[Music]
today is tuesday september 28th
2021 and it's six o'clock
first on our agenda is to call a meeting
to order which we'll do now
then second is conflict of interest as
anybody up here on the dyson commission
have any conflict of interest with any
items on the agenda tonight
i've seen all no no okay
item number three is approval of the
minutes
i have a motion and
two a minute
oh it has to be red right here i'm sorry
i know it's not working you're pushing
the button
let's try that
it's not working either hers just goes
red
can you hear me now
it's backwards
all right i make a motion we
accept the minutes
i'll i'll second it
we have a motion and a second to approve
the minutes in any discussion does
anybody have anything to add or ask or
correct in the minutes
just when we vote
okay
can we have a role paul yes board member
smith
here yes
thank you board member garetto
it you can only have mr smith if you
could turn yours off thank you okay
there we go sorry yes thank you
for remembering niece
here
no i need you to vote on the minutes
please
i need you on the microphone please
can you hear me now yes thank you yeah i
wasn't in attendance so you're
abstaining yes i was absent i wasn't at
the meeting board member bennett i
abstain
board member gordon
yes
chairman thomas yes thank you
our next item is
postponements we don't have any of those
the next item then is public
participation
is there anyone here who wants to speak
about an item that is not on the agenda
if you're here to speak about an item on
the agenda we'd like you to wait until
we get to that item
but if you have something else you're
welcome to come up now
do i see someone in the back
did you want to come up and say
something
okay you want to come up to the
microphone here and state your name
just before she comes
my name is mary bartelt
could you say that again mary bartelt
okay mary and would you tell us about
your problem
i have been made aware that there is a
transition house
being considered
in the neighborhood
for women
where do you live
on 10
17 tamarack drive
i don't think i know where that is with
giving me a general idea where it is in
the city it's one block off
the hickory drive
okay
and and um this is
a transition house is this from the um
community of hope
um no the lady is um
her name is theresa medina is the owner
of the home and she's trying to make it
into a transition home for six or seven
women who are being
let out of prison but she intends to
have them
secluded for three to nine months
and that they will be allowed out for
certain activities
but they will have no visitors neighbors
friends allowed at the house
and i feel if they're already locked up
and they're coming out and they still
need
three to nine months of attention
by some guardian
that she claims will be living in the
house
is not um
very good for the neighborhood
so this isn't something that really
applies to planning and zoning
but we have someone from the staff here
who wants to say something
madam chair commissioners uh what is
being referenced is a case that has been
submitted
in air there's a case that currently
came to us it was a re-zone request but
it needs to be a special use permit
and it is a transitional
uh housing arrangement
as described
and that's currently under uh review by
staff and will be coming forward at some
point in the future
thank you for that okay so um it will
because it involves being rezoned it
will come to this body but it's not on
the agenda for tonight so we can only
discuss things that are on the agenda
you know you have to you can only talk
about things that the public's been
advised are going to be discussed so
maybe you could give your
contact information to this gentleman
here and and they can let you know when
it's going to come before before us all
right thank you you're welcome
madam chair
uh certainly as as the case uh is being
prepared and will be brought forward as
a species permit request
letters will be sent out as required by
code to the surrounding property owners
within 500 feet of the subject property
so i it sounds like you are within that
threshold that distance threshold so you
will be made aware but i could certainly
take your name and number and there will
be a sign on the property as well
with the information and the date and
okay anyone else who has something they
want to bring up before we go on to the
items on the agenda
okay next is a consent agenda we don't
have anything on the consent agenda
and old business we don't have anything
on all business
so we'll move on to new business
i vote that we approve uh thank you
the item that's under under new business
thank you
item number one grover drive variants
yes okay is there a second a second
thank you
and there's a presentation yes
that's correct madam chair commissioners
vincent banegas interim planner for the
record
i will be making the presentation this
evening the
variance request brought before you this
evening involves a property at 1505
grover drive
and the information that i'll be sharing
with you is basically there are two
separate variants related issues for
this property and i'll highlight what
those
entail the current conditions on the
property
as indicated 1505 grover drive it's a
single family residence at present
has approximately 0.21 acres in size
just shy of a quarter acre
is r1a zoned
and the house that is on
the property was constructed in 1958
one of the issues that will be discussed
involves an existing carport that is
attached to the house
there was no record of a variance
or a building permit for that carport
and this issue came to light as the
applicant was seeking
information
and permission for an addition in the
back of the unit which i'll also touch
on
but in order to clean up the issue of
the carport staff advised him to bring
that matter as a separate variance
request and hence
it is being discussed this evening
the property was purchased approximately
11 years ago by the applicant and the
carport was in place at that time as he
purchased so we aren't
very sure as to when
it
was originally constructed but
nonetheless it's it's been around for
for a good while
this is a zoning map of the area
again 1505 grover drive is this property
here
outlined in red
it
grover drive intersects robert's drive
which then intersects avenue the messiah
so the property is generally south of
avenue of messiah
and you can see based on this zoning map
that
