e
e e
[Music]
you're
on well good afternoon welcome to the
work session today is Monday June 24th
2024 it's approximately 1 p.m. I am
mayor Eric Enriquez uh we will start
with a moment of silence for the brave
men and women of the United States armed
forces as they protect our interests
around the globe as well as the
courageous men and women of the Los
Cruses Police Department Los cres fire
department as they keep our city safe
if you join me in the
pledge I pledge allegiance to the States
of America and to the Republic for which
it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all all right we'll go ahead and start
with jobs of the week we have Sarah
rainy good
afternoon good afternoon thank you so
much all right my name is Sarah Rainey I
am the One-Stop coordinator for the
southwest region of the New Mexico
connections um we are for the for the
jobs of the week sorry I'm running crazy
today there's a lot going on we have
have assistant director from for the
human resources for the city of Las
crusis that position starts at 89,000 it
is a continuous posting at this time we
also have the water conservation
specialist for the city of Los cruus um
it begins at 1740 an hour and the
posting closes on July 1st we went ahead
and left up the digital content
specialist for the Animal Services
Center of msia valley that posting
starts that position starts at 2478 an
hour and it is a continuous posting
right now
we have an administrative specialist for
the inter agency Readiness Solutions out
at Whit sand missell range that position
starts at $47,000 a year the posting
closes on the 13th of July we also have
a lead custodian at um the night shift
at Wismer through tresco so for that
position you have to apply through the
tresco um job description it starts at
1745 an hour and closes on July 14th we
have a diesel technician advanced diesel
services here in Los curus that position
starts at $17 an hour and the posting
closes on the 13th as always just a
reminder we are still open until 6: pm.
for anybody that needs to come in for
any services or if it just takes a
little longer to get everything situated
in the office or if you need to talk to
somebody to help with all of job
Readiness
skills thank you
all thank you sir
next we have pets of the week uh Amy du
fix hello everyone of course my name is
Amy De Felix I'm one of the rescue
coordinators for the Animal Services
Center of the msia valley and I always
pick and present the pets of the week we
always start off with our cat of the
week this week she is lapis her number
is 76 379 and she says I have a gentle
soul and a Heart full of love to give
I'm always on the hunt for new adventure
whether it's a game of Chase the string
or a quiet moment watching the world go
by I'm sweet never want to pass up a
good cuddle session I've been told my
purs are the best lullab but what I long
for most is a forever home a place where
I can share my love and
curiosity and then we also have a dog of
the week this week she is baby her
number is 66 477 and she says my days
are mostly peaceful and quiet I've
always been a mellow Soul content with a
soft bed and a gentle Pat I'm not one
for too much fuss or excitement I've got
an independent streak of mile wide I
don't need constant attention but I do
appreciate a kind word and a gentle
touch I'm a senior you see with a
lifetime of wisdom under my collar I'm
just looking for a peaceful home where I
can spend my golden
years and then regarding events um we do
have it's not it's an on-site adoption
event it's picnic with a pup at the
Animal Services Center this Saturday um
from 11:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. um it'll be
at our adoption and intake uh facility
so the address is 3543 Paton Memorial
West we'll have some of our longest term
dogs um picnic blankets tables we have
music and food and we encourage everyone
to stop by if you can't adopt we we
highly encourage you guys to Foster get
to meet our longest term dogs and
hopefully we can either get them into
forever homes or at least foster homes
and then we also have an offside
adoption event on Sunday also from 11
to2 and in case you need that address
that is 3050 East lman and then of
course for all of June we have our bring
love home adoption special so all
adoptions are free
um counting up the tally of the
adoptions we now have 158 dogs that have
been adopted so far 158 dogs and cats
excuse me that have adopted so far and
that does include there are 24 animals
that have been adopted over the weekend
that are currently getting surgery so
they'll be officially adopted today um
but they've been adopted over the
weekend as well and so for this time
last year we've only had 114 adoptions
that's including uh close of business
last 24th so um we're definitely doing a
lot more adoptions than we did last year
and we're hoping this trend continues to
increase
and then we have our website our
internet links our our general website
is ascmv dorg and we're all over social
media we have Facebook Instagram Tik Tok
is where we post a lot of what's going
on and highlights some like annal
highlights and kind of events that are
going to be going on and then YouTube
and Spotify and apple podcast is where
we upload episodes of our Tales from the
POS side
podcast and that is all I have thank
you yeah thank you Amy
uh next we'll start with the agenda
items 3.1 New Mexico legislative
policies and we have Barbara
bomo good afternoon mayor and Council
yes this afternoon um we're back to talk
about uh New Mexico legislative policy
we uh presented an update for you all on
April 8th of the 24 legislative session
that included um both policy information
as well as our Capital outlay uh request
that had been um granted to us after
that meeting we had feedback that um the
council wanted to talk about uh more
legislative policy items and so we had
uh meetings over a couple of days with
each one of you and uh so the content of
that meeting of those meetings will be
brought forward today along with
additional information by our lobbyist
Larry heran so that's where we are today
the policy discussion on June 24th and
with that I'll go ahead and turn it over
to our lobbyist Larry
haran uh good afternoon uh mayor and
members of the council Larry heran
lobbyist for the city of Las cruus it's
good to be back here in front of you
again um Barbara gave a good summation
about why we're here and what we did
about a month ago to to um to get your
individual perspectives on legislative
policy issues that you'd either like to
see addressed or or like to like um to
discuss a big part of the focus because
of the the announcement of a possible uh
special session by the governor that
still has an announced date of
EXC of July 18th um for a special
session to deal with um primarily the
four things that you see listed here
which is Criminal competency uh
potential amendments to the assisted
Outpatient Treatment act and statute for
essentially civil commitment for
non-compliance with treatment uh felon
in possession of a firearm and then also
a possible uh statutory change for a
panhandling or an obstruction of traffic
statute um since we since we met about a
month ago as of right now the plan is
still for a special session to be called
on July 18th although both uh both
caucuses of the House of represent
resentatives in the Senate of the
majority which were the Democrat
caucuses met about a week to 10 days ago
the appetite amongst the legislators is
is they're not too excited about going
into special session they don't have
agreement yet on any of the possible
legislation so things could still change
over the next month um as to even
whether or not there's going to be a
special session um on these topics
although and we we'll get to it on some
of the other slides but um the city of
Las Cru has participated in the interim
courts Corrections and Justice committee
presentation earlier in June right after
we had our meetings um to talk about
these issues the courts and Corrections
committee's meeting again this week and
they have a two-day meeting and it's
focused again primarily on those topics
of criminal competency
um the behavioral health changes to the
aot they're talking about the assisted
Outpatient Treatment act and
implementation in in Burnal Leo County
and why that did not work and also
they're looking at the potential First
Amendment issues as it relates uh looks
like it will be with the um for a
panhandling statutory change and so the
legislators are still very focused and
very active addressing the issues that
was primarily what we focused and what
we talked about in our individual
meetings just as a reminder um this the
2025 legislative session will be a
60-day legislative session all the
members of the legislature will have
been had faced elections um this
November the primary actually produced
some pretty significant changes for the
makeup of the legislature so we're going
to have a lot of of new faces um
regardless of what happens with a
special session in July I would
anticipate that a lot of the focus in
the 60-day session is going to be these
same issues it's going to be the the
Criminal Justice Reform Public Safety
competence and civil commitment because
even if they get they make some progress
on these issues in a special session
it'll be back in the 60 days so it's
it's timely it's pertinent and it's and
um it's something we're going to be
dealing with probably for the next
several years it's probably not even
going to be limited to the 2025 uh
legislative
session so a few things that came up in
our individual meetings and and I'll
I'll start with this um as a as a first
this is a a decision or an idea or a
direction for actual looking for a
statutory change um which is what we
would be asking for in 2022 there was a
a resolution joint resolution passed and
was went to the voters to expand the
anti-d donation clause in the
Constitution Article 9 section 14 and
what that expansion which did pass and
was successful is it it allows now for
essential services for residential
purposes or infrastructure which
includes water Wastewater energy
internet and other similar Services it
allows the legislature to pass enabling
legislation um to create further
exemptions to the anti- donation Clause
so for the city of Los cruus where that
came up um and it came up came up in our
Council meetings is the septic system
issue that we're dealing with so as of
today because of article 9 section 14 of
the Constitution we can build a sewer
line up to property line of a property
owner we cannot make that final
connection from property line to the
house because that's private property
we're not allowed to do that because of
the anti-d donation so way the way it
would work is if the direction is that
we want to explore a program to set up a
system to allow for connection to sewers
for residents we would need to pass
enabling legislation in the 2025 session
so we'd have to introduce a bill that
would allow for the local government to
adopt a program of how whatever that
definition is if it's limited to septic
if it's water Wastewater to allow a
program to make that connection on the
actual individual property it would be
the first piece of legislation passed on
under this um this new section of the
Constitution because it just passed in
the last general election so if that's
something that that the city is
interested in that is something we could
pursue throughout this interim to have
discussions with legislators and then
also um it would be something we would
have to introduce and pass legislation
in the coming 2025 legislative
session
and besides that specific policy issue
the rest of our discussions focuses
focused on the competence
criminal competency mental health
competency and also what the city of Los
cruus is is doing and is successful in
implementing as it relates to the crime
issue unhoused homelessness and the
services we have and then also trying to
identify gaps in those services that we
think the legislature might be able to
help us with we also talked about a
proposal to the administration and the
legislature about a potential pilot
project in the city of Los cruus um
Bridging the Gap between Public Safety
uh the services we have particularly at
The Community of Hope how we're dealing
with the um with the homeless issue and
also with the competency and and um
criminal competency in particular and
Chief story and chief Smith made a
presentation to the legislature right
after we had our meetings early in June
and we have a lot of data and a lot of
um we have a lot of success stories here
with the city of Las crusis and what
we're doing and there's a possibility um
that we're pitching with the
administration about a pilot project to
implement and expand some of those Serv
services at the state level and and I'll
pause there you were all you were there
in the in the meetings we had these
discussions and so I would I would open
it up for discussions or any
questions
mayor thank you Larry uh councilor
mati Larry maybe uh maybe you or David I
I have septic tanks being installed
quite a lot good number of them over on
solop um would this help
would this bill help actually pay some
of the cost that these neighbors are now
having to pay
today mayor council mati that that's
exactly what it would do um as we're
going through and I think we've been
working on the septic issue since about
2008 2009 installing the sewer lines for
those who have septics it would allow
you to adopt a program to help an
homeowner either you could use public
dollars to pay all or a portion of that
last it's not last mile but that last
step between property Lin and the house
that's exactly what it would
do councelor
flotes thank you mayor and thank you so
much Larry um I'm I'm glad to hear that
there's some movement on
um on the U exemptions to the uh article
9 uh section 14 the anti-d donation um
one of the one of the um exceptions is
Health as a so the part I don't
understand is if you and there's
Wastewater um why can't there be Why
Can't This the hookups from the from the
curb to the uh to the home to the house
why wouldn't that qualify I think we've
had this discussion but I think it'd be
good for the public to know um and um it
seems to me it's a health issue and
besides that it's you know when it goes
under I know that for utilities and
other things leaks and all that sort of
stuff if it generates under the home um
it's on the it's on the homeowner so
it's probably uh consistent with that
line of reasoning which uh I I you know
I really don't support at all um even
leaks under the house I mean anyway but
we're not talking about that we're
