate into
into development
you know we had some folks speak to the
transportation the traffic issues and i
think
these kinds of things would go a long
way
in making roads safer for all users
including drivers
but particularly pedestrian cyclist
safety
that that's just going to benefit
everyone who lives there
and anyone who might visit
the
the development and so i think it would
be nice to see
those things specifically if i'm being
asked to
vote on it so i don't know how we move
forward
with that component tonight
you know i trust what you're saying but
i still i see sort of vague wording to
that effect here
and so just be nice to see some
specifics
mr chairman short of
showing the 20-page document
the only alternative other than that is
to either
postpone the case until such time as we
have a chance to discuss that in greater
detail in showing the concept plan
elements that speak to those issues
or
another alternative is just
to move forward as commissioner kaiser
indicated
trusting that some of the languages
in place to address some of those
concerns
well we had to look at this then in two
ways we have to i have to see whether or
not there's
a feeling of the commission as to
whether they'd like to postpone this to
a date certain
or
are we ready to vote
is it all right for me to get it is it
legal is it all right for me to get just
get a good sense of opinion as to what
our staff wants to do whether it make a
postponement or to vote
so my understanding the question is that
you want to determine if right now
if you have a consensus to
a consensus vote or
or postpone i don't understand could you
repeat the question okay my question is
is mr benegas has brought up the point
whether or not
we would like to postpone this to a date
certain
or
vote on it based on our feelings towards
what staff has presented
can we get a consensus from the from the
commission without voting
because once i asked the commission for
a vote to approve
that would be one thing and now
he's asking me also if we want to
postpone this
as long as the deliberations right now
are in public
we can have a discussion about uh
if whether or not you want to
postpone it or
whatever you want to do
all right then let me have my
commissioners to at least
commit to something as they'd like to
see done
becky maybe you can just poll the
commissioners
more member smith
yeah i i echo uh commissioner kaiser
some of his concerns i mean he he spoke
in much more detail than
i am right now but um you know i also
share the same concerns about
the amount of traffic
based on the
proposed development of i would say
seven to nine thousand
uh
units there without the infrastructure
in place
you know i you know as the city has
grown and we've seen the development in
in this normal range area um the houses
are going up much faster than
infrastructure has been to to uh you
know to handle it um you know we they're
putting in traffic circles and you know
we're not europe they've had traffic
circles for hundreds and hundreds of
years
and we've never had them except for the
ones that you know we just recently you
know uh installed downtown
and you know we i i hate to say it but
as americans you know we're selfish
drivers you know we're always in a hurry
we don't want to stop at a stop light
let alone stop at a traffic circle and
yield to another driver
and
unless that structure that
infrastructure has put in that road
infrastructure is installed
along with the development of these
homes
i share the concerns of people in the
neighborhood with the traffic because
they're already
experiencing it
the problems with speed the problems
with
just the danger of just
you know driving normally
we have a lot of retirees that have
bought homes there
and
you know they they they don't want to
live in a high pace high driving
high speed area so
my initial thoughts
that i feel right now is that we that we
postpone until we can get more
detailed information about how the road
infrastructure is going to be
implemented along with for for the
safety of drivers
pedestrians and and also cyclists
board member niece
i understand
[Music]
the concept plan amendment
but i also feel the quality of homes i
don't know
by the pictures that we were shown this
evening
i'd have considered those quality homes
i considered these
future slum areas
they're small they're cheaply looking
built
the architectural designs are very
simple and plain
and i feel as if we're going to grow
and i know the traffic concerns but
that's part of redevelopment and and
growth we just have to plan the streets
correctly and
like you said stop signals but we need
to also look at quality
and i think
quality is very very important
when the builders come in
i've been looking at other developments
in other states
and i see more quality i see more
different architectural designs and
ideas
and i'd like for las cruces to become
more
particular on what builders are
presenting to us
but i understand this this
amendment and i
have to say yes
board member bennett
um i i have uh i have concerns with with
um the infrastructure as well and um and
i and i would like to see the full uh
plan instead of this
broken down
simplified version here in our documents
board member vega
based on the information that mr moscato
provided and the
input from the
from
the residents i appreciate their
their concerns
however i do feel that there
there will be sufficient time to put in
adequate roadways and
infrastructure based on the rate of
how how many houses are being built so i
am comfortable voting
this evening
okay
back to you chairman gordon or mr
moscato has stepped up to the plate too
sir
i think that if we postpone this we're
just we're just going to be right back
where we started from tonight
and i have a lot of faith in
community development staff and what
they present and i
think what should be stated here is that
the city should
considering the size of this project
they should be very careful to monitor
what's going on out there to make sure
what
has to be done and will be done so as
far as i'm concerned i would vote i
would like to vote on this this evening
so i guess uh
challenge anything else
mr chairman i may i'm sorry mr nichols
yes mr chairman
larry nichols for the record
mr moscato is at the podium and would
like to provide an additional
information that pleases the count
commission
absolutely go ahead if i could please
commissioner gordon thank you
one of the points i'd
like to make clear is that
this
pud is an ongoing project
the
this amendment before you tonight
actually
decreases slightly the overall density
whether
this
commission
approves
this amendment or not
there's an existing
series of puds in place
development is continuing
what this pud does is
clarify a lot of development issues that
have been
questionable
over the years that the puds been
developed
so i think there's there's a major
benefit to that
the issue of road cross sections is
clarified
much beyond what exists today
in the
original pud the metro of everyday south
pud
and the
existing old zoning in the
200 to 300 acres that are being brought
into the pud
through this amendment so
this amendment solves a lot of the
problems that i'm hearing some of the
commissioners have with
access
with cross sections with pedestrian
connectivity
bicycle safety and such so all of those
items are
addressed more thoroughly in this
proposed amendment
than exist today
in the existing
puds
i just wanted to
make those clarifications thank you all
right then thank you
did you wish to say something
no all right then i'd like to answer i'm
sorry mr banegas go ahead
i i just wanted to also add
that one of the reviewers to this was
our active transportation planner
and i know that
he was in
touch with mr moscato along the way
and or the representative
for mr moscato
and he found favor with the proposal i
just wanted to to indicate that
so it did go through review specifically
four elements of bike pad
and other transportation
methods
all right then thank you well i guess
we're ready i'd like to entertain a
motion to
vote on this
do i have a motion
i make a motion to vote
uh to approve uh the metro verde
pd i have a second
i second emotion
board member smith
with reservations i vote yes
do i need a based on for this also
yes
you might yes i'm getting i i need a
based on what what is based on whether
what the city said staff said yes i mean
um
missile venega and he he did come up and
give more information about what the uh
with the long term plan is for the
infrastructure so
uh you know my initial concerns
um are still there but i understand that
there is a plan in place over the next
two years
to
ensure that you know the road
infrastructure um will develop as this
large
um you know housing development
continues to to grow so
um i'm satisfied with that so i vote yes
thank you for remembering
yes
i think that
this land
needs to comply with the
rest of the
amendment for the future of the
community
board member bennett
i vote to approve based on staff
recommendation um
and uh and this meets elevate las cruces
and complies with the thoroughfare plan
board member vega
how about yes
the information that mr moscato and
venegas provided
demonstrates how this meets elevate las
cruces plan and
also based on staff recommendations
board member kaiser
i vote yes
this is consistent with elevate loss
crisis and i trust that that you have
done
you've done a great job here i'm just
asking for some more specificity in the
future
when being asked to approve things
that's all
chairman gordon
i vote yes based on our discussion
staff recommendation findings and it
does
it does
go with elevate las cruces so i do vote
yes
and i believe that is 6-0 yes it is
thank you
all right then thank you all right now
i'd like to move to item
9.1 which is the
special use permit for the hickory drive
halfway house
a presentation by staff
i'm up again mr chairman let me get to
the
presentation here
i'll try and remember
mr chairman members of the commission i
was given or handed a mr banegas will
you please identify the record please
yes sir um vince meneghas interim
planner for the record sorry about that
um
i was handed a
letter
from a member of the public
in
before i'm done with this i'll read that
into the record
it's in opposition of the case that i'll
discuss here in a minute
so this is a
case at 1016 hickory drive it's a
species permit
case number 210100105
it was originally heard
or
going to be heard at the november
pnc meeting
but due to an error in public notice the
boundary specifically
letters were not sent out to all those
who should have received them
staff
indicated that there was a need to
postpone the case and it was postponed
for tonight's
hearing
so the current conditions on the
property are as follows the property is
zoned r1a that's our single family
residential
district
it
is developed as a single family detached
dwelling
and it's located on hickory drive
between sequoia avenue to the north and
aspen avenue to the south
and it encompasses basically 0.224 acres
around this particular
parcel
you have a mixture of zoning taking
place but certainly in the immediate
vicinity it's all r1a single-family uh
development
a little bit further out you have a2
which is our rural
zoning district which is currently
defunct in the 2001 code but nonetheless
it exists on the west
you have some r1a on the north r3 and c2
on the east
and mix a c2 and pud-related c2
in c3 on the south
those commercial designations are
typically along valley drive
and
ebony of the messiah
which i'll show you here with this map
the subject property is outlined in red
it is again a long hickory drive
you have sequoia on the north aspen
avenue on the south
valley drive and just orient you is
located here and avenia macia in the
interstate here
obviously the c2 follows along one of
the major corridors or arterials in the
city
as one would expect and you do have some
c3
on the south side c2 on the south side
and of course the pud commercial is here
all around
the subject property is r1a and again
single family development you do have
some apartments
located immediately
east of
the single family neighborhood
and if you recall not too very long ago
we heard a case
for property located right on the corner
of aspen avenue and valley drive if if
the map looks familiar
the aerial view
specifies the land uses that i just
spoke of again outlining the parcel in
question
basically
several single-family homes immediately
adjacent and then the commercial
designated uses outside the boundary
there
so
historically speaking the property was
developed as part of the glendale
gardens unit 1 subdivision
that was back in the day
residential in use since construction of
the home
and it's currently rented out
it is a three-bedroom
dwelling and it does have one
two-car garage that's converted and
speaking with the
applicant it's a converted garage that
serves
as an accessory dwelling unit
and for those on the commission
accessory dwelling units can be in
essence a
separate
dwelling if you will that's connected to
the primary
inner
space of the home
that'll have independent kitchen
facilities
and basically
there's some conditions tied to that but
in this case it was converted and does
not meet those conditions to date
so i have an asterisk there because that
speaks to a condition that staff will be
asking you to consider at the time of
your motion
and i will let you know
a little later in the presentation what
those conditions are
so the applicant saw a need for
transitional housing in this case the
halfway house
designation as per our zoning code
that's how it's defined
uh within the community
the applicant is seeking
this use to accommodate uh the need
and when they came in when the applicant
came in miss medina
she met with me and we talked about what
the proposal was and i informed her at
that time that proposals sups in general
can be contentious
but certainly a halfway house can
elevate that
concern to a higher degree
there was a need in this case because of
the nature of the request to
initiate early notification procedures
as outlined in our zoning code
and
the applicant undertook those those
steps
so letters were sent out
and as part of that
vast majority of the input received to
date came from that effort and there was
substantial protest
at least i consider it substantial
protest because
14 emails now 15
emails or letters were received and
seven phone calls
and all but one of those was in support
of the proposal
there was also in your packet it wasn't
con included the first time because i
had not received it but there's a
petition that's also included in your
packet
that speaks to several
names and property owners who oppose the
request
so the early notification process does
allow or afford an opportunity for a
neighborhood meeting if the neighborhood
requests it
no neighborhood meeting was held and to
my knowledge nothing was requested i
certainly haven't learned of any
requests being made
so the proposal
is for the transitional home or the
halfway house
and under our
codes that we apply
for construction and for development
both the zoning and building codes will
still consider the proposed use as a
single-family dwelling
so it's not
being considered as a
non-uh single-family use and i want to
make that clear it's it's kind of akin
to what it's been used as today it's
it's a rental
and it will house uh individuals
on the premises just like it does now
so there's a proposal as presented by
the applicant to house six to seven
newly released
women
selected by the applicant so there'll be
some screening
and that number may decrease because
when the fire department conducted their
review
they indicated that with that many
occupants there would be a need to
sprinkle the interior of the home
so in order to avoid that and and the
cost associated with that the applicant
would have to decrease the number down
to five or or fewer
and so um i had talked with the
applicant and there may be interest in
doing so so the number that's shown
there may drop a little bit
so
she also indicated that basically for
three to nine months
the occupants or the participants in the
halfway house
will be
staying on site before furthering their
reintroduction
to
society if you will
elsewhere
the
participants part participants will be
supervised by qualified house monitors
to aid in the enforcement of of house
rules
the applicant indicated that they were
looking at house rules
and there would be a zero
tolerance policy associated with them
and to kind of highlight what those were
there's no outside visitation except for
of course law enforcement judicial staff
or participating outside agencies
those would be those individuals would
be allowed to to visit as as necessary
by law
the participants would be expected to
either work or attend school
and also obtain training
they would obtain counseling as
necessary or deemed necessary and also
some education personal finance
financial planning that kind of thing
they would attend bible studies
and self-help groups and also attend
religious services
there was also an element for
volunteerism
in the house and with the participants
there
or at least proposed to be housed there
and there would be video monitoring
random drug testing and curfews imposed
parking was
going to be limited to off street
parking only so you're going to have
parking on site only for those
participants that might have a vehicle
staff anticipates that to be very few
but nonetheless there would be parking
on site
as per code it requires a half
parking stall
per per bed and if you have up to six
individuals of course there's three
stalls and from what i see on the site
plan coming up they can accommodate that
so all others visiting the site they
would
you know if they could park on site
that's fine but otherwise on street
parking
for the
visitation
with police etc
so no exterior modifications will be
made to the property