you you do have various zoning districts
everything from commercial to some
office to residential in in a multi
family type arrangement so a plethora of
zones
in the area but the enclave of single
family zones
r1a district is where the subject
property is located at present
aerial maps showing the property the
same property
again the enclave is primarily
single-family detached housing and
surrounding it commercial
and other types of multi-family as well
okay regarding the two requests
we have the existing carport as i
mentioned
i will be showing you a site plan that
will illustrate the uh deviation of the
required setback but in this case we're
looking for 14 foot 7 inch
variants to the required 25 foot
front yard setback to specifically
carports and garages
and also a proposed addition in back of
the house
that will require at maximum
a seven foot four inch of variance to
the required 20 foot rear yard setback
the applicants justification in seeking
these variances are as follows
for one the carport one of the options
that
early on in our discussion
that i had with the applicant
was to
potentially be required to remove the
carport
and obviously
that was just a scenario worst case
that would cause some undue financial
hardship for the applicant
especially since it would take away some
valuable funding for the addition that
he very much needs at this present time
also the impact to the property
and to the neighborhood has already been
realized again the
carport has been in existence for a
number of years
and to date
the applicant nor staff
we've not received any negative comment
or or input regarding that structure
in terms of the rear yard setback again
the impact of variants diminishes along
the width of the proposed addition
and or the width of the required 20 foot
yard
rear yard setback so worst case scenario
at a point that i'll show you in a
minute it is the full seven foot four
inch deviation and it next down or
narrows down and the impact is lessened
and also the applicant has voiced
some
desire to retain some existing
vegetation trees etc and to preserve as
much air and light on the property
in context to what is
existing to date in terms of this house
how it's arranged
and
in order to
facilitate the enjoyment of the property
by his family
so this is the site plan in question
you have grover drive off to the left
left side here
the existing carport in question is
located in this vicinity
the existing house is here
with an existing covered porch
and this is the proposed edition so what
we are talking about this evening is
this proposed edition and this existing
carport
so you can see that from the property
line in
if we follow what the current code says
of 25 feet
that's where we come across the the need
for 14 foot 7
i rounded up 7
inch variants
and then in the proposed edition
they've highlighted for you the extent
of encroachment
for the 20-foot rear yard setback this
line here represents that setback
and so worst case right at this juncture
is the seven foot
six inch or four inch actually is what
it calculates to
deviation that's needed for the variance
and then it next down or diminishes in
terms of impact to that regard setback
here's some photos of what we are
talking about in terms of the carport i
wanted to illustrate
how minimal
in my opinion the impact is for the
carport
the applicant has shared with us these
photos showing how it exists at present
and this frontal view is
is off of our google maps and and kind
of shows the carport relative to the
structure
and there are other carports in the area
and if you weren't aware of the
encroachment i don't know if you would
even realize that there was an issue at
hand
in terms of analysis staff did not find
any health safety or welfare related
issues
the rear setback again is is only for
part of the structure diminishes as you
go north along the property line or the
rear setback line
and the carport variance is a need
that is not a result of the applicant
again they purchase the property as it
stands as
shown in those photos
and this request is
following staff's request to clean up
the setback issue
normally when we see
permits and or variance requests come
before us
if we find anything else on the property
we seek that those items that may be
in violation a current code be cleaned
up as well and this is an instance of
that
and again the carport has been in
existence for several years
to the best of my knowledge and and
certainly in his knowledge and living
there for a number of years he's not
received any negative
feedback regarding that structure
notice was sent to surrounding property
owners
as of today i received one general
inquiry and they just were interested in
what the carport related matter
referred to
and once they found out that there would
be no increase in size
or or modification of that structure it
is what it is and that's how it was
intended to stay they had absolutely no
problem with that
so staff recommendation on this is
basically conditional approval i think i
put approval in the staff report and
i'll point out what that condition is
it's kind of a given
but nonetheless the subject property is
just shy of a quarter acre r1a zoned and
has a single-family residence as i've
illustrated
the carport doesn't meet the sections
that are identified on the presentation
slide here this refers to the 25-foot
requirement
and
even though
in this case the impact is very minimal
as i illustrated
we have to address it and again it's a
cleanup matter that staff has pushed
on on the property owner
and this request
for the carport and the addition are the
minimum necessary for relief of the
applicant stated objectives of
enhancing this property and doing the
addition to accommodate an increase in
family size that they've realized very
recently
and although monetary considerations
aren't specifically authorized they are
authorized when seeking alternatives may
cause considerable hardship monetary
hardship to an applicant if strip strict
application of the zoning code is
applied
and in this case
again if the carport is deemed to be
removed
then there's cost to that and that takes
away
funding for the addition that's much
needed
if you know one option was to build up
there's additional costs associated with
that that wasn't anticipated and then
worst case scenario you know someone
could say well maybe you need to look at
another property that would be even
greater impact to the family so in that