talking about antiseptic tanks um or
being uh removing them and uh it has to
be a health issue has it has that ever
been presented uh to the
legislators I know I haven't uh brought
that oh I did bring it up with uh I I
met with uh car Senator Hamlin and
Senator Souls on Saturday and we had
that discussion and because of something
I I don't remember exactly how it
happened but Senator Souls was a one who
was um he was instrumental in um getting
the the hookups in Henda Acres uh some
not all so people at the time it wasn't
my district above Highway 70 didn't get
that and I don't understand um and I you
know
anyway so
I what was the reason Senator Souls was
able to get that money for the for the
hookup from the uh from the curb to the
uh house are you familiar with that
mayor and Council Flores I am not one
Poss one possibility would be is if it
wasn't State dollars if it was Federal
money then those it's a different rule
as to what would apply and so anti-d
donation would not apply to federal
funds so if he was able to obtain that's
federal funds and they had a similar
program as it relates to health it's
hard to answer exactly without the
language on the health exemption in
front of me but my recollection is
that's more focused on provision of
healthcare like Medicaid to allow for
that so it's I've just never heard or
seen an interpretation that would
consider something like like sewer or
septic or water as a public health issue
it's a possibility that they could
explore but now we have a clear
exemption that we can utilize to make
sure that you can adopt that type of
program thank you um and I'll read up on
the the new language and talk to you
about it thank you so much Larry Mr her
thank you
mayor thank you counselor uh mayor pro
thank you thanks so much Larry for
meeting with us in the work on behalf of
the city um I I think I for me it would
be really important that we try to um
engage with one of our local legislators
around doing language on theti donation
piece specifically for the these hookups
obviously um you know definitely meet
with with um our incredible lcu
utilities director Adrien Whitmer who um
will have more information on the kind
of work we've been able to do with the
arpa dollars that we got that obviously
were not bound by anti- donation but I
think you know we've already started
that really good work and would love to
continue it there's a lot more
especially for low to monitor income
households and so I think this is a
really important issue to try to tackle
um and try to get um I would
additionally say funding for not just
the legislation but also get um the
state to commit some funding to to that
so that would be my suggestion um on the
issue of funding though I think
additionally um as we head into
potentially this special session or even
if these topics that you raised that
might be discussed at the special
session if it doesn't end up happening
for whatever reason and they get
discussed in 2025 I think it's really
important for us to make a really strong
and firm stand on no mandates without
funding um I think you know cities are
stretched and the legislators keep
talking about historic revenues and so I
think it's you know I don't want to say
put up or shut up but I do want to say
that I think it's these mandates are
incredibly important but they would also
be
incredibly stressful for the city for
municipalities and so I think it's um
really important that we have a really
firm ground on no mandates without
funing in from the
state and then Larry one of the things
that I W that I failed to discuss with
you um was
around um the initiative that we have
around nap properties Nuance abatement
um properties that we're really trying
to address with our Community
Development Department with fire with
with PD with codes we have this great
team working to address these abandoned
nuisance properties and um I talked to
our federal lobbyists who said There
used to be Federal funding for these
kinds of projects in fact the city of
Detroit used it and they demolished like
40,000 abandoned Properties or something
crazy but that ended in 2021 and so I
would love it if we you know worked with
the state to try to do some sort of
either pilot project or some sort of
project to address um abandoned and now
nuisance properties that have become
vacant and dangerous to to our
community other than that I don't have
any questions thank you for your update
and I'm sure you'll continue to keep us
update on the status of the special
session thank you yes thank
you yes C thank you councelor grant
thank you mayor um thank you Larry and I
just want to kind of bring out publicly
and I think you've already alluded to it
but I felt a little pessimistic when we
first sat down when we're kind of
talking about what is really possible
with the special session what are the
what's the appetite for that and I do
want to reiterate or have you reiterate
that if these things do not happen
during the special session that is not
that does not mean that they are being
put aside or put to bed so I think that
there is a lot of there's a lot of
public support for this special session
especially on competency and other
Public Safety um so can you just
reassure all of us again that even if it
doesn't roll during the special session
all is not
lost thank you mayor and Council Graham
absolutely and I'll I'll give a little
more color just about the structure of a
special session because it might help a
little bit with that so a special
session has to be called by the governor
the governor can call a special session
for up to 30 days at a time so that's
the limitation and legislators typically
are somewhat reluctant to go into a
special session as is an Administration
if you do not have agreement coming into
a special session because when you have
a special the cost is about $50,000 a
day there's limited topics and the
topics are limited by what the governor
puts in the proclamation for a special
session so if it's not in the
proclamation they can't consider any
other topic so really what's important
is that you have an agreement before you
come in because it if if it's going to
drag on for 30 days there's nothing else
that they're really considering they're
not going to get a lot of um you won't
make a lot of progress towards the
changes you're trying to affect because
there's no that's all they can consider
they usually come in with with an idea
of what they think they can and cannot
pass and what I will say and we talked
about this in in our discussion just the
aot or the assisted out patient
treatment program that is on the books
and is in statute which was carried by
Senator papen at the time that took five
or six years to pass the statute because
when you're dealing with things like
competency both whether it's criminal
competency or or civil commitment
competency issues there's a lot of
there's a lot of interested stakeholders
who have legitimate concerns and there's
also a lot of issues as it relates to
mandating treatment forcing treatment
whether or not you can detain somebody
against their will and so it's a really
heavy topic so all of these things all
the four that we're talking about
competency civil competency criminal
felon in possession and then also a
panhandling or that similar ordinance
they're big issues so that's why I say
I'm looking into those yes we're going
to deal with them in special session but
this is a probably three or four year
outlook on we're going to be dealing
with these issues and so even if it's
not in the special I I can I can't
guarantee a lot with the legislature but
I can almost guarantee that these will
be
back thank you so much thank you mayor
yes Council from FL hi Larry thank you
for keeping us updated um since we last
spoke I had some questions about every
time I would talk to either Community
Development or housing it was a lot of
the state won't let us do that we can't
build fast we can't build efficient so
I'm wondering if there might be an
Outlook toward more bills that are going
to let us build adus a little bit faster
things like that that kind of aligns
with what our zoning might be looking
like in the next year or so um if you
have any sort of guidance on that I'd
appreciate that thank you mayor and
Council MCL we we were actually just
having that conversation right before we
started about some of those housing
issues so I don't have anything specific
for you but yes I think that the
appetite and the ability is there for us
to look at look at those type of issues
to help streamline speed up the process
to for that construction but also
there's potential that I'm hearing and
have been contacted about about a
Statewide zoning statute
which may not be something we would be
interested in because then it would
preempt local governments from adopting
their own zoning and so we have to be
careful um with what's proposed because
some of it may be an issue that we want
to maintain local control but also there
are things at the state particularly
Construction Industries Division and
other maybe MFA who can help us
streamline those statutes so I think
we're in very preliminary stages Natalie
and I and uh we were just talking about
it so I think that's something we
absolutely can explore so by maybe next
time in front of you we can have a
little bit more meet on that
bone all right thank
you good all right now again thank you
Larry thanks for for updating us and
keeping us informed and we'll continue
thanks thank you
next we have item 3.2 realize Los Cruses
progress
report we'll have Larry Nichols doing
the introductions
a good afternoon mayor enria city
council city manager City staff and
members of the public I'm Larry Nichols
community development director very
pleased to be here today to discuss with
you the progress that we've been making
on the update for the what we call the
realiz Los cruus realiz Los cruus has
formly the updates and adjustments to
the Land Development code referenced as
a zoning code uh we started these
updates on several of our um our codes
and our regulatory items um uh two or
three years ago uh what were they when
in they were the uh com comprehensive
plan the Elevate loses they were our
building codes and and now we're working
with realized Los cruus uh the Land
Development
code realize why would it have that
name well uh we
realized that our codes had not been
revised since
2001 we are currently operating on the
2001 zoning code then we had the the U
subdivision code that was in 2000 we
realized that that needed to be updated
and then we had our design standards
that were last updated in
2012 our comprehensive plan was
basically in 2000 it was a minor
revisions in 201 and
10 what's changed for Los crues during
these last 20 years we have new business
practices we have new technology we have
an increase in population we have new
types of businesses wanting to come into
our zoning districts and this uh update
is addressing those
concerns but most importantly the vision
and the value of elevate Las Cru is our
comprehensive plan which brings
creditable effort to to implement that
Vision with these
updates we have today uh with us our
consultant that has been shepherding
this review for for the last nearly two
and a half
years um our consultant is fiez and
Nichols they're the primary consultant
we have uh Dana Kyle our Law Firm
consultant and Loi engineering as a subc
consultant uh the purpose of the project
is to update Our Land Development codes
of L crues that appear in the municipal
code it's an EXA it's an execution
tool that cles for future and policies
and future development of elevate Los
cruus comprehensive plan the Land
Development code with u major revisions
and updates and incorporate our zoning
codes our Maps our subdivision code our
design
standards the uh status reports uh and
next steps will be discussed today with
our consultant in this work session and
the city uh uh draft of the draft codes
and the city council uh feedback and
next
steps I'm pleased to be introducing now
our consultant uh from Frieza Nichols
Erica Croft Don Warick Karen Perez also
I want to recognize the city staff that
have been involved in this for this last
two and a half years primarily Dave we
our deputy director of Community
Development Adam o chah Sarah Gonzalez
Katherine Harrison Rogers and ourc uh
Our Community Development Gia staff and
with that I yield the floor to miss
grro thank you Mr Nichols and good
afternoon mayor and councel thank you
for having us um here with you today so
um again on our introductions my name is
Erica Craycraft and I'm the project
manager for the development code update
joining me today is the assistant
project manager Don work also Karen
Perez one of our project Engineers
helping out and the three of us are all
with Freez and Nichols and we are
supported by Fred Lopez U primarily on
the roadway components and also local
attorney Dana Kyle so that's a quick
look at the team that has been working
on it on the Consulting
side for the agenda for this
presentation I'll start out with a
process reminder for um anyone who's
maybe forgotten or is newer to the
process about where we've been um so far
next I'll look at some draft highlights
that we have in the current draft code
and also call out some of the major
revisions for folks to be aware of
looking also ahead at the next steps
what we propos moving forward with the
code and lastly I'd be happy to take any
questions or comments that anyone may
have um overall the question for you all
today is um our our next step after this
we would like to have a community
openhouse so the question is are we
ready to move forward to that open house
or are there any other revisions that
you would like to see to the draft
before we formally present it to the
public for for their
feedback so first starting with the code
update process and how we got here as Mr
Nichols mentioned um the city had
adopted uh the Elevate comprehensive
plan A couple of years ago and that
included a sign ific amount of community
engagement through that process with um
subcommittees and public meetings and
all of that input came into the
comprehensive plan and in in the
comprehensive plan there's about 500
different recommendations and they're
all different types some of those are
capital Improvement projects that the
city can do some are additional studies
that might be required but a lot of them
about 200 of them are related to the
development code effort so we've used
that really as a guide book for what did
Elevate say we should to do in in this
situation and trying to really pull
forward the the public input and the
recommendations that came out of that
