you
[Music]
good evening and welcome to the planning
and zoning commission
meeting this is tuesday
august 24th
6 p.m
the first order of business is conflict
of interest does anybody of the five
commissioners up here have any conflict
of interest with any items on the agenda
okay seeing none
second item is the approval of the
minutes
i need a motion and a second to approve
the minutes of july 27th
i i will go ahead and make a motion to
approve the minutes of july 27th oh wait
i wasn't here for that once should i
okay
we'll need somebody else
i'll make a motion to approve the
minutes thank you commissioner one
second
okay so can i listen mr gordon
um any comments questions
no okay can we have a vote
board member smith
i didn't get you on
yes thank you
uh yes
remember vega yes board member gordon
yes chairperson thomas yes
next item is public participation
if you're here for an item on the agenda
we'd like you to wait until we get to
that item and we have the presentation
if you're here for some other
comment you want to make you're welcome
to come up now
and you should come ahead if you want to
come and talk
good evening commissioners um and
point of order do i need to swear him
and this is not uh an item so i don't
need to swear him in right
pardon can i have you on the microphone
please
uh robert cabello for the record
you don't have to have them this morning
all right thank you yes i just need your
name for the record thank you chair
thomas uh gregory cervanic for the
record s-h-e-r-d-a-n-i-c-k
my comments are for
the special work session that took place
on monday i first want to thank
commissioner gordon
sorry which monday
i'm sorry which
work session that took place on monday
yesterday or yes ma'am okay
um
frieza nichols
you were in attendance yes commissioner
gordon um
i want to thank commissioner gordon for
at least allowing the public
who has lived here
and will live here
with the
interests of
the new dynamics of elevate las cruces i
have been an opponent of that document
since it began
i was not surprised by our city
councilors vasquez then como
or sorg and their comments
as they are extremely biased
towards development in the city
i was
a little taken back by chair thomas
your reciting of one particular
infill development
that this board
voted on twice
by belittling them
in their first decision i didn't think
it was fair
that you
told the city council since you are a
strong voice
that it was your personal preference
and you were dissatisfied by how infill
development
is proceeding in the city of las cruces
i thank you very much for your time
thank you anyone else
good evening
my name is george pearson i have a
request on your agenda and then a
comment on the upcoming zoning
and
development code
updates
my request is that you remove item one
from the consent agenda
this business has undergone considerable
scrutiny to get to this point
for the sake of transparency i'm asking
you to hear the staff presentation which
i hope will include a history of zoning
and any restrictions that may be part of
the property
my comment on the upcoming code changes
is to require bicycle parking for all
commercial properties above a certain
size
current zoning has a bicycle parking
requirement but only for new
construction
my request is for bicycle parking that
includes existing businesses
we want to encourage bicycling but that
can't happen without safe parking at
destinations
just as a quick example
the albertsons on main street recently
redid their parking lot the ada signs
previously could be used to lock up to
but these have been changed and now they
don't have any suitable parking for
bicycles
thank you
so i have to ask legal for we've already
accepted the agenda without changing can
we go back and move an item off of
consent
the vote
chair council you've already made the
vote by accepting the
agenda item so the items already been
voted for
so you've already been approved and my
understanding is when you accept the
agenda on consent
i guess i was misunderstood most places
okay have a separate vote on the
cassette agenda and
say that again the chair commission my
understanding is that there has not been
a vote for accepting the agenda so you
can actually pull that off the consent
agenda
okay
okay how shall we do this
um i need is is anybody up here willing
to ask to move a gen uh item number
2221 off of the consent agenda
before i ask
to do that i just want to make sure that
council is giving us correct information
so that we don't make a mistake
um
when we voted on accepting the agenda it
was just the agenda for the evening i
think it's my understanding that once
you ask for public participation on
something that isn't on the agenda
uh someone may come up and say what they
please
then they would have to wait for
something that would be on the agenda
which in this case is on consent
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therefore
i don't know whether or not when we
voted i need to approve the agenda what
we're going to do this evening is
whether we're actually approving the
consent agenda
and if we did not and we
will now
go to that point then i think someone
should move to take this item off and we
can disco we can at least
address this gentleman's concern
but that's just my opinion i'm not a
lawyer
chair uh commission i i'm not sure i
understand the question so
my my previous impression when i gave my
first advice was that we'd already voted
to accept the consent agenda which would
approve the item that was on consent
agenda however that wasn't done yet
so
it can be right now voted to remove the
item off the consent agenda to address
that in a
open hearing
and you guys can have that discussion
about that that's the choice by the
commission
okay thank you
okay so
i will
consider
motion to remove
item number one from the consent agenda
for discussion
well let's do that first and then
all right therefore i make a motion that
we
take item number one from the consent
agenda and move it to for discussion
and uh this commissioner gunner had all
seconded it
okay we have a motion and a second to
move the agenda that number one from the
consent agenda anybody
any
comment on that
okay can i take a vote
board member smith
yes
mr smith can you turn off your
microphone
we must have too many on
okay there we go yes thank you boar
member vega yes board member gordon
yes chair thomas yes thank you okay so
now before we move to the agenda we're
still on public participation so is
there anyone else
who had something
that they wanted to say
that is not an agenda item before we go
to the agenda
okay seeing none we will now move to the
agenda and we will um take up item
number one
uh can i have a
partner
yeah okay
um let's have a motion and a second for
a discussion and then we'll
have the presentation
i make a motion that we
accept accept the movement of the item
and open for discussion
a second
okay
is there a presentation
madam chair there is a presentation
it looks like we're having technical
difficulties i'll go see if i can check
with pio because they have to open this
up for us i'll be right back
uh
so
madame chair commission uh my name is
john cassie i'm a planner with the city
of las cruces
tonight we're bringing you a special use
permit for 2221 west gate court
the current conditions is the south side
of westgate court which is about 175
feet east of the intersection of
westgate street and north of amador
avenue
the property as it sits right now is
currently 0.91 acres it's zoned m1m2
which is our industrial standard and it
is 6062 square feet
of a building for a sexually oriented
adult entertainment establishment
the current special use permit expired
on july 25th of 2021
as you can see from the zoning map here
it is surrounded by m1m2
zoning districts
here's an aerial photo of the subject
property
so the proposal is for an adult
entertainment establishment
special use permit which expired on july
25th of 2020.
this will allow for the continued and
eventual completion of the adult
entertainment establishment
uh the proposed scp will follow all
requirements for a
sup as outlined in section 38-54 of the
2001 zoning code
this is the proposed building
it hasn't changed from the last time
that we were here
this is an elevation of it
this is what the building currently
looks like as of 2019
as you can see the property is just
missing landscaping still and interior
work to the shell building
this is uh these photos were taken on
august 21st of 2021
so the property meets all of the
requirements for a special use permit
including distancing requirements the
required warning sign is being provided
purchase the signs for no parking on
westgate
building plans have been provided
showing that the conditions of the
original
special use permit are being met
public notice was sent out to all
relevant agencies and departments
all proposed or all supported the
proposed special use permit a notice was
also sent out to the surrounding
properties and at the time of this
presentation and staff report staff did
not receive any public input
staff recommendation is approval based
on the following
the subject property meets the distance
separation requirements for any school
church nursery day care
public park or recreational facility
residential zoning district and liquor
establishment
the proposed site design screening and
landscaping and the proposed building
design provide a compatible appearance
with the surrounding industrial area
the sup also follows all requirements
for a special use permit as outlined
in the section of the code
it also meets the purpose and intent
requirements of the 2001 zoning code and
all conditions of the original
sup 12-03 which have been met
on the approved building permits and
will be verified by the field and staff
prior to the issuance of a certificate
of occupancy
so today your options are to vote yes to
approve vote no to deny vote yes with
conditions or vote to table
thank you for that presentation uh so
the way we proceed here is that any of
the commissioners who want to make
comments
or ask questions can do that now is
there anyone else who wants to pre say
anything about this don't you know the
owner or anybody i do have a
representative here you do okay let's
have that first uh-huh
so um i need to swear you in
what's your name sarah gonzalez
um
do you swear and affirm that the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth and nothing but the truth under
penalty of law i do thank you sarah
madam chair and commission i'm
representing the owners tonight because
they unfortunately could not make it
within the process um being this process
has come through at least four
especially
when you speak real closely to the
microphone it's hard to hear people with
these masks sorry the property owners
were not able to attend this evening so
however i am representing them
the current state of the building is
probably about three months from
completion
during the time that covet hit they
actually had a full staff that was
working and then unfortunately they're
having a very hard time getting more
people to come back to work to actually
complete the building
they are working on basically all of
their finals at this point in time
so within that their two-year time frame
that they would have for this special
use permit should get them through the
process to finally be complete
throughout the process they've had some
difficulties
they did run into some issues with their
construction plans where they did have
to dig up some of the electrical wire
because of the time frame of how long
it's taken so they had to redo that work
and then complete the rest of it so at
this point they should be on schedule to
finish within this special year's permit
time frame
okay thank you for that
okay
commissioners any questions or comments
okay do we have anybody in the public
who wants to speak
the gentleman who brought this up did
you want to make a statement
okay then i guess we'll have a vote
board member smith
uh but yes it needs requirements of
special use permit
member guerrero uh i vote yes as well
meets requirements and as well as staff
recommendation
remember vega
also vote yes based on staff
recommendation and meeting other
requirements
board member gordon
based on my site visits and finding a
stack recommendation
my knowledge of previous hearings before
this item i do vote yes
chairperson thomas i vote yes
staff recommendation previous
discussions about this project site
visit
pass five to zero
thank you very much
next item
we've missed old business did we have
any old business it says none i don't
think there is any so going on to new
business the first item is the brown
road infill development
chairperson
you forgot your consent agenda your
second one oh sorry
there's one item left on the consent
agenda
so i have a motion to
accept the consent agenda yeah
commissioner guerrero make a motion to
accept the consent agenda
second commissioner spent that second in
motion
any discussion
board member
smith yes
guerrero yes remember vega yes board
member gordon
yes chairperson thomas yes thank you
okay now we'll move on to new business
i need um a motion to approve
the 550 brown point in-field development
project
i make a motion that we approve item
number one under new business 550 brown
road infill development
second
okay we have a motion and a second
for the brown road infill development is
there a presentation
yes ma'am
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you have someone in the audiences
i can't hear what they're saying
i am
we have to have the presentation first
and then we have discussion
a point of order just for clarification
i think the concern is that there was
emotion and the audience member didn't
understand there hasn't been a vote uh
there will be
a presentation by staff there will be
any sort of presentation by the
applicant
questions by the the commission and then
ultimately it will be open to the public
for any commentary and then the vote
will take place uh does that clarify
your concerns madam
we always start with the putting the
motion up for discussion
and then we have the presentations and
then there's an order we follow and we
will come to public input so thank you
for being here
madam chair members of the commission
vincent venegas interim planner for
community development
i have the opportunity to present
550 brown road which is an infield
development proposal
it's
current conditions are as follows the
property is
zoned r1a in fact it's within a
neighborhood that's predominantly r1a
it does fall within the infill overlay
district and is located on the north
side of brown road between main street
and south melinda street the property is
currently developed
but presently unoccupied
and that's been the situation for
approximately five years now
the property is also plus or minus 14
000 square feet or 3.2
0.321 acres in size
and as indicated predominantly
r1a surrounds the subject property there
are two
properties on the south side of brown
along that same street street segment
that
currently has zoning in place of 01c
the c referring to a condition on those
two pieces
that requires professional
office uses only
and that was
carried out through a rezoning action
back in 1985 pursuant to ordinance 621.