sense the monetary consideration is
allowed
by you for consideration of this
this case
if approved the applicant this is where
the staff condition comes in
the applicant will have to submit
building permits that's a given but it
will also have to submit a building
permit for the carport and that's to
ensure that our inspectors go out and
just see how it was constructed make
sure everything's
up to code building code in that sense
so
your options this evening
commissioners is to vote yes
and approve the variances as presented
you may vote no and deny them just know
that the findings that have been
presented are in favor of the request so
you'll have to come up with findings on
your own
you could certainly split the variances
and vote on one
vote in favor of one and not on the
other that's that's certainly your
prerogative
you can vote yes with conditions or vote
to table
and that madam chair concludes staff's
presentation
mr madrid is in attendance if if you'd
like to hear from from him
mr madrid do you want to say anything
you have to come up here sir
and i have to um swear you in so would
you state your name richard madrid do
you swear and affirm the testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
nothing but the truth under penalty of
law yes ma'am okay go ahead so i just i
just wanted to touch on on what mr
banegas um here did discuss and that was
about the carport for one um
i talked to a neighbor across the street
who came in question i was asking about
this yard sign that was in my front yard
that i picked up
and he's been living there since 1995
and the carport was there when he got
there
so it's been there for
um almost well over a couple of decades
now
so that is in fact um true it's been
there for
i don't even know how long it was before
that so it has been there a while
and
it's it's made out of steel everything
is steel beams it's it's there's no wood
in it it's everything is still so to
deconstruct that would be
um quite pricey it would be um
a very big hardship on what we're trying
to accomplish here and
with the addition in the back um we're
not trying to
make this into a big old match or
anything we're just trying to provide
enough room for um a level of comfort
for each of each of
the family members that you see in front
of you i also have a daughter that's up
in colorado playing she's playing
softball in college and she comes down
in
in the winter and in the summer so
there's another one
my son's currently at las cruces high
school football practice so there's
still two more that aren't here
and we're just trying to accommodate for
they're still going to be kids that
would be sharing rooms but we're trying
to accommodate space for you know their
studies for privacy for
uh things of that nature so
um you know
that's what we're trying to accomplish
here with the i'm trying to do
everything right with the carport i did
not know that it was
out of
i guess code
and it was brought to my attention by mr
banegas
so i just want to make sure that
everything's right and this helps us in
the future if we want to sell it or
anything everything's permitted
everything the variances are there
but that's what we're that's what we're
trying to accomplish here is just trying
to get everything done correctly and
make sure everything's on record and and
we can move forward and
and
okay thank you for your comments
so next we go to the commission
any commissioner have something they
want to
say about this
i don't i guess we don't have any
complaints about it
so we we um if nobody wants to say
anything and there's nobody else here
from the public right who wants to speak
about this
okay
then we'll go to a vote
board member smith
i vote yes for approval based on staff
recommendation and also the minimal
impact
on the neighborhood character
guerrero yeah yes based on staff
recommendations and site visit as well
board member muniz i vote yes along with
the conditions of getting the proper
permits when it's been built
board member bennett
i vote yes based on staff recommendation
site survey
and that's it
board member gordon
vote yes based on my site visit staff
recommendations i definitely think this
will have no impact that carport has
been there forever
and i really do think it's a good idea
just to clean it up you'll have a permit
and there'll be no problems in the
future
so good luck to you
and your family
chairperson thomas
i wrote yes based on staff presentation
and site visit and mr madrid's comments
it passes one two three four six to zero
next item is a discussion
only a couple
thank you enjoy your enjoy your edition
and thank you for coming
next item is uh discussion um only two
of us were able to go to the joint
meeting with the
council on
realize las cruces which is about
changing in the
land development code as a result of
elevate las cruces which most of us up
here worked on so
so david weir is going to give us an
overview of what's in that
it's going to be very important because
it's going to be quite different when
things come to pnz based on these
changes and the land development code so
i asked if we could just have a little
bit of an overview so we can start
getting ready for
what's going to be quite different in
the future
good evening again david weir with the
community development department
just wanted to introduce the
diagnostic report as you recall the city
has retained freezing nickels to prepare
an update to the land development code
and up and basically that's one of the
major steps to implement elevate las
cruces in the policies uh in the future
development program um
that project's going to entail three
phases the first is the code diagnostics
the next one is actually writing the
update to the code and then the third is
refining that and adopting those
and those elements are the zoning the
zoning code the sign code
the subdivision code and the zoning map
and so
the first deliverable that freeze
nichols put together in their contract
with the city was to do a diagnostic
report
and that now has been completed
and as
madam chair said there was a
presentation by frieza nichols
to the city council and
the pnc members that were able to make
it that provided an overview of that
in your packets for today's or this
evening's meeting their presentation was
provided as a powerpoint and you also
got a copy of the diagnostic report
itself
as we've already stated
the diagnostic report is to help the