plan so our our first step on that when
we went through the plan to identify um
the the different recommendations
related to the code update we put them
all in a spreadsheet and started
organizing them for what sections of the
code can we use to address each one of
these so that's been a very intentional
focus and I'll highlight some examples
of that as we move through the
presentation so just a a general idea of
the project scope these are the sections
of your current codes that we are
updating there are um major updates I
would say to the the zoning section and
the zoning map um the subdivision
section some edits as well to drainage
signs roads and rights of Way
Landscaping Parks trails and open space
tree preservation and screening and
fencing so just to give you some context
about which parts of the code are we
looking at these are generally our areas
of
focus our process has been a
three-phased process starting back in
2021 and the first step of that was what
we called a diagnostic evaluation and
during that time we reviewed your
existing codes reviewed your existing
plans like Elevate the active
Transportation plan and others as well
um and made our own recommendations but
also we spent a lot of time talking with
your city staff um the city's elected
and appointed officials to hear from
everyone about what's working well or
maybe not working as well but also a lot
of the applicants um who used or
affected by the code local developers
and home builders uh real estate
professionals and others during that
time at the beginning so that phase one
concluded with a um diagnostic report
that we brought to Planning and Zoning
commission and city council some of you
may remember um back in the fall of
2021 the main part part of our
three-phase process is really spent in
phase two that's drafting the code uh
we've been working very closely with
your city staff through this time
putting together the draft code um also
your city staff has been working with a
technical advisory committee or Tac um
throughout this process to help us with
refining the
drafts at the conclusion of phase two
that was whenever we had a a complete
draft that we felt was ready to move
forward and begin the review and
refinement process which is really what
we're doing here in phase three so we're
kind of at the at the very beginning of
phase three where we have a complete D
complete document and Now's the Time to
review that for any rough edges or
anything that we need to clean up before
we move into any formal adoption or
formal public hearings or anything like
that we have had some significant
Community input to date I mentioned
during phase one whenever we had the uh
code user input we had roughly 30
participants maybe more in that process
that we talked to at the very beginning
I mentioned City staff has been working
with the technical advisory committee
they've had more than 30 meetings um
with that group getting input and
sharing that input with us so that's
been very helpful we also had a virtual
open house at the beginning of the
process we planned to have an inperson
one but however that was during covid
time so we were limited to to Virtual
only but we were able to keep that
extended throughout all of phase two so
that's been kind of the the tradeoff for
the open house at the beginning of the
process but since that time uh more
recently we have posted um a earlier
working draft that's the dated um March
13th draft we posted that Draft online
and we did receive some um comments on
that there were more than 200 comments
that's the screenshot that you see on
the right side here of people who
reviewed the draft or at least the
summary of the draft and they were able
to provide comments
and in addition to those that you see
here online there were about 200 other
comments that were emailed to City staff
that were um passed along to us so we
have had pretty significant input to
date and we've used that input to make
some adjustments to the draft that um
hopefully you've had a chance to review
but that's the one that's dated um June
10th so looking at some of the major
revisions and this goes all the way back
to um whenever we started this process
so the map that you see here is from the
Elevate Los cruus comprehensive plan on
the left this is the future development
map showing uh various place types and
we use this as a guide for putting
together the new zoning districts in the
zoning District section you'll see
districts that are called
character-based zoning districts um
those have an underlying base District
that's the nh1 2 or three NH standing
for neighborhood these are the ones that
are more the the res residential
components and the districts regulate
more about the um the uses that are
permitted in these areas and those are
coupled with three different sets of
character-based
Standards those are Urban suburban and
Rural so those are more about the
character the look and the feel of you
know more what the buildings look like
what are the setbacks and things like
that so those really work together to
implement this um the place types in the
future development map from elevate
in addition to those character-based
zoning districts we also have several
what we call traditional or conventional
um zoning districts those are the
commercial and Retail um two open space
districts and two industrial districts
as
well so here you can see a comparison um
and I'll zoom in in in the next slide
just a bit but wanted to show the full
context with the airport but on the left
again this is the Elevate future
development map and on the right side is
our draft zoning map so zooming in a
little bit more you can start to see
some similarities for where these areas
align with um with the zoning map and so
again these are showing the districts
part for the the three inh
districts and then we also have the
character areas so uh you see again how
those can correlate to what's in the in
the place type map so those two again
work together to implement the different
um Place types in the future development
map
also identifies overlay Place types that
you see uh in this map um the town
center and mixed use Corridor overlays
are brought forward into the um into the
draft code so here you can see the mixed
use corridors are the orange lines on
the map Town Center overlays are the
bigger yellow
circles um and the purpose of these is
really to increase density and create
vibrant are in these places um these are
optional um overlays with the the intent
being to add more flexibility but in
exchange for providing higher quality
development you get bonuses like
increased density for example to
encourage people um to to use these also
on this map you'll see the blue circles
um those are the neighborhood centers
that were identified in Elevate the blue
circles that are here are not
necessarily intended to be the specific
locations but more just general guidance
about where they might be appropriate
and so our recommendation for
approaching the neighborhood centers was
to consider them as a um permitted use
type so that way they could be allowed
by su rather than requiring a rezoning
so just to help streamline the process
and and help it be a little bit more
usable than um a zoning District so that
could be implemented a little bit
easier as I mentioned the mixed use
cordor overlay is shown shown in the
kind of orange coral color here um how
those match up with what was in Elevate
we did include the entire parcel um for
these areas that's why you see kind of a
jagged
area and then the yellow circles are
these Town Center overlays so all of
those were translated over into a mapped
overlay Elevate also provided a future
thare map with Direction and guidance on
Street AP design so that was something
that we referred to putting together the
draft roadway cross-sections you see an
example here where we tried to really
include multimodal approaches for not
just cars but also um Transit bicycle
and pedestrians as
well we also have some updates related
to Landscaping trees and parks one of
those is really increasing Street trees
um parking lot Landscaping within the
parking lots um expanding the screening
buffers section um looking at tree
removal requirements neighborhood park
dedication which I'll talk a little bit
more about shortly and also Trail
dedication and some other items that
were um recommended by Elevate and some
of your other plans that we've pulled
forward there's a a larger focus on
building form standards and what I mean
by building form is more about how a a
building interacts with The Pedestrian
realm so what are the setbacks backs how
much of the building is Windows that I
can see in versus just a blank wall um
or any kind of architectural design so
that's been a big consideration also
supporting what we call missing middle
housing variety um for anybody that's
not familiar with that term missing
middle refers to any type of housing
that's between a single family home and
a large typically apartment building so
missing middle is more about duplexes
quad plexes accessory dwelling units um
small Apartments so looking for ways
that we can incorporate missing middle
um into our community also neighborhood
service uses these are things like um
maybe there's a corner store that's in a
neighborhood or something that you can
walk to so maybe you don't have to drive
everywhere for um every errand helps
promote
walkability also multimodal tias or
traffic impact analyses is something
that we have Incorporated in the draft
as well as considerations for enhanced
connectivity both for um Vehicles bikes
and
pedestrians so I mentioned that we had a
March 13th draft that we shared online
and we received uh about 200 Public
comments online and about 200 comments
via email and so we spent a lot of time
going through those comments and
reviewing those and talking with City
staff about which which recommendations
did we want to take forward into this
draft so we do have some edits um if you
have a copy of the June 10th draft
there's a track changes version that's
available on the website if you want to
see you know maybe you spent time
reviewing March four March 13th and what
what changed since then so track changes
are available on the website um which is
realiz cruises.com so take a look at
that there's also a um brief summary
that highlights the edits so um I'll go
through some of the more notable changes
we made the ones I highlighted here are
ones where we we maybe heard the same
comment from several different folks
rather than um individual comments not
to say that we didn't make those edits
but just trying to to present what's
most of interest to more people so
moving through the document
chronologically starting in general
Provisions we did re receive some
comments about the uh DRC membership um
the development Review Committee which
is the the city staff group
so uh there was some concern about
whether um we had senior enough
positions making the DRC decisions and
so we did make some edits here to
specify that only the director or
assistant director of a department can
serve on the DRC or in the event that
that department doesn't have someone
that's called the director it would be
an equivalent title so it's not um any
design in the department has to be the
director or assistant
director we also added some flexibility
for the city manager to appoint um if
there are any additional City staff
positions that are needed for a
particular application um the city
manager can appoint others um that have
relevant experience in terms of like
that specific subject matter related to
development also related to the flexible
development standards some of the
comments we received were related to
wanting um to make sure that there was
some kind of notification to the
neighbors if there was a flexible
development standard that was being
considered so the revision that we made
in response to these comments was um
basically there's two types of flexible
development standards one is um City
staff can approve it and then the other
one is it requires DRC approval so City
staff can approve um certain numerical
deviations so we said if the deviation
is greater than 20% Then we need to
notify the immediate Neighbors
however if it's um a change that's
significant enough that it requires DRC
approval um it we always have to notify
the adjacent properties so there would
um there would be notification for the
more significant
deviations we also releas received some
comments related to Historic
preservation um we had in the draft
there was an exemption that would um
allow the the city to be able to
demolish its own structures without
going through the historic preservation
requirements um but received some
feedback that that was not desirable and
that the city should go through the same
process as as everyone else so we did
take out that provision that Exempted
the
city through the public comments online
we got a lot of comments related to um
uses that are permitted in the
residential districts which are again
those nhh
districts so we took another look at
what types of housing is allow
in those districts um keeping in mind at
the same time we want to promote missing
middle housing as well so we want to be
inclusive but is there anything that we
can adjust in here to promote
compatibility between these different
uses so some of the changes that we made
is um for the multif family dwellings
that are the the smaller buildings
between five and 12 units so that would
require an Su in nh1 which uh nh1 is the
the most residential district there's
really Limited commercial in nh1 so
primarily
residential so uh we recommended that
the 5 to 12 units require an Su in that
most residential district for the larger
multif family dwellings which is 13 or
more units we recommended that we do
ansp both for nh1 and nh2 so for those
if there was a multif family dwelling
coming into um nh1 or nh2 according to
these ANP would be required so there
would be a public hearing with with
notice that will be provided so folks
would be aware about the proposed
development and be able to provide
comments other Provisions that we
included to um support compatibility so
if those uses are allowed we um we took
a look specifically at nh1 and nh2 which
again are the more residential districts
and in the rural or Suburban areas so
this wouldn't apply in NH3 or it
wouldn't apply in urban so only in these
places
so if there's a duplex Triplex or
quadplex that's coming in if it is
adjacent to an existing single family
home the duplex Triplex quadplex needs
to include design features that make it
look as though it's a single family home
so that would be things like only having