the zoning map which is
shown
reflects the property in question
here is that property
again
r1a zoning significant
area around the subject property and the
onc properties that i mentioned are
located here
you have obviously to the east of main
street
several properties that are zoned
commercial
in varying intensities either c2 or c3
and then some additional
office and commercial properties further
south along main street from the subject
property and in this case brown road
an aerial view or shot of the subject
property
again seeing a lot of the residential
neighborhood
that is in place you do have oregon view
place which
intersects brown road here
and then south melendres of course on
the west side main street on the east
there is an alleyway
which will be mentioned later in the
presentation as providing
access to the little
dwelling or casita in the back which
will be utilized pursuant to this
proposal
and will allow access for parking for
that unit
alone
so as indicated the property was
residential in use
primary guest dwelling or casita until
about five years ago when it became
vacant
the applicant is interested in the
property and that the current location
where they are at where they are
conducting the business that they want
to move to this location is simply not
conducive
to the business function
it's too noisy it doesn't lend itself to
being more tranquil if you will in terms
of
masseuse or massage therapy and or yoga
so the applicant is seeking the idp for
the business they did carry out early
notification of the night the
neighborhood as required in the zoning
code when
there's opportunity for
debate
amongst the neighbors
and of those providing commentary one
protested the request but it's my
understanding others favor the proposal
and the applicant's representative
can can elaborate on that
so the idp also
as indicated in your packet would
include a yoga studio and massage
therapy as indicated in the primary
structure there are two structures on
the property
i'll show you a site plan here briefly
that'll show the two structures in
question
the business owner is to occupy the
casita in the rear and become
an active resident on the property
so that is a plus in terms of
interaction with the neighborhood
the yoga studio class schedule is monday
through saturday in fact the same goes
for massage therapy
the difference being the hours of
operation
yoga goes from nine to eight
and massage therapy goes from nine to
six
there will be multiple classes of the
yoga studio per day
but no more than 10 yogis participating
and that's if full attendance is
realized
class size is obviously dependent on
attendance
and in terms of therapy massage therapy
it's by appointment but there will be
at least as proposed three tables for
the conduct of of massage
there will be both on-site and off-site
parking
used to accommodate the parking ban for
this this
set of uses
and there are parking substitutions as
authorized by the zoning code
in order to meet parking demand
there was a request to deviate from the
typical standard
involved in surfacing of the parking lot
in this case they are wanting to do a
compacted gravel surface
compacting the gravel will help keep the
gravel in place
but part of the reason for this is again
to kind of retain some neighborhood fill
and not necessarily put asphalt or
concrete
to the extent necessary to carry out the
parking demand
and uh the one exception is anything
related to the ada required stall
the loading area and the accessible
route to the building
all that will have to be paved
on a hard
acceptable surface pursuant to to law
there's also a request to be allowed one
attached wall sign approximately 12
square feet in size
that is typically not allowed in an r1
district particularly in that it will be
advertising business
activities on site
and one thing that staff found
accommodating is the sense that right
now the site is
has very little landscaping in place but
they are willing to follow the 15
percent rule that's
authorized or are mandated in the design
standards for new businesses
and so they will be under that same
stipulation and agreeable to do so
the intent is to add landscaping to the
site to help it blend in with the
neighborhood and a large portion of that
landscaping will be brought up front
to further shield if you will or buffer
the the parking area from from view
an additional
aspect to that is there's a little wall
right now which you'll see in a little
bit
that
exists it will be modified in order to
allow for
the access or curb cut for the parking
but that will remain in place or the
wall most of the wall
to further shield the parking area
so again the deviations
in the r1 standard the use you're
allowed one residential unit as
requested it will be one residential
unit and two non-residential uses
part a pay parking lot
code requires concrete asphalt pavers or
other suitable
hard surface and in this case we'll be
seeking or the applicant will be seeking
compacted gravel
and in terms of signage again no general
commercial signage allowed in the r1a
zone
very limited
and in this case two by six
wall sign
a couple of photos of the property the
the first one on the left shows a direct
shot
of the subject property right now this
is the wall in question
the wall will be widened at least the
opening will be widened in order to
allow access
to the proposed parking area right
behind the wall
but what will remain will help shield
from view the parking area
the one in the middle
is a little bit offset to the east
just showing you the main or primary
building
and a little
wall that shields
my understanding some of the dumpsters
are garbage
containers from site
and then the one on the right far right
is uh to the rear of the property
you have the casita closest to view
that will be occupied by the business
owner and then you see the main dwelling
which will be modified for
yoga instruction
and massage therapy
a couple of shots of the neighborhood
this is the
neighbor directly
west of the subject property
heavily landscaped trees etc
residential
use
middle shot is looking down i believe
it's oregon
vista
i think
the intersecting street that i mentioned
again showing residential
i'm sorry that's looking west on brown
sorry about that and the one on the
right is also looking at two lots
uh adjacent that's further east of the
subject property showing that there is
some
remodeling going on in the neighborhood
but
nonetheless just wanted to get uh some
of those
some of those image
images in place there
this slide shows the site plan that we
are talking about tonight
again to the rear of the property where
the arrow is currently located
you have the alley that's directly in
back of the lot
that alley will provide access to these
two stalls parking stalls the two stalls
will service the casita use only
and then you have the main dwelling what
i refer to the main dwelling being
converted if approved into the yoga
studio and massage therapy area
your parking is going to be located here
in the front behind that wall
you see the new drive pad being
opened up here to allow access to the
property
you have most of the parking on site as
proposed and there are two on-street
stalls
being proposed
when you combine the on-site with the
two off site
and the trade-offs allowed pursuant to
code you meet the complete parking
demand including that for the
residential uses and pack
the existing curb cut located on the
easternmost side of the property in
front
that will be closed off
so that there is no conflict
and again that new dry pad will be
opened up towards
more front and center of the property
this is a snapshot of the sign they're
seeking to to utilize
two by twelve a two by six in size
and they are looking to put it on the
wall as i understand in front
another avenue could be to attach it to
the building in front
but my understanding is the little wall
so reviews were sent to all relevant
agencies and departments there were no
significant issues identified in fact
anything that was considered conditional
was easily accepted by the applicant
notice to the property owners was sent
august 9th and
as of 8 24
staff received one email one phone call
both protesting the case and citing
neighborhood conflict and and further
introduction of non-residential uses in
the neighborhood
i placed on your desk one
letter of support
that was from
the early notification effort i
apologize i didn't add that to your
packet but i wanted you to have it
for reference purposes
and
the representative when she speaks
can probably talk more about any other
contacts she's been
having with the residents to see if
there's any more input
so the recommendation for this case is
approval
primarily the property has been vacant
and is now eligible
for the idp i should say underutilized
and eligible for the idp
it falls within the urban place type
which to paraphrase
encourages a variety of residential
housing types and areas
supporting neighborhood commercial
development that's one of the key things
that i think this proposal is trying to
do as when staff discussed it that was
also cited as a reason
for support
it also encourages adapted
reuse of residential properties
including live work
again it's been vacant for five years so
this is a means to get property back
into active use
and it encourages reinvestment within
older areas of the city through
redevelopment all those are
within the elevate comprehensive plan
and either policies or strategies that
are identified to support the
recommendation
and finally it meets the intent of
elevate las cruces as i just said but
also in a purpose and intent
of the zoning code
and the city's infill policy plan and
meets the purpose of the las cruces
municipal code in terms of the powers of
this commission and hearing this this
type of case
your options this evening are to vote
yes and approve
you can vote no and deny if you vote no
you'll need to come up with your own
findings and that the presentation is
spoken in favor of it and provided
recommendations to that effect
or support
to that effect you can vote yes with
conditions
or vote to table
and that madam chair
completes that presentation
thank you very much and is there anybody
here
from the
owner or anyone else who wants to add
the same representative
okay we already swore you in right
yes madam chair sarah gonzalez for the
record once again i am the
representative for the property owners
and the business owner is here as well
to reiterate what staff has presented we
were required to send out early
notification and with that i only
received two phone calls one phone call
was in support which is the email in
which you have received in front of you
this evening and the second was not in
support being that it would continue to
elaborate with the commercial uses
moving into these residential districts
one thing i want to iterate is that
with it being an infill that means the
property zoning does not change if this
land use does not work for this
neighborhood if it doesn't work for this
business owner
the property still remains residential
it hasn't changed to a commercial zoning
it doesn't allow for someone else to
come in and impede on these neighbors by
providing
as explained lawyers offices or
a pharmacy some other commercial use
that may be more intense or as opposed
to being intense
being that this is appointment based
only there are three texts that work
within the site
they would have three clients at most
and maybe not even at the same time
yoga is basically the you know you have
a class that you get to do and maybe 10
at the most you're looking at maybe six
to eight but depending on people's work
schedule i work all day i can't go
during those day hours
but it provides to other people who may
be able to
some of the exceptions we made was
adding that additional bicycle parking
the idea is now you can walk to a
service you can write to that service
and you can drive to a service
we need to implement more of these
services within these residential
districts so you don't have to drive
somewhere
sometimes you just want to go down the
street because it's there if it was more
impactful i could understand that but
being that these are low intensity
appointment based reserve classes
they're not as intenseful as if you
bring in major commercial businesses
thank you
thank you um
comments from the commissioners here
yeah yeah minister
hi yes commissioner um mine's not a
question or a comment um
just uh uh so i drove by the property uh
because i was really curious because i
know the area and it was really really
curious
um
you know so i'm excited to see that that
there is infill and hoping that this uh
starts a trend of
uh bringing more businesses to just to
mix used neighborhoods uh but i did find
it interesting that there didn't seem to
be at least that i noticed like any
other businesses in the in the area um i
mean main street is like literally a
block away so uh you know i just hope
that this is a good decision for the for
the business owner in a good location
and that was all i wanted to comment on
mr commissioner smith i have a comment
yes commissioner smith
i have resided on um
south melinda is for 21 years uh i'm
near the corner brown and melinda's i'm
very familiar with this uh this site and
this uh this property
i this neighborhood um has been a
mixed-use neighborhood for quite a while
there's been a
there was a
construction office um just four houses
down buildings down from me
ebit is down the street closer to amador
i'm
very very
familiar with the amount of traffic that
goes through that neighborhood
and that section of brown
[Music]
it there will be very minimal uh impact
from a traffic standpoint because um
there's a lot of traffic that already
flows through there so
uh i
i believe that um
the impact uh that this business would
have um in this part of the neighborhood
would be very minimal and like i said
that's based on my experience of living
near this neighborhood for 21 years
any more comments from commissioners
okay um
how many people in the public would like
to comment could i see a show of hands
one
two three four okay you could have three
minutes each let's start on this side
there was nobody in the first row second
row on this side
sure yeah
that would be helpful we could probably
hear you better
it's very difficult and your name is my
name is theresa shannon stevenson okay
do you swear and affirm that testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
nothing but the truth on their penalty
of law i do thank you thank you
thank you for
allowing us to
offer our comments
i did call the
zoning and planning when i received the
letter from ms gonzalez immediately
and
did express my
very strong
disapproval of this
project
and
hoped you know other people would but i
was assured could you be just a little
closer microphone yes i was assured at
the time
that there would be a meeting that we
would receive a letter from the city
which we did
but i frankly uh had had i known i was
supposed to follow up that letter before
appearing here with a phone call with an
email what have you i would have done
that and basically what we have been
doing is
is talking to our neighbors about
appearing tonight you see we didn't
realize we had opportunity
um
more opportunity to express our our
feelings about this
i was born
in the house
that we own my fam my sisters and
brothers and i own sister and brother
on oregonview
and
so therefore we've been in the
neighborhood since 1946 my dad built the
house
and we frankly are very strongly opposed
to this project because this is a
residential area now i grant you that as
mr smith pointed out there is
encroachment of commercial properties on
main street
in fact my grandfather's house
is on main street and um is a
photography studio and appraisal and
it's you know it's great
main street is very busy and that's a
good good thing to have there
but for us
and for the neighbors that
will speak also this is a very quiet
area
i read over all of the infill
documents going back to 1991.