the update to those codes to implement
the policies and actions that were
pointed out in elevate las cruces
it was also intended to provide
gaps to the existing codes and issues
that have taken place that you as a
commission often see and have to
i guess you would say arbitrate that as
you have development cases before you
and so it was kind of a unifying
report that it gave you an opportunity
to see what issues are
what things weren't aren't currently
being addressed that were proposed in
elevate las cruces
and then it also
provided some
strategies that other communities have
used to address similar issues so those
were not necessarily recommendations of
what the city of las cruces should do
but also just basically to get you to
think that there are other alternatives
and maybe different ways to approach
land use planning and development that
las cruces hasn't done before
and so if you look at it through that
lens it's really
kind of primes the pump for what's to
come next with the development of the
the land use code itself and it also
provides an initial road map is how we
would go about
uh updating the the code
and then keep in mind that it's a an
iterative process
we intend to bring this back to the
plains zone commission and city council
on a regular basis as different portions
of the development code are provided
we've also made outreach to um various
people the um
that is we call them design
professionals the the civil engineers
the surveyors uh the developers uh
builders
uh etc that that actually
use the code on a regular basis to get
their input and and so um
they'll be kind of a an iterative
process as we go forward with that
even though the consultants have
completed this diagnostic report as i
said since it is uh we want to continue
to to have feedback and be able to
update these codes
in the in a manner that's most
beneficial to the city if the
commission if you see something that you
want further explored or you think needs
to be explored more
please let staff know and we'll present
that to freeze nickels and give them an
opportunity to address that as we
continue to go forward
they have already put together their
administrative section that kind of
outlines
state statutes regarding to planning and
zoning and subdivision
they're also the responsibilities of
city council and plain zone commission
so that's currently under a staff review
or we call peer review and so
probably the next time that we have
actual code for you to look at that will
be one of the sections
they're now starting to work on the
subdivision code and the amendments that
would take place for that and then some
of the
items um if the diagnostic report
actually is organized and it it talks
about the major impacts of what's taking
place so um
it i think it's a good time since the
the first deliverable was this
diagnostic report
by having it on your agenda tonight you
have another opportunity uh to make any
additional comments you have or ask any
questions of staff of how the process is
going forward so with that i'd be happy
to
address any questions you have
thank you mr weir
comments or questions from commissioners
i i just want to ask david a
question when will uh when will we be
able to participate in and actually
to discuss the things that we want to do
are we going to do this after the fact
that we will have a chance to do before
or during or we're going to have like
workshops or
meetings like we did when we did the uh
elevate las cruces
madam chair and commissioner gordon it's
a little bit different process because
you've already adopted
you've recommended and city councils
adopted elevate las cruces that provided
that policy direction and so now we're
actually in the technical writing of the
ordinances and laws that will be
impacted and so
as we go forward with these drafts
there'll be periods where we'll ask for
a work session with you
the initial
meeting was a joint one between city
council and playing zoning commission
there's appeared to be some timing
conflicts like this so what staff would
like to propose is that we have a
meeting separate with you and we could
have it
at the same time if you had a light
agenda like tonight we could discuss
options
drafts of the codes that are being
brought forward as a part of your
meeting or we you
your schedule that you adopt every year
has a work session scheduled the second
tuesday of the month and so that's
another opportunity that um we could
bring what's being drafted and put
forward together and that's something
that staff would work with the
commission
as we go forward with this there will be
other open house open houses and
forums that the commission that would be
similar to what you'd experience with
elevate las cruces when we had the
larger plans available to the public
there is a website uh realized las
cruces
that has an
i guess you would call it a virtual open
house in which you can leave comments on
there and you can also see what the
greater public is has posted and left
on that if you
if you open the powerpoint the freeze
nickels provided they have a whole slide
on that web
web page and what the
the virtual open house looks like and
the opportunity to comment
on that
because what will happen is that at that
like the first stage basically has been
done and we were at the meetings uh
commissioner thomas and myself were both
at that meet at that meeting and we
listened to the presentation and it was
very
uh just in general and they just touched
upon the basic administrative facts but
when it comes time to do
the nitty-gritty getting into the codes
and changing the old archaic zoning laws
and
whatever they're going to do it's
a lot of these things will come to us in
the future and it would be nice if we
could
have some input as to things that
concern us that we've had problems with
in the past that we could probably
not have to get um
involved with again if they can
straighten out some of these problems so
apparently what you're saying if i
understand is that they're gonna do all
this and then we're gonna have a chance
to just comment on it
madam chair and commissioner gordon
what they what the work program they've
laid out is that they will draft those
various
sections of the code and they'll be
brought for you
oftentimes these projects work where
consultants hire they'll draft
everything and just hand you a product
at the end the intent is to break this
down into small segments and and it to