the idea being that with exception to
any parking
they'll maintain the single-family
dwelling appearance
and that's to keep the use
in keeping with the rest of the
residential area so this is the site
plan of the property you have hickory
drive
located here
you have kind of a quarter circle
driveway leading to the two-car garage
here this is the converted garage
as i understand it exists today
and then you also have a little drive
pad over here that can accommodate
i believe two vehicles
so between the two there should be
adequate space pursuant to code
dimensions for three vehicles
the rest of the dwelling sits here
and of course you have your backyard
and access accordingly
throughout the dwelling
a couple of photos showing
direct shot this is that that linear
driveway
that i identified and part of the
quarter circle driveway off of hickory
and the sign posted in front
and a couple of photos just showing the
neighborhood
looking north and south
along hickory drive
so again public notice uh there were two
efforts uh the first one
uh we didn't get it right so here we are
again but uh nonetheless there's been
effort to notify um
previously
and the second time of course was for
this meeting
if you consider the applicant's early
notification effort that's three
but nonetheless as indicated it's 14
letters and emails
that are
have been submitted as a result of that
notification effort and several phone
calls and all but one opposing
the request
so staff's review and recommendation
staff recommends conditional approval
with the following conditions considered
and please keep in mind that if you find
these conditions to be acceptable and to
help
alleviate some of the concerns of the
neighborhood by all means include them
in any motion
for approval
but i'll go down the list and so the
conditions as specified by staff is no
exterior modification of structures to
be made other than meeting code
requirements
and again going back to the parking
and that's to maintain the single family
home appearance
like to require that an experienced
house monitor advisor be on site at all
times
and require that the applicant
recommended house rules protocol be
established and implemented following
the zero tolerance policy that the
applicant
suggested
and the provisions
follow the very same ones that
the applicant had proposed and that
includes video monitoring
visitor restrictions
curfew random drug testing and for the
residents to seek employment
attend school or participate in
counseling training volunteer efforts
etc again these are elements that the
applicant had suggested
all resident parking is to be on site
and the converted garage be reconfigured
as a bedroom only and not as an
accessory dwelling unit
certainly tied to this proposed use
in that there's
no more than six beds authorized due to
the parking constraints
the applicant should consider that six
be the cap
again that may decrease to five in which
case there's still enough parking to
accommodate then
and then finally if there's concern over
ongoing operation for the halfway house
the zoning code does allow pursuant to
the sup process to stipulate a time
period by which the sup can operate
and the idea here is
to stipulate a period say three years it
could change you could fill five as
warranted whatever you feel is necessary
but the opportunity
to prove that the use is going to be in
accordance with the rules etc the
operation that was identified
and if that's if it meets
what was originally proposed and stated
or stipulated by the applicant then they
could come back and seek an extension of
the sup at a later date
that is in code right now and
is allowed pursuant to the sup process
so the findings of fact uh this evening
is that
again the house
if this is approved will still function
as single-family home and be considered
as such under the applicable codes
that the measures are proposed to ensure
that house rules and neighborhood safety
are maintained
and that substantial support there was
quite a bit of support identified in
elevate las cruces
the comprehensive plan and it talks to a
variety of housing types
it talks to
partnering with state health and human
service programs
and offering services as needed within
the community
it talks about
workforce readiness and that speaks to
the training that was identified as an
element for success by the applicant
and
trying to get them further along in
their reintroduction into society
and that
volunteerism is identified as an action
element associated with that policy
their special housing needs identified
and ensuring that housing is afforded
traditionally underserved populations
which i believe this would qualify for
and that
support for transitory
homes
support for those who are
transitory in nature that they be
provided homes
and
use of alternative housing styles
be provided
and that
health and wellness for residents be a
considered element of success for our
community
and furthermore
that the programs be provided for
traditionally underserved populations
there's also community vision
that speaks to being inclusive there's
the sub component of that
that allows
residents feasible options to live work
and play in las cruces regardless of the
personal means or stage in life that an
individual may be in
and
obviously it's another vision
sub-component talks about leveraging
social partnerships
for
long-term success
for personal and professional growth
the finding also speaks to the fact that
within the las cruces zoning code is
amended
you may consider specific approval
periods
now throughout the
several months in which this was kind of
on the docket
there were some concerns and questions
that were raised and i thought i'd take
an opportunity to kind of touch on a few
of those here this evening
and the first one was will the
use affect my property values that's
always a question
that is often asked whenever there's a
use being proposed or a zone change
being proposed or in this case of
special use
that may not be in keeping with
what folks in the neighborhood feel
it should be
and
it's it's a difficult answer to provide
because what we have found staff has
found is there is no definitive answer
in the past we've gone to
[Music]
the
county assessor's office and asked some
folks there some assessors
that question some realtors
and when you come right down to it the
value of property is based based on
comps
and
this home that is being considered may
not be a comp used in the valuation of a
specific individual property so there
may not be any devaluation occurring so
that's a hard one to to
to answer quite honestly
so have there been similar facilities
approved in
las cruces by the pnc and the answer is
yes
there have been at least four
other facilities since 1996.
i've got a map here in a little bit
that'll show the location but there's
only one that speaks to similar criteria
that is talked about this evening it too
is in an r1a zoning district and it's at
along anderson avenue
and that's south of missouri avenue
in that development that was approved in
2013.
so do halfway houses work
that was another question that came
forward and
and
i'm no expert at it i'll tell you right
now and i
haven't read all the
material out there that speaks to this
but i did
a query and do some research and i came
across
a document
put out by macro think institute and it
was the journal of sociological research
and the title of it was the impact of
halfway houses on parole success and
recidivism and i thought it spoke very
directly to the issue at hand
and in that document which you could
certainly take a look at yourselves
the answer is arguably yes 60 percent
of parolees following the halfway house
context if you will of parole
60 percent of those folks completed
parole versus the 48 percent under the
strait or or traditional parole system
recidivism one year later showed that
halfway houses again worked or proved
fruitful
and that 28
of those participating were less likely
to be rearrested
versus the 36 percent
in the straight program
and then they did have a footnote in
there that females which the applicant
has indicated that females were going to
be the only
occupants of the halfway house if
approved
they're less likely to recidivate
so that's kind of the citation there i
showed you the document
so
what are the crime statistics yet
another question crime statistics
affiliated with the approved sites in
talking with las cruces police
department
for the four sites that we found
the only stats that could be provided
was 2020 to current date
in essence at the time i wrote this it
was the end of 2021
but for the anderson location
there were no problem calls
and again that was
uh if i recall
back in 2013
so so that's what they approved and
there were no
problem calls reported for that address
other than one
there was an alarm
call that was
sent in
and in talking with the deputy chief
she indicated that they felt that it was
a code entry error when you go inside
and shut off the alarm
they
miskeyed the code
there was nothing else that resulted
from that site or that call
no other stats were available for the
other properties i tried to acquire
those but again this anderson location
is most like what is being considered
this evening
so excuse the map but i did put a
location here this is picacho avenue
here
and there's one on picacho
one a little bit further on north main
there's a site there
there's one off of idaho
and of course this is the anderson
property here
so your options this evening mr chair
members of the commission is to vote yes
and approve
vote no and deny
keeping in mind that deny requires
alternate findings not presented by
staff
vote with conditions
and again i
emphasize that if you do not add any
conditions
the approval action won't carry any
conditions with it
but i'll go back to the slide that talks
to those and you could certainly add the
ones that staff suggested or you could
vote to table and that concludes staff's
presentation mr chairman and uh the
applicant is in the audience and would
like to speak on rbf thank you mr
banegas uh but before you leave the
rostrum there would you please do me a
favor i just want to verify something
that i saw as you went through the
screens here go back to where it showed
about
emails and to that extent where it says
most it said to me but i thought it said
that they all were in favor
it would says all but one supported the
proposal
all but one
okay all right that's fine that's not
what's in our packet i didn't want to
make sure but i saw that in term in
terms of what staff has been apprised of
all right all but one okay are there any
questions from stan from commission
point of order ma'am if you wish to
speak come to the podium please
yeah that that's fine man thank you
we've clarified that thank you all right
are there any questions from
commissioners
read one more email you said i'm sorry
guys i was just going to i apologize for
not getting to that
i was given this
it looks to be an email it's from bonnie
tafoya
it was to
joanna bencoma and it's dear counselor
ben como i'm writing to object to the
possible approval of a penal transition
house in our neighborhood
we are primarily a senior neighborhood
where many of us walk for exercise and
walk to use the retail facilities in our
area
there would be an increase in traffic
which is certainly not needed for safety
purposes
this would undoubtedly bring
questionable visitors cruising our
streets and would destroy any peace of
mind concerning safety or property a
penal transition a house would not
contribute to property values but would
jeopardize our lifetime investments
thank you for your representation of our
neighborhood sincerely manitophoia
okay thank you
now are there any
is there anything from the applicant
would like to add to this before we go
to commission for questions
if not do we have any questions from
commissioners
mr bennett i would like to speak with
the applicant if the applicant can come
up i just have concerns
um
i would just like a little bit more
info on the on the vetting or the
selection process
that's made and
exactly the qualifications of the the
person that's um they're monitoring
um the women that that will be present
okay my name is theresa medina i'm the
owner of the house at
1016 hickory drive okay but before you
speak i have to swear you in
you swear affirmative the testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
nothing but the truth on the penalty of
law yes i do
thank you go ahead you can answer his
questions if you would yes um before we
do that i'd like to clarify this is a
four bedroom two bath house
not including the apartment that's been
print you know has a cooking and
another bathroom as well if you could
speak into the microphone
i'd like to point out that this is a
four bedroom two bathroom house
with um not including the apartment that
has been
made into a
an efficiency apartment it has cooking
available as well as
its own bathroom
so
i think he had i think that mr banegas
had a three bedroom
house up there but it's actually four
bedrooms
can you elaborate on on on my two
questions just uh exactly
what
is what's the vetting process um for the
applicants
and um
and and is there any more information on
or can you provide any qualifications or
anything
that the um
the person that's that's going to be
monitoring these these women at the
facility will will have um yes i can um
i don't have a board in place yet
because of the fact that this is the
first step to even getting this thing
off and running so until that
it's been approved i will get a board
together and they will be um
the people that will be responsible for
going through and screening these people
that are going to be picked up from the
jail or from the uh
prison will be picked up directly from
there they're not going to have a chance
to hit the streets so to speak i'm not
taking people in from off the street
so they've been already
gone through the parole process they've
already gone through
[Music]
probably recommendations from social
workers and parole board
as well and most of them probably are on
parole when they've been released from
the jail or prison
the board will put together some rules
and regulations and some criteria to
look at as to what the
seriousness of each one of the
applicants is and
the people that are going to be
monitoring the house
have actually been
passed
inmates at
jail and also prison
they've been out successfully for up to
three to six years
and they are very familiar with living
in
transition homes
themselves as well as
what all the
with some of the
game playing and things that go on as
far as people that have been
incarcerated
i'd also like to point out that the
people that are going to be on the board
i have a lot of people that have
backgrounds working as people that have
actually set up
parole um
criteria and being taught at college
level
i have people that are
have written up
protocol for domestic violence for the
las cruces police department i have a
lot of people that actually have been
guards in the jail
and as well as of clergy
chaplains from the jail our local jail
here
so
those are people that i have in mind to
put on the board if they would accept it
and
so these are people that come from all
different
areas and they're familiar with people
that have been inmates
and i think that this is the best type
of person to have
working in this particular
environment because they're very very
aware of the different
problems that might arise with these
people as well as some of the things
that they can do to intervene and make
sure that this is a successful
venture into helping other people to get
their footing
and get become productive
citizens
thank you okay
is there anyone else
commissioner smith
yes uh commissioner smith um ma'am you
you addressed
uh you answered commissioner bennett's
question
that he had regarding
the staff and the qualifications but you
you mentioned a board
that would be established
as far as the selection process of the
residence
you still really didn't address the
qualifications of the staff you did
if i'm if uh correct me if i'm wrong but
you said that they would be
former inmates themselves
yes they these are women that um i know
personally
and like i said they've already been
released and they're they've been
productive citizens
uh for at least up to three years and
and beyond that i think one was has been
out for the last six
and they've um they're no longer on
parole
they are um
they're qualified because of the fact
that they they know the game plan they
know where these women are coming from
and what you know what they've been
through
they've also had to experience that
themselves they also
one of them has actually
been very very involved in her church
and she's very
active as far as
dealing with youth and other people that
have already come out of jail
and another one is a
an advocate she's actually licensed or
i should say certified through the state
as a
i think i forgot the terminology
an advocate
as
i can't remember the exact terminology
right off the bat but she does have a
certificate through the state
that she acquired while she was in
prison
are
or any of
these the staff i mean are they are they
trained as counselors are they trained
in helping
these prisoners transition
um the one that i mentioned about that
had the certificate is actually trained
that's part of what her training is
um as far as counseling i'm thinking
that we're going to go out to outside
counseling which might be
available in the public as and also we
have in mind self-help groups such as
celebrate recovery
aaa
narcotics anonymous
any types of self-help
trauma healing
anything of self-help that
can be utilized and they can be done
either in the house or we can go out to
the meetings as well
and also i'd like to point out that the
location of the house is perfect because
it also has access
to public transportation
and this will make it much easier for