and i understand
that this is uh the idea is to
revitalize
you know old older places or to
in this case
underutilized properties or vacant
properties that could be used for
something else
however
given the current residential market
i think that
the people who own this property and
it's not the owners of the business
it's a five it's 550
uh let's see 550 brown llc
and i had the great pleasure of talking
with
mr o'connell who's the owner of the
property
about his
his idea here
and uh understand where he's coming from
and this this notion of a quaint little
neighborhood
that you could then um oh you know we'll
start here
here's a good anchor and then well
somebody else moves out so we buy
another one and then we're going to have
the coffee shop over here
and
pretty soon the neighborhood is no
longer a neighborhood
it's a
quaint little
place where people go to have coffee or
they stroll around and we have the timer
on here
sorry
okay i'm told it's three minutes so
could you wrap up please
no i can't wrap up i live i live in this
neighborhood ma'am
and i'm here to make my case mr banegas
took a great deal of time explaining how
this was all set
in stone almost
and
i i don't think it should be set in
stone
mr o'connell
who owns the property explained
that he would be happy to to work with
us okay
uh
so thank you um we will let everybody
else have their time and if there's one
more thing you may come back um after
the other people have spoken but
everybody gets equal time to begin with
okay that would be great i will be back
thank you
anybody else on this side
on the right hand side my right hand
side
on the left hand side
okay this is one to the third row
on the end oh do you want to start
hello
i just wanted to say
i need to have your name and then i need
to swear you in all right my name is
miss mcfarland
and do you swear and affirm the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth and nothing but the truth under
penalty of law i do thank you
is that it that's it go ahead okay
i just wanted to reiterate what she said
i
have i'm not as well read as she is and
don't have as much information but i've
lived in that neighborhood
since my children were three months old
and they're now in their 60s so
quite a while and
we want it residential
not business there are places all over
town
where she can massage all she wants to
and i may have
in fact
i have a relative who is a
chiropractor and they might like to have
a
therapist massage therapist
in their office which she might look
into
so there are lots of places for business
but this is residential we want it
residential and we will fight to keep it
residential
thank you
um
that was the third row anybody in the
fourth row on this side
yes you want to come down
and your name is my name is pamela angel
hi pamela
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 i do thank you
yes first i'd like to say that i respect
the opinions of my neighbors i live at
brown road it's across the street in
caddy corner
so i do respect the people that i
live among in this neighborhood but i do
support the project
i think that infill is a great idea for
cities
such as las cruces
i did see this property sit for five
years abandon
and have people move in and
crash there people who are homeless
i did see
what happens a lot with realtors and
um is when they when a property's sold
or it's they're trying to sell it
all of the landscape it was a beautiful
property it was owned by a dentist and
his wife
they parked on the street for many years
and
when they
after the dentist died
and the property went for sale
it was abandoned
for you know five years and
it all of the trees all of the rose
bushes everything died which i think is
just a shame that nobody bothers to
water or keep that vibrant
but i do think that it would be kind of
cool to have a yoga studio in a massage
therapy place in my neighborhood
um i do understand the
importance of having a neighbor neighbor
you know residential neighborhood and
but i do think that this would be low
impact
as a you know i wouldn't want to see a
cannabis dispensary
or other kinds of businesses i think
somebody was wanting a law criminal
defense law office there
but i think this would be quite low
impact and really add to the character
of the neighborhood
um
so i've lived there 22 years and
i don't i'm not concerned about it um
getting spam on my phone i'm not
concerned about
you know the property value of my own
property because i hope to
live there throughout my whole life
but um i do really respect the people
that have lived there longer
in the neighborhood and what their
input is to you as well but i wanted to
say i think it would be kind of exciting
thank you thank you
okay next
next in row four
say your name again esther
perez
p-e-r-e-z
do you swear and affirm that the
testimony you're about to give is the
truth and nothing but the truth on their
penalty of law
i so swear thank you
i have lived on oregon view
avenue
just so you know it's not place
um i don't know why it's avenue because
it's only this long
but um for 12 years
i purchased my home because it isn't a
neighborhood there's not a lot of
traffic
there is
now round road's getting super busy
already and i really feel like this
would uh have a major impact on the
number of vehicles not only on brown
road but on my street which
we barely have enough parking for the
people who live there i don't need more
people parking on my road i also do not
feel that
well
i
i want to say
i love yoga
and i love
massage i'm putting that out there
but
the parking spaces that would be placed
in the house would not necessarily make
it
residential anymore once
this was no longer a business
having six
sorry eight parking spaces in the front
of the house
would not make it
be a resident
so just
saying thank you
does anyone else in that row
go for
the next row row five is anyone in that
row
[Music]
good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and
your name is my name is justin weber
and um
do you swear an affirmative testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
nothing but the truth yes ma'am thank
you
okay again my name is justin weaver i'm
a resident of 1011 oregon view avenue um
just a little bit about myself i
attain a four-year bachelor's degree in
architecture design
with a specialty in urban development
this was through texas tech i am also a
licensed gb 98 contractor i also partake
in a lot of commercial developments i
would have had a whole lot better
presentation put together for you guys
had i would have known i was given this
opportunity
um
i'd like to go ahead and start with a
petition that i circulated
at actually 7 a.m this morning i got it
out to 10 of my neighbors
i was actually able to get six of them
back within that short period of time
today um all of these are in opposition
of this proposed development
okay
number one disturbing the peacefulness
of our neighborhood
number two reduce resale market value
marketability and value to us homeowners
three inadequacy of building property to
service commercial needs required by uh
las cruces building code
if rezoned commercial as a neighborhood
we have no say what it's going to be in
the future we have a yoga
studio this year we could have a
methadone clinic next year
last but not least
neighborhood streets are not designed to
handle increased traffic
they're proposing off-street traffic
with this being a commercial development
that would require an engineered traffic
study
that i don't think that was performed
i also unfortunately i have small
things for my presentation but
um
oregonview is just simply not designed
to handle increased traffic
it is a dead-end street it is not a
cul-de-sac it does not allow for
proper transfer or in and out of
vehicles
um that being said all my neighbors
behind me including myself we're going
to be now
our driveways are going to be used as a
point of turning in and out and around
for traffic use
um sorry
uh right now it's
residential uh the rest of the the stuff
that's around there is zoned um
01c
uh so with this elevate uh you know
proposal keeping it residential
this isn't really conducive to what we
want in our neighborhood
uh this pretty much
uh you know with what my neighbor said
earlier you know it starts with an
anchor we have a yoga studio now then we
have a coffee shop then we've completely
lost the queen you know quietness of our
neighborhood which that's i i mean i
love my neighborhood i absolutely love
my neighborhood i love my neighbors most
of them are elderly i'm one of the
youngest people in the neighborhood
30 seconds
um
excuse me i probably would have been a
whole lot more prepared had i would have
known that i would be being able to give
this presentation
um but simply there's 13 occupancies per
post there's 10 yogas if the three
massage tables were open that's 13
occupants let's say all 13 occupants
took their car where are they going to
park
there's only eight parking stalls
where the other five occupants can park
that's my question
you know there's so many things that i
could have
you know ada as far as the gravel being
acceptable why aren't we keeping the
parking lot standards with what's around
if we're trying to be with a continuance
of the commercial and everything else
that's going on with that area
lastly they're going to be using the
alleyway
to access the residential property in
the back that alleyway is not for
traffic use
that alleyway is for service use only
now we're going to be talking about
traffic going in and out where we
already have problems
with homeless people people from uh
everything else coming through the
alleys we've come to three minutes and
thank you for your presentation thank
you
um and who was our first speaker did you
want to oh we have one more yeah do you
want to come back up you can have two
more minutes
oh i'm sorry i missed you in the back
please come up
my name is uh stanley ingle e-n-g-l-e
thank you do you swear an affirmative
testimony you're about to give is the
truth and nothing but the truth under
penalty of love i do thank you
okay
so i with all due respect to my
neighbors as well i live on el prado
street almost directly
behind the studio
initially
i was very opposed to the um
project
but the presentation swayed me the other
way my only concern would be the traffic
and as the gentleman over there
brought up uh parking because i have a
young child who
you know malendras is not very safe nor
is main street
so that would be my only concern with
this uh with this project i do believe
that um
we need to have businesses that service
neighborhoods that are closer that do
not require us to get into a single
occupancy vehicle and drive halfway
across town just to do something so i am
i support local
businesses i support
um small coffee shops
um of course this is not a coffee shop
and i do believe from the presentation
uh again it swayed me that um this is
not
this is not going to be high impact as
long as the
parking situation is not out of control
again that is literally my only
complaint
or traffic that it increases traffic on
malendra's
more than it already is in melendra's
desperately needs some speed control
thank you
okay has everyone who wanted to speak
spoken what's
okay
and um
yes madam chair i do want to point out
that the business owner is also present
in case there are questions um directly
for the business owner as well
would the business owner like to make
any statements at this time
i can i can't hear you
okay you want her to go first and then
you'll speak thank you
i do want to point out a couple of a
couple of problems that uh
i saw with uh
miss gonzalez letter
after speaking with the owner of the
property
that the um
he explained to me that the business
owner would not be
in residence on the property they're not
the owners of the property they're
owners of the business only
so that's an inaccuracy that i think is
worth pointing out
and also in reading going back to my
reading of the infill development
philosophy
i believe that it was actually begun as
a way of
providing affordable housing
for vacant or underused land
and
this is like flipping that on on its
head
you're going to take a residential area
and bring in a small business and as um
esther pointed out once you put in this
parking area
there are very few people who are going
to say oh that looks like a great place
to uh for my family to live
so i would like you to consider those
things do you have a yoga studio in your
neighborhood currently mr smith i'm glad
you're here because you have seen the
encroachment of the commercial all
around us and i hear what you're saying
but at the same time
if i have a quiet neighborhood is that
such a bad thing okay that's that's my
concern
if
if if the infill is used properly and by
the way in this current climate
of real estate mr o'connell could sell
that property in a heartbeat and as a
matter of fact two places on brown road
sold within days of being put on the
market because people are wanting to
move to las cruces now
you know this nine in fill
came about
in the 90s and forward to address the
problem of slow growth also there are
four yoga studios
in the downtown area already
and there are many many vacant
commercial
properties that could be used for a yoga
studio massage therapy
in fact there are some on the east side
of
main street
if you go on brown road if you've
driven over there you know the area you
hit main street you go on the other side
there are quite a few vacant properties
there
so that's
i hope that
you know when you have your vote you
will 37 neighbors
and what our needs and wants are as well