be an iterative process one
staff sees what the
consultant has put together some of the
design professionals land use attorneys
et cetera have an opportunity to look at
it and then we'll bring that section to
the commission and counsel and inform
you of what's taking place and so you'll
have an opportunity as each one of those
sections come forward if there's
something that yes we agree with the way
you're going forward or
that doesn't quite address the issues
have you'll have an opportunity to do
that as each section comes in and not
you know where you'll have to read all
these ordinances at the very end
then how do you know
after they bring you these things and
you make your comments and you have some
things that might be relative
or jermaine
that you make these comments and they'll
go back and then they're gonna
will they then change the document and
then bring it back to us with these
changes i mean how do we know that what
we're gonna say has any impact
well um
i think as you all know you play a very
important role in this process if you're
not happy with
the amendments that they make you won't
make a positive recommendation to city
council to adopt them um but but also
think the diagnostic report i think they
reached out to all of you and gave you
an opportunity to share with them issues
that you've experienced as a commission
and so they've they've pointed that out
and then there will be an opportunity as
they actually draft draft them so you as
a commission will have
the ability to say like i said this this
isn't quite right we'd like more uh look
into that and the way you characterize
it yes if they get direction from you
that this section needs to be changed
they'll they will again work on it and
have that take place so
you probably will see several red line
editions of the the draft plans as they
go forward
i mean i think the perfect example
basically what happened a few weeks ago
or a month or so ago
maybe it was been two months on that on
that done property where
i don't know whether the commission or
all my fellow commissioners are aware
the fact that last that the last
or maybe two meetings ago
city council reversed our decision on
approving their property
they turned the petitioner down they
would not allow it
and we were of the opinion
with the information that we had that we
thought that it would be not right to go
ahead and not grant
we thought it would be right to grant
the waiver based on the information
unfortunately i think the gentleman who
gave the presentation that night to city
council
did a very lousy job to put it bluntly
you know i think with the information
that they gave him it was not the same
information that we heard and the
comments that we made
when we granted the waiver
so something like that
is is something that we want to look at
in the future because it's going to come
up again you're not going to have
600 feet of road and then you're going
to have a thousand feet of gravel and
you're going to have another 600 feet of
road and then 2 000 feet of gravel and
then another 300 feet of road i mean
it's ridiculous i mean something has to
be done to prevent
these type of things again because we're
going to vote yes and city council is
going to vote no
and we're going to go back and forth i
feel sorry for the people who are going
to put these petitions in because
i don't know what they think they're
going to have as a result
those type of things are like you know
i'd like to be in a position we can make
some comments is to have some reasonable
i'm just picking out one particular item
i'm sure my fellow commissioners have
other thoughts but this is one thing
that's always bothered me and you know
that i'm um
commissioner gordon i i think those very
good comments and
that particular issue
was identified in the diagnostic
and also staff
discussed
a lot of the issues that presented
themselves from the 86 annexation of the
east mesa and so um
it's really a good opportunity or it's
i'm glad you brought that comment up
because the first section that they're
dealing with is the subdivision code and
the street
standards are where you actually
implement
and
the way we treat those waivers or
different standards for street
construction can be addressed in that
and then if you recall elevate las
cruces has a large section on
recommendations of urban street types
suburban street types and rural street
types and i think
that is one avenue to address the issue
and but it but it's illustrative of this
entire process
elevate las cruces provide the
opportunity of this is the vision this
is the what type of development we want
to take place you have a whole
future
development program or map
going forward um the the these
development codes are how we actually
get to that vision and so
and
as i noted earlier the diagnostics was
to call out those gaps and issues that
you've been facing and provide
strategies to go forward and so we now
have that road map and they can start
addressing those as we draft the code so
we know that's an issue
we know there's going to be discussion
about non-conforming uses
we know there's discussion about mixed
land use ways to encourage
affordable housing and providing
providing missing middle housing
products
updating the way that we treat
storm drainage and infrastructure and so
those all have been identified
they also you have elevate las cruces
and so now you have
a way to go forward and draft the update
of these ordinances so the example you
provide
is
exactly the way this is to work is
you know that there's an issue anytime
somebody asks for a street waiver
because of an area that's annexed and
has
below standard streets
your current codes
you're not happy with the
process and venue you have to try to
address those um with this update you
have an ability to to try other methods
or to treat it in in a different manner
so
um i think those are all key and it was
it's um
it
because i mean that you know these are
just a typical this is just one
particular item
when they do present the next portion of
what their job is is we're going to
basically have to go through item by
item and
and see if we have any
issues of what they're suggesting
changing as to where we think it might
be a little different but that's fine
that's good i'm glad as long as we're
going to have some point to be able to
make our comments and
and at least whether or not they want to
do it or they don't want to do it when