one entrance that faces the street so it
just looks more like a single family
home it can still be a two three or four
Plex um but it just has a character
that's more compatible with um the other
buildings on that
block for the smaller multif family
dwellings the 5 to 12 units we put in um
restrictions that it must be located on
a collector Street and add an
intersection so it could be an
intersection of a collector and a local
or collector oral any other kind of
street but it has to be on a collector
or larger Street and at an intersection
so it wouldn't be in the middle of an
existing neighborhood for
example if that is uh a budding an
existing single family home we did
include um a 10-ft buffer that would
include um trees and a 6ot masonry wall
to um buffer between those two
uses and then for the larger multif
family
dwellings the 13 or more units those
would have to be at the intersection of
not only one collector street but the
other Street also has to be a collector
or larger so um again trying to not have
something that might be disruptive to a
neighborhood right in the middle of the
neighborhood it's more in kind of the
intense areas um buffering that area
from
outside um and again if there um a
buding an existing single family home it
would require a buffer but this time it
would be a 35 foot buffer instead of a
10ft buffer so a larger increase because
the difference in compatibility between
a single family home to a 24 unit
apartment building for example so uh we
thought that that would help with um
some of the compatibility between
existing single family neighborhoods and
increasing missing midle
housing next um we received some
comments related to animal raising and
uh this one was more of a clarification
item in uh in our approach but we did
add a couple of New Uses here that we
think help address the concern so one of
the new uses is called animal raising
accessory and the purpose of that is to
say that livestock animals or um
agricultural practices like even
beekeeping that those are permitted as
an accessory use if you have a home and
you have a a small farm you're keeping
animals you're raising bees or something
in addition to your single family home
that's always permitted as long as it
meets the city's chapter 7 code about um
animal raising restricts the the number
of animals that you can have based on
your lot size and things like that so
that's more about the the nuisances
side and then the other animal raising
General
agriculture um that's more for the
smaller midsize Farms where it's not in
conjunction with a house it's a
standalone Farm but it's not the really
large um feed lot type industrial Farms
so we added that as a permitted use by R
in in H1 and in the heavy Industrial
District
next in the online public comments there
were a lot of comments about the
Cannabis Provisions so we made some
adjustments to the permitted use chart
related to uh cannabis businesses um one
was removing the cannabis dispensary
from nh1 and nh2 and requiring an s in
NH3 we changed the uh cannabis indor
Agriculture and NH3 to require an Su
instead of being allowed by wght
and change the micro business um to take
that out of nh2 and leave it in NH3 but
it would require an Su so this one's a
little bit easier to to follow looking
at the graphic rather than just the text
so you can see the the red circles are
where something's been deleted blue has
been added so we did um back that down a
little bit from where that was permitted
before we also heard some comments um of
folks conned about the types of
non-residential uses that could be
allowed in their neighborhoods as we're
I mentioned we're trying to support
having more um Neighborhood Services in
walking distance to to folks but maybe
some of those might not be appropriate
in all areas so we did take another look
at those you'll see a lot of um track
changes in that document um one I wanted
to highlight specifically was both the
the bar and the tap and tasting room
there was a lot of concern from the
community about not wanting bars in
their neighborhoods for example so we
did take out any allowance for those two
uses in nh1 and nh2 entirely and did
change in H3 to require an Su um and
there's another list here of about um 20
I guess 18 more uses here where we made
some adjustments in what's allowed where
and whether it's by ride or by
su the next one is moving into the
subdivision regulations um this one
again is is another
clarification um item in the substantial
completion policy we did make an edit to
clarify that if you meet the
requirements for substantial completion
that not only can the building permit be
issued but also the FI final plat can be
filed as well so final plat gets filed
um building permits are issued and the
point of that is to um to allow the
plats to be filed building permits to
start before everything's 100% in place
like 99.5% in place um and that's a a
current stud policy the point of this
update was just to formalize that policy
into the
code one change that we have made in the
most recent draft um was related to the
connectivity index that was something
that we had proposed in a previous draft
um it's calculated through using a ratio
of um Street segments to intersections
in a neighborhood and we got a lot of
feedback that that was really confusing
for a lot of people to to use kind of
difficult to
administer and we looked at that again
with um City staff and and our
recommendation was that we could take
this out because we think that
connectivity improvements are really
strongly addressed through new
Provisions for Block lengths and block
parameter both of which relate to the
different character areas um so we think
that that's been a helpful addition also
including um some new call toac
regulations so we think the the
connectivity issue is still moving
forward through those provisions and
maybe we don't necessarily need the
connectivity
index I did want to mention the um
traffic impact analysis section we put a
note in the draft saying that this
section is in progress um that's
something that we heard a lot about from
the local development community and
Builders um that maybe we don't have
that one quite right ready to present to
the public yet so that's something that
your city staff um Public Works
department is really working closely
with those code users to get that
section refined and make sure that
that's ready to present and move
forward next the park dedication amount
um this this was a um I think really the
only update that we made to the parks
section since the last um time but we
had a placeholder for it because the
city was working through the park impact
fee process and so we were waiting for
some information to come out of that
process to inform what we included here
so um the addition that we added there's
a table in that section where you can
see with the again the track changes um
but we did specify it's one acre of
neighborhood Parkland to be dedicated
per 188
units um and again that is specifically
about neighborhood parks so those are
the the smallest ones the larger Parks
which are the community and Regional
Parks those are going to be addressed
through your impact fees which is a um
separate document and separate
process and lastly are um some dark sky
improvements that we made to the outdoor
lighting section so we did add some
graphics like you see here um the
purpose of dark sky improvements is to
try to move toward the the right side of
the graphic where all of the light is
fully shielded everything's shining down
and you can start to see the night sky
better uh it's better for um animals
it's better for humans um and the
environment in general so um wanted to
be sure that that was very clear that um
what what we mean by that and also that
all outdoor lighting must be fully
shielded other dark sky improvements was
requiring warm Lighting in the lower
intensity areas removing some exceptions
for um flag lighting to exceed the
overall um lighting allowance specifying
the architectural up lighting has to be
close to the building so it's not placed
really far away by the street and just
lighting up the entire property trying
to keep sure keep uh be sure that it's
really focused on um highlighting the
architectural features of a
building and also removed exceptions for
nighttime reduction for some uses um
there's a nighttime reduction that's
required for um any use that is over lit
overnight um around midnight or so for a
dimming
feature and those uh the dark sky
improvements were consistent with a lot
of the the feed back that we received
through the community input as well
there was a lot of support for dark sky
improvements so um next looking ahead at
what we would propose as the next steps
I mentioned that we would like to have
an openhouse event where we would take
the draft document and present it to the
community as here's our draft it's it's
still in progress what does everyone
think about it um that would be an
in-person event look sort of like the
pictures that you see here with boards
or posters and inviting people to come
down and learn about the process and the
draft and what it might mean for them um
we would include an educational
component because a lot of residents may
not be familiar with what a development
code is or how zoning works or how it
applies to them um so we would be sure
to include that also telling uh folks
what are some of the highlights of the
draft and having opportunities for
feedback from them whether that's um
writing comments on the board but also a
lot of times that looks like one-on-one
discussions here like you see the setup
in the uh left side picture where we can
sit down individually with a property
owner if they're concerned about how
does this affect my property and my use
what does it mean for me we can look up
their address and be able to help them
with any questions or concerns that they
might have in addition to the inperson
event we would also have an online
equivalent if that's more um convenient
for others to participate in that would
be available as well
so our proposed next steps um I
mentioned after today if there's any
revisions that the council would like to
direct us to make we would be happy to
to make those um we would move forward
into that openhouse event uh we would
also like to Circle back with all of
those code users or at least some of the
code users that we met with at the
beginning of the process and get their
feedback about here's the draft that we
put together does this address your
concerns do you still have remaining
concerns here we need to address so that
would be another um kind of official
round of public input once we got that
input from the openhouse and those
additional
conversations we would bring that back
to council and planning and zoning
commission and present that to you about
here's the input that we heard from the
community here's their concerns and
here's 20 revisions that we might
consider based on what we heard with
that and have have some discussion with
you all so um you would have a chance to
review all of that input um after that
we would be moving forward into the
formal public hearings where um we've
spent a lot of time talking with the
public and code users and elected and
appointed officials about the draft um
so we would be ready to move into formal
public hearings which would be planning
and zoning commission recommendation and
ultimately city council
adoption so um that concludes my
presentation and I'd be happy to take
any questions or comments that you may
have thank
you okay thank you Council vores thank
you mayor and thank you so much for your
presentation
um when you first started I thought you
were talking about the area across the
street from the uh Mountain View but
this is a general revamp of the of the
code yes councelor it is uh it is
Citywide okay it's Citywide um
okay so
um the historic um
preservation uh part States states that
the city is not
Exempted um so that means that our
committee um which is uh consists of
local people in our city would be making
those decisions or recommendations
yes it would follow the same process
which is which is how the regulations
are currently written today if I'm not
correct what
regulations the the historic
preservation regulations right now the
city would be um subject to those
regulations this was a proposed addition
to exempt the city but that um was not
to make it
clear it was not supported by the
community comments so we took out our
proposed exemption and left that part as
it is today okay so um and this might be
outside of the um not within your
boundaries of what you're here for but
uh my concern is about having a
committee you who who Who's going to get
their head beheaded here Larry or David
it's always David so um can you speak to
that
please mayor and Council florid is David
we the Community Development Department
um could you indulge me and repeat your
question well of course you weren't
listening to me it's okay you never
listen to me um I you know one of the
thing what I'm asking is the city is
Exempted from the historic preservation
aspect of a a development so who has
that um who has that oversight or is it
our historic preservation uh committee
or um councilor Flores roughly four
years ago the city adopted a historic
preservation ordinance and within that
ordinance there are provisions on how
the city
um gets the building permit or the
modifications of their properties that
are on the historic registry or um the
state registry and so there is a process
that goes forward uh what there was an
exemption for was when the city goes to
um
like uh if there was property owned by
the city and the city was using federal
funds we have to get clearance from the
state um historic preservation office
and so in those instances we were asking
for an exemption uh but like I said the
feedback that was received when the the
initial draft was put forward was that
the city property should go through the
same process as private properties and
so that's the way the draft has been uh
modified or redlined so that uh there's
equal treatment of private and public
public properties and then the review
would take place by the historic
preservation commission and then if the
commission that means a state no that's
the city's historic preservation
commission okay and I was calling it a
committee but I misspoke and when you
said commission I thought maybe that was
a state um okay thank you thank you Mr
we and I have a couple of more
questions when when you started I
thought again I thought you were
referring to that place um and all of
this is pretty consistent with what you
presented Ed based on that Community I