people to get to and from their jobs or
to and from school or whatever it is
that they're trying to achieve
but there will be curfews and
and like we were talking about
on the spot
drug testing and and alcohol testing as
well if necessary
one more question um
maybe i missed it in the presentation
but what is the timeline for
uh establishing this once uh or if it's
approved because it seems like there's a
lot of things that
you say you will have in place but
um is there a timeline for for this
as far as
as far as having this get up off the
ground i if you approve this this
evening then i'm going to
have to hit the ground running
and getting this board in place and also
getting licensed with a business license
and llc license getting a lawyer on
board and
just getting things in
in order as well as the house the house
is currently uh being vacated at this
time the residents that have been there
for the last almost two years are are
moving out as we speak
and
i think that probably i'm just going to
make a wild guess here i'm thinking by
by the summertime that uh we might have
a first resident i also need to be able
to um
get in in contact with the jails and the
parole boards and also with prison
here in new mexico for to allow them to
know that this house is open
and like i said it's going to go through
counseling and
social work and things like that
and keep in mind that a lot of these
women
are trying to reunite with their
families with their
their spouses and also with their
children
so they're going to be going to outside
agencies as well
and trying to use the legal system as
well to try to establish a more normal
life and get into a
stronger relationship with what they've
left
behind all right thank you
any other commissioners
yes mr release
please
audience and commissioners bear with me
because i'm having trouble hearing i
have a
sinus infection it did some damage to my
hearing so if i repeat myself forgive me
i'd like to know where are you getting
your funding from are you going to be
using federal grants state grants no
this is great you mentioned that you're
going to have like prayer
meetings as a church sponsoring you who
where are you getting the money to
run this facility okay so at first it's
going to come out of my pocket because
when somebody gets out of jail they all
be or prison they obviously don't have a
job
so
hopefully within the first month or two
the person will have a job or have money
coming in from
maybe a fafsa
to go to school they can come up with
some money to pay a certain amount of
rent
and at that point i'm expecting them to
pay rent so to speak we don't want to
call it rent we i guess we call it
um
a living fee
but
they will have to pay their own way at
that point
and as far as funding i'm going to be
looking to the public for funding but
it's not going to come through state
because i
like i had mentioned
like you mentioned also
that
bible and prayer and all those things
are definitely going to be from a
christian standpoint that this house is
going to be run and so i don't need to
be encumbered by any
laws that are
you know that are made by the state
so what i'd like to do is just go ahead
and look to the public to be able to
support this and so we'll go for some
private donations
commissioner munich is there anything
else
is there anything else you'd like to ask
sir all right thank you anyone else
hi commissioner vega this is actually i
think a staff question like procedurally
if this does get approved and let's say
it's conditioned conditionally on them
on a three-year review
is when does the time on that start
because
i think one of my in hearing what you're
talking about and thinking through
next steps and everything by the time
this actually gets going
i mean i i kind of think that there's
good intent but no real business plan in
place that i hear but um
so i wonder if we did like a conditional
approval
let's say it's two or three years when's
the when does the clock start
so mr chairman
commissioner vega the clock starts once
notice of a decision is submitted to the
city clerk's office which
in this case i'd probably get to it
tomorrow so
the clock would start immediately
okay thank you and and if i could just
add and that assumes
there's no appeal okay
anyone else
mr kaiser
i want to go back to the number of
residents
for a minute
i don't know if this is a question for
staff or the applicant but
um
at the beginning of presentation it was
six to seven
residents
which could be reduced to five depending
on fire code
i guess my question is does that include
the on the 24-hour on-site
uh monitor
or is that would that be plus one
mr chairman commissioner kaiser as the
code reads it would include if they're
if they're residing on site it would
include
okay
and then on the
the number of residents being five
uh
i guess if we were to approve this
tonight would we
need to specify
the number of residents or the maximum
number of residents allowed
on site
because it seems to me if we if we
approve it for say six to seven but fire
code says only five
is it possible down the line if they got
the fire codes
up to par they could add additional
residents
mr chairman commissioner kaiser
in response to that uh the applicant
stated six to seven
it was the
fire code that stipulated if you have
that many which you could
um
well you could have six because parking
allowed for six
you you certainly could have that but
if you did then you'd have to sprinkle
the entire dwelling
and the cost associated with that in
talking with the applicant that's when
five became a
possible number but you could certainly
cap it
you could do that as part of your motion
okay thank you so
so just to clarify so if five is the
number it'd be four residents plus the
on-site monitor to make five
yes sir that would include okay
um and then my
my other question is in relation to the
one of the conditions i don't know if
you could go back to that slide
i think this is it right here so
i think it's number three
[Music]
um
[Music]
my question is
how would how would that be enforced who
would actually enforce
that condition i understand the house
rules and having the on-site monitor
would would be the one
i guess enforcing the rules on site but
but how would the city ensure that the
that condition is actually being met
mr chairman commissioner kaiser i think
in in this case um
you know that stipulation or that
condition if applied would be a good
faith effort um we would certainly know
at the point if there's a time frame
given for
the operational status of the halfway
home
if there were problems
related to
visitation on site and that type of
thing you'd certainly hear about it
at the second
crack if you will at the at the approval
process for an extension
they could certainly submit their rules
to staff and and you know at least would
have them on record
but enforcing that
that's going to be up to the applicant
to enforce
okay thank you
and then i think my final question is
are there any
state oversights or or county oversight
bodies or bodies that would have
oversight over these kinds of
homes
mr chairman commissioner kaiser and
miss medina
perhaps you can
help me out on this one but my
understanding is if there was no funding
from the state
or the federal government then there's
no oversight to the degree that there
would otherwise be
they will be sending
members of their staff you know judicial
staff and
and so forth to visit and check on
the residents
but beyond that i don't know to what
extent overstock oversight would occur i
don't know if miss medina
knows whether or not that
is extensive if it's not existed i don't
know
i don't have an answer for you
thank you
anyone else
all right and i have
i have lots of questions okay
and i think that miss medina would
please come back to the podium perhaps
you could help me with this and mr
banegas you can stay there also
first of all you keep using the term
parolee
i would assume that if someone is on
parole why would they need a halfway
house
they would just go
be free to go wherever they want and
just report to uh
to parole officer
sure
that's a good question really
some people are so
afraid when they get out
and they know they need help they're
afraid of messing up and ending up going
back to jail or prison
and they want to do everything they can
to ensure
their success on the outside
and as mr venegas showed the the
information
that
people that do go to a halfway house
actually have a higher
um
ability to
to maintain going you know to
avoid recidivism
and
i think that i think that if you ever
have talked to anybody who's gone to
jail or to prison and has served time
that they're very aware of the fact that
they're probably going to get pulled
right back into the same game that they
were in before whatever that is and
especially women
if they're going to be released and go
right back to the same situation they
were in before they were arrested
chances are they will be arrested again
and it could be anything from domestic
violence
or just being in with you know drug
environment that or drinking environment
it will put them right back into danger
and certainly put them at high risk and
so they themselves are even aware of
this and want to avoid that
and they would willingly want to come to
this this is not a mandatory thing this
is something that would be
personally
a personal decision on their part they
would have to apply for it
all right my next one is just like a
comment about what is in the backup
submitted by staff it says that
there's no page number so i can't really
relate to it but i'll read it it says
the material submitted by staff states
that consistency with purpose and intent
of the zoning ordinance is to conserve
the values of buildings and land
mr banegas you
touched on that and you really have not
come up with any kind of a
reasonable answers to say how much
what's going to happen to the values of
the hands of the houses in the
neighborhood
correct
mr chairman members of the commission
however in in keeping
part of that
[Music]
part of the equation speaks to the fact
that
we're trying to keep the
the operation of the proposed halfway
house in line with what you see out
there in the neighborhood single family
in nature
we're not making it
look like an office or look like
anything commercial or anything like
that
and so part of it speaks to that
you know whether or not
it devalues properties
again i can't give you a hard fast
answer i can only point to
information and facts that
i've previously heard from again
realtors and county assessor staff
also in it states on the same place that
the zoning ordinance is made to mitigate
conflicts amongst neighbors
i mean we saw a
petition with 63 signatures i mean it
certainly sounds to me like
there is certainly conflict
mr chairman members of the commission
you're correct um
[Music]
you know quite honestly from the staff
perspective when you hear halfway house
and you hear the
you know the type of resident
the
the recent
recently released parolee
you know it scares a lot of people and
so the worst case scenario comes into
mind
but some of the concerns i heard
were
you know it would bring about
more of the same it would bring about
homeless folks and those trying to score
an easy deal and the list went on and on
but
from the perspective of
what the use entails and how it ties to
building code zoning code and that is
still considered a single-family home
um you know there's concerns about it
out in the neighborhood i'm not saying
there isn't but
uh it certainly is in line with
uh what the zoning code speaks to from
their r1a
perspective
all right miss medina is there going to
be somewhat of a budget to run this
facility
excuse me
will there be some sort of a budget to
run this facility how much it's going to
cost
at this time i don't know
i don't have any idea i'm looking at
like i said i'm going to be looking for
outside funding
and uh right now uh my monthly house
payment
will be made by myself
as well as all the utilities
and uh
i think at that point it's just a matter
of food
really and yes i'm going to have to pay
some different insurances as well
to make sure that you know in case
somebody sets my house on fire i'm
covered
but um
that also was one of my questions about
insurance is is there a special type of
insurance to cover this or is it a
typical homeowner
no i'm pretty sure there's a different
type of insurance i've already spoken
with my insurance agent and she's
indicated to me that is that this is not
something that they would handle so i'm
going to have to look into something
totally different and what happens if
there isn't
there will be i'm sure i mean i can't
imagine that there's any halfway house
or anything that's
that's running that doesn't have some
insurance or property insurance
[Music]
i'd also like to point out that
we were talking about
the people in the neighborhood being you
know
opposed to this i think that they're
thinking that we're going to have
flashing lights going on all the time
and all kinds of traffic coming and
going and that's not going to be the
case this is this is meant to be very
low-key a residence
where people can actually come and
relax and be there in their home and
feel safe
just as safe as any resident in that
neighborhood wants to be in their own
home
so it's not a matter of um
like we're going to be all um like we're
not advertising it to the public or
anything
it will be advertised only to the jail
and the prison
so it's not like people are going to be
knowing that oh gee there's a you know
we know where there's a home that you
can get into because like i said these
people are coming right out of jail or
prison right and that and on
recommendation as well
if if one of these residents
are on parole
i believe that they are obligated to
report to a parole officer and i'm and i
think also those residents that may be
just released to a halfway house which
could happen also
i assume that there's going to be
random testing like you said for for
drugs and alcohol
who will be who will do the testing is
that to verify that the tests are being
done and the readings are accurate and
what happens if the resident fails
are they immediately sent back to
prison or the parolees reported to their
parole officer that's a good question
um zero tolerance means zero tolerance
so
um
first time you're caught first time
you're you're busted as far as drugs or
alcohol
i'll be the first one to put that person
in the car and take them down and drop
them off on the road
and i i know for a fact that
tent city would be the only place if
they could even get in
or they'd be on the street because or on
a hotel if they could afford it at that
point
because there will be zero tolerance
all right
and yes they will be reported to their
parole officer immediately yes okay
next this is a very pertinent question
is what's happening right now especially
with around the world what happens what
kind of
testing you're going to have for covet
all these people who are going to be
coming today
to the halfway house be required to be
fully vaccinated and boosted um right
now i'm i'm aware of the fact that
people that are in the county jail have
actually been
i think it's been mandatory that they
are vaccinated
that goes for the employees as well it's
mandatory but what kind of will you will
they
will they must provide proof to show
that they are vaccinated and boosted um
i don't know if the jail will or not but
i know for a fact that they have been
they've been vaccinated they're being
tested weekly as a matter of fact i'm
talking about people who come to the
halfway house will they have to show
that they have been we have a piece of
paper that says right
absolutely that's fine
then another question is what provisions
have you made under the american
disabilities act what happens if someone
needs a wheelchair
or they need some kind of assistance
that's a good question i haven't even
come up with that yet well i think it's
something that you're going to have to
consider you're absolutely right and i
can't show discrimination on that you're
right
my husband was in a wheelchair for two
years before he passed away and lived in
in that house so it is wheelchair
accessible
all right
i have more questions
you're going to have
i should think you said four bedrooms
yes okay
and how many bathrooms
two full bathrooms
four
six five or six people plus the
supervisors who are going to be there no
that's that would be six people that
would include
the supervisor okay
or if there were even five people that
would include the supervisor
i'm just concerned if there would be
enough bathroom facilities how about the
kitchen is the kitchen big enough to to
be able to
sit down people and feed them it has a
full dining room it has a
what we call a tv room and and also a
formal living room and a regular sized
kitchen
okay
who's responsible for getting jobs for
these people um they will be responsible
to go out and become employed
but also i'm sure that there will be
ways of
going to in future employees and trying
to get them to hire i know that there
are some businesses that actually
will hire people that are coming out of
jail in prison
what happens if someone gets a job that
requires them to work say
12 minute night to eight in the morning
from excuse me from you mean like a
night a night shift
if that's the only thing they could do i
imagine we could make it some
some provision for it i think this will
have to be handled on an individual
basis it depends on staff and what who's
available when and how it can be handled
as far as transportation as well
all right that's the end of my questions
but i do have one comment i'd like to
make that i would have liked to have
seen a floor plan
of the house and his renovations to
support this petition right now we just
see a sketch of a
basically an empty house i'd like to
have seen
how the bedrooms are going to be where
the eating area is where the kitchens