thank you thank you
okay any
comments final comments up here from
people on
is there one more person
[Music]
oh you want did you want to speak to now
okay again i need to swear you in
i am the owner of the fifth element and
my name is michelle coyle
do you swear on affirmative testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
nothing but the truth on the penalty of
law i
do
my name is rose leduc i own rose leduc
lmt located at the fifth element arts in
healing center
do you swear on affirmative testimony
you're about to give us the truth and
nothing but the truth on their penalty
of law yes thank you
go ahead
okay um i would like to start off by
saying that
first and foremost i completely
understand and respect
all of the concerns of the neighbors in
this neighborhood
and if we are able to afford with our
business going here we have every
intention to
completely respect these people's homes
and neighborhood that they love
i think that a lot of these concerns
that people have with our business being
there
we actually side with these concerns um
in order for our business to function
the way that we need it to
to be successful
um these neighbors love their
neighborhood because it's quiet and
that's what we need to function as um
our business
uh this will
we've been in business for three years
and we have
functioned in commercial places and it
has really hindered us from flourishing
as a business
because of the type of services we
provide
we're not a commercial business
and it makes it really hard
to succeed as a massage therapy business
with yoga classes offered when there's
noise when there's you know the current
place that we're at we have our own
parking lot but we're surrounded by
apartments
and they take up our parking spaces
and so we completely understand those
concerns and we want to do everything
that we can to
not only not have to deal with that
ourselves but we don't want to create
that problem for anyone either
i know that one of the concerns
was the parking because you know we
estimated 10 people
for yoga classes and then we have three
therapists who can see three clients at
once so now there's more than eight
parking spaces but we don't function
that way
um because we're having to create a
quiet space for our yoga and massage you
know
to start we will only have one to two
classes a week
at most as far as yoga and those classes
have to be scheduled outside of when we
see clients so if we have a yoga class
that is the only thing that will be
taking
um that that that'll be the only thing
happening at that time
versus if we're taking clients we're
only seeing clients we're never going to
have a class and a full house of clients
at the same time that's just not
it's not really possible to do that
within the space that we have
um
i think rose has some things that she
wants to
um i just wanted to add to that as well
um
i know that it being a residential area
you know like michelle said it's very
quiet there
um
we also want to work on preserving the
area i understand it is a historic
location
um and we don't want to do anything that
would make it to seem like if it is this
big commercial business we're not going
to be having like a it's not like a fast
food restaurant where we have this high
volume of traffic coming in and out
our focus is going to be on one client
at a time when they're coming they're
there for at least an hour it's very
minimal
contact and we think that it will keep
low traffic and we want to just keep it
beautiful
one thing i want everyone to consider
also is that
we
don't want to re-zone the entire
neighborhood as well because i totally
understand the concern of that expanding
into pouring into these other parts
we don't want that that's exactly why we
are choosing this location
and another thing is that we are a quiet
business so i think if any business
would be utilizing this space i think it
would be
suitable for us to be in the area
um
um and i just want to touch on what she
was talking about too um i know some of
the concerns of the neighbors
uh they
they're
really hope they're they
enjoy that the neighbors of the
neighborhood are actually taking the
time to beautify their homes they're
making their neighborhood look more
beautiful look more welcoming creating a
peaceful place in their neighborhood and
we want that too you know we want we
want to make this house that's been
abandoned for five years we want it to
be beautiful and be a good place um for
people to see for the neighbors to come
and take a part of
um
yeah
i think the goal is just to be able to
say that
hey there's a massage therapy business
down the street instead of that we're
hindering on the neighborhood at all it
hopefully would increase the value by
offering this luxury service within
walking distance
and just hope that we can be more
accessible to our clients being
centrally located i think it would
really
be
inviting more people to come that maybe
otherwise wouldn't be able to so
and then also just to touch on the
concern of if we are approved to be here
when will it stop you know is this whole
neighborhood going to be taken over by
commercial businesses
and as i said we side with the neighbors
on that you know if we're allowed to be
here
i want to ask that the city takes that
into consideration as
more businesses want to do that because
if more businesses go into this
neighborhood it just totally
it just rejects why we're there in the
first place we need it to be quiet we
need low traffic
we want a place where the neighbors feel
like they have a community center to go
if they want to
participate in our classes if they need
a place of healing if they need a
service
we want to offer that to them in a
positive note
and if we're allowed to proceed with
this i just want to let all the
neighbors know that our door is always
open for communication we want to be
immutable and flexible to the
neighborhood to make sure that even
though we have the things that we need
to do to flourish as a business
we never want to be a problem for the
people in the neighborhood and if
there's anything that we're doing
anything that we're not doing to
make sure that these people's lives in
their peaceful home is not being
um
you know disturbed we want to do that we
want to
cater to whatever needs and concerns
people have
because
yeah we just don't want to be a problem
you know we do want our business to
succeed we have been stuck in a rut of
not being able to find an affordable
location
um i don't know if anyone in the
audience or
here has ever owned a business but it's
not easy it's not easy to start from
square one it's not easy to make it
through
coronavirus quote shutdowns and
i really believe that this space would
not only let us flourish as a business
but we're finally in a place as a
business that we are so ready to give
back to our community and so ready to
give back to who has supported us along
the way
and we really believe that this space is
everything that we need to
to do that for ourselves and the
neighborhood and the community
i also want to add that i think
for
us moving into the building we can
promise
the community something that maybe a
residential neighbor wouldn't be able to
and that is that we are quite business
and we will promise to keep
everything totally undisruptive
and for being our purpose is to just
enhance everything so i just wanted to
acknowledge every everybody here as well
that
um
you know consider maybe you you can't
pick your neighbors so you know you
never know who could move in and you
wouldn't have an option to you know
raise those concerns maybe and and now
that we're kind of opening the
conversation i just hope that we can
reassure you that
we promise that that we are a quiet
business and that's something that
you're not going to get from a
residential neighbor
thank you very much i appreciate your
concern for the neighbors and taking the
time to talk about it thank you thank
you thank you
anyone else in the public
okay we'll move now return to the
commissioners any last comments okay
commissioner yeah i have a i have a
comment uh and first of all i want to
thank everybody that came and spoke uh
for and against i
can tell you guys are really passionate
about your neighborhood and that's
that's really moving
um
you know when we talk about infill and
when we talk about you know having mixed
use neighborhoods and stuff like that
those are actually the things that
people are looking into when it comes to
moving into a city you know i mean i
understand that you know some of you
have lived there for many many years and
that's amazing
but also
you know we are a city that's changing
las cruces is growing um you know you go
to el paso and there's neighborhoods
that are mixed everywhere you go to
other cities like portland or seattle or
not that we're not that we're as big as
that or maybe we will never get to that
big in our lifetime but those are the
things that people are looking when
they're looking into moving into an
urban area um
i will say however this this this for me
this is this is kind of a hard one
because i understand you know i mean
like when when you've lived in a place
that's quiet for so many years and then
you have some you know you you start
having business moving in and then that
increases traffic that's definitely hard
like that's not what you signed up for
when you bought your house so you know i
just want you all to know that you know
i mean when when we look at these kind
of cases we you know we look at it
through the lens of ourselves as well so
you know i just wanted to make that
comment and just you know thank you all
for being here and for your
participation that's you know that's
what's great about city government is
being able to participate so thank you
anyone else
yes miss commissioner smith um
commissioner smith
yes although i am um
part of this commission
i am a resident of the city of las
cruces and i happen to be a resident
of
south melinda's uh near the corner of
brown and malindra's
and i think it's important to point out
that um
oregon view avenue
uh it is a quaint street um but it's h
it's just one street
in the neighborhood
south melindres is part of the
neighborhood brown street is part of the
neighborhood el prado as a gentleman in
the back that he resides at that's
part of the neighborhood and
oregon view has had the special blessing
of being tucked away in the corner in
some ways sheltered from the changes
that have happened
on melendra's and brown
i've lived there for 21 years
and i have personally sat in my kitchen
and watched
vehicles travel up to 80 miles per hour
on the street i have personally sat in
my kitchen at my table and watched
accidents happen on the corner of brown
and melinda's i have personally sat in
my kitchen and watched homeless people
cross
the street almost getting hit by traffic
on a regular basis and
if the residents of oregon view would
admit they know how much
traffic
and how much change has come to that
neighborhood
it is not
as quaint
and quiet as it may have been 50 years
ago
i happen to live across the street from
a rental duplex where a young man places
music
loudly every day and i believe the
people in oregon view have heard that
music many many times i have not said
anything or complained about it so
i i understand that you have this street
and it is a wonderful street i have a
close friend that lives on that street
and it is
a little bit of a sanctuary tucked back
there
and this type of business this yoga
business will be a quiet business it's
not going to be a bar it's not going to
be some type of store it's going to have
high traffic they will be parking
mostly within the inside the property of
the resident maybe two vehicles on the
street
there may be an occasion where someone
may turn
and miss
the the building and have to turn around
that's not going to happen that happens
on any given day
so i i feel that um
i respect greatly the opposition to
this this proposal uh however the
minimal impact on oregon viewplace and
in the corner of brown and oregon view
will will not be significant because
i
on south millendras have seen the amount
of traffic and how
how dense the traffic flows through
between amador and maine and
that is the impact
so i i just feel that you know as a
resident of that street i feel i have a
special insight into what's what's
what this business would actually bring
thank you
commissioner gordon
i do reckon i do i recognize the
comments of my two fellow commissioners
i think that they're right on track
but i do have a question which may help
the problem a little bit which people
are concerned about
uh mr banegas could you please come back
to the microphone and
sarah can you do that also just in case
i need you to
could you please go on your
presentation the site plan
that's it
i i do not have it it isn't broken it
isn't broken down like a lot of
blueprints that show how many feet or
whatever but the area that's in front of
the trash
to the wall that goes down to the front
of the property
that seems like quite a large open space
if you were to move the trash bin back
which looks like you can go back at
quite a considerable distance
and open that space in there for perhaps
additional parking maybe that would help
take care of the problem of maybe
what these residents are concerned about
i don't know i'm just looking at this
blank site plan it doesn't really give
you much information
um madame chair
commissioner gordon
just in looking at the site plan i would
uh
yeah the parking stalls spaces are nine
feet wide so
uh you're looking at roughly
about one two three four nine times four
is 36.