think it was uh because of it was covid
so it was all uh done uh via Zoom um but
the
um the feedback you got from those who
participated was um very cohesive I
think it applies to any part in the city
so are you using that as um a framework
to work from in the rest of the city
because most of New Mexico I mean most
of Las Cruses the undeveloped areas do
seem to be somewhat rural I mean it
isn't as if you know we're building up
in New York City or something like
that um so did you take that into
account yes yes um the the comment that
we asked for at the beginning of the
process was very open-ended uh about you
know what type of development would you
like to see just getting General input
whereas now we're asking
we have a draft for you to look at what
do you think about this draft so in the
beginning the open-ended input that we
were hearing a lot of it was support for
walkable places um mixed use affordable
housing options um things like that so
yes I think one of my concerns is
parking uh you know that and again I'm
focused on that area just uh north of
lman and uh and by the way uh it isn't
onat high school anymore I saw two
slides with that name and it made me
cringe it's now called uh Oregon
mountains Oregon Mountain High School
thank you you're welcome and so I just I
just want to make sure that I know that
um we had a former counselor
um who uh was very uh contributed a lot
in that meeting we had in December of
2021 it was December right right after
Thanksgiving I think sounds right yeah
and there were a lot of people who
participate but that counselor was
Sharon Thomas and um she made the
request that the middle housing or lower
income housing would blend in with
everything else and her words were that
the high-end um properties uh wouldn't
owners wouldn't be saying oh well we
don't want to be too close to those
people so is that part of the plan to
incorporate um housing mixed housing or
is it going to be an isolated
Corner uh great question um we have
heard mixed input on support for the
missing middle housing like what you're
talking about incorporating more variety
versus the public comments that you know
folks have concerns about what's in my
neighborhood I live in a single family
neighborhood I wanted to be a single
family um so we we've been trying to
really balance both of those interests
and I think that our proposed
compatibility provisions and the
adjustments that we made in this draft I
think help really reach that balance
where we do still allow um accessory
dwelling units by right in all of the
inh districts we allow um the two three
and four unit buildings by right subject
now to um the design requirements and
spacing that they have to be on a
collector um so we're still including a
lot of flexibility about where different
types of housing can go in and just
trying to to mitigate the impacts on the
neighborhoods through things like is
that cified um Mr we so the mixed
housing is codified so that our
Builders
uh yes mayor and councel Flores um when
the realize a document is adopted will
become the the zoning standards of for
the city and then in coordination with
the zoning map uh it will in it will as
um Miss Craycraft said the uh single
family is allowed by wri and all NH one
two and three the one to
four uh plexes are allowed by W and the
one two and three and then based one if
you're a neighborhood one neighborhood
two neighborhood three there are some
special use for the higher density
apartment units so that we can look at
the impacts and compatibility with the
existing neighborhood but there is um an
ability to do that and there's an
increase in the flexibility and the
number of units that can be provided I
guess the other point is that all
residential uses are allowed an
accessory dwelling unit by right so even
existing single family homes could allow
uh another dwelling unit on their their
property you said by right what does
that mean that that means um it's
codified it's codified and if they came
in for a building permit for that we
would issue that administratively it
wouldn't have to go to the pnz or city
council okay um I had another question
it'll pop up later thank you Mr we and
and thank you very much for indulging
absolutely thank
you thank you Council FL anyone
else Council
mati David this may be a question for
you um
uh in your codes there was a discussion
made uh that when
you the city it say it says the city
will mail notifications to Property
Owners uh I think within 500 500
ft and then it went on to say that the
requirement uh to also notify
neighborhood
associations in addition to Property
Owners Within 500 ft is no longer
required I mean that's in that's in your
your document so maybe we could um
delete that and change it because uh
there's a lady
Katrina that does a great job and uh I I
have a list of 34 associations the
captains the presidents and I've been
meeting with four or five of them almost
every month so they're they're very
strong so they'd be a great asset to
notify when you have the the public
meetings and or make any changes in the
neighborhood mayor and councelor matis
uh the 500 ft is uh public notice as
required by state statutes for zoning
and subdividing the neighborhood
association uh was early notice is
something that the city adopted by
policy and in the latest revision we
added that back in um we heard comments
that there was a desire for additional
public notice so uh not only the
notification of the um home owners or
neighborhood organizations but also U
the process when uh an early
notification meeting would have to be
required by a developer so we're with
you I knew you were going to do that to
me thank you
David Council
M hello thank you for your presentation
um I had a a question on from slide um
37 if you could go back to that
I definitely understand restrictions on
things but some of this seems a little
vague to me for example personal
services can you detail a little bit
more because if we do want to have the
ability to combine some things or even a
grocery store I understand we don't want
maybe even a Walmart Market in a
residential area but smaller grocery
stores things like that this this seems
a little bit restrictive to me so I'm
hoping there be a little bit more clar
to
that I see you're flipping through thank
you okay sorry I wanted to have the full
definition and what's permitted where in
front of
me so thank you for your question um we
again made some some of these edits well
backing up whenever we we made the
original draft uh we did try to
incorporate more of these Neighborhood
Services in the neighborhoods again for
that
walkability um so people maybe don't
have to drive so much to different
places um but in a lot of the public
comments that we received online um
there was not a lot of support for
having businesses in in the neighborhood
so we wanted to take another look and
try to really take in
ag1 that is again the most residential
district Andie that one the most closely
and take out a lot of uses that we we
had included most of them were really
already requiring an
Su um but anything that was not um a
community type use we we did take those
out so there's things like Botanical
Garden is still allowed uh maybe an art
studio by su the neighborhood centers
that I mentioned that are the blue
circles um on the map that that's a type
of um mixed juuse development that would
still be allowed by by
su um but you mentioned specifically
about personal services being one that
was taken
out okay so we talked about those being
examples like beauty and barber shops a
um dry cleaning or a
laundromat um and and incidental retail
sales that those might have so if you
had a beauty salon it would be the sales
of shampoo and other products like that
um so that was taken out of nh1 but left
in nh2 and NH3 so just trying to take
another look and and
recalibrate the the non-residential
uses Council mclear one other thing I
wanted to call out is the city's always
had what a I think is a pretty robust
home occupation uh criteria all of that
remains in this code so if you're a
single operating mutian uh have like a
single chair you'd still be allowed to
do that from your home it's just it's a
smaller area and less impact so things
like lessons uh if you do taxes on an
individual U basis those would still
continue to be allowed and I believe
there was a use added called sundry
which is those small Marketplace places
and so that's another use that would be
allowed in these NH
neighborhoods no thank you okay uh
strike the sunry that was my my
misinterpretation and these haven't been
removed from all of the NH districts
it's there's some modification so maybe
it's changed only in nh1 for example
um it's a little easier to see in the in
the track changes version okay thank you
okay go ahead mayor Pro thanks
mayor hi thank you for being here um and
for all the work you've been doing this
far I have some questions as well
um I have some con I I have some
concerns with the modifications that you
have been made that were presented on
page 32
33 in that
area um
how are you balancing Community comments
with and so you spoke to this a little
bit but I guess i' want to understand
your process a little bit better on how
you B balance Community comments with
educating the public on why we're trying
to move away from exclusionary zoning
and why exclusionary zoning is
harmful um and educating the public on
the facts as well and so what is how are
you balancing
those two very real things and and you
as experts in this work I think know
better than anybody that zoning laws are
deeply political and so how are you sort
of balancing the needs for creating
healthier more vibrant neighborhoods and
some of the community comments that
we're receiving regarding building more
barriers and building more and lifting
up more exclusionary zon zoning
practices great question um and I think
that educational component at the open
house that that I mentioned is going to
be very important to help share that
message about why we want to include
these different housing types um as far
as our research and expertise we did
take a look at um it's been a nationwide
trend of eliminating single family
Zoning for um a lot of cities across the
country and so we took a closer look at
what those cities are doing and how is
it going um so most of the ones maybe
all of the ones that we looked at um the
the most that they allow in single
family areas um at the at the more
conservative end is up to four units by
right and so that's more what we've
shifted to so one to four units would be
allowed by right that's consistent with
what we see Nationwide um and then our
Provisions for in ag2 and three um allow
a little bit more variety beyond the
four um even the the 5 to 12 could be
allowed in the nh1 but it would require
an Su um So based on reviewing
Nationwide practices of what what other
cities have been doing and what are some
of the compatibility Provisions that can
be
included I deeply believe that some of
these changes are actually creating just
maintaining barriers um that will allow
more access to more affordable housing
to be built for more middle missing
income housing to be built I think the
more barriers that we add and uphold the
more it will cost for developers and the
less developers will then want to add
develop in those areas and we are in a
housing crisis in this community and in
this country and arguably the housing
crisis was created historically by
exclusionary zoning policies that have
been maintained for decades that frankly
I think are rooted deeply in class and
race issues
and I would love to see realiz Los
Cruses be bold in how we approach the
next 20 30 years in our community and I
want to be able to work so right now our
housing department works with very
limited um developers that really do
work in affordable housing work because
it's so complicated because it's so hard
that those folks are that's a small list
we want to be able to create a much
bigger list for developers to to want to
build in the infill to want to live to
build multif family housing and for
neighborhoods to be vibrant what ends up
happening also is that we end up
concentrating poverty and then
low-income families have less
opportunities to I don't I don't have to
tell you these things because you are
the expert I guess I I just feel like
there has to be a balance between what
we're hearing from community
members honestly sometimes very
politically leaning type of commentary
and the education that has to be
presented to the public around why some
of these pieces are essential for for um
building vibrant neighborhoods and so
I feel like you've done revisions and
revisions to this particular piece but I
still don't think it's right um and I
would really love us to go back to and
obviously the open house I think will be
good but I I just don't think this piece
is right yet and the more barriers we
create I think the harder it will be for
us to to meet the gap of housing that we
are so desperately
needing okay thank you so I will say
that on that on page 35 you talked about
Thea some of the Cannabis restrictions
I'll definitely do my part in
encouraging some of the Cannabis
Advocates and Industry to provide some
of this commentary but do you know if
have you all met with um cannabis in
Industry folks that are providing some
um feedback on this as well uh not not
locally I will definitely do my part in
encouraging them to get involved in this
thank you and then it was brought to my
attention um you didn't present on it
today but the piece around annexation um
it is brought to my attention that
perhaps what's in realized in the
language right now is different than
what's in Elevate and that elevate
perhaps had stronger more definitive
language and so I'm just curious if
you've um what the sort of mix of that
has been um I believe that was addressed
in the last draft okay um unless maybe
that comment came came more recently but
we did hear a related comment and went
back to elevate and took exactly the
text and put it in um I think it's in
verbatim in the latest draft but I dble
sorry I was not updated on that but
that's um it's a long document to review
twice that's great to hear and then just
to councelor McClure's Point regarding
the um items on page on slide 37 I do
ALS and just the grocery piece CAU my I
because I've been uh we've been working
with our um Economic Development
Department as well on um the opportunity
that we have with retail Lita uh funding
and things like that to potentially you
know do expansions to grocery store
local locally owned grocery stores I am
curious about some of the data points if