are where the bathrooms are
this does not show me and i have a very
big concern about that
more it's just as important as the other
questions that i've asked
okay
all right thank you i appreciate your
answers um
all right i guess it's time now for us
to go to the public
i'd like to see a show of hands of how
many people would like to speak
i just keep them raised so i can look i
can count one two three four five six
seven
all right eight
i will give each one of you uh
three minutes
that would be half an hour
and we'll start here on the left with
the gentleman in the front row or
wherever that is yes gentlemen
could you please state your name yes sir
my name is randy mcmillan
okay let me swear you in please okay
do you swear or affirmative that the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth or nothing but the truth under
penalty of law
so help me god all right thank you sir
go ahead
first i'd just like to say thank you for
your heart in wanting to do this
i
really appreciate the fact that you're
wanting to give in that way and
and it is true that halfway houses
do a great service
to the community
the
recidivists
can't even pronounce the word rate is
much lower
and and frankly
religious organizations that run these
have the very best
percentages of
helping people not going back into
prison
so that is all good you're on the right
track
these
fine people here that are serving our
community
have all asked you some very good
questions some very good questions i
really appreciate that
and you did not have the answers to
those questions
and
um
and i would just encourage you to to
withdraw this temporarily
and don't let this go to a vote until
you can come back
with who's on your board what's your
budget
uh what are the rules for your
organization
what type of parolees you're going to
let in
what type you're not going to let in
who your staff is what their training is
all of these questions were excellent
and then come back with those answers
and ask for a vote and that's
that's my comment i don't live in the
neighborhood
i'm here on another issue and i just
wanted to give her that i would also
tell you that uh one of my best friends
runs an organization called crosstown
ministries
and it has been highly successful
not perfectly successful he's had
failures
and you're going to have failures and
you're not ready for those failures you
don't even know what they are yet
and i would highly recommend you meet
with him his name is is john pickett
my name again is randy mcmillan i'm
available be glad to meet with you i'd
be interested in helping you financially
as well
but you need to pull this for now and
and come back with the right answers
thank you
all right thank you sir
who's next please raise your hand on
this side of the room
the gentleman on the in the third row
jacob hernandez
all right sir let me swear you in please
do you swear affirm that the testimony
you're about to give is the truth of
nothing but the truth on the penalty of
law yes
thank you for the opportunity to
express ourselves
i would be and am the neighbor to the
north
at 10 12 hickory
i uh i too miss terry spent many years
as a volunteer
in the prisons okay and i understand
their need
but
our neighborhood
i believe
is not the place for it
i have
grandchildren and i have children that
come to visit
and again i also with many of our
neighbors are concerned with not a
straight answer on the valuation of our
homes
and
again i understand
the need that they have when they exit
the prison or penitentiaries or our
local jails
but again our neighborhood is not the
place to want to want to keep it
peaceful quiet what we currently have
that's why we moved into the place
that's why we bought in that place
but um and again i i agree we need some
definite answers
and and a a true plan
as to uh
what is the situation
what are you gonna do from what i
understand
you're not going to be the one that's
present on site
it's going to be someone else it's going
to hold this responsibility
so
those are my concerns
as a neighbor the valuation of my home
a true plan
was not presented to us
and the valuation of our homes
and so thank you
thank you sir you're welcome
on this side again someone who wishes to
speak
you can come forward please
all right plea please state your name
juanita me swear you in please
do you swear affirmative testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
nothing but the truth
on the penalty of law yes sir so hello
go ahead ma'am
members of the committee my name is
juanita i live at 1024 sycamore drive
one block away from the
proposed location of this halfway house
i have raised eight of my 10 children
here since 2008. i am very much aware of
the makeup of my neighborhood family
with children elderly and retirees the
times i the time i have lived here i
have never felt afraid of allowing my
children now my grandchildren to walk
around our neighborhood i know for a
fact this would change with a halfway
house on the very next block from mine
the carefree feeling and i know and
enjoy would dissipate being replaced
with constant worry this due to the fact
that my six-year tenure with the new
mexico department of labor as the
federal bonding coordinator and the work
opportunity tax credit coordinator and
the life skills instructor for southern
new mexico credentials facility has
given me direct personal experience
working with
this must-have halfway house charity
located on 1595 picacho and the inmates
at southwest correctional facilities
all three of these programs focus in
empowering these inmates with the tools
to reinstate themselves back into the
workforce and society while implementing
implementing my responsibility
responsibilities as such i was able to
work directly with individuals
incarcerated for drug trafficking
forgery robbery assault murder and rape
i'm a strong believer in second chances
and i applaud ms medina's very good
intentions
unfortunately i learned that not
everyone is interested in rehabilitation
for many reasons one being that some
people feel that living incarcerated is
their only way of life
one of the statements that i received
from one of the inmates that i was
helping
with the classes i provided and the
counseling was juanita i have been
incarcerated for 40 plus years after
murdering my wife and her lover that i
do not want to be set free and if i am
i'm going to do what it takes to get
back into prison
i do believe house way houses are a very
good venue in trying to
to assist these inmates that are willing
to rehabilitate unfortunately a
neighborhood like mine is not the
appropriate atmosphere for them to some
it would be more of a temptation than
anything else along with this i believe
our property values would drop because i
probably do not want
a halfway house approved in my
neighborhood so i'm pretty sure that
other people coming in would feel the
same way and the same fear
i completely like i said i completely
applaud mrs medina's good intentions
unfortunately from personal experience i
and living in this family-oriented house
is not the atmosphere for these people
the traffic would increase with all the
activities that come with running a
halfway home including the contact the
constant presence of the police
department
when and if inmates
break rules or do not comply with
curfews which i have witnessed they do
and i am strongly against with this
request
i'm sorry man but your three minutes are
up yes sir thank you for speaking your
time
anyone else on this side
please come to the microphone
hey please state your name michelle
blackwall talk it to the microphone
please
sorry she's shorter than i am
okay
michelle blackwell all right hello
do you swear affirmative testimony
you're about to give us the truth and
nothing but the truth on a penalty of
law yes thank you go ahead
um
i've you actually have an email from me
i had concerns and now i have a lot of
concerns
the home value is always one of them i i
can't imagine it won't drive our houses
down
you know we have a
licensed sex offender in the
neighborhood and you want to tell me
that a realtor is not going to tell
people about that
we have a neighbor who blows crap up in
the backyard we're going to hear about
that
and now we have a houseway a halfway
house i mean they have to tell people
who are moving into the neighborhood it
will affect our home values
secondly she doesn't know what kind of
insurance she needs
i may have to get a different insurance
now
i don't know
i'll have to look into it will it change
my homeowners
insurance because of the increased
chance of crime in the neighborhood
i don't know it could
[Music]
i
in my email i did a few stats for you if
they had a 90
success that means there's a 10 failure
which could be up to three let's say
three people
zero tolerance nobody's checking on
so we have
an ex-inmate watching the inmates
that are no longer inmates
but they're going to report any
any failure
i don't see it happening
so
even if it does so there's zero
tolerance
they drive somebody to tent city you
don't think that person is gonna tell
everybody there
where they got kicked out of
which old person lives across the street
never leaves the house but always has
jewelry on
which people work eight to five which
ones are home at night which ones aren't
who has dogs who doesn't who's got kids
who doesn't
i think it's setting up
our neighborhood to be
watched in a not
good way all the time
i agree
we need these things
but for a 40 percent
don't complete at least 60 percent
i i just i have more questions now than
i did when i sat down
and the fact that she can't answer any
of the questions
really really scares me
i've lived there for 26 years
i raised three children
in a neighborhood without sidewalks and
they enjoyed every minute of it
i now have grandchildren who would come
visit
i am the age of the old people that were
there when we moved in
and i would like to
continue to live there i have no
intentions of moving
but i don't know how this will affect my
future
thank you
if there's no one else on this side
i will
go outside and make sure
okay
i'll watch my watch
i'm sorry uh anyone on this side now
would like to speak this gentleman here
in the front on this third row second
row
please state your name and let me swear
you in please yep uh scott boyle
all right do you swear affirm that the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth and nothing but the truth on the
penalty of law i do thank you go ahead
um so i mean this to reiterate i have
many other concerns you all brought up
as the commission and as what my fellow
committee member i mean
community members have been bringing up
i would too
just highlight like there's this pure
lack of detail and lack of business plan
which is furthering the uncertainty
around it and even with the detail
provided tonight it has furthered my
uneasiness about this
and i guess i should highlight that i'm
the homeowner directly across from the
proposed property and as a first time
home buyer too
this is not what i was really
anticipating having to go through a
process on
and with the potential wanting to raise
a family in crusis
and the house that i bought it also
furthers my concerns
so i'd like to see more information i
mean ultimately i would not like to see
this process move forward as many of my
fellow
people have mentioned is that
we don't know what home values are going
to do and we can look at comps but that
removes the human element and i
guarantee people look at that when they
start looking at homes
so what we look on paper
is not always a true representation of
what we see
the only other point that i would like
to highlight is there's been a lot of
emphasis tonight on the zero tolerance
policies
in which the violation of the individual
would be removed this policy fails to
recognize the unpredictable nature of
humans zero tolerance policies are
common features in our everyday life for
example speed limits are posted on roads
as well as monitored by
officers to prevent speeding yet most
people still speed zero tolerance
species are thus a reactive measure and
not a proactive measure
so
if
there is a failure within the community
we are the ones that immediately
exhibit or feel that impact
thus
how are we going to measure that
so really i want to
i think so your time is up i have 56
minutes oh i'm sorry i don't i can't see
the clock no worries no worries i mean
ultimately what this boils down to is
i'm opposed to it as with very many
other people i applaud and appreciate
what's trying to be done as i too
believe that places like this should be
within a city and a community just not
in a single family residency where there
are families
kids grandchildren everybody coming to
visit friends family
thus i would like to just leave you all
with the question if what all you've
been hearing tonight
leaves you a little bit on edge
just vote no there's too much
uncertainty but i appreciate your time
of listening to me my fellow community
member
community members thank you
all right thank you sir
again on this side
the lady for in the third row i guess
please state your name and let me swear
you in please sidney weimar do you swear
affirm that the testimony you're about
to give is the truth and nothing but the
truth on the penalty of law yes
all right go ahead
so i was originally going to be for this
proposal um i am a huge advocate for
women
especially women that were previously
incarcerated i believe that they could
have positive impacts in society
but medina's lack of information and
answers was concerning
along with the first speaker i ask that
you gather more information ensure that
you have qualified staff
and please do not charge these women's
women more than they can afford since
they will barely be making a living wage
your comment on dropping off someone who
fails at ua was questionable it's
important that someone who leads these
women has their morals and values in
check
i worked hard on what i wrote and i'm
passionate about women's success so this
is what i'll be saying to you when you
can present a better plan
i want to start by saying the majority
of women who enter a halfway house after
prison will be successful in her
reintroduction into society
and the halfway houses that work the
most are the ones who can provide
individualized care
one of the biggest issues recently
released individuals face is housing
halfway houses fill in that gap and
allow for ex-offenders to focus their
attention on rehabilitation and not
where and how they'll get their next
meal and where they will sleep
another huge issue is employment
formerly incarcerated incarcerated
people
experience the 27 unemployment rate in
2018 the highest rate in our nation's
history
halfway house has helped former
offenders get back into the workforce
when people are given a fair opportunity
to participate in the workforce our
economy and society is stronger
i understand your concern for the safety
of yourselves and loved ones however
halfway houses are often for low-risk
offenders who pose no threat to the
surrounding community
the operator of the facility won't be
blindfolded and throwing a dart at a
list of prisoners hoping for the best
these will be carefully selected human
beings who show potential for
rehabilitation
when halfway houses are well regulated
they work
if you prioritize training and hiring
high quality individuals to run the
facility you will receive high quality
results
the fact that this facility will be
smaller will allow for more
individualized focus for each woman
women are more likely to get lost in the
sea of numbers when in larger
non-residential institutions how we
treat ex-offenders after they are
released makes the difference between
success and failure
lastly one in four adults in the u.s
have a criminal record everyone in this
room knows an ex-offender whether it's
your neighbor sister or son would you
want to strip them the opportunity to
better their lives only because of false
narrative of ex-offenders and their
abilities to be rehabilitated these are
human beings and not dangerous monsters
and thank you for
listening right thank you before we have
another speaker i think we need to take
a ten minute break i think some of us
need to perform a biological function
daddy
i'm sorry
sure that's fine in which case you're
going to need more than three minutes
yes
how about five that's fine
okay go ahead can i ask a question first
before my time starts because you're
speaking to the microphone can i ask a
question first before my time starts
go ahead um i just want to clarify
i had spoken to mr banegas and you had
said that
because you're talking to the microphone
so we could hear i had spoken with mr
banegas a while back and he had said
that if that dwelling the the guess the
garage that's part of a apartment
that it had a kitchen that the
that miss medina would have to reside
there
i just want to clarify that
is it that
true
well we can make that as part of you a
part of your presentation you'll ask
another question and he can answer it
okay and then i also want to just
clarify is the city behind this or is
are they do they just help her
get the information together to to try
to do this
now this is something that she presents
to the city as an applicant to to start
this halfway house and she goes through
the process for community development
doing the necessary paperwork getting
what you're seeing here tonight getting
the necessary approvals
okay i'm just asking because she called
you by your first name and i just found
that very
personal i don't remember her doing that
but that's fine okay so i'm ready okay
you can start then let me sway you in
just repeat your name then again it's
susie flores okay let me swear you in do
you swear affirmative testimony you're
about to give is the truth and nothing
but the truth on the penalty of law yes
i do all right go ahead thank you okay
so
i've lived in this neighborhood for 46
years