thank you
so roughly 36
feet
from the front of the property line
maybe a little more
to that wall
so
you've got that much room to play with
but you're talking about pushing the
dumpster back in the wall back as well
is that what you're
saying
and then if that's the case then i'd
have the representative speak to that i
don't
madam chair commissioner gordon
one of the concerns would then be is if
we eliminate that space and add
additional parking you have now removed
the landscaping from the property
at most we were trying to maintain this
property to be residential which is why
the request came in as gravel instead of
asphalt the applicant which is the
business owner yes is leasing the
property from the property owner
at this point they have no problem
paving the parking lot but we wanted to
keep it as much as possible to look
residential if you leave the property
this business does not succeed in some
way or decides to find a different
location and you leave you now have a
landscaped front area as opposed to a
paved parking lot that's how you
maintain residential districts
it would be no different if we remove
that space to where the landscaping is
going to be placed in the front you've
now removed all the landscaping in the
front of the property
and so now it looks like this big giant
parking lot which is not the intent that
we're trying to accomplish here we still
want it to look as if it's a residential
home
okay thank you sir i can understand that
it was just a thought i had by looking
at it
it doesn't really describe exactly where
what is going to be in that space it's
just it's just open space
and
if that's the case i i'm definitely in
favor of doing landscaping i want this
to look as nice as possible
i'm not looking to make it just look
like a flat out uh industrial
project
so just to leave it for landscaping is
fine with me i just wanted there was
some way we might be able to just add a
couple more spaces
so in that case
i again think that this is a wonderful
project i think it will add to the area
it isn't the kind of business that's
going to create any noise
so it should work out very nicely i
think the neighborhood will in the end
will be very pleased
any more commissioner comments
i just want to add that
i also think it will add to the
neighborhood
and
it's the it's the kind of business that
we really want to see in some of these
infill areas and we're not re-zoning the
whole area
this is just a small infield project
you have a vote
board member smith
i vote yes uh based on um it supports
the home
employment opportunities
and also it also meets the criteria for
elevate las cruces comprehensive plan
um
i will vote yes uh based again on infill
site visit and elevate las cruces and as
well
again this is a low density business
so i just feel like it is an appropriate
business for the neighborhood
board member virga
i vote yes um i travel up and down
malendra's
daily
the idea of being able to feel safe
riding my bike
to get to this location would be really
ideal
and i
and i do hear what everyone's saying
i also live on north melendra's
and
the amount of
foot traffic um
vehicle traffic
things that
i'm just
it's never a dull moment to say the
least when you're on melendra's and that
can be all times a day
and so a project like this seems like uh
a nice little escape
from the two
monstrosity traffic areas that are maine
and malendras
so with that said based on
site visit staff recommendation
and that it
supports elevate las cruces i vote yes
board member
gordon based on my site visit
this
project will meet the infield
requirements
i go along with staff recommendations
it does comply with elevate las cruces
our comprehensive plan
and again i do think that this will be
a nice project in the end i think that
people will be happy with in that case i
definitely vote yes
chairperson thomas
i also will yes um
i'm happy to see
an example live work
that we can have in our city for others
to see and emulate and based on staff
recommendations and elevate las cruces
thank you motion passes five to zero
okay now we're ready for our last
item
can i have a motion
to approve
what number are we on
uh motion to approve item number
two
the east london development plan
thank you are you making that motion
yes emotion
okay
item number two is there a second
it's commission smith that second
thank you
okay presentation
[Music]
good evening members of the commission
uh this is catherine harrison rogers for
the record senior planner with the
department
i'm here just to introduce
site southwest our consultants who
assisted in
developing this plan for the city this
is the east development east loma
development plan this is a the area that
is near
the hospital at east loman you have that
large vacant parcel that is to the south
of the hospital it's generally in that
area and
i'm going to introduce our our
consultants with site southwest we have
uh we have
daniel wilson who is on the line
we also have george radnovich who is
also here
to speak to this and
we have staff myself and mark miller to
answer any questions from the city's
standpoint so with that i will turn it
over
good evening commissioners do you mind
if i take my mask off
oh that's fine it's much easier to hear
you
thank you this one is especially muffled
thank you okay and can you state your
name
my name is george radnovich and i'm with
site southwest i'm one of the principals
of the company and do you swear on a
firm testimony you're about to give us
the truth and nothing but the truth
yes thank
you so i think some of you have already
seen this project in one one form or
another uh we've been working on it for
quite some time and so
tonight our reason for being here is to
request
your recommendation to
to the city council to adopt
the development plan and so what i'm
going to do is go through
a shortened version of some of the slide
shows we've done in the past and then
i'll be here and so will danny for any
uh any questions
and also so will catherine and mark
so um
can i run the slides myself
great thank you
okay
ah
so the agenda for tonight is is really
pretty basic uh we're going to go
through the process
that we took to develop this plan
i'm going to tell you about the
community engagement that we did which
was extensive and then i'll overview the
plan and the preferred plan from three
that we
developed and then we'll talk about
implementation of the plan and how it
might be implemented by the city of las
cruces
the development process uh
started about i'm sorry about that
the plan process started about a year
ago and
this plan that's in front of you here is
the project context we always do one of
those so we understand the neighborhoods
surrounding a plan area and the plan
area is outlined in the
in the uh
let me see if i can point to it
i guess not
is in the dashed and dotted line
that you see surrounding it the main
area that we looked at
is the space that is open space right
across from the mountain view medical
center
it's very close to a lot of open space
and as you know there's going to be
another piece of open space and
recreation very nearby
in the east and east mesa
recreation complex
it's also very close to the archery
range
and a number of other open space
amenities like the large dam open space
which i believe is 800 acres in total
so
what we tried to do is
understand and to respect all of these
spaces and
how this this
community project would interact with it
we also looked at all of the existing
plans that relate to this space
including elevate las cruces which is
the most recent plan
and then the active transportation plan
in 2018
all the way down to
you know almost 20 years ago or a little
over 20 years ago the lohmann avenue
development plan which really tried to
make lowman more of a pedestrian
friendly street
and as you know it's it's a a very fast
paced very fast traffic type of street
we also looked at other developments in
the area or proposed developments like
aggie uptown which is just down the road
to the south uh and we looked at the
messiah valley mall
because it
also
is a village center in the uh in the
elevate las cruces plan
this is more zeroing in on the site and
all those
colorful blobs that you see in front of
you are representative of certain things
we noticed about the site we tried to
make this plan
walkable within a quarter mile or a
15-minute walk and those circles
represent what would be a 15-minute walk
on that land
if it were developed
probably shorter if it weren't
the orange areas that are kind of in
in sort of lines and blobs along the
north side and the south side are very
steep terrain so those are areas we
wouldn't recommend developing in
and we're also recommending very little
grading go on with the project
the last thing is there's a wonderful
view of the oregon morgan mountains and
that green line with the two arrows on
it is representative of
extending
foothills drive to
the kind of center of the development
and that
we should take advantage of those views
towards the organs
uh i didn't i did forget to mention one
other thing the kind of peach-colored
line along the bottom
is the uh the south um uh little dam
arroyo and uh we're recommending that
that stay naturalized and even enhanced
as part of the project area
and you'll see more of that as i go
through this
we did a market study as part of the
project and what it showed us is that
the project could probably develop to be
about 20 percent uh retail
office and hospitality and i'll explain
that a little more fully in a minute
about fifty percent missing mixed
sorry missing middle residential which
is a
more dense kind of residential
and then 30 detached housing and the
reason we're laying it out the way it is
is because we realize that there's
detached housing south
in the kenyan estates area and so we
recommend it in all of our plans that
the detached residential be across the
royal from that very close to what's
already detached residential
as i said we have we had a lot of
community input the input was
both with the community at large and
with the business owners and residents
of the neighborhoods surrounding the
site
and so
we had stakeholder meetings with the
hospital with other businesses
we involved
developers in those in those meetings
that might be interested in developing
the site we had work sessions with them
and with the city
and the public throughout the fall of
last year
we developed the project website and we
update it regularly with all of the
plans including the event tonight
and we've had updated
sorry we had a vision survey as well and
i'll explain that a little more fully in
a minute
but we opened up the
plans to the public and asked them what
they thought and what they thought the
best parts about the plan and the worst
parts about the plan were and that took
place from december 3rd 2020 uh to
january 13th so we really really tried
hard to hear from the community
and then
we had a community charette and at that
charette we
we literally spent uh and it was a
virtual character because of the
pandemic but we spent four days three
and a half days
working on the plan
and asking the public what they thought
and we had successional public meetings
for those three days in a in a row so
that was really great and
and we got a lot of input from the
public and i think most of it was pretty
positive
so
the poll results were based on so we
took a poll as well sorry
and the
poll results were based on these three
plans so we came up with these three
plans based on
what we'd heard from the public and from
the stakeholders and from the business
owners in the surrounds
and one of the plans concentrates on
population health it's a healthy village
concept so very walkable
focus on health related activities and
health related businesses for instance
businesses that would
dovetail well with mountain view
the second one was more of a traditional
neighborhood i'll i'll call it a new
urbanist neighborhood
but very um
uh gridded
kind of like downtown in a way with a
main street and uh promenade down the
middle
and then we had a conservation
neighborhood which was really
intended to conserve
all of the arroyos the open spaces
and really integrate the environment
into
the
multiple
use housings and housing and retail and
health and civic spaces
so
we showed that to the neighborhoods
and these are some of the results from
all of those uh
this was on a one to five kind of uh
rating
approach and
four excuse me five being they really
liked it and one being not so much
and you can see that the pedestrian
village idea the idea of a micro
mobility loop and i'll go over that in a
little while
the idea of that terraced entry along
the
along the um
north side of the property
and the idea of habitat preservation
were all really strong
and as was the neighborhood center so
the
the community really liked a lot of the
ideas in each of these plans that we
came up with
this shows
what they
what what the the community thought uh
would be
you know good things to include in the
site
and so you can see they like the idea of
these urban spaces they capture
stormwater but more than anything they
want to keep the natural topography
they want to provide public open space
and a lot of it
and they like the idea of mixed income
housing
and then finally
enhancing those neighborhoods with
amenities and connections to some of the
neighborhoods surrounding and the
hospital itself
so
this is the voting on each of those
scenarios and you can see the two
favorite scenarios were the
healthy village concept on the top
and the
conservation neighborhood
on the bottom so what we did to develop
the final plan
oh sorry
i screwed that up didn't i
sorry i i thought i could go back i
don't know how to do that
i think at the top it says next previous
or last viewed i think if you hit last
viewed you'll get back to oh thank you
very much
and let me go back one more
thanks i need a new prescription of my
glasses so i apologize
um
so what we did is we created a plan that
combined the best aspects according to
those poll results
of the of the healthy village concept on
the top of the screen and the
conservation neighborhood approach on
the bottom of the screen
these were some of the things that the
public said about and the business
community and stakeholders said about
the project and and what they wanted and
you can see that these really uh
really blend well into the approaches
that we took for them
for the project they wanted to be
pedestrian friendly
they didn't want to shop in el paso if
they could help it they like the idea of
kind of the way downtown is
that you can walk to wherever you want
to go
live there and
shop there
so