we're as we're building realiz last
Cruis if we're looking at data points
like um the number of people like the
population that lives in a food desert
for example and then if these
restrictions then add to those kinds of
harsh realities that exist in our
community MH we could also take another
look at at the list of uses that you see
here see if there are some that would be
appropriate to to put back in like the
local grocery store um and that already
does have a square footage restriction
on how large that can be to try to
promote compatibility maybe that needs
to be a even smaller one in in H1 or
something like that but we can um
certainly re review this list okay thank
you I think the list generally looks I
think pretty right on but the grocery
store piece I think just had more
implications okay and then those are all
my questions I really wanted just to
frame my comments around um the items on
the slides 32 and 33 and really hoping
we can continue that conversation I just
believe that we're not quite it's not
quite right yet so thank you I
appreciate it thank
you thank you councilor Flores
thank you and thank you again um in in
so far as um land the land use or yeah
we have um Builders and we have the land
owners and then we have
Realtors and uh my district um when I
first ran for office about too many
years ago I um I was surprised to to be
attacked you know as a candidate to be
on city
council um as to why their view of the
Mountain uh Oregon mountains had been
blocked and basically um
blaming I guess it's something it was a
directive for me to look into and I you
know I just said well would who told you
that you'd always have oh the
realtor and I said well the realtor
doesn't represent uh the you know the
the builders the land owners and uh I
said
so that you know that that's that's
really the response so our our Builders
know exactly what they're building based
on what the land owner
wants and um so does some of this some
of this burden of representing to the
prospective buyer fall on the realtor
and is there anything um that we can
possibly do about that or
not we do include the um maximum
building Heights for each district in
the code um but there's I'm I'm not
aware of anything in the development
code that we could do to help with the
realtor situation that is a common
complaint that we hear in cities so well
maybe I'll talk to our City attorney
about that thank you so much thank you
councelor Grant thank you uh not a
question just uh some comment um and I
just want to add on to what mayor protm
said because I am right there with her
on everything at the top I live in a C2
so I'm in a commercial I'm actually
across the street from an M1 which means
I am surrounded by some houses some
businesses Light Industry uh the house
right next door to me has been
residential then became a micro business
is now residential again and I live less
than a tenth of a mile from a cannabis
dispensary and somehow I've still
survived so just throwing that out there
that I think a lot of times when I get
when I get feedback about possible
zoning changes a very common thread I
hear is how would you feel if your house
had my house does have all of this stuff
and it is a great neighborhood I
wouldn't want to live anywhere else um
so I think I just I always push back on
you know some of these neighborhood
designations or neighborhood character
um but what I do want to say is that I
can't think of a single person I've
talked to who has not said we need more
housing and nobody wants it by them and
I understand that um however I think
speaking as the same that mayor proen
bomo said this is deeply political
and it takes political will and
political courage to move ahead with
change that a community needs um I think
we have we have some developers in the
audience today I believe oh thank you
and I I think we put developers in a
completely untenable situation we are
crying out for more housing the
developers say here was what we can do
and without the political courage and
the political will to make it possible
for for them nothing nothing can change
um so I just want to add my voice to say
that I am going to act with the
political courage to see increased
housing
density to see mixed use neighborhoods
um and I agree completely that the fewer
barriers we have the better and not just
better for neighborhoods that are being
built or developments better for for
everyone um I think about I think I
think more about things like fire
department response times than most
people because my husband drives a fire
truck and when we when we give in and
just allow building to only happen
through sprawl that doesn't just
affect you know the the that doesn't
just affects things like climate and
drive time we are putting our Public
Safety at Advocates and our Public
Safety our First Responders at a
disadvantage um you know I think Chief
Smith when Mike started we had we had
station 7 we've added Station 8 we're
building station 9 we already need
station 10 um Chief story I'm sure you
can say the same thing you are in a zone
defense and the more that we allow
sprawl to happen because it takes a lot
of political courage to stand up for
infill development
the worse off we are across the boards
so yeah that's all
thanks thank you thank you councelor
Graham uh councel
matis thank you I I just have a question
on on on values if that's been
incorporated
into into this document and what I'm
meaning is if if you have a neighborhood
and let's say the homes are $400
$500,000 is there a consideration David
or yourself if you could answer if you
put in a a smaller unit uh let's say a
duplex or a
fourplex uh what happens to the value of
those other homes are are is is the
assessor low of those because of the
lower value of something that goes into
let's say we allowed in gated
neighborhoods um what happens there and
and the businesses that come in I I
worry about the equity and and and it's
a little bit of Personal Agenda because
my daughter you know she just invested
in a a home up in uh by by the golf
course and you know was pretty expensive
I would just like to see her Equity
build so that she would she would have
something that is valuable when she's
she's only what 30 years old but maybe
it would grow in value to when she's 50
and not be uh a target for uh less value
because of trying to build uh density U
mayor and councelor matis U the first
way I'd like to address your your
comment is the way the code is
addressing that is um putting less
emphasis on use and more on the built
environment how the um homes interact
with the public rights of way how the
features are cited on them what they
look at and so that um you're creating a
neighborhood and a character area that
that goes forward so um like I said
that's kind of a tradition from Los
cruus we've always segregated uses uh
this is going to allow a more organic
flexible development of neighborhoods
and encourage then them to uh take pride
in their neighborhood and maintain it
and so uh but the safeguards for that is
we still have density requirements we
have height requirements we we have um
Landscaping drainage requirements and so
those Public Safety matters are
addressed um your second question on
property values is a a little harder one
to address um my understanding of of
that issue is that it's uh basically
what comparable housing in the general
vicinity of that area what those go for
is how property values are established
and
anecdotally I always go to and it's an
area in your District um msia Park is an
area that always has maintained its
property values if if they haven't grown
but when you look at it you have a
railroad track goes through it you have
industrial uses you have commercial you
have Condominiums you have Apartments
you have single family properties yet
it's one of the most stable and um
highly valued U NE neighborhoods in in
the community so if you use that as an
example and there's even mobile home
parks in the msia Park area so
um I I think that's
uh if if we can create vibrant and
sustainable neighborhoods I think those
property values will
maintain no thank thank you David and I
think we have political courage but I'm
really very pleased with the the public
events that you'll have so that we can
hear from the public and the
stakeholders thank you thank
you is Sir anyone
else okay um thank you thank you for the
presentation uh there are a couple of
things that I had a couple of questions
one is the you said uh you're going to
continue to work on the tias on the
traffic impact analysis do you do you
have more or less a a time frame on that
on on how that's going or next steps or
where we're at on that um I I'll start
maybe defer to City staff but um ideally
we would have it ready ahead of the the
open house but it may need to continue
uh as I mentioned in here number two Rev
visiting with the code users for
feedback um we'd like to be able to
present it to the public but that may
need to to continue we just want to be
sure we get it
right mayor council David CIO Public
Works director for the record mayor to
answer your question those meetings are
being scheduled currently right now and
those discussions are being had at this
time okay thank you dve
I have a question for David go ahead
counselor yeah for you oh no you yeah
that one I'm so sorry not that one that
one uh thank you David but I thought
that the tias were conducted once the um
area was already developed because
remember that uh fracus we had a few
years ago with uh some
land um south of uh south of anyway
there was going to be an a build
a apartment building and there would be
a lot of traffic but it wasn't till it
was uh
designed it wasn't till it was designed
that the tias were conducted isn't that
so because that's the way you would find
out how many and then yeah we we've had
that subject before where the tias
really come in right before the proposed
development or uh the building goes up
isn't that the way it works I mean we
can't anticipate right now what the Tia
would be mayor councelor flotes thank
you for the question the tias come in
conjunction with the development as they
come through it may come in at a
different step but it doesn't come after
the development is
done okay thank
you the the the other thing that that we
have going on and uh as as Council we've
invested in in M with South Solano and
elale has anything being looked at as
far as the land use code as far as this
realize as far as masas and moving
forward with
that mayor David we again
uh the realized Los cruus and the update
of the develop vment codes are
anticipated to be complimentary to
M uh the Metropolitan Redevelopment
areas gives the city other opportunities
to uh provide additional investment
additional technical service and uh also
some financing mechanisms to allow
infrastructure to be improved in those
areas um but they would work
congruently um with one another and they
would uh we would may have to make it
sure when the Mr are adopted that
there's not anything that would uh
create a conflict um I think the
intendant actually one of the
recommendations in um Elevate Los crusis
is to explore the use of masas for
redevelopment in that area so the the
zoning provides kind of that base layer
of what we're looking for in the
neighborhoods and then the MRA is a tool
to actually see you you realize that
taking place so the intent is for them
to be hand inand and so it'll be
incumbent on us all to make sure that
takes place
okay thank you
Dave again Erica thank you for the
presentation normally at work sessions
it's an informative uh session and
there's no public comment but this time
I know there's a lot of members of the
community that came out and it'll give a
good indication or a good idea of when
the next steps and when the open house
would take place uh based on the
comments so I'd like to open it up now
to the public for them to come up and uh
we have Katrina there she'll be ushering
anybody that wants to speak she'll just
go by the rows and and and get you lined
up so that you can speak at this point
how how many can I sh see a show of
hands of who wants to
speak okay so yeah if we if we can do
two minutes unless I've already told you
uh you're getting three or something to
that effect through an email but um
you'd have to remind me when you come up
but uh Katrina will Usher you uh we'll
we'll start on the left hand side and
then uh we'll go to the right from the
top down so thank you thank you those of
you that are speaking please uh state
your name and you have two minutes thank
you mayor city council and city manager
my name is Beth Bardwell and I'm
speaking today on behalf of the more
than a 100 members of The League of
Women Voters of southern New Mexico in
support of the proposed changes to the
city's Land Development code in realized
Los cruus the city laid out a long-term
vision and plan for future growth in
Elevate Los cruus comprehensive plan in
2020 and that comprehensive Plan called
for balanced development preserving our
natural setting fostering economic
Prosperity vibrant neighborhoods and
liable community and today's proposed
changes to the Land Development code are
a credible effort to implement that
vision and those values and they deserve
your support there are many benefits to
the adoption of the proposed changes
including greater regulatory flexibility
for property owners to build and develop
their property provided it's consistent
with the character of the neighborhood
the ability to build walkable mixed use
neighborhoods that combine residential
office space and community and
neighborhood amenities in one place and
because of their mixed use and density
increase your gross receipts tax
decrease the cost of providing city
services and and preserve our Green
Space they also provide for an increase
in attainable housing throughout the
city such as condos and town homes and
adus and duplexes dead plexes small
apartments and cottage courts that
collectively with single family detached
homes best need best meet the needs of
our diverse City so that our children
and our parents and our service workers
and First Responders and our young
families buying their first home can
find homes they afford they can afford
and buy in neighborhoods of their choice
the additional compatibility
requirements mentioned today uh in the
presentation are barriers to increasing
this missing middle housing and should
not be adopted thank you all right thank
you Mr may you had offered three minutes
in the email but I'll make it two
minutes go thank you Mr Mayor members
the council thank you for the
opportunity to speak with you today my
name is Christopher Brown I'm a resident