my parents built the house at 1705 aspen
i bought the house next door to them at
1701 aspen
and i have always felt safe there i have
felt my parents are elderly people
they're in their eighties which most of
the people that live in the neighborhood
are
they're there they've owned the house
since they were built in the sixties
so um
my problem is that i'm not willing to
have someone learn how to run a halfway
house at the expense of my safety and
all the neighbors we have over 70
signatures
of people opposing it
for you know whatever reasons that they
have
but
there's lots of children on that street
i mean we don't know of any of these
peop these women coming out of prison
are going to be sex offenders or
you know i'm and i have grandkids and
i'm just not willing to
you know
put my self at risk while she learns how
to run a halfway house because it
doesn't sound like she even has a
business plan
and to me i would have come to you all
with a business plan first and had all
the answers to all the questions that
anybody would have
so
um
you all were talking about resi
recidivism
i've looked up things and it tells me
that in the state of new mexico it's 50
percent so 50 percent of women in a
three-year span will return back to
prison
so i mean so
we're at 50 risk and what insurance is
she going to have to have she doesn't
know
so is her insurance going to cover
if someone does something to jacqueline
the 89 year old lady that lives right
next door to her by herself
i mean who's going to protect her
you know no all these people have all
these questions you know she said that
people that we think that we're gonna
see flashing lights all the time no we
don't think that we don't think that
we're gonna see flashing lights we think
that we're gonna have people that didn't
know how to follow the laws or the rules
and ended up in prison and a piece of
paper waved at them saying these are the
rules the zeroed policies zero tolerance
you know you must follow them
what's that gonna do it's not gonna save
the neighbor it's not gonna save a kid
walking by
so
i mean those are our concerns and just
like they built that desert hope
apartment building the um housing
authority today there was
somebody that barricaded themselves in
and most of those people are in and out
of jail and
you know
you guys are telling us that or she's
telling us that
um
it's not going to draw attention that
people aren't going to know people know
when people get out of prison families
know when your family members get out of
prison so if you know you had a
boyfriend or a girlfriend or whatever
they're gonna know that you got out and
that you're somewhere in town and
i mean las cruces is a small place
people talk people know where these
halfway houses are
and you know i'm not wanting we have
enough homeless people walking through
our neighborhood because of tent city
and now there's refugees at
um
fat eddies you know the people walking
through our neighborhood again from
there
and we just want our neighborhood to be
safe and i you know i think the majority
of the people in glendale gardens aren't
willing to have
somebody
that
has never run a halfway house i mean i
applaud for her for what she's doing i
mean not everybody you know can step up
and do that but
you know what's her experience running a
halfway house
so we have to
be the ones that she learns and you know
we're the ones at risk
i mean
would any of anybody in this building
would you want somebody that could not
answer any of the questions that she was
asked to have
her
start a halfway house right next door to
you or in your neighborhood
i don't think so
[Music]
does she have to reside there is she
going to reside there with you know put
herself in danger with the rest of the
neighbors
i think she should have to if if it is
approved
if we have to live there she should too
and that's all i have
all right well thank you
is it ready
is there anyone else who wishes to speak
all right seeing none
come back to the commission
is there anyone who has any comments or
i'm sorry i didn't see your hand come
forward
i apologize i didn't see your hand
raised yeah
could you please state your name
sorry about this
i understand i don't listen too good
with them and don't listen too good
without them
anyway my name is larry metz
i love
160 north harassment avenue could you
please take your name again please
second sir state your name again my name
is larry metz all right let me let me
swear you in yes sir 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 all right then go ahead sir
all right
um i'm like
my neighbors and everything concerned
about this the lady
doesn't understand and
as to what's going on and she could not
answer a lot of your questions
right now we're having a lot of roof
raft coming through our neighborhood
we've had a lot of thefts
going on we've got 18 wheelers coming in
through there
traffic flies through there like you
wouldn't believe
and uh
it just according to i've been in this
house for 41 years
moved there in may of 1981
and
i watched neighborhood grow there's been
a lot of there's a lot of neighbors here
now they've been there longer than i
have
and i just can't foresee
uh this being taking place
and like everybody has said no she can't
answer a lot of questions who's going to
regulate her who's going to uh you know
come in and check on
the people that she's
trying to help out and this that and the
other we just we don't know it's not a
good situation
and i don't think it'd be a good idea to
have it in our neighborhood
so that's about all i can say right now
all right thank you
yes sir
again is there anyone else
all right now seeing none we'll go back
to the commission does anybody have any
questions or want to make any comments
before we vote
yes commissioner smith uh i don't have
any questions i do have a few comments
um first of all i want to address my
comments from first from a zoning
decision criteria
and and from the policies and
you know i highlighted several things
within
the criteria
of
you know of this decision process and
you know listening to the public and the
neighbors
you know they touched on a lot of points
i won't revisit them um you know they
articulated them very well
but one thing that just struck me um
you know as far as
being consistent with the purpose and
intent of of the zoning ordinance of
this neighborhood
you know they talked about mitigating
congestion in streets and public ways
i live less than half a mile less than a
mile from from this neighborhood i'm
very familiar with this neighborhood
and i know the growth has occurred you
know there's a walmart there uh right
off um
avenue de mesa
hickory loop has been developed
there has
been a dramatic increase in traffic just
within the last few years
and you know also with the the homeless
population and immigrants that have been
established there
there's been a lot of traffic because it
affects
my neighborhood to the south
and so
looking at what we have to do
um on this commission to make a decision
we have to look at the criteria and just
from that perspective um you know
there's there's some concerns
and also mitigating conflicts among the
neighbors uh this is overwhelmingly
opposed by by the neighbors and
and i understand why because of my
knowledge of that neighborhood i know
that there have been long-term residents
there
and one thing that struck me is
you talk about a neighborhood you talk
about neighbors it's neighbors first
and this is a community of people who
care about this neighborhood
we've had
previous proposals have come up with all
the growth is happening you know on the
east mesa
and
you know that's
new development that's happening and
it's all about houses it's all about
houses
here
in these old established neighborhoods
my house was built in 1948 it's about
the people in the community
and they have genuine concerns
and i appreciate your desire
to establish this halfway house
but
it's a business for you
and
i know that you may care about the
people that are coming in but
you cannot
have this type of business
established in the neighborhood without
understanding what you're getting into
and have a plan for it and so
i can look at it from what we are here
to do as a commission
but i also have to look at it from
from the community standpoint and from
the neighbors in in this neighborhood
and they love their neighborhood they
care about their neighborhood there's a
young man here who bought a home here
because he wants to establish
a family life there and we have people
who've been living there for over 40 50
years they're entrenched they care
and it's important that who whatever
happens in this neighborhood that anyone
that comes in there should care about
this neighborhood also
thank you is there anyone else from this
commission
if not i'd like to make a statement
i can't see tonight i guess i'm sorry
commissioner kaiser go ahead that's okay
thank you chairman uh i i just want to
make um a couple of points here and and
i think
um
you know the the neighborhood has
certainly uh expressed their concerns
tonight
but i also think we need to understand
that there's a lot of evidence out there
that suggests one of the most important
factors for success
for for these underserved populations is
stable housing
in stable neighborhoods
so the fact that we have a neighborhood
that prides itself
on who they are
i think is is a great thing for for
women who have served their debt to
society
they deserve every opportunity to to
succeed
will everyone succeed no of course not
people will trip they'll make mistakes
but we all do
so i think there's some compassion there
that these underserved populations often
don't receive in these conversations
but i do have concerns that
the applicant has not thought this
completely through
um i would have liked to see uh
a better business plan
um as as some of my colleagues have
asked questions
uh that weren't weren't really answered
adequately in my opinion
the thing that really concerns me
probably the most is the lack of
oversight
i think a non-profit with a board
is
would be would provide the oversight to
address some of the concerns that the
neighborhood has brought forward
without that institutional oversight and
support
i just i don't see how this can be
successful and and it needs to be as
successful as it possibly can these
women deserve that
they don't deserve to be put into a
situation
that may not set them up on the right
path from the beginning
so that's all i
all right thank you is there anyone else
all right then i would like to say the
following
that i'm personally very uncomfortable
with this project
i asked a lot of questions and i don't
think the answers that i received
gave me any confidence to
go ahead with
seeing this
going into fruition at this point
there are lots of problems and things
that should have been solved i think
before we got here
but let me just say the following so
that everybody understands what happens
with the procedure
if we as a commission i want to tell you
what your rights are if we as a
commission
vote to approve this
you as the public have the right to
appeal
to the city council
and that appeal is a certain procedure
that you must follow and i would suggest
that if it is approved
that you go to community development
send a representative or someone
to find out what your the appeal process
is and what has to be done
on the opposite end of that if it is not
approved
then the applicant has the right to do
the same thing she can go to city
council and appeal the decision and then
city council will make its final
decision
and that where this will stand
so i think at that point i think we're
ready to have a vote
so can i have a motion
to approve
commissioner smith i move that we
motion to approve uh this this uh
permit uh request
you have a second
we need a little bit more than that mr
chairman point of order mr chairman if i
may does that include any of the
conditions that were stipulated by staff
yes i would include any conditions that
that would be part of this
decision
now do i have a second
someone
we're going to vote
you have your vote you can either vote
yes or no
i'll second the motion
all right
lucky please
board member smith
no
based on
i don't feel that it meets the
consistency and with the purpose and
intent of the others
of the uh zoning ordinance
or uh that it meets all the conditions
of uh elevate las cruces
board member muniz
i think people bought their homes it's
still a pretty well-kept neighborhood
and to raise their children and take
care of their homes and i do not think a
halfway house is
will help them at all
no one could answer the question if it
devalued your home
or raise the value up and my answer is
no
but i do suggest
i'm retired from the ywca i ran a
shelter
and i think the intentions are good with
the people
but i don't think they fully realize the
responsibilities
and liabilities and the insurances and
the things that they have to go through
to make the programs work and i would
suggest that they look at a old
apartment unit and rent the whole entire
thing so my answer is no
board member bennett
i'm voting no i have huge concerns um
there appears to be no business plan not
sure on exactly what insurance will be
needed no board established how um she
will get funding um
uh
or
um
[Music]
uh with such an important facility and
risks i can't approve this even though
there is a huge need um
there's just too much lack of
organizational structure and
and support so i i say no
board member vega
when i first saw this back in november i
thought it was a great idea i'm fully in
support of
getting people off the streets housing
like commissioner kaiser said is like
number one to
to getting established you know being a
part of our society
and that being said after asking
questions today i was really just
disappointed to hear that
this was the first step
considering how much opposition we have
from the neighborhood
i feel if there was a business plan in
place
if there was secure flooding
otherwise and also talking about using
student loans to help pay for this
that's just putting people in debt
as someone that's paid off a bunch of
student loans it's not a fun place to be
and
um
i don't see that as a viable way to
to collect
funding from these individuals so
to move forward right now would be
really setting i feel that would be
setting you up and setting up these
individuals um for failure but i do hope
that you can put a plan together
something that works with your neighbors
potential neighbors
to see some sort of success for the
individuals that you want to work with
so
with all that said i vote no
board member kaiser
when i first read the staff report um
i was generally in favor of this
for the reasons i stated earlier
but after the questioning tonight and
the
answers and lack of answers that we
received
i feel that i owe
the
[Music]
the potential women that would come
through this
a real opportunity and shot at success
and i just don't think that the
institutional structures
are there at the moment um and i and i
hope that
they can go back to the drawing board
and that can get flushed out
um so that these women can succeed
but unfortunately right now i have to
vote now
chairman gordon
i truly
value the purpose of a halfway house i
happen to know someone who had to go
through that process and it was
very beneficial to him
and it definitely served a purpose and
some of the people that he knew from
prison did the same thing in it in most
cases it did worked out it did work out
but with my questions and all the
answers that i did not get like i said i
feel very strongly
uncomfortable in approving this
so for that i vote no also
so i think it makes it 6-0 yes sir thank
you
the applicant does not win approval
all right then we can go to the next
item and the last item on the agenda
which is the
zone change for the property down on
north main
if we give everybody a few minutes a
minute or so to leave we can
okay
just i don't want them
i guess nobody else wanted the same
thing too well maybe we should maybe
we'll look quick
and start over again
i'm smiling underneath this mask
i understand it but you know you have to
understand sometimes
that's the way it goes
so we could have made a motion to deny i
don't think
we didn't have to make a motion to
approve
no we have to do it
emotionally emotionally when you start
all this work you have to make a motion
to approve okay all right
[Music]
uh
are we ready to continue
catherine
i'm ready mr chair i appreciate
everyone's patience this evening we knew
it was going to be a long one and it has
proven to be
um
i'm going to talk about the last last
item on the agenda this is a
zone change
multiple zones at 2700 north main
as
as many of you may or may not know uh
this is the old country club property we
refer it to it was the las cruces
country club for a very long time
consisted of a golf course
there had been a
a facility there
you know that was the actual country
club facility as well
currently the the site is 75 acres
thereabouts
it is vacant with the exception
of the the historic building that that
remains on site
it is r1a that particular zoning is a
medium density single family zone
r1a district
if it were to be developed under that
district
you could subdivide it and develop it as
a essentially a single family housing
subdivision
it's located at the intersection of
north solano and north main which are
both considered arterials which are
appropriate for higher density types of
uses as well as commercial uses
completely surrounded at least on
the north end and on the west end by
commercial development
there is of course apodaca park to the
south
that's a large
park in the core of the city
and
there are also
a single-family residential
subdivision a long-term neighborhood
that's been there the country club
neighborhood that is to the east should
be noted that there are
there's a medical campus and the new