the vision that we developed based on
all of that was
to build
and this includes the market study
everything we heard from the public from
the city itself uh and from those polls
um to build upon the existing medical
uses at mountain view
uh to provide a mix of housing types so
they wanted a not just single family not
just a higher density but a real mix
to integrate with the terrain and to
make it
a place that
respects nature
and holds nature as part of the
community
to build sustainable buildings and
infrastructure
and then to have a mixed use
neighborhood that not only
that's not only put there for the
community of
east loman but the surrounding existing
communities as well so to create some
positives for everyone
so
and the plan framework i'm going to just
go through this very briefly i know
you've heard it before and if you want
me to hurry up i'm happy to just let me
know
this is the recommended development plan
so
you can see from the plan
that we did combine
the first
and the third
idea excuse me concepts
we created what's called a
mixed middle
uh missing middle i'm sorry neighborhood
here
we created a an a health oriented
neighborhood which could include senior
facilities and even senior living and
offices that might work in conjunction
with the
hospital here
two neighborhood nodes one in kind of
the center of the community
and one oriented
over
towards
road runner
which would also be a transit facility
we kept all of the single family
detached
along the arroyo and we created
pathways up those arroyos so that those
communities of people including the
missing middle sort of mid
density communities could use them and
have and have
free access to open space
the other thing we did is create a kind
of central park
right here
and then
we kept that
you know we looked at and this is really
nothing against the existing development
but we looked at the existing
development and thought
it would have been much better if they
would have uh kept the slopes
uh respected that and not had to build
those walls there so we actually kept
the highest sloped area which is right
here
which you may remember was that that red
red blob on the
on the map i showed you and that would
be just a terraced walkway from the
community down to east loman
another thing we did is we created an
intersection
right here at foothills
that would then become the
i'll call it main street if you will of
the center of the community
and another intersection
that already exists there at onyate
right here kamino
one last thing
we
just developed a very rudimentary uh
street
uh uh
organization
and alignment and grid in areas that are
actually owned by a private developer
that you might be aware of
all of these but that idea of a micro
mobility loop which i'll
it'll have smaller streets to connect
neighborhoods
and then a street along the arroyo
as a kind of beautiful way to get from
paseo donate all the way up to these
neighborhoods
this shows the active transportation
plan which includes bicycles and other
types of active transportation so we
included a bike lane on all the major
streets in the
plan area
we have an urban block which is intended
to be used for walking primarily and for
all types of
transportation to get through
i mean uh active transportation
we have we were recommending a separated
bike lane and this came from
our public meetings along east loman one
to slow down east loman and two to
create a little more multi-modal
activity there
and then a multi-use trail which is the
small yellow kind of thread that kind of
approaches the subdivisions to the north
to the south
and the arroyo and then all of the open
space so it kind of creates that last
connection
this shows the pedestrian network so you
can see it's a very pedestrian oriented
community development plan and you may
remember those two
sort of bubbles of the 15-minute walk
they this would create a lot of
walkability
and then the open space network which
which includes
a more traditional park right in the
center
and open space at its edges
here and here north and south and in
smaller parks in some of the
neighborhoods
surrounding
the sort of center of activity
so
we also developed some implementation
recommendations and i think this is
probably among the most important parts
but
this is what
we believe would help the city create
a community
that
acts and looks and feels like what i
just went over for you
so
one of the things that we think would
really create success that little sweet
spot in the center
would be to develop a regulating plan
strategic and
strategic infrastructure investments on
the part of the city
and then
governance that would help to create
this final implementation strategy and
government governance that helps the
community
succeed and
in terms of strategic investments
these are the list of four that we think
the city could do to get a to sort of
jump start the community and give it a
framework for growth and for building
this community the first one is all
those enhancements i mentioned earlier
along east loman the bike lanes the
crossings
better pedestrianism
the
the terraced and landscaped area along
that heavy slope
the second is the paseo de oniate
improvements and i failed to mention
where it says number two right there on
this map
we're proposing a little village center
it might have a coffee shop it might
have a bookstore
maybe a massage studio or a
a wellness studio
and then
preserving all those drainage pathways
as a third strategic investment that
could be city open space in the end
uh and then
the foothills road extension which runs
right down through the middle and will
create the kind of spine for the
community so those are those are the
our recommendations for
what the city could do as strategic
investments in the community
we didn't do this planning in a in a
vacuum we looked at a number of
communities one was at holiday in
boulder colorado another was i believe
it was
mueller in austin and we looked close by
at the sawmill community land trust in
albuquerque and so i won't go through
this in great detail but we did look at
them very closely for their ownership
patterns
all of the common areas are owned by the
land trust and then the buildings
themselves are owned by the people that
live there
it's got a program of of senior housing
mixed use
mixed income
and market rate housing in that same
community you can see from looking at
the playground there are both families
and
elders and
everyone in between
that live there
the financing was arranged through a
brownfield grant a cleanup grant and it
reduced housing costs for the community
and there were also grants and subsidies
offered by cdbg funding and hud funding
from the federal government
and the city's role was really to
transfer the original site
which was undeveloped but very
close to other older neighborhoods
to transfer that to the community land
trust
and then the land trust
built the rest of the community in
pieces a piece at a time with the city
participating in the major road
infrastructure leading in so very
similar in a lot of ways
these are just
the takeaways from that
that and the other
[Music]
case studies that we looked at and you
know dividing these large areas into
phases
through public investments like for
instance foothills road is something we
would recommend
relying on a public partner is something
that would really help the community
grow with the city or even the county
potentially being a public partner
to delineate those rights and
responsibilities of both the partners
and the the agencies
to direct public investment into the
site that would further
the land planning that was done for the
site
uh and sometimes these take a little
longer than a quick land sale that you
know the city might just sell it to one
developer in one shot like that but
there's investment in the community and
the community could stand to community
meaning the city of las cruces could
stand to
create a neighborhood from the ground up
and to also make
money on those sales to the development
community
incorporating good urban design
efficient dense sustainable housing
and then
land sales after the entitlements are
done are the other recommendation we're
making
so
this is one of the we were we also
looked at the zoning framework for the
neighborhood and
what we're suggesting is that the
the plan on the on the right
is a lot more of what we want we think
than the plan on the left on the plan on
the left it's usually single use you
know looks very much like every office
in in the us
uh in many ways the building's always
set back from the street with parking
between you
and
the street and a very vehicular friendly
but not pedestrian friendly
neighborhood or excuse me parcel
auto oriented obviously the one on the
right could be mixed use with retail
below offices below housing above
our office is actually in a development
like that
the buildings closer to the street to
create a nice architectural street edge
that's comfortable to walk on instead of
trying to walk on a place like east
loman as it is now
and then
attractive and multiple modes of
transportation that could include bus
stops a micro mobility loop other things
like that
this is just showing the components of a
typical form-based code zoning framework
i won't go into great detail about this
but
uh form-based code is uh
form-based zoning is really about using
the architecture of the place more than
the zoning so you're creating a
cityscape
a mixed-use neighborhood through the
zoning framework
so this is what we're suggesting we have
two civic spaces planned one is on the
far west which is the
transportation hub
the other is perhaps
something like a library
or
another civic space a post office
but some kind of civic space
in the center of the community
the health campus which is closest to
the hospital yet separated from that
open space
uh the village neighborhoods which are
in the uh the uh
um
kind of
peach color i guess
and then the detached single family
so that's what we're suggesting as this
zoning framework based on
form-based code
and as i said
some kind of
flexible civic space for the center and
then that transit center on the west
that was actually our design was
actually based on
the existing transit center near near
downtown in the valley
character areas
that include um
kind of
the first gateway into the area and this
and then the eastern northeastern most
gateway into the area
they might look like this those kind of
signature buildings are what we're
suggesting for those areas and these are
signature buildings from other mixed-use
developments that have retail on the
bottom office on the bottom
more
hotel or
apartments or even lofts on the top
and then the health campus which could
include three to four stories at a max
senior care living commercial office
space primarily for doctors or those in
the health sector
and then
other health related mixed use
[Music]
zoning for that area
this is an example actually from i
believe
i believe this was in
portland oregon
but it shows a
health campus which includes multiple
types of housing no actually this was in
dallas texas i'm sorry
multiple levels of housing that go from
almost detached
single family housing up to
apartment style or loft style and then
including some of the other mixes of use
around the edges so it really becomes a
community
for
for healthy living
and that is the last character area
which is the village neighborhood which
is that missing middle
which might be three-story max very
pedestrian oriented
the the cars would be behind
the buildings not on the street
and then small-scale commercial
and there's some character step sketches
for that
and then finally the detached
residential which everybody's familiar
with so we're trying to give a little
bit of everything to the community
and these are some precedents
so um
our recommendations would also be to
create a pud
for this development
to phase it according to market demand
so it would grow as the market
demand grew with it
that you use a zoning tool similar to
what we
just showed you
consider immediate development
opportunities
and then also the phased opportunities
provide incentives to developers
that would really
help them meet the performance standards
that this plan offers
and then
include a cost design impact analysis as
part of the
as part of the planning and the
recommendations
so i hope i didn't take too long um
i think i'm done with my presentation if
you have any questions or discussion
about this
we'd sure be i'd should be happy to
hear it and i i know my peers would as
well
um thank you mark very much for that
presentation
i really like the plan and i've been
following it
and participating in it for quite some
time
um so my focus is mostly on the
implementation
and so
one thing i wanted to ask you about and
i don't know if you're aware of what
went on yesterday with at the city
council
and the
the work that fries and nichols are
doing to rewrite our code the land
development code and
their discussion about
keeping the use zoning
and figuring out where the place types
go and they have a big
grid kind of thing they're looking at so
now i'm just trying to get the
vocabulary down okay and um and you're
talking about form-based code
as well
but then you're talking about for your
zoning tool these
for these framework
and character areas so
are you both saying the same thing
or am i lost
no i think we are saying the same thing
i think they're looking at it more in
terms of the whole city i'm assuming
and this is looking at it from this
particular neighborhood
and the way we integrated all those uses
including infrastructure and
living accommodations and retail so i i
think i think we are talking the same so
this doesn't already have land use
zoning because it's new yeah
so
it would fit more into the emphasis that
they're putting on new areas which is
much more form-based code so do i have
that right
uh yes yes okay
then my other question is about this um
the things you're suggesting the city
does you know and so i'm familiar with
both the sawmill project my daughter
used to live close to that and she used
to be a planner in albuquerque
and and i'm also
familiar with the holiday project in
boulder because my sister-in-law's
daughter lives there
and
in both cases there were really strong
city partners
so in one case in albuquerque you had
this sawmill community land trust and
the holiday
they partnered with
essentially their their uh public
housing group
and um
i don't know who who could be the
partner in our area and i don't know
i mean we don't have a sawmill community
land trust or
how do we get things like that or
because i mean i
understand i think the