of Las crusis and a member of the
technical advisory committee our
Consultants discussed that said these
comments are my own not those of the
committee as noted in the presentation
we worked very hard for the last 15
months 33 meetings hundreds of hours of
time were contributed members of the
development Community advocates for
affordable housing and complete streets
the bicycling community and all others
work together respectfully towards the
end in the few minutes I have I'd like
to focus on two issues complete streets
is a concept the city council has
endorsed with clast action that argues
that we should plan future roadways to
meet the needs of all forms of
transportation I quote from the document
new development shall be served by a
system of sidewalks paths Greenways
roadways accessways and other facilities
designed that provide for multiple modes
of travel motor vehicle Transit bicycle
and pedestrian ACC access and
circulation should be coordinated and
implemented to provide safe and
efficient Mobility the second issue I'd
like to talk about is one that's been
raised extensively affordable housing
the median price of a home and L crusis
is over
$300,000 the median income of a
household in Los cruus is
$50,000 if we do the math we can see
it's going to be impossible for young
people and firsttime homeowners to get
in the market if we don't allow
reasonably design multiple use housing
as has been outlined in the
plan section 3.2b support this type of
multiple use housing I close with a
request to council that you support the
ideas in the development code that will
allow complete streets and affordable
housing to be a reality as Los cruus
continues to grow thank you very
much thank you
mayor council members my name is Liz
Rodriguez Johnson and I'm a resident of
donana County and a housing Advocate I'm
here today to express my support for
increased flexibility in the Land
Development code to
build more variety types of housing
throughout the neighborhoods um in Las
guses thank
you thank
you thank you good afternoon my name is
John John Munos
Amo mayor Enriquez City
councilors Mr manager City staff and
community
members my uh comments will be primarily
focused on the downtown uh districts and
as president of the downtown lasus
partnership and the chief experience
officer of electronic caregiver I am
encouraged and I'm excited about the uh
proposed revisions to codes as discussed
today the mission of the downtown L
resour partnership is to promote
business culture and art removing
restrictive regulations is a dream come
true which will open many doors to
Residents businesses art artists and M
and
museums the downtown parip solve record
crowds uh with the recent New Year
celebration the chili drop covered by
CNN internationally and we are
attracting other um folks into the
downtown areas with things like the
zombie walk and other events and so when
I talk about
um the downtown it's like the um the
living room of Las crues it is core to
our community
what's also core is that small business
like the state of New Mexico employees
53% of New Mexicans so when you're
supporting the local business you are
supporting neighbors friends colleagues
and
relatives when the awnings were removed
some time ago and Main Street was opened
up that was considered a bold move fast
forward to today that initiative has had
such a positive impact not just in
downtown in the districts surrounding it
but in the entire city having housing
and employment options means we keep
residents here it means we keep families
together contributing to the overall
economic health of Las Cruses this is an
extraordinary time for Las crues and
this is the next step in our journey
thank you for your
support thank you
good afternoon uh my name is Troy
Mitchell I'm here with the HBA so the
home builder Association has quite a few
people here today um we're here to kind
of discuss the realiz Lost Cruis uh we
think there's a lot of of good
Construction and Industry Partners here
today to discuss some some issues that
we find within the current draft so we
think that realized Los cruus does a
good job um on some aspects and some
things but there's some problems uh uh
within the current draft that kind of
lead to um a lack of sustained uh living
and sustainable growth in terms of
affordable housing um the problems that
we've outlined are are few um it there's
smaller problems within the the realize
the 400 page document itself um but
we're here to highlight some of those
issues and you'll hear um a majority of
them as we go through them you can kind
of follow along if you if you'd like um
so what we're actually requesting and we
hope you know as we're trying to get
through these uh we highlight enough
issues that that you see fit to have a
uh a stakeholder meeting with the HBA
and the consultant and potentially the
planning department department so that
we can go through some of these issues
and really make sure that we're either
um not as vague as some of them are or
or change them all together and so um a
few of the issues that I wanted to
discuss here are going to be uh chapter
three it it discusses vehicle and
bicycle parking specifically um this
goes H hand inand with Section 5.2 F3
E6 and 5.2 n so these we feel like
should be uh um completely um done away
with um they actually limit the the
number of bicycle and vehicle parkings
on the the minimum as well as the
maximum um there's there's a little bit
of contradiction there and we wanted to
kind of discuss that with the consultant
if we could get a a a meeting um and
those are those are my issues and we're
hoping that um you guys listen to um
everything everybody has to say thank
you sorry mayor can I just ask a quick
question it's me over here yeah thanks
I'm sorry go ahead so just to make sure
I'm understanding the document uh the
the font the red font is the H HBA the
red font the whole font is the HBA um
the red font is after the draft came out
on the last week we went through and
some of them had been changed some of
them hadn't been I see okay thank you so
much councilors mayor Steve Green for
the record um just wanted to address on
my my section which would be uh 43
c4b which is you know it discusses how
the customer service approach to the
subdivision application process
basically um if the city is looking to
create a more approachable application
process then why is the time frame for
review and construction plans being
increased by
50% in addition if construction plans
have not been approved after two reviews
the community develop director should
prioritize communication applicant and
reviews to resolve outstanding issues
and if advisable arranged to make a
meeting to do so this is a suggestion
that was made there was no change to
this this document I think it's fair to
bring this up because that's what we've
been working to try to strive to and I
think we've been kind of even
approaching that with this current city
saying you know Larry and them they have
been working to that your your your
department has been working to that and
to see that that wasn't written into
this was kind of disappointing I I think
that we we we don't want to prolong
things if we can get uh items addressed
quicker let's try to do that um next up
on mine would go to chapter five which
is addressing um underneath D which is
Cesc design dead end streets
so basically a Cesc it says if a cc is
permitted if a pedestrian bicycle access
is provided we I would just like to see
some clarification on that um exactly
what and how that is going to be done
through the process also it also
encourages to basically get rid of cuis
seex which why I'm not sure from a a
realy standpoint from design standpoints
a lot of people like living on a culde
sec um they find it better for the
development of their children I mean
it's a safe safer little space um we
would like some just definition on why
the reason to get rid of the cdec um
I'll take just just a one second longer
so the also mine was also on uh section
e of chapter 5 about roundabout design
it is stating that all roundabouts
should be used in all intersections now
I think that must be a typo or a mistake
or not we would just like clarification
on that because would that mean that
every intersection including inside the
internals of a actual subdivision would
require
roundabouts um that just last my
question
thank you all right thank
you my name is Kelly Fort I'm with the
fort construction and I'm also here on
behalf of the Home Builders Association
um I really want to summarize this
pretty quickly my background is
originally civil engineering with an
emphasis in traffic and transportation
way back when I worked with Dan Sorano
in the city of Los crusis and we did a
ton of fun stuff
um I'll focus on the Tia element of the
the the draft but one thing I kind of
want to point out for example if you
look in section 4.3 A1 C I think it's on
the third page uh there's instances
where we have uh words that are
extremely vague kind of context that's
extremely vague and I I want to warn
anyone before they put something into
code you do have to be careful of how
not specific we're going to be and how
specific we're going to be because it
really limits what you can and can't do
at the end of the day regarding the tias
uh one thing I'd like to push is just
when we're when we're in the preliminary
stage of design and development um it
doesn't do a ton of good to try to be
extremely specific with a TIA um
essentially they're asking for a TIA
when we do the preliminary then once we
go to final plat they would be asking
for another Tia and then in addition
anytime anyone wants to develop they
would require that person who's building
or pulling a building permit to to
perform a TIA as well so that's three
TI's performed throughout the process
and one thing that I'll leave you guys
with a note um I build houses for a
living we just Dove off into uh a
development and uh I would like to
commend the city they've been extremely
helpful in us getting it off the ground
but I will reiterate that any cost that
is dumped on me as a developer gets
pushed to the Builder and once it gets
pushed to the Builder I push every cost
that I'm incurred to my end customer
it's just part of the process and um and
so therefore I really want you guys to
think about what we are requiring people
to do because at the end of the day it's
the public that pays for it thank
you thank you
good afternoon mayor and Council thank
you for this opportunity my name is
Steve
monz um I was a part I was a part of the
uh one of the subcommittees economic
development during Elevate Los Cruses uh
I also spent the last four years on uh
the Planning and Zoning Commission in
donana County where I oversaw close to
120 amendments uh to the to their UDC uh
which I was also part of the Viva donana
initiative I'm not here to give you my
resume though but I do want to um thank
the mayor for uh for for our discussions
and also just touch on Section
55c which um pertains to uh Park impact
fees I personally believe and I'm sure
many of you will nod your head and
believe that we do have a very good
exceptional impact fee system in place
um in our current impact Fe system our
developers have generously and
graciously donated the lot
they designed the park with what we've
seen are very good Park standards um
once the Park's designed and built it's
deed back over to the city um and and
also in addition to that Park impact
fees are still collected uh from
Builders developers and also um as uh Mr
Fort mentioned are also you know in
essence paid for by uh by the homeowner
in section 55c this completely uh
eliminates this initiative that our
Builders and developers have taken and
just requires them to do it gives them a
gives them a general standard which is
not going to be as high quality as you
are seeing now when you're forcing a
builder or a developer to build a park
and they're just going to build to that
standard that's required of them and
that's it um so I I this is a great time
to commend some of our developers like
the thirst for their development in ring
con Hills or ring con Mesa I always
forget those two Sierra Norte for their
development of uh pocket parks and some
other Concepts in Metro ver they and uh
some of the others uh that you've seen
uh Mr Mayor just a uh just a couple more
uh so uh with that we have a very giving
Community we have very giving uh
development and uh and Builder community
and this section here is kind of a jab
to them making it a requirement um uh
instead of instead of the the system
that we do that we do have in place um I
did have a couple more uh here to touch
on but uh you do have copies um I would
also again like to join the hva in
requesting a uh another another meeting
with uh stakeholders and uh and with our
Consultants uh we did have a very
effective meeting at the development of
elevate L curses um where a lot of
Provisions were removed and adjusted and
I think we can get a lot of that
accomplished if we're able to meet again
with with the consultants and
potentially some of
you lastly uh councelor Graham I would
love to speak with you oneon-one about
some of the challenges in infill
development so any time just to reach
out to me online let's talk thank you
all very much all thank
you hello mayor counselors my name is
Jason Loren um I build homes here in Los
cruus under the name Vos homes um thank
you for listening to me today that
little packet you got today if you'd
please turn to page seven there's a
couple items there that I'd like to talk
to you
about uh but uh yeah I know they weren't
numbered but um so it's
section five or chapter
5-2 M1 it's talking about sidewalks
along residential lots and that they
should be
required um on 52 M6 A2 it's talking
about when those sidewalks should be
built and basically what it's saying is
that the sidewalk should be built during
the development of the subdivision when
they put in streets curb and gutter that
kind of thing if we put in sidewalks at
that time those sidewalks are almost
surely going to be demolished during
construction and need to be rebuilt
again after the construction of the home
is complete I completely believe we need
sidewalks and I build them every day but
they should not come at the time of
development I realize that there's this
public safety issue for people walking
down the street but I promise you
walking down broken sidewalks trying to
push your baby stroller during
construction of that house is not a
benefit to them these sidewalks need to
come afterwards the additional $1,500 to
$5,000 per house will affect um mayor
Pro's concern about affordable housing