it comes time to pass it on to city
council we can then again make your
comments
and see what they have to say
all right
anyone else
okay i have a few things to say um
i um
as david knows i sent in sent nine pages
of comments so
i'll only hit a couple highlights
um
so one of my concerns was it's at a
couple places and i'm just sharing so i
want to share them with
the rest of the commission so
um these are these are sort of my major
concerns one of them was that at one
place they talked about for example the
water conservation plan
hasn't been implemented so
we have a lot of plans and things
floating around out there that the
plan's been approved but it's never been
codified so then it doesn't have to be
followed
so
i ask if as they're doing this if the if
we could get a list of plans that you
know they've been passed
but they've never been
in as ordinances some of them but
they've never been put into the code so
they've never been codified and so
that's a big part that needs to be
cleaned up and so i asked for that
um
they talked at some point about roadway
retrofits and so of course i brought up
road runner parkway again because
it's such a dangerous street and i i
don't know
there are other streets that three
people have been killed on i don't know
if that or not but
um i think it's
my understanding of this approach is
that it's going to apply mostly to new
development and so we're i don't know
how much we're going to see on you know
existing suburban development
i'm still going to keep pitching for
road runners
um
then i'm really interested in this cross
x access thing in a
commercial area so too often like on
especially
el paseo
you have a little commercial area and
then in order to go to the next one you
have to go out on el paseo this just
causes all kinds of traffic it makes the
street much more dangerous and i think
that one of those intersections along
there is one of the most dangerous in
the city and so and i you know there's a
new village inn
area on south valley and there was an
exist there's an existing little
commercial area on the corner and they
didn't connect it when they
so i ended up at the pet food place and
then i had to go out and around and to
get into the next place and so i
i really think that's dangerous and at
one point when we were working on el
paseo there were people here from the
federal highway department and you know
they looked at el paseo and they said
you could
what are all those curb cuts well how
come you can't
make it from one area to the next you
have to go out on the road all the time
so that's a major concern of mine
i would say
oh and then
and i
this came mostly from the league of
women voters this idea of all electric
subdivisions and what the city has
adopted so far in terms of the
international energy conservation code
so i think this is a part we need to
watch pretty carefully
i think albuquerque and santa fe have
adopted something different and you know
and then i don't know what the state's
doing with updating it
so and i know that the mayor suggested
that at some point that you know we
could try to provide incentives for
electric subdivisions by you know
letting them move to the front of the
line or whatever kinds of incentives so
if you're not familiar with this area
these are these new heat pumps that you
don't have to run stuff to the ground
you can just they use the air
and they're
a little pricey to put in
but the price is the cost is coming down
but it's much much cheaper for the
homeowner
and of course good for the environment
so this would be subdivisions that did
not have gas lines
but were all electric so
and um
i think that's pretty much it except
that david could you just speak a little
bit about
and i keep
trying to understand this how you have
land use
code and also
place types and form based you know how
do they work together
because we we have bland use
code now and we're going to add form
base code and i'm not quite sure how
it's going to work um
madam chair
first i want to
encourage all the planning zone
commissioners if you have specific
comments similar to
chair thomas
please provide those to staff and we'll
get the freeze nickels as soon as we got
miss thomas's comments we provided them
to her so i encourage you all to do that
if there's something in particular
you have an issue
in regards to
what we currently now have is
zoning districts
and we do have certain
we call them urban design features
very
basic
you have the structures you have
basic architectural you have parking
requirements landscaping setbacks etc
form-based codes are
there's more direction on what the lots
how they should be laid out
how the building should interact with
one another
what type of
street type they make
and so
those both can be accommodated
in your land use codes um
and and so that's the
the direction that we've gone gone um
with direction from elevate las cruces
i'm going to get real tacky and wonky on
you a lot of people call
what we're proposing a hybrid code you
keep certain
basic tenets
of zoning districts
but you put a much more emphasis on what
the built environment looks like there's
more direction on where parking should
be oriented a lot
how buildings should interface with the
public right-of-way streets and drainage
it's and there's less emphasis more
flexibility with the land uses
that
if there's if if you were to take a real
critical look at
a very structured zoning district is you
can only have single-family housing in
one area you can only have multi-family
another you can only have commercial you
can only have institutional
churches and schools in one area and in
manufacturing in another
form-based codes
are again much more flexible they
encourage the mixed uses they encourage
the the density there's less emphasis on
that use and more on
what are the real impacts uh how does
the street network work how does um
this this visually look is it is are you
creating a place as opposed to trying to
protect one use from another and so
that's um
what we're trying to achieve with this
this update
and
and that's
elevate had a big emphasis on that
that's where the the place types and
then the mixed use overlays came in to
try to
take where we're at today give us a path
to get there going forward and and to
accommodate it so
the city has put their toe in that in a
couple places the downtown i would
consider a form-based code
the university district has form-based