suggestions you're making for what the
city might do and what some other entity
might do
but
how do we find those other entities and
i don't know if we already have them or
i i'll be happy to talk about that a bit
and danny if you have anything to say uh
online there
feel free to
to chip in or even if you want to start
the discussion well
let me add one more thing and that is
that the commissioner thomas of all
these examples you showed us you know
what what do you think of those or maybe
other examples is closest to our
situation you know what should we look
at
as
what might be most possible here
the one that strikes me closest to what
would be possible here
is probably and closest meaning
geographically speaking
is um
montecio in el paso i don't know if you
visited that site
i haven't but i know about it
it would be worth going to it's a very
good mix of lofts
residential
different types of residential i don't
think they have any
detached single family units
was that not done though with their
their public housing authority
you know i don't know the answer to that
question commissioner thomas members of
the commission as i understand it was
actually a private developer yep say
that again it as i understand it it was
a private developer um specifically for
that um that development
so that there was a master developer for
that yeah
that is correct okay so that's another
possibility
i don't
one i want to ask this question too of
of catherine so i mean we
our job is to say whether or not
we think the council's this is ready to
go the council
but it's not really our
responsibility to
to
say which of these implementation
paths we might take that's up to the
council
i'm
assuming chair thomas members of the
commission
yes it's ultimately a policy decision in
terms of how the the council
wants to move forward if indeed this
plan is is adopted and recommended for
adoption by you
and those are items that would be set
forth
in various methods
so for example those items could be
placed on cip they could be
part of the city's strategic plan
but ultimately yes those are policy
decisions that would have to come from
council
and and we're just the the idea that i
promoted uh with um
with the
uh with the slide that showed possible
public investments the four public
investments versus what the developer
might do were just ideas i mean i think
that really needs to be worked through
to get to a point where
it's agreeable to all of the
stakeholders including the public the
city and a developer
the the fact that and
commissioner thomas just just because
you brought it up
there aren't many developers in
southern new mexico and el paso that do
this kind of development and that was
one of the reasons
why we tried to offer some possible
implementation strategies that the city
could use to build public infrastructure
that would help to spur
the kind of development that that we're
talking about danny did you want to
offer anything
yeah absolutely if you can hear me
clearly
this is danielle wilson i'm a planner
with psych southwest for the record
um so just a few thoughts in response to
your question there uh chair thomas um
the first is that we see our job is
identifying those possibilities for
moving forward in a way that we can
realize the vision that the community
has set before us
so we
see that there are elements from each of
these examples these case studies we've
identified as well as from what we've
learned through our conversations with
city staff
with stakeholders
with
developers both in las cruces and
throughout the state that we can use to
provide those options for a path forward
but you are correct that ultimately it
will be up to city leadership to
choose what that task is
i might add to that
we are talking about a pud using the
form-based code so it would fit into
any zoning reform that's going on right
now at the city level
so i don't want to drag this out for a
long time i just want to say that
and i don't want to ask my fellow
commissioners here to
make you know engage in making decisions
i just want to ask that when you
get to the city council you know please
put quite a bit of focus and information
on the information part
because i think that's kind of difficult
for us and um
and i'd like to see the council really
focus on that so
that's all i'm asking
other commissioners
yes commissioner gordon i have
a comment and a question
uh i think i'm going to ask my question
first i don't think there's anyone here
from the city who will be able to answer
this
but if i remember correctly that the
part of the concept of this whole
project
is that some of the property that's
involved does belong to the city
that's correct right absolutely all
right so sometime in the future if this
thing becomes a reality the city will
probably wind up selling that
property to someone a developer
somebody's going to buy it and do
whatever they're going to want to do
with it
maybe not well that possible too who
knows
but my point is and this is only a
comment and i would like this just to go
back to the city council
i have spoken many many times in the
past about landscaping of loman
every you have a they just spent 25 or
30 million dollars coming over route 25
onto university to make it a beautiful
entrance into las cruces
but if you get off at roman and go east
i mean it doesn't look like anything you
would think was you know nothing left
by choice i was just hoping perhaps if
they do get enough money
and it's possible that it's not
restricted from the sale of that land
that they could take some of it and just
landscape loman
from telstra all the way up to this
project it would really look very nice
that would only enhance the entrance to
this project
so that's my comment
and my second
that last question i'm sorry my comment
is
if you if you go down low and now when
you come you'll get down to
um
the the east part where the where the
walmart is and you're coming west
you see that there is also there is now
starting some
building there by developers they put in
two
strip walls
and i think that the concept of what is
being planned here if it could come to
fruition i think would be wonderful it
looks terrific and
it would certainly look great and would
do wonders for the city but
personally i think like anything else
that this whole project is going to be
driven by demand
any realtor or any developer or anybody
comes in here is going to look at this
and say look
i know what i can do to create a profit
for myself he's not going to do it for
nothing
and he may look at this and say
everything that the concept is now being
given to me is something that i can't
live with so this particular part of
this plan
is something that i'm going to have to
change drastically in order for me to
come in and do whatever i think has to
be done for me to make money
i'm speaking as a retired businessman i
know what it is to to invest money to
make money
and
this is just something i can see it
already happening
it's it's starting to move it's starting
to move west
uh so it's that that's just
you know a comment that i have
as i can already see what's happening
and i'm just hoping that
somebody will take note of this if it
goes before city council and city
council approves it
that people will look at it and say this
is a wonderful idea and let's do it
thank you thank you for your comment
commissioner um
using the sawmill project is a another
example
and even country club plaza which is
where actually my office exists in
albuquerque
um the the the idea of mixed use is
something foreign to a lot of
traditional developers and we have a lot
of traditional developers in new mexico
in general and texas for that matter
especially west texas and so
finding the right developer partner
to do either the whole project or
multiple projects
and a partner with the city i think is
really key to making it successful
and to
enabling the plan that we've done to
to
become reality
and so
those kinds of developers that are doing
that the reason i mentioned the one that
our office is in is is
it's mixed use it has apartments lofts
it has retail it has offices like my own
and
everything from a brewery to you know
apartment and so
that kind of mixed use takes a specific
kind of developer and i think there are
developers interested
in working in las cruces in that kind of
way
and we've actually talked to some of
them as part of our planning and there
is interest outside of las cruces and i
think there could be interest in las
cruces or at the very least in el paso
to do
uh something like what we're suggesting
and to follow those rules to
make money and be a good business
i hope that answered your question or at
least furthered your comment
yes it's just a thought you know i know
what it took for me to make an
investment into something that was going
to give me a return
and make a profit
and i think it deals the same with
anybody who gets into any type of
business whether you're building
a residential you're building a business
so you're building whatever
you're not doing it just because you
have nothing else to do you want to make
money
and i think what's happening now
hopefully that if we get rid of this
darn pandemic business
that everything sort of gets back to
normal you can see what's happening that
there are a lot of people who want to
come here to las cruces this is a
wonderful place to retire it is the
weather is good
we have a lot to offer we have 10 we
have the university we have
museums we have art we have everything
and i think you see now a lot of people
who are coming here coming from
from uh when i grew up in as you can
tell when i grew up in new york
everybody went to florida like i did
but eventually i wound up in las cruces
because i saw what was here
and i think a lot of people now are i
now have met people who come from the
east coast and come from michigan and
illinois and places like that from the
middle where before they went to arizona
you know to so i think that's going to
happen here too when something like this
is a great enticement there's a lot to
offer in a little
sort of a little bit of space
i mean not it's not so little but in
terms of everything
that they would want to protect you know
to partake of
so it i hope it works i really do i'm
looking forward to it i hope i live long
enough to see it
i do too
yeah
mission
oh sorry was there somebody going to
speak
i'm so sorry i couldn't hold off on my
comment i just had a quick response to
commissioner gordon but i i can hold off
until the end
okay i'll i'll be really really brief um
i actually really love this
so like as i was hearing uh commissioner
gordon speak i was thinking of like you
know like myself like i bought it my
wife and i bought a house
gosh it's going down six years almost i
think almost seven years um if a place
like this would have this type of
neighborhood would have existed six or
seven years ago we would have definitely
looked at it
you know like they're like people that
are young i'm not like super young i'm
35 but you know people in my age range
or even younger like you know like we
want to see more places like this we
want to see hey where there's like
breweries or there's like coffee shops
and there's stuff that you can walk to
you know like that's the kind of stuff i
think a lot of people want to see and i
understand las cruces being it's been
marketed for many many years the
retirement community and it still is and
it still should be you know i mean like
you know we all love retirees um they
can they make great contributions to our
our city and our economy and in the
housing market but there's also a lot of
people that are you know graduating
college or they're starting families and
you know having parks having you know
breweries restaurants nearby where you
don't have to drive to also you know
save gas save the environment save you
know save people money um like that's
that's that's even better so i really
really like it um you know i
again like commissioner gordon said it's
one thing is having a plan and
everything is having developers wanting
to do it um i've actually been to some
of the businesses over in montecito in
el paso and it's a neat place it's
actually really really neat community
just in general so you know i hope that
there are developers that want to do
this because i feel like we need this
kind you know different kind of housing
for
for las cruces for the people that want
it and there's also traditional
neighborhoods for the people that want
that
so yeah that was my comment
anyone else
yes just commissioner smith
yes um
this is a very ambitious project uh and
i'm pretty excited for it also um
you know i i work as a ranger in oregon
mouth doesn't peak national monuments
and so i um
i
am constantly
meeting and talking with people who are
coming to las cruces to scout
and uh many of them are retirees
um a lot of them are uh younger younger
uh families uh in their 30s uh 40s with
families and and
and kids and so um and they're coming
from all over the country and so this
type of project uh uh is uh it is
exciting because i know that area um you
know as a wildland firefighter i've
i've
driven the hummer out there
in the hills out there so just also part
of seeing the city grow and how we want
it to grow
and
knowing that this area
potentially will have
the type of development
that will draw a variety
of
people from different parts of the
country different age demographics
you know to this place where we can
hopefully go back to where you have a
neighborhood where you have retirees
mixing with younger families and there's
walkability and
there's healthcare that's uh you know in
close proximity especially close to the
hospital that's there so
i too would uh hopefully i'm alive to
see this happen
and uh commissioner gordon may probably
outlive me but um so uh i i hope that
you know
as this goes to the city council that um
this proposal will be a strong win
thank you
commissioner very good
commissioner vega thank you um
i think one of the things that not all
but a lot of us have
me and
i was working from home before the
pandemic hit but i think due to the
pandemic we've seen how many people can
continue to work from home and it's not
so much about where you go as what you
do so for as much as it is a retirement
community predominantly and attracts um
all sorts of other people to las cruces
this is something else to keep in mind
so then how do we
maximize where we live and and just kind
of enjoy all the
benefits of of where we reside
the one thing i would do um wonder is i
live near downtown i walk downtown
um
most weekends and during the week and
just have a good time down there and
it's really nice to bike walk