hospital that's been developed somewhat
in the center of this property it is not
part of this zone change that went
through a separate process several years
ago
and
i will go into details about what's
being proposed
here's a map so that you can see
what what the area generally looks like
you can see of course the old
the old golf course here
this particular map isn't showing the
new hospital but it does exist in here
and there are several outlets that were
developed at the same time
that were for ancillary type of uses
essentially rehab facilities or offices
things of that nature in this area
as you can see
the r1a zoning is that light yellow
zoning you can see of course the
neighborhood that i had mentioned
earlier the the country club
neighborhood to the east
and then all of the the red and pink
those would be all of the commercial
zones that surround the property
there's some also there's some
multi-family as well as some office uses
nearby
as i had mentioned this is a zone change
from r1a to multiple zones and i am
going to go into the details of which
each of those mean in just a moment
the applicant is proposing to adopt the
apodaca blueprint as the applicable
master plan that particular blueprint
was adopted in 2018
that's something that many of you on the
commission were part of
it is a
it establishes essentially
the land uses the range of
densities
the general circulation patterns for
major roadways
also the apa daca blueprint
also provided some design in terms of
infrastructure meaning road cross
sections things of that nature and
recommended a number of other
methods by which a menu if you will of
how to achieve certain goals in that
particular area
they're also proposing to um to have a
variance to the front setbacks
so that some of
the
the recommendations in apodaca blueprint
can be met specifically uh set back to
the to the front yards uh five to five
feet uh for all of the zones in question
this would allow um the applicant or
future developers in the area to develop
to build two lines to really try
to incorporate
pedestrian elements and and make a
lively frontage and a front area to some
of the developments um that would occur
in this in this
on this property
again apodaca blueprint was adopted in
2018 really proposed a range of mixed
uses in this area
ultimately the the higher density uses
and the commercial uses further towards
the west and then lower density uses um
patio home type development
things a little less intense towards the
neighborhood to the east so again
towards that existing neighborhood
that was the country club
neighborhood there really is a
pedestrian focus in apodaca brew plant
blueprint really trying to activate that
frontage space
in front of
any sort of future buildings that might
be constructed
bringing those shop windows to the front
bringing stoops to the front
again trying to really
make it a more
pedestrian friendly area whereby people
could walk could live and ultimately
shop
again the blueprint
has identified general access and
circulation those future land uses and
then of course there's this menu of
recommendations to accomplish the
aspirational goals that it
outlined there were several character
areas that were identified in the
apodaca blueprint specific to to this
property
this was considered focus area a
there were actually nine character areas
but today's proposal only six are being
considered
those would be the apodaca preserve
which are located
here
and then also here
cottage residential it's this yellow
area here
if you can see my pointer
there's a flex district which is located
here
in the center
there's something called townhouse
residential
this yellow area here
a commercial center
towards the top
the northern portion and then
town center a little bit lower and as i
had specified before the intent behind
this was really to provide a range of
uses this commercial center in apodaca
blueprint is intended to be
much more of your sort of atypical
commercial development that you see
um
and is intended to to really sort of
match the types of development that you
see along north main street the town
center is is intended to really have a
really robust mix of both residential
as well as commercial uses
and include some civic space and a
number of other amenities
and then
the town house residential is intended
to primarily be attached
housing
again with the ability to convert lower
floors
to live work units or other commercial
low-intensity types of commercial or
office uses
the flex space that i had mentioned
earlier this this brown where my pointer
is pointing
in apodaca blueprint is intended to
really
match the needs of the market at the
time
really allowing for that flexibility to
do either some lower density residential
multi-family residential that is
office uses or some lower intensity
commercial at this location
the proposal as you can see here
the map looks somewhat similar
there are some some exceptions and i'll
talk about that in a second
there's area
1a which is considered an open space
district
that's the name at least that's being
proposed at this point in time it is
located in this green bubble right here
what's being proposed is a mix of both
the open space
recreational district as well as the r2
district which allows for patio homes
lower density type of multi-family
development
townhomes things of that nature
there is also the flex district um
pretty consistent with which is uh with
his which with the map that i showed
previously in apodaca blueprint again a
range of office uses commercial uses and
residential uses possible at this
location really based on on
the market at the time
apodaca preserve
this area
where my pointer is pointing 3a
again very similar to that open space
district this a1
with an open space designation as well
as the ability to possibly have
some small areas of of r2 which would be
the patio home style development
cottage residential
this area 3b
very similar to again what was shown on
that previous map
this is adjacent to that existing
neighborhood really meant to be a
transition
also proposing single-family residential
patio home style development and
possibly a duplex here or there
townhouse residential in this area 3c
one of the differences that you can see
here and i'm going to go back to the
previous map
is that you can see that there was a
green area
indicated here and this has been
extended a little further and i will go
into maybe some conditions that may
address some of those concerns
um but this townhouse house residential
is really intended to allow for
multi-family attached housing
as well as the the potential to convert
lower floors at a future date for really
a live work scenario and the commercial
and town centers again these areas here
the commercial center and area 4b really
intended to be more of our
the typical commercial development we
see
here currently and then
the town center which is this a4 area
they're proposing c3 and this is really
to to
be a mix of both housing and commercial
uses
there
we did go through um
some several iterations of public notice
on this um the the applicant
sent out letters uh prior to
um the submittal um just basically
notifying the neighborhood that hey
we're intending on submitting this
just a heads up
staff
based on just feedback that we received
did host a neighborhood meeting in
december
we had several attendees during that
time in which we discussed the apodaca
blueprint
and generally concerns
about the
both the current conditions on the site
as well as as any future development on
the site
as part of the process we were also we
also sent reviews to all the relevant
agencies and departments
at this time
those departments are supporting the
zone change however as you may have
noted in the staff report there are
several contingencies for future
development it's basically to ensure
that some of the provisions
and recommendations as outlined in the
apodaca blueprint for the types of
development that we want to see and mix
of uses is being adhered to
notice was also sent to surrounding
properties
in advance of this meaning i do want to
let you know that we
essentially when we do our noticing the
the rule is 500 feet in this case we
actually did 800 feet to capture uh that
gap that would be the right of way on
main and solano
so it went a little further than we
normally do
generally the public input that we
received
we're asking a lot of questions about
the process and what all this means and
when certain things happen um
different stages in the process
why zoning now and and why not why not
not specific plans for site development
things of that nature
we also talked about concerns about the
state of the current property there were
a lot of concerns about uh maybe some of
the the vagrant activities that were
occurring in the vacant building that
was there
weeds some fires i guess that have
occurred over the last couple of years
on the property
things of that nature
of course as is typical with any sort of
future development
concerns about traffic congestion and or
connectivity
were topics of discussion
staff also received some inquiries about
the drainage and how that would be
handled again
drainage while
apodaca blueprint did specify maybe the
general drainage patterns and how this
should operate
any future site development that would
include subdivision
site-specific development things of that
nature
would require any sort of master
drainage plan and then of course more
refined drainage plans as the
development
moves on
another question had to do with park
connectivity and expansion
i know that during the apodaca blueprint
initiative there was a lot that focused
on
integrating the park
the ability for people to get there and
connect the neighborhood next door
to this new development
and i'm going to go through all of the
conditions that staff's recommending so
that you can see
how we propose to do that
again consistency with the apodaca
blueprint making sure that in the future
as the site gets developed that the
concepts in apodaca blueprint aren't
lost
and because the applicant is stating
this is the plan we're following
when
when any future development comes
through our department if this were to
be approved
staff would ensure one of course the
zoning is being adhered to
and we would also ensure that as
the infrastructure is put in as the
buildings are constructed and the sites
are laid out that those adhere
to those principles that are outlined in
the plan
we did receive a number of inquiries
however only two formal statements of
opposition to portions of this request
and i did distribute those prior to the
meeting and they were emailed to you
earlier today
i do know that those members of the
public at least one of them
who provided that is here and would like
to make a presentation
but i do want to talk about staff's
recommendation
in particular the conditions that we're
recommending associated with each of
these areas and each of these zones
staff is recommending approval again
with conditions to ensure that as
development moves forward it does adhere
to this plan and it's clear to anyone
whether it be the current developer or
any future buyers that they understand
that that's how that should be
constructed moving forward
and i'm going to go over those
right now so there are a couple of
general conditions
one um no future development shall occur
without adherence with the apodaca
blueprint as the guiding master plan
including but not limited to roadway
design trail and pedestrian connections
land use and building placement
also a general condition no site
development shall occur prior to the
submittal and approval of a master
drainage plan master utilities plan
and traffic impact analysis
something to note again these are all
standard procedures
later in the development process that
would be required anyway but we do want
to reiterate it here that those would be
required
now here comes the conditions associated
with each of these areas
area one again this is the open space
district if you recall somewhat towards
the the south um adjacent uh to apodaca
park on the um
east of apodaca park
this is the open space recreation
multi-dwelling low density proposal
and staff is recommending that the
residential uses are limited to no more
than 50 percent of the total acreage the
rest would be dedicated to
to open space essentially
dwelling types shall be limited to
single-family detached dwellings patio
homes townhomes duplexes triplexes and
quadplexes
buildings again shall not exceed two
stories and that would be in keeping
with the neighborhood
to the east
it should be noted that the r1a zone
that is
the makeup of the neighborhood to the
east and is the current zoning on the
property allows for actually 35 feet
which is approximately a three-story
building
dwelling shall be no further than 15
feet from the front property line again
this is in keeping with trying to to
push those structures towards the front
to really activate
the frontage um
in those public spaces
and the vehicle and and access or
garages should be concealed from the
street or placed in the rear again to
sort of really de-emphasize
the the automobile and and try to
emphasize more of the pedestrian feel in
these areas
area 2a this is the flex district this
was that brown spot in the middle of the
development that we had talked about
earlier again
what's being proposed is the
multi-dwelling medium density the office
professional limited retail service and
then commercial medium intensity at this
location
again uh in apodaca blueprint this was
really intended to be a much more of an
open uh concept
and so uh at least we're we're trying to
recommend
that um
that the the the massing uh matches that
of the adjacent zones so in this case
that the building shall not exceed two
stories again the building shall frame
the street frontages she'll be no
further than 15 feet from the property
line
and that the parking lots and
areas or those parking areas should be
minimized meaning that they should not
be along the street frontage but rather
placed in the back
of buildings
area 3a apodaca preserve this is the
area that ran
sort of in the north of the property
again adjacent to
the east
and that and the existing neighborhood
to the east
staff is recommending that the
residential uses again are limited to no
more than 50 percent
and that
those residential uses shall be located
against either the cottage residential
to the south
or legacy drive which is on the western
side and that the area between those
residences and
the neighborhood to the east be open
space
dwelling types should be limited to
single family detached dwellings petty
homes town homes duplexes triplexes and
quad plexes the building shall not
exceed two stories dwellings shall be no
further than 15 feet from the front
property line again no more than total
of the 50 50 of the dwelling shall be
attached and then vehicle and access and
garages again concealed from the street
cottage residential this was that yellow
area that was at the southeastern end of
the proposal
what's being proposed is r1b and r2
again trying to provide a transition to
that neighborhood to the east dwelling
types shall be limited to single family
detached dwellings petty homes townhomes
duplexes triplexes and quadflexes again
no further than 15 feet from the front
property line only detached dwelling
shall be allowed
adjacent to the existing neighborhood to
the east
and no more than 50 of the dwellings
shall be attached
vehicle access and garage is again
concealed from the street and then the
maximum height limited to one story
adjacent to those existing neighborhoods
to the east
townhouse residential area 3c
this was the area that was just north of
apodaca park
and i had mentioned earlier that the
area was expanded on the zoning map
however
the reason that staff has some
conditions in here is to accommodate
some open space requests that had been
in a daca blueprint
specifically at the time of development
no less than three acres shall be
dedicated toward parkland with adequate
connectivity to apodaca park
again buildings limited to two stories
at least on the eastern end and then
four stories except for those structures
and four stories as you move further
towards the west
commercial and office uses constrained
to the ground floor only no detached
housing they all have to be attached and
that is per apodaca blueprint
parking lots again
in the rear of the buildings or at least
mitigated and then buildings framing the
street and
buildings no place no further than 15
feet from the front property line
buildings in area a4 this is the town
center again this was that truly
mixed-use center
residential and commercial again framing
the street frontages no further than 10
feet building heights not to exceed
three stories except those adjacent to
north solano and north main street
parking lots again
mitigated as much as possible and not
placed along the street frontages and
then residential and commercial
development um meeting a specific ratio
a minimum of 60 of the acreage is
residential and maximum 40 is commercial
there's an additional
caveat to this
that provides a
an equation if you will staff is
recommending that i just didn't list it
here just simply just to save room on
the slide and last but not least area 4b
which is the commercial center
again c3 which is a general commercial
designation buildings again framing the
street frontages the driveway edges or
the civic spaces and again parking lots
being minimized as much as possible
and i know that that was just an
enormous amount of information i'm happy
to answer any questions go back to any
maps we do have a presentation by the
applicant who is here and again we do
have them as have something they would
like to present as well
thank you catherine i just said i need a
question i i was under the impression
that someone told me that the those
buildings that i run the property with