elements
those are the the two primary
some would say the alameda depot overlay
encourages that
and so my guess is the alameda depot is
probably what you'll see as a first
iteration
as the land use code comes forward
and i guess i would say that form-based
codes support a more walkable and
bike-friendly and you know that kind of
environment but my understanding is that
this will apply
mostly to new
new development new system you can't go
back to
what exists on the east side and
change it
you're not going to i'm not going to be
able to put in parkways or make the
blocks shorter or
not do all the cold sacks
it's just going to stay the way it is
but the newer development will look more
like what we're talking about i i think
the opportunities for that are you
you'll see the the transformation faster
in the new developments i don't think
it'll necessarily prohibit that because
one of the things that elevate really
promotes is
complete and safe streets
and so there may be areas of town where
we have a
more right-of-way than we actually need
and by constructing that and so that
might be some opportunities to retrofit
the streets
if we create those mixed use overlays it
would
provide opportunity for housing and
services and commercial to interact
but but definitely that will take a lot
longer
period of time than that you'll see in
the new developments that come forward
are you aware of what albuquerque did
with um coal
and i can't remember what the other one
coal is the one that goes left there's
the other one okay and you know and it
was
total vehicle not boring at all they put
in parkways and trees and bike lanes and
just totally transformed those streets
and um
i don't know how costly it was but it
certainly was beautiful when they got
done
and made it more like you know
the main street of the neighborhood
instead of just something that these
cars whizzing by so i think going
forward would be nice if we could see
some examples like that so
so that we have visuals of it because
because we don't have a lot of visuals
of that kind of thing around here
the other area i think we need to be
careful about is housing you know it's
this missing middle thing we talk about
i can't i won't have my numbers exactly
right but say a decade or two ago
20 30 of
housing that was being built was missing
middle it was
something that somebody could
move out of an apartment into and be
able to afford for their first house or
you know and now it's something like
seven percent of all buildings so people
just are stuck
in these uh
apartments and you know maybe so
supportive housing and they can't get
out because there's no there's not you
know they can't afford three four
hundred thousand dollars so there's
nothing there in the middle and
the more we can do to make that possible
the better you know and
like i've told you oregon passed a state
law
that
accessory dwelling units could be built
on any single family lock
so it can be a garage conversion or
apartment above a garage or a separate
building
so it's happening all over the country
there's really pushing it in portland to
deal with this missing middle problem
and people that need housing and can't
afford the high prices so
that's something else i like to make
sure we follow
okay what's next on our agenda dilutes
my agenda
i'd like to make a comment sure go ahead
yes i'm watching
a program that one of my neighbors
told me about it's on youtube
and it's showing different cities
throughout the united states
that have fallen apart
through their redevelopment
and
99 percent of them failed in land use
and i don't want to see that happen here
cities
aren't able to take care
but in other words they built in one
area large huge low-income
apartments
that deteriorated cars are parked on
sidewalks they didn't have enough
parking or carports
weeds are growing on city property
trash cans aren't large enough there's
trash everywhere they've just
become terrible they've
they'd mix use they've
had the business below the low income
housing and now those businesses are
empty but you see a liquor store or a
dollar store that's about all you see
it's like
people that are
suffering each day unemployment and
the cost of living are being taken
advantage of
the cities in all the cities i've seen
on their property
weeds are as tall as we are the city's
even behind on
keeping up with things
and i want to see
our city rise but i i also want to make
the comment we need to take care of what
we have right now people
citizens are talking about el paso
the homeless broken windows
human feces on sidewalks
this is happening so we want to rise and
make
our city
livable and wonderful
but we need to take care of what we have
and that should be part of the plan
that's all i have to say thank you
david can comment on this too but from
what i understand this this
land development code would make it
easier for us to do things in the infill
areas where not big blocks of affordable
housing but where there's an empty lot a
duplex or a courtyard or you know
interspersed
different levels of income and and that
then would support better commercial on
alpaceo because you have to have more
density to
have good commercial
and it's not only alpha sale i think
that we
i don't know
codes has to start doing their job
we can build the contractors can come
here
and build a nice apartment and then it's
sold later
and you get a slum lord they don't even
live here
and we need to put this all in focus
this is part of our city
growing and becoming a
better city
uh we we've had shootings on on
telshore and all those apartments where
are those landlords what does the cities
do why are they allowing weeds to grow
you know there's codes there's things
that we need
for our city to grow we need more
policemen
you know it's more than just having a
contractor build some low-income housing
or new housing
or a strip center and then they sit
empty
so to me it's a full picture that we
have to look at to make our city
grow and look good and attract nice
businesses in fact i'll say something
nice i'm so happy burlington
companies coming
and that's a big positive you know
and that's it i i just
we need more to the picture than
changing a zone
we have to be careful on our zone
changing
madam chair and commissioner monis i
think
you highlight how complex communities
are
and
the land development code is just one
element of
managing a city
a lot of the items that you talked about