and obviously we're not going to figure
this out today but going to on the other
side of 25 for me feels like a journey
so um
and i avoid it at all costs unless i
have to or certain times a day and i
know which routes i want to take because
of traffic and all that so
it would just be interesting to see you
talk about the transit center what can
it what connectivity could look like um
from one side of the freeway to the
other and i know it's like two totally
different like ways of living and
um the way things are developed but just
something i've been thinking about so
thank you
thank you commissioner vega i think
something that commissioner gordon said
could really help and that's to make
east loman
and for that matter this the lowmen on
this side of of the freeway
be more connective and be more beautiful
and really create something that
connects
the two i think there's a really good
good idea there
you know and a lot of that development
from i-25 east
has
i mean i know it's followed planning
city planning uh but
it it doesn't have a continuity to it
that it could have
with city
work in that in that area so
so i have just one last comment um and
there's someone who might want here who
might want to speak to that is there was
something in this plan about relocating
the gas line
and um
so there's a group of people here who
are talking about all electric
subdivisions and the
possibility of not having gas and having
um
what do i'm trying to say solar
no not solar no no uh mixed energy
low carbon footprint yeah maybe miss
maybe mr kurtz will come up here and
explain what i'm trying to say
so a heat pump kind of approach to
heating and cooling and so that
um
you don't have to have gas or anything
so um
before before we do danny did you have
anything else you wanted to add i know
you wanted to
say something yeah
no thanks george i appreciate that and
i'll be very brief but um i just wanted
to say that i know when if you see a
plan like this
it can feel as though it's going to take
a million years and it might be a little
bit of a pipe dream but i think what
we're trying to do is show that there
are clear examples of these communities
being successful
in cities like las cruces um and what
we're trying to do is to create those
conditions for developers to not only
see the demand for this kind of
development um to fully understand the
cost and then
have ways to work with the city
to access either federal funds or very
targeted public funds that would go
toward creating
those
conditions that meet community needs and
fulfill these quality of life amenities
that we are proposing here
um
so i just wanted to say that because i
think that
a goal of both myself and george and the
rest of the team that we've been working
with with the city of las cruces
is to make sure that this is a real uh
actionable and implementable plan and so
that's something that we will focus on
uh moving forward before we go to city
council if we get to that point
thank you i appreciate that
and and don kurtz do you want to say a
couple of words about
um
all electric or electric ready
neighborhoods and especially given that
this plan there's not already available
gas line this might be a good
possibility
do i need to swear in uh
no
yes
yes you do but
people who are the presenters don't but
your name is
my name is don kurtz do you swear and
affirm the testimony you're about to
give us the truth and nothing but the
truth and their penalty of law
yes
go ahead
okay again i'm don kurtz i'm a resident
of las cruces
and i appreciate the opportunity to make
contact
i also
want to thank the mayor council and
staff for consolidating and developing
this great parcel of land
it provides an unparalleled opportunity
for the people the community and i hope
we take full advantage of it
the mayor has highlighted the east loma
development in his last two state of the
city's addresses underscoring the
opportunity to create a well-designed
attractive energy efficient community
with housing affordable to a broad
spectrum of local residents
i've followed the progress of the east
loma development closely and i believe
it's on track to achieve those
objectives and i share the
commissioner's enthusiasm for it
what i'm what i'd like to do is urge the
planning and zoning commission to add a
recommendation to council on the plan
that the east loma development in
accordance with the city's climate
action plan and its strong efforts to
curb carbon emissions
be an all-electric community
councilor sorg has for the same reasons
proposed that east loman be a zero
carbon community
in practical terms this means that the
development needs to be all electric
with no gas in infrastructure or service
in making this decision we'll be joining
cities and counties throughout the world
and moving away from burning fossil
fuels to heat buildings and water
and the value of electricity for this
purpose stems from the energy transition
act was which was passed by the
legislature in 2019
that requires all electricity generated
by utilities in the state be fifty
percent zero carbon by twenty thirty and
one hundred percent by twenty forty five
so simply by connecting this development
with el paso electric
the development would immediately be on
a steady reliable path towards zero
carbon energy
and it doesn't involve
coming up with our own solar panels
everywhere it's something that would
just be naturally happening in the
course of the state's progress
all electric technologies for heat heat
and water heaters are rapidly advancing
and new all electric buildings are
already less expensive to build
than buildings fueled by natural gas and
part of this
is the enormous amount of infrastructure
that has to be put in in gas by the
developer
electrical power is also safer and it
avoids the higher incidence of asthma
and other health problems
that are increasingly being associated
with burning gas indoors
development costs will be less and
carbon emissions per the city policy
would be significantly lowered
the city council recently passed a
resolution calling on its own gas
utility to develop quote
milestones and strategies to determine
the path to non-fossil fuel dependent
energy
and decarbonization of the system and
investments over the next 30 years
unquote
the east lowman development will serve
as a readily available model for all
builders trying to pursue these goals
for all of these reasons i urge you to
include a recommendation that the east
loma development be all electric with no
gas infrastructure
installed
so thanks
is that something you're familiar with
not as an engineer but yes i've been
i personally have been promoting
sustainability from all sectors
since my college days
which was a long time ago
so i don't know that those of us up here
feel
confident enough to actually make a
solid recommendation to the
city council but
we i very much would like for you to
introduce this idea especially in
given that there's not a readily
available gas and there are people on
the city council who are aware of this
approach and so
it would be very good to emphasize that
and commissioner yeah you want to say
something yeah i just wanted to make a
comment kind of echoing what mr kurtz
just said um so my day job and i try not
to bring
the planning and zoning and my work
combined because that's the dangerous
line i don't i don't necessarily want to
cross but my day job is for an
environmental organization we talk all
the time about sustainability we talk
all the time about you know like what
these kind of
like 100 electric neighborhoods would
look like or even like you know more
accessibility for people to have that
most people most working people cannot
afford solar they cannot afford an
electric vehicle so i feel like having
something like this where
again this is this is you know we got to
treat this like it's like you know it's
like a brand new baby right you know
like it hasn't been corrupted like you
know we like nothing bad has happened
yet it hasn't got sick um you know
that's kind of how we have to treat this
it's like this is an opportunity with a
brand new development brand new land to
have this kind of uh structure uh ready
you know readily to hopefully use and
you know there are a lot of green
developers or you know
that that are probably interested in
this kind of stuff so you know again i'm
excited to see how this develops and
what don just said just really just
gotten even more pumped about it
and i believe this building is heat pump
warm and cool is it not but it goes into
the ground
and what don kurtz is talking about is
using air to do the same thing so
much
easier to do there a couple other people
from the public that are still here did
any of you want to say anything
can't hear you
okay
and
what's your name my name is david
sierras
do you swear and affirm the testimony
you're about to give is the truth and
nothing but the truth under penalty of
lot i do
yeah i live up above coyote it's really
none of the development directly there
but i'm directly behind the hospital
and he was mentioning something about
building a community for elderlies and
homes like that well it's kind of hard
to do when you got helicopters and
ambulances and
we have a fire department across the
street that goes off every hour or so
and helicopters that are coming in
and and we also have a police station so
i don't really think that would work
maybe for younger people but not for it
really bothers the older people in my
community
another thing is is
since i've lived there in the last 20
years
i used to look up at a beautiful sky
but with all the development going on in
the hospital it's slowly taken away from
that
and as you go down the street where they
want to develop there
i would like to see some kind of
lighting where it stays down and it
doesn't illuminate the sky
and i didn't hear nothing about that and
that's one of my main concerns in that
in traffic i uh
uh commissioner gordon here i like that
building something in there but i would
like to see those mediums shortened
so you can maybe build a three lane and
we could have a little bit of uh
you know more people to come in and
maybe make a left turn and keep the
traffic flowing through there
and that traffic going through there is
25 miles per hour
and that's going to be noise too with
more cars coming and
and different type of housing with
younger people and older people and and
uh
but i do like the idea of
having cafes and things like that that
that really is are expanding through the
hospital because it is an elderly area
and those people are in that need but
i'm like you i like those pubs too
so that's all i really had to say and i
think a lot of it i'll address when if
it moves on to the uh
the city council
thank you thank you all right
anyone else
okay i think we're ready any any more
comments up here are we ready for a vote
[Music]
okay
bar member smith
yes i propose they move forward
my reason is based on uh just the
the potential that this project has to
um
to really
uh grow the city in a way that's gonna
be uh good for for the future of las
cruces uh particularly uh in the eastern
part of the city
i wrote yes based on the elevate las
cruces plan city rick common
recommendations and also wanting to see
different kinds of neighborhoods in our
city board member vega
i vote yes based on today's presentation
and
prior presentations that we've had on
this that also
supports elevate las cruces
board member gordon
i definitely vote yes based on
many presentations that i have seen and
heard
and i think that if this project comes
like i said before to fruition then it's
it's basically exactly how you sort of
planned it i think it would be beautiful
and
i just hope it happens
chairperson thomas
i also vote yes um based on the
presentation and all the work i've seen
that's gone into planning this project
and the possibility that this project
can become a real model for what elevate
las cruces is trying to
bring to this community
and i just want to tell one quick story
there was a guy in texas he had all
these engineers who were working for him
and they kept leaving and going to
portland
and he kept saying why do they want to
go to portland it rains there all the
time and you know
well portland's already done all these
kinds of neighborhoods
and that's why they were going to
portland so i think las cruces should
have some of those neighborhoods too
next on our agenda is
any uh commission commentary before we
leave
turn on the air conditioning yes it's
very warm in here
any staff announcements
[Music]
thank you chair thomas members of the
commission just wanted to run over a
couple of things
as you all know there was the work
session that was hosted yesterday with
city council to talk about the code
diagnostic if you want mr kurtz excuse
me mr kurtz
could you could could you wait just a
few minutes thank you sorry
thank you um i just wanted to mention if
you were unable to attend i would
encourage you to perhaps watch the video
that's available online
and also review the diagnostic itself it
gives you a good idea of how we're going
to move forward and some of the prime
topics of course it it's a
it's it's not set in stone it's just a
guide moving forward and doesn't cover
everything in terms of of what's being
revised as part of the land use
development update
but
good information nonetheless i also
wanted you all to consider whether or
not
these types of meetings are going to be
problematic in the future because
if i do hear that from this commission
if there is an opportunity to modify
what was in
our public involvement plan
we could adjust those so that you and
city council meet separately and we do
them at the normal planning and zoning
commission time uh you wouldn't have the
the interaction with council but it is
an opportunity and did want to get your
feedback because i i do know it was
problematic for a few of you to attend
yesterday
um but that is all i have this evening
thank you uh chair thomas and commission
i
i would just add that when i
the website for the land development
code is um
realize las cruces if you go into google
and you just put in realized last
cruises you won't find it you have to
put in realized last clues with no space
as it is in when it's a url so
i kept trying to find it on google and
then i realized that
i needed to keep out the space so i
taught i asked them about that yesterday
they're going to try to fix it but i
hope you all go look at the website
and hope you can find it more easily
than i could
anything else
can i make a motion we adjourn is there
a second
i'll second it all those in favor say
aye hi hi thank you
[Music]
the first time i feel fine
[Music]
you