from the old las cruces country club
were designated to be historical
so i'm happy to answer that question so
yes the um the building that is
currently there um
is uh was built i believe in the 1920s
it's a tourist and trost building there
was some architects from el paso it is a
historic
structure
as i understand it it's not gone through
any formal
historic commission or historic
preservation commission
action at this point in time it does
exist on on the property we are aware of
it um there have been some questions
about whether or not it it could be
retained um the applicant during the
construction of the hospital which is of
course adjacent to this property
did they they did demolish a portion of
the building those were the portions
that were non-historic and some
ancillary buildings so what remains on
the property is just the historic
structure right now
i will defer to the applicant about what
the future of that building is all right
so i'll ask only as my question then if
whether it will if it does receive
historical
certification whether or not it will
stay or are they going to try to have it
removed raised
okay thank you you're welcome
are there any questions from the
commission
okay
i'm glad i could hear from the applicant
please if they have something to say
if you would please state your name
cassie pabin
and let me swear you in please
do you swear affirmative 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 thank you
uh good evening i know it's been a long
night i don't want to repeat a lot of
the information catherine went over but
like she said there's a lot here
we've been working on this for quite
some time now together
in conjunction with the city as we look
to continue to develop that site
so some of this might be repetitive but
i just i want to make sure we're all on
the same page and understanding as we go
through this
the application that's before you as
catherine mentioned is for the former
las cruces country club property
the property that is under consideration
in this application is within the area
that has the red lines
as you see through it it does not
include the hospital as that is already
built
and operating and it also does not
include the parcels that sit directly
north of hart drive
part of the reason it does not include
that is
the ownership group that i represent
does not control
those parcels therefore it would be
highly inappropriate and actually i
would probably guess illegal for me to
propose to do something
on those parcels so we're just talking
about everything that's within that kind
of weird shape
that has the red lines through it i also
really want to stress because i as
i sat in on the neighborhood meeting
that was held in december
and just over the course of time there
was a lot of confusion about what the
application really was this application
is purely rezoned it's the very very
initial step to be able to start any
development process that we would
undertake
without zoning it makes it extremely
difficult to start putting plans
together for projects it also makes it
extremely difficult
to be able to go to market to find end
users i.e any commercial activity to be
able to take place without proper zoning
in fact
most end users won't even talk to you if
you don't have zoning already in place
when you go to talk to them about a
location
so again it's purely rezoning no
development
at this point in
time as catherine mentioned current
zoning r1a
in our evaluation of it
knowing highest and best use knowing the
extensive process that the city went
through and going through the apodaca
blueprint
could you develop something with r1a yes
in our opinion and i would believe the
city's opinion based on the adoption of
the blueprint that is not the highest
and best use of this property
as it stands today you basically could
do single-family housing and depending
on how you sliced and diced it
you'd get some lots but again
i think everybody recognizes
what could be there
the epodaca blueprint katherine went
into a lot of detail on it i won't spend
a lot of time but as she mentioned we
have elected to adopt this as our master
plan
we recognize that there's been
significant investment
from the community in terms of input
into the master plan
as well as taxpayer dollars spent to be
able to go through that process to
create this plan
as we've looked at it
throughout the course of time since
we've owned the property
there are a number of things there that
we believe the brew plant does
allow that we would we would agree with
so as we've continued to evolve through
this process it made sense
to navigate this as a master plan as
something that was already adopted
the next couple slides are really the
pages that highlight the areas these are
straight from the blueprint i'm not
going to read it i know it's really
small
but it really kind of gives you an idea
of some of the thought process that we
went through as we were
going through each of the areas trying
to figure out what zoning made sense how
the various conditions came to came to
be
there are a lot of conversations back
and forth with
myself in the city regarding various
potential conditions conditions some of
the conditions that catherine outlined
that the city is recommending are
actually conditions that we offered up
ourselves
to make sure that the intent of the
blueprint is actually being followed as
this property continues to be developed
same on this slide just more background
information on the various zones that
are in place
and then the proposed zoning so
as catherine mentioned here are the
various areas within there
as you start on the east i'm going to
work from east to west because i think
it tells a little bit easier story here
with the existing neighborhood that sits
along the east side here a common
practice would be to have a similar type
product that sits right next to that
so as we were looking at the property as
we were looking at available options the
intent to the blueprint
we were able to find a couple of
different things that matched what we
think the market is currently calling
for and allowing to build
i and i say that is we're always looking
at what the market's going to allow you
to do
but as i stand here we don't have plans
i can't show you a pretty picture of
what something might look like
that's not even on the table yet because
quite frankly the ownership group isn't
interested in investing additional
dollars
to get to that point until we know we
have proper zoning in place
so
residential on this side
this one a that katherine mentioned um
there were areas highlighted within the
apodaca blueprint that kind of show that
is more of a drainage or a continuation
of an arroyo
we believe based on some initial
investigation that was done that's
probably a likely place for that to
continue but until we get into that full
drainage study to actually know the
location that's why you see that dual
zoning being allowed there
um
c
3c i'll talk about that for a second and
a little bit of our context of why we
move that the entire space
it does actually play into that 1a
so until you're able to fully understand
the drainage impacts what needs to take
place by doing that full drainage study
from a development standpoint it would
not make any sense to limit the
abilities until you fully know the whole
picture so that's why we extended that
all the way over compared to what you
see in the blueprint and then again
catherine covered
2a that flex district to allow
flexibility based on market needs at
that time
as well as 4a and 4b which are pretty
heavy
heavily dominated commercial with some
of the activities the
formula if you will that is proposed as
one of the conditions for the
residential development
within the townhouse residential area
this 4a is actually something
our organization has utilized in the
past on previous development so it's
something that
it's actually fairly commonplace across
the united states
when you're getting into these types of
situations to ensure that you have an
appropriate mix of use
and i'm happy to go into the formula in
more detail if you'd like it's it's
pretty simple it's just a simple ratio
that you go back and forth sixty percent
of it at least has to be dedicated
towards
residential 40 percent commercial
activity
there's a way to calculate that if you
do a mixed use building with ground
floor
commercial and residential above it in
terms of allocation
the biggest thing
i think as we've gone through everything
we've gone through listening to public
input at the meeting in december
there seems to be a lot of confusion
about what we're presenting versus
what's in the appadaca blueprint
the blueprint
is a master plan master plans as you
guys know
are a basis to start development from
they can have some fluidity to them
although they should be adhered to for
the most part but it's a place to start
from so you're not creating anything out
of the ordinary
what we're proposing
actually matches what's in the blueprint
if you go through the
blueprints that's a tongue twister maybe
it's
maybe it's the time of night i don't
know but as you go through the blueprint
itself
and someone can correct me if i'm wrong
but nowhere in there does it actually
say this area should be dedicated as
like r1a or r1b
it gives characteristics and
generalities
we believe with the proposal we have
we've captured that
to the best of the intent
and with the zoning being requested as
well as the conditions that are placed
upon each of the zonings
with that i'm happy to answer any
questions i'm sure there's lots of them
and we're just excited to continue
moving forward in this process to
continue to have development happen at
that site
all right thank you for your
presentation don't go yet
catherine just do me a favor could you
come up here to the podium i might have
another question for you but if i don't
if you look at
map 2b which says fosis focus area a
is that the original
apodaca blueprint
in my packet
so um this
right here
yes that i'm swirling around yes is the
original apodaca blueprint focus area
okay what happened to the park expansion
that looked like it got taken over by
3c sure and so that both um cassie and i
i spoke to that um
one of the provisions or one of the
conditions that that's listed in the
area 3c is that no less than 3 acres be
dedicated towards parkland
with
essentially
integration or at least
access and connectivity
between the park in that area okay is
the water feature still going to stay
there
i'll answer some of that so part of that
expansion process until we actually know
actual location of buildings and what
that looks like and have i would say
some further conversation with city
departments about the park expansion or
or green space or whatever that ends up
becoming
that's why you see it expanded but with
the condition that's on there we believe
we achieve
the intent of the blueprint the water
feature that's there so on this side of
it
where this is showing it that's actually
on park property that's on avadaka park
itself okay um so
if the city wants to do something i'm
i'm sure they have that but i i would
tell you it's probably going to be
dependent upon what happens and where
drainage
um ends up within this area here which
is 1a so so we're going to see all this
when when planning comes up
yes all right
all that will be so
these areas today that's the other i
think little misnomer that's out there
the areas that are you're seeing on our
plan that are shaded today this is not a
re-plat either it's just a rezone we're
giving approximate
acreage sizes within each of the areas
and it is fairly common practice with
larger areas like this rather than do an
initial plot to go ahead and do areas
and come in and subdivide at a later
time all right thank you
before we go to the public is there
anyone from the commission who has any
questions
commissioner kaiser
first i just want to say this is a very
exciting project and i think it's a
complete game changer
for this region specifically or this
part of the city
but as a city as a whole i think this is
really the right way to go with all of
our developments
i have a couple of questions
this is probably more directed to staff
so
in the appadoca blueprint there's
actions there's four of them b1 2 3 and
that talk about feasibility studies
for some of the road reconfiguration and
things like that
will that be part of this uh required
traffic impact analysis
excellent question uh mr chair members
of the commission commissioner kaiser um
the
the tia i know that that um the
applicants worked very closely with our
traffic engineer to determine the scope
of that
and some of the um questions have
revolved around how some of these
connections would work
there has been long-term discussions in
the city
about
this i don't know if you can see the
pointer right here
any sort of future potential to connect
and and make this
essentially a better access at this
location
while the applicant may be part of the
discussions this is off-site and
unfortunately would require some
condemnation a number of other things
but
there are some conversations that still
need to be had about some of the
connectivity again that's further down
the line
and portions of it will be addressed as
part of the the tia i don't know if i
fully answered your question but
no no i think you you did i just want to
i guess just add on to that wall i i
understand that some of these
elements might be
off the actual property site
they will have an impact their
development is going to impact it so i
think it's fair to look at
what can be done to mitigate that
um you know we don't just build things
in a silo or in a vacuum here
but thank you for that the other the
other question that i had
[Music]
kind of related to i guess mobility and
connectivity so we've got the travis
trail that's just the north that goes
under
i guess 70 slash main street
but there's no actual connection there
would this project actually physically
make a connection with the trail there
i'll go ahead and answer that um
if
if you follow the intent of the
blueprint and as we've worked through
zoning on area 3a
that's why you see that dual zoning for
the open space as well as the potential
for some lower density residential to be
able to allow for that connection again
it's all part of the blueprint master
plan it's the intent to follow that
master plan
but as we sit here today i can't tell
you i have specs i can't tell you we've
had those conversations just because
we don't even know exactly what product
and lot size and everything that would
go
on that area as we sit here today but
the intent would be and i think has been
through all the discussions we've had
um
for for quite a while now that there
would be that connection there
at some point in time it's just there's
a lot of conversations there that
were
yes it impacts it it impacts zoning but
it doesn't impact zoning if that makes
sense like it's part of the future
development that comes later as we're
going through and undertaking those
parcels
yeah i understand i just i just want to
make sure that
all said and done we don't end up with a
20-foot gap between the trail in which
case we haven't connected anything
and likewise to the neighborhood to the
east
i think there's opportunities to
actually extend
any sort of trail development or parklet
development
that comes out of i guess
would be zone 3b
i believe there's a drainage easement
into
the the neighborhood on the east that
would be another great opportunity to
actually physically make that connection
with surrounding
neighborhoods yeah and those are all
conversations that i know ownership is
definitely willing to enter into with
the city as we start to undertake
parcels for development
excellent thank you
and then a couple i think maybe probably
my last question
um
[Music]
i think it mostly relates to the the 4b
general commercial area
um
i think my general concern there and i
know looking at the epidoca blueprint
there's a conceptual sort of site plan
there and i know it's conceptual i know
there's lots of
variables that are still in play but
it's an incredible amount of parking
that has been sort of conceptualized
there and
i'm a little concerned about that
because
the more parking you add to the site
you're already detracting
you're going in the opposite direction
of everything that the apadoca blueprint
is is
striving for so
i guess maybe my question is directed to
staff
are there conversations about
capping the amount of parking in some of
these locations or any sort of
conversation about that i'm going to
take a stab first before i turn it over
to catherine um
part of the conversation we've had as
we've looked at this entire site because
we do recognize and if there's one thing
and i've talked with christian
at health that has
put together this
on several occasions over the past few
years
if there's one thing that i probably
disagree with that they did is putting
that conceptual plan in there i know you
have to do it but it makes it really
difficult as you go to do development
because undoubtedly someone's gonna say
well
there was supposed to be a building here
well yes and no right so as we've looked
at that and i mentioned that because as
we look at that and you look at the
parking that's there one of the
strategies
that we would look at as we're starting
to place buildings and have development
come online would be a shared parking
strategy amongst that entire area
that's why you have complementary uses
that would be able to accommodate
daytime parkers versus nighttime parkers
different peaks all those types of
things
great thank you
are there any other questions
before we go to the public before i
forget i just want to ask you a question
catherine
if you turn it on let's just have one
quick question
uh regarding uh the flex district uh
what are the factors that determine um
whether
um it's going to be developed as a r3 or
o2 or c2