you have covered in your elevate las
cruces
but there are other
programs and regulations that will have
to be looked at also and
i can tell you that the city council has
adopted a strategic plan
and probably 85 to 90 percent of that
is policies directly from elevate las
cruces so um there's a concerted effort
to implement not just the land use
regulations but look at those other
areas that contribute to
what you want to see in the community so
and and i can tell you other discussions
with departments we had they they're
working very hard on
meeting that vision that that
you all
heavily contributed to and city council
adopted so
very um apropos comments
thank you any other comments questions
okay next is a commission commentary um
david can you stay up there because
so um jake bradford called me today but
you probably know what that's about the
the
the um it has to do with the um
the new dispensaries that are coming
into town and
evidently some people had already
rented buildings or bought buildings and
they started to do the build out and
then the city passed the
ordinances and it says they can't be
closer than 300 feet
between them and another dispensary and
the thing is in order to get the license
from the state everything has to be
totally built out ready to go
all furniture so so they've been racing
to do all this and now there are maybe
half dozen
that are caught in this
um limbo
and um
so he he wanted to know
those people are probably going to come
here and ask for a variance and say
you know
we didn't know we and we were trying to
meet the state requirements
and then the city did something that now
is putting us in a place where we can't
do what we
needed to do so i i just wanted to bring
it up i don't know if the next meeting
you want to talk about it more
madam chair i think i can provide a real
high level um
as
you are aware having had to make a
recommendation on the on the
cannabis land use requirements
it's been a
moving target because the state's just
now and they haven't totally finished
their rules and so we've tried to
address
that from a land use and a zoning
perspective the best we can
one of the ways that we tried to address
the
exact situation you talk about is
to allow a special use permit for those
dispensaries or those cannabis uses that
are located closer than the 300 feet
and so
a special use permit
is more
it's not as rigidly
the requirements are less than you have
for variants where you have to have a
hardship
and so by being a special use permit it
actually gives more flexibility and
allows those business people an
opportunity to to justify that they're
not creating a health safety or welfare
type of issue or that there's limited
spaces for them to go so there is um
a recourse or a process they can go
through and still use those those um
steps but um there is there is
a requirement that they come to this
planning zoning commission to get those
approvals it's not something that has to
go to
city council like a zone change so it's
it
it would come to you
if you approved it they would be able to
go on those locations um and so that's
okay
good to know jake doesn't think they're
more than maybe half dozen
you know it's not a lot but
why would anybody
open a store less than 300 feet from
your competitor
i don't know but when i had economics in
high school they said if you have an ice
cream stand on the beach they end up
being right next to one another but i
mean i thought wendy's just waited until
mcdonald's built something and then they
built something across the street yeah
but it's not it's it's sort of the same
thing i mean
i can understand for example you have in
an intersection you've got starbucks on
three corners
but you know i don't that's fine if
somebody wants to do that they want to
come back to us we'll discuss it i'm
sure
i i think the the logic behind it and
going forward was
that if there were too much
concentration or or use that it may have
other impacts on on some other uses and
so it was again to make it blend in to
the neighborhoods
were some of the thoughts
okay any other commissioner comments
any staff announcements
um
madam chair and commission i just wanted
i think you've already touched on it um
on the 20th of september the city
council approved the east london
development plan and so now that's
officially in policy they directed staff
to start looking at the implementation
and that would be a modification to the
pud of the property
to develop
basically of
new zoning regulations and the emphasis
was on form-based
neighborhoods so addressing what you've
talked about this evening
and also to
start doing some of the preliminary
engineering studies for the development
of that property as the cleanup of it
takes place and then as you noted
earlier in our discussion at their
september 7th meeting
city council adopted the cannabis
zoning regulations taking place and
i had initially forgotten this but they
also acted on that variance request on
aldrich and dunn and they did not
approve it so the developer will either
have to come in with another proposal on
that or
actually do the
street improvements that are required by
the subdivision code and so those are
three actions that that you made
recommendations on by city council
so i wasn't able to come to the meeting
because my husband has a health thing
and we i had to go with him
i really hope the city in islam
keeps control of that
when you look at the examples they gave
the they all took 20 years
except for the
holiday one in
colorado in that case the city kept
control of it and they just asked for
rfps from builders in terms of who wants
to do this part and who wants to do that
part and so all of the developments
started at the same time and they were
able to get it done in like 11 12 years
so
i i wasn't able i wasn't as i said i
wasn't able to come so i couldn't make
that comment but i don't make it now um
madam chair i believe someone did
comment on that and that was the um
the third recommendation was for the
city to decide how they would manage
that property
and come up with a format on that and so
i would say
that concept is the less least fleshed
out by the city but the discussions have
already started in regards to it thank
you very much
okay i'll entertain them
oh
motion to go home all right make a
motion we adjourned
there a second
hi second emotion uh all those in favor
say aye
aye aye okay we're adjourned it's
706 by my watch
you