i would say as we sit here today a lot
of it's going to be market demand
what we're seeing
what's out there as we go to take down
that area in terms of development if
there's a weak office demand we're not
going to put up an office building but
if there's a strong office demand and a
need for it that potentially could be a
complementary use to the hospital
facility you could potentially see that
come in
you could also see a product come in
where if there's a decent office market
and a decent
um
we'll just say multi-family market um
you could see some sort of combination
of those two uses too but it's really
going to be market driven
it unfortunately it has to be
okay thank you
katherine i just want to ask you a first
question this this was asked to me by a
resident it has nothing to do with the
rezoning but you can just give me a yes
or no if you don't know maybe you can
find out do you know whether or not
camino del rey is ever going to
have access to samaritan drive
camino del rex
yes right on the north side of the
hospital property that goes into
samaritan so there there are a couple of
access points of course there's the
primary intersection um which is
samaritan and and maine and then there
is an access point which um
is legacy drive at camino del rex
which is i don't know if you can see my
pointer right here that you can see it
definitely um where they have this this
red arrow right here and then on the the
proposed map it's sort of generally at
this location that is constructed
and ultimately will provide some
additional access into
the development okay
all right i guess now it's time to go to
the public can i ask how many people
would like to speak
please raise your hand
one two
um
is there a sp
is there anybody here speaking for the
neighborhood
you are okay sir who are you speaking
for yourself
okay
if i just give you a few minutes would
you be able to say what you have to say
all right why don't you come first and
then we'll let her speak for the
neighborhood because she'll have a lot
of questions and things to ask i know
he says please state your name and i'll
swear you in
george pearson all right
do you swear or affirm that the
testimony about the game is the truth
and nothing but the truth under penalty
of law yes all right go ahead sir thank
you okay my question
may not be appropriate for the zoning
but it has to do with the traffic
patterns and currently madrid if you're
just speaking to the microphone i'm
sorry
currently madrid is a bicycle facility
so as you come up madrid you have to
control the intersection
you cross
into the park and then go around the
park and come out on madrid and then you
can continue up madrid
the zoning doesn't really show anything
what might happen but the plan shows
that a total reconfiguration
that might put you out on solano might
do something so my
comment is and concern and for the
developer to make a note of i think
is that a an appropriate bicycle
facility be maintained along the madrid
corridor
i'm looking at the map
i know what you're talking about
but
i don't think the apotheca park has
anything to do with this
the current
state is if you come up madrid
there's a controlled intersection that's
solano right
you can continue straight into the park
yes i know that and then you go around
the park you come out to madrid yes and
then you can go up madrid
so that
general idea needs to be maintained as a
safe bicycle facility
i can't answer that question right
that's
i don't know if this if this is
katherine maybe you could help us i
don't think this is part of the of the
avadaka park
so i can answer a couple of questions um
members of the commission mr pearson
so
as we move forward and if anything
internally of course gets developed our
our active transportation planner will
participate uh in in reviewing any of
those and ensuring
that um any sort of multimodal
facilities are incorporated when it
comes to madrid itself
i would encourage you to speak with
public works if i recall they're
actually undergoing
at least some design right now to
determine how to do some improvements
natasha billy i believe is the engineer
who's been working on that
okay yeah what catherine's referring to
is there is a tap a transportation
alternative program grant that the city
has
to
improve
it's actually walnut to madrid madrid
down to solano
input and the engineers have indicated
that they would stop the bicycle
facilities
at the apadaca park turn because
otherwise you're sending bicyclists into
an unsafe intersection so there are
traffic
there's
traffic issues to look at for
multi-modal uses in this area
all right well maybe you can just
follow through with this with katherine
maybe she could direct you to the right
person to speak with
but i understand your concern thank you
all right if you'd like to come forward
how much how much time do you think
you're going to need
five minutes
yeah i'll work with that you sure now
you're the only person left
standing
eva navarro saint john president of
country club neighborhood association
okay let me sway you in then please
thank you do you swear affirm that the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth of nothing but the truth under
penalty of law i do thank you okay i
hope i can get this mic now
um
okay um the main things that i want to
point out is that and i'm glad the maps
are up there
is that for five out of the seven
districts that they're requesting zoning
changes for
some of the zoning they're asking for is
significantly different than what is
represented in the apodaca blueprint
now the apodaca blueprint doesn't give
zoning
numbers or codes but the descriptions in
the pages that you have for each
character area
and i went through those and the zoning
code so that's my comments are based on
that
so the first one is for area 1a
and in the apodaca blueprint that area
is 100
open space and the primary use is for
drainage
while the zoning application is asking
for r2
which would allow up to 15 units per
acre including apartments
with a total with up to 50 percent of
the total acreage for residential
so
again to be consistent with the
blueprint uh the r2 zoning should be
denied it should only be
the osr or whatever that is open space
zoning
is this part of the flex district no
that's the um the green part with the
drainage i'm sorry you see on the
apodaca blueprint map
where you see the blue water coming
through there
that's a 100 open space on apodaca
blueprint
i'm so i'm sorry to entry up you go
ahead
okay the next area is the 2a flex
district and the blueprint provides for
a professional office and single lot
single family
and or townhouse residential
the application is requesting zoning of
r3 which allows up to 20 units per acre
and c2
so you'll note that the blueprint does
not provide for any commercial it only
provides for professional office
so the appropriate residential zoning
would be r1a or r1b to cover small lot
single family or townhouse residential
and 01 or o2 would be the appropriate
zoning for office use
c2 is not
appropriate because there's no
commercial mentioned in the blueprint
area 3a is the apodaca preserve and the
blueprint describes that as
open space corridor set aside for public
use that links apodaca park with the
outfall channel trail
no more than 10 percent may be used for
single family residential
uh applicant is requesting r2 zoning
with up to 50
of the total acreage for residential
again not consistent with the blueprint
so the appropriate residential zoning
would be r1c or r1a for
single-family residential and no more
than 10 percent of the total acreage
should be for residential
area 3b is the one called cottage
residential that's the yellow one
and that provides in the blueprint for
small lot single family and townhouse
development with townhouses for no more
than 50 percent of the total units and a
maximum height of two stories
next to apodaca park only
the application requests r1b and r2
zoning with no maximum height
so again the appropriate residential
zoning would be r1c or r1a
for
single family and townhouse development
and townhouses should be no more than 50
percent of total units that was not
included in the conditions
and units should be limited to a maximum
height of one story except units
adjacent to apodaca park
area 3c this is the one where they went
totally off the rails
this is supposed to be 100 residential
in the form of two and three story
attached housing units
the application requests are for
according to the zoning code r4 the only
residential uses under r4 are mobile
home parks and apartments
and it also allows for retail
institutional and service oriented uses
then the c2
with a maximum of four stories
townhouses cannot be built under r4 so
you have a section called townhouse
residential where you cannot build
townhouses under the zoning they're
requesting
also the maximum height should be three
stories
and the c2 zoning should be denied glad
you can finish you have much more
the only other thing well two points
uh on in area 4b commercial
the blueprint requires or
suggests heights of maximum two stories
and there is
no reference to any maximum building
height in their proposal or the
conditions so that should be two stories
and then just one comment as far as when
the
traffic impact analysis master drainage
and utility plans should be
required
it says
no site development sale occur and i
would suggest that the same conditions
that were put in with the zoning that
was approved in 2013 for the hospital
area
that
that be required prior to the issuance
of the first building permit or a
subdivision
application
excuse me which would be a little more
specific than
no site development
all right thank you very much does
anybody have any questions
um
katherine i have a question
and i guess the representative for the
well thank you ma'am
i don't know i don't know how to
say this
i'm sure that the city discusses with
the builder with the owner of the
property
and i assume that also that the zoning
that was proposed here this evening
was agreed to by the builder
the owner uh that would be correct our
initial application was to rezone the
entire 75 acres as c3 because we viewed
that as a way to
[Music]
as the code reads today there's a lot of
capabilities that you can do under c3
after a lot of consultation with the
city this is how we ended up with the
multiple zones with the multiple uses
rather than just a blanket
c3 zoning so yeah i mean there was a lot
of conversation about it um
even to the point of that's why you see
on the area 1a
that the neighborhood is
is saying is completely false we don't
know as we sit here today exactly where
that drainage is going to locate so i
can't draw out an area we we kind of
think we do
but
we can't i
i would be doing a disservice as a
property owner by drying out an area
that might not be drainage
and vice versa so because what if i
indicated on the master plan it was one
area when it really needed to be the
other that's why you see that dual
zoning to allow us that flexibility to
go in get that done
so then that way we know exactly what
we're dealing with in that area
so
basically what i'm asking here then is
apparently that this is sort of etched
in stone if if this is changed in any
manner the developer will not pursue
this project
i would say as we sit here today the
uses because they are consistent with
the intent of the apodaca blueprint
we would have to have some serious
conversations with the city
as we feel that what is being proposed
is a good combination of rather than
doing a blanket zoning
but again i can't move forward
with any development of the property
until i have zoning in place
so i mean it'll sit as it is today until
we have a proper zoning in place in
order to develop the property
so
i mean i'm very anxious to see this
property develop it's been sitting
vacant since god knows when for so many
years now and it's just an eyesore and
it's a piece of beautiful property that
can be developed and
certainly service this entire
north
west part of the city and perhaps for
people who want to come from any other
parts of the city
all right the other thing i would add in
there
too is part of the reason why you don't
see on the zoning map road locations is
because we don't know exactly how those
layout yet we have an idea based off of
the blueprint but again the blueprint is
the policy
until we really get in we know exactly
what drainage looks like utilities look
like we can't place roads on a zoning
map
i mean that's part of the development
process that you're going through so
that's why you don't see some of those
things on what the proposal is today
where you just see blocks you know some
of those areas will probably shrink down
a little bit by the time you put roads
in you allow for various rise aways
drainage et cetera
but that's why you don't see that as
presented today i know part of the
original negotiation with the city
way back when was this ted problem
with who's going to pay for the
infrastructure
is i assume that the builder is going to
be paying for the infrastructure not the
city um the tid application process for
this is not part of any of the zoning
it's not part of the discussion right
now
i can't i don't have a crystal ball i
can't say that there wouldn't be some
sort of negotiation in the future as to
what that looked like but as we sit here
today we are not in conversations about
a tid with the city okay
so catherine if if we approve this and
the builder at some point in times comes
back and says you know this particular
3c or whatever one of these numbers is
does not quite fit
his purpose or what he can do there is
he is he able to come back and ask for a
zoning change
mr uh commissioner gordon uh members of
the commission
if there was something that just wasn't
quite fitting like anybody else in the
city it's their due process they could
go through
another rezoning process or or another
initiative to to try to relieve
perhaps some conditions or or change it
to fit the needs or what they feel
maybe we missed something perhaps
i hope not i i don't we've worked a long
time on this but
um they would have the ability to come
back in if that were to happen
okay well thank you as
anybody else on the commission have any
questions
okay commissioner fraser
uh i i guess just for a promise or
rather i'm sorry that's okay for a point
of clarification so
what what happens should this get
approved would would this body have an
opportunity to comment on some of the
the more
finer details
in this development
i'm i'm happy to answer that
commissioner kaiser members of the
commission
yes at any time we're going through any
of the the subdivision processes this
commission is a deciding body on those
subdivisions and so at that time you
would see a much more refined layout of
perhaps what could occur at that
location i do want to point out though
when it comes to once those lots are
carved out and we're talking about site
specific development
no that will be an entirely
administrative process and you wouldn't
be necessarily part of that process but
at the subdivision process absolutely
you'd get an opportunity to see where
those lots were falling uh whether or
not any of that property was being
dedicated to open space what types of um
road layouts may occur or even some of
the cross sections that would
would be part of those subdivisions
well we're going to see all this when it
comes in for planning
that is correct right
okay
anyone else
all right then
i'd like to entertain a motion on this
so so
just for clarification so if we're
adding these um conditions do we have to
list off every single thing or can we
just say with the conditions listed
in in the in the packet or
that's a really good question you could
simply say the conditions outlined
during staff's presentation or outlined
in the packet
in other words we're going to vote on
this as a whole that's correct that's
fine okay that's good
something do i have a motion
all motion to approve based on staff's
conditions
a second
lucky
board member smith
yes
i need your reasoning too please i
apologize it's getting late um based on
staff recommendation and also it
complies with the elevate las cruces
comprehensive plan
thank you board member bennett
uh i vote yes based on staff
recommendation meets elevate las cruces
uh meets the purpose and intent of the
code uh along with following the apodaca
blueprint master plan
board member vega
to vote yes based on staff
recommendation meets elevate las cruces
and i look forward to seeing some
positive change in that development area
board member kaiser
yes based on consistency with the
elevate loss crisis comprehensive plan
apodoca blueprint and staff's
recommendation
chairman gordon
i also vote yes
based on
elevate las cruces uh staff discussion
the presentation
and i have seen this property vacant for
quite a long time and i'll be very happy
to see it developed so i vote yes i
guess that's
5-0 5-0 yes sir thank you
all right thank you everyone
let's see
is there any commission commentary
anybody have anything to say
if not uh staff announcements
thank you mr chairman uh larry nichols
community development for the record
three very brief items
first welcome
and congratulations to all the elected
officers
on the commission tonight and we look
forward to working with you on our
future projects this coming year
and i was very happy that you were able
to see the
update and the process and the progress
on the
realized las cruces land use
progress from the consultant and lastly
this was a record year 2021 was a record
year for
overall construction development
and activities regardless of the
pandemic we set records nearly
everywhere 907 new residential homes
326 million dollars of development
so that was all attributed to the work
that you helped us with thank you
and the hard work of your staff
i need a motion to adjourn
i make a motion to adjourn second
second all in favor
aye aye good night
you