when we have to build every single one
of those sidewalks twice the next thing
I want to talk about is on the last page
of the document that you received it's
the very last item 58 E6
earlier on in section 52 F4
A1 um it talked about when a residential
property was built next to an arterial
in that earlier section it says on an
arterial or collector that that
residence should be built to face that
arterial and then access to that
residence should be from an Alleyway at
the back but yet in section 58 E6 it
says we should build a 6 to 8T High
masonary screening wall in front of that
house that we just were required to
build on that street and it just seems
like an oversight it just needs to be
one way or the other either the front of
the house goes there or the back of the
house goes there it doesn't make sense
that it can be both and that's all I
have for you today thank you very much I
thank
you good afternoon mayor counselors uh
John Moscato uh I was a member of the
TAC committee for the last 18 months but
I'm here just as a president not as a
member of the TAC Committee just wanted
to highlight a few technical items
though uh as a developer uh you know for
instance in the summary of approval
authorities there are certain
applications for instance for tias and
for drainage studies that are limited in
applicant input uh totally so there's no
DRC there's no pnz there's no no city
council it's just a single member of the
city Administration who is responsible
there's no input from the developer or
applicant allowed at all uh there's also
a provision at uh
4.2
A3 C that uh indicates that construction
plans should be submitted with summary
subdivision plats and that the
construction of those adjacent Road way
should be required as a condition of the
plat that's totally opposite of what's
the requirement now it would really be
putting the cart before the horse
because when you are submitting for a
plot you don't even know if the plot's
going to be approved so why go through
the process of creating plans and then
requiring the developer as opposed to
the vertical business user to uh to
build those uh improvements then in the
uh in the summary in the substantial
completion section which is 4.4 D1 there
are requirements for Street lighting and
electrical connections and Parks but at
the time we're requesting substantial
completion we don't have power sometimes
water is only available at the very end
of the process so you can't build a park
without power you can't build a park
without water that's why Park
improvements historic
have been shifted after substantial
completion as a separate process and not
a requirement of substantial completion
thank
you thank
you good afternoon mayor mayor Pim
counselors City staff citizens my name
is Randy
hren I very much
appreciate the changes that I see that
have been proposed I especially applaud
the requirement that sunry stores have
10% fresh
produce getting rid of food deserts is
always a good
idea my request is that you remember
that while walkability is
important for many of us walkability is
very limited please bear that in mind
when you design parking so that someone
has to park at the back of a business
and walk to the front to get in thank
you thank
you good afternoon my name is Deborah
Dennis and I have a request to make of
the
mayor Dr Judy Burman who is the
city's uh chair of the Las cruus uh
historic preservation commission could
not be here today to speak for herself
she has uh prepared a written statement
which I will distribute but she asked
that I be given uh permission to read it
into the record it is 3 minutes may I do
so yes go ahead thank
you these are her
words Community Development failed to
give the historic preservation
commission any opportunity to meet with
the consultant to discuss chapter 2 or
its
revisions however there is an
opportunity to correct this oversight
during the upcoming phase the historic
preservation commission fully supports
this
as the time for a major Revision in the
city's development codes and the
commission is requesting a seat at the
table in order to assist the city to
meet its expressed interest and
commitment to promote and protect the
historic fabric of Los Cruses as stated
in Chapter 2 Declaration of policy and
intent Los crusis is only one uh is is
one of only 10 New Mexico entities to to
have qualified for designation as a
certified local government the city
gained this status in
2021 the New Mexico State historic
preservation officer stated that he
welcomed the city of Las Cruses as a
local partner in the federal
preservation program and looked forward
to working with the city to preserve
what makes the community special and
significant as Council may be aware the
position of historic preservation
specialist became vacant last month with
Dr Troy answorth abruptly
resigning to maintain its certified
local government status the city is
required to have a historic preservation
specialist on staff who meets the
Professional Standards set forth by the
State Certified local government
statutes making matters worse consultant
changes in chapter 2 specif ify that
City staff can make decisions regarding
historic eligibility conduct surveys
inventories and evaluate prior
surveys the term City staff throughout
the document must be removed and changed
to Historic preservation specialist as
written in the original historic
preservation
ordinance as councelor Karan stated in
her recent B bulon article realize Los
cruus is a long-term policy strategy
designed to address the housing shortage
and we must do so from every angle one
of those angles must involve the
preservation of the city's unique
history and culture historic
preservation is an essential part of
helping any City to appreciate its past
and to responsibly develop its
future speaking for the historic
preservation Commission
I implore you mayor city manager City
counselors to give us a voice during the
next phase of realiz Los crues over the
past two months the Commissioners and I
have had public discussions regarding
specific recommendations modifying the
current draft of realiz L cruus we ask
that we can present these
recommendations in a work session with
city council as soon as possible so that
they might be incorporated into the next
draft of realize thank you for your
consideration Judy
barryman thank you thank
you mayor council Council Graham with
all due
respect and I appreciate appreciate your
honesty but in my opinion your comments
earlier came across as arrogant and
condescending and in Ence they epitomize
what we usually talk about is we are the
government we know better so shut up and
take it thank
you
his ju Garcia
good afternoon my name is Lisa
Parrot uh what I have not heard the
words said today was free enterprise if
a person wants to live next to a
dispensary let them if a person wants to
live in a Suburban home with a yard the
you let
them when any home is built it will
allow when that home is sold it will
allow homeowners to move up the ladder
or firsttime buyers to get into their
starter home because it will open up a
home further down the line so it doesn't
have to be a certain type of housing
built any housing built will help with
this the uh
emergency I was 17 years old graduated
from high school with a job before I
graduated in Southwest Virginia in a
town that didn't even have a
McDonald's I had a job at a law firm I
was married two weeks after graduation
at 17 and we lived for 8 years in a 10x
55 ft mobile
home and we we stayed there for eight
years and then we parlayed into a larger
home a double
wide fast forward to my current husband
we started out in a home that's about
the size I'm guessing 7 Square fet he
was an engineer with uh 18 years with
Ron in Bristol Tennessee we parlayed and
we saved and we worked hard I worked
until my son was born I stayed home with
him and we worked hard and we saved we
moved three times in four and a half
years when we got to this point we
bought and sold by owner three homes
property values and restrictions are
extremely important and now that we're
in the retirement age I don't feel that
our hard work for our whole entire life
should be threatened by the property
values going down when things
are you you sign a deed that's what you
expect to live when until you sell thank
you good afternoon city manager mayor
mayor counselors my name is Faith Hudson
um and I would just first like to say um
counselor bomo and councelor Graham I
really appreciate what you had to say
about affordable housing affordable
housing is a crisis that we are dealing
with Nationwide as well as in a city um
this requires us to think outside the
box and all options that we might have
affordable housing cannot just be big
Apartments uh complexes we are we need
to look at all of our options and that
includes single family dwellings that
includes 880 units um uh that includes
mother-in-law um Apartments Carriage
Houses all that kind of stuff what I'm
requesting out of you is to consider the
importance of historic homes in this and
part of that is having a very strong
chapter 2 with clear language about the
preservation of all of our um cultural
properties which AKA would also be our
historic homes I served on the um his
drug preservation ad hoc committee and
the intent of chapter 40 at the time was
to protect all cultural properties not
just in historic districts and not just
those that are called designated
cultural properties this is in my
opinion dangerous language that needs to
come out of chapter 2 it should just say
cultural properties so part of part of
that is Preservation is affordable
housing it really is it's not a
dichotomy between the two they need to
be looked at synonymous because they can
help solve theu situation that also
means looking at ways that we can help
owners that have properties that are run
down abatement should not ju be the
first option on that we don't have the
luxury of abating um houses in order to
afford affordable housing we need to
look at infill City HS a lot of um um
empty lots themselves what can be done
with those encourage a home owners give
them incentives to help them fix it up
so it can become affordable housing and
I will just reiterate one more thing HPC
needs to be at this table thank you very
much thank
you hello mayor city council my name is
Nicole Petes I am the executive officer
of the Los Cris home builders um first
and foremost I want to say we are not
here to oppose the realized Las Cruis
plan we are just here to clarify some of
the wording in there um I do want to
thank my government Affairs committee
for all the hard work that they have put
into going line by line especially John
Moscato has spent several years just
looking at the plans and just reviewing
all of it so a big thank you to them um
I do want to reiterate that we are
asking for a meeting just to um as a
stakeholder meeting with the consultants
and City staff just so we can describe a
little bit more of that packet that you
guys did receive earlier thank you did
Christina have any more of those that we
could give to the consult
and
Larry of those
packets were we
out I just wanted to give one to the
consultant so that way they could refer
back to if not I can mail it now we we
can we can make some copies get tool
thanks good afternoon mayor City Council
Lopez with president and CEO M Val
Economic Development Alliance uh first
of all I want to just say I want to
applaud the effort on trying to make the
development cor code more flexible and
usable I personally like the idea of
bringing more services closer to the
neighborhood um in the Nimble discussion
however I've not heard really a
discussion of nimbleness
on economic based development
opportunities and I'm specifically
referring to the corridor around 70 all
the way up going towards White Sands uh
what's missing there is really a
complete lack of industrial space that
might be aail light industrial space
that might be available to support the
asset that we have a value Whit Sands
Missile Range and um Whit Sands Test
Facilities uh specifically I'm referring
to on the grid it's categories 123 and
124 light Industrial Fabrication and
warehousing also industrial printing is
category number 100 uh 3D printing falls
under industrial Printing and 3D
printing is one of the fastest growing
technology Industries we just lost a
project in Texas they were paying a
minimum of $60,000 a year up to $120,000
a year and then small data centers as we
see the change in that going forward
that is also excluded from this as well
another technology uh driven industry
and all this comes down to um when we
talk about limiting residential spaces
we're also now talking about limiting
opportunities for higher wage job
creation especially on the east side of
town and I I think just take that into
account in terms of this decision you're
going to make and hopefully we can have
more conversation the other thing is I
was reading and I was hearing about a
committee uh being formed and then I
read in in the uh in the the plan new
and unlisted uses I'm not really sure
exactly what that means but it says it
refers to the community development
director making the final determination
I would just um add maybe you should
bring an economic development voice into
that bring your economic development
team into that discussion so it's a
balanced discussion on not only housing
but also the opport cities for job
creation so thank you very
much thank
you mayor counselors uh my name is
Carrie bolon for the record I'm a
commercial real estate broker within
this community for about 21 years um
I've got a couple of U I'm just going to
piggy back on what Davin was saying if
you look at that I25 to Highway 70
Corridor you are almost eliminating
under this plan almost 50 acres of
industrial Light and Industrial Zone
land and pockets and I can't stress
enough that when you look at the highest
producing Revenue companies along this
Corridor which is almost a 10 Mile
Stretch going out to where the city
limits ends the highest producing
Revenue companies are contractors that
do business out at White Sands
construction companies that do business
out at wh Sands and obviously we are
seeing for what I do anyway more and
more need for just general storage in
line industrial needs up and down that
Corridor as the housing has grown and
grown for and I'm not talking about
intense industrial type stuff I'm
talking about organizations that need 50
to 75% office in scope maybe some small
shop for what they do most of it being
General storage some discreet and
logical opaque fencing and discretionary
fencing and it's almost like you're
taking that away under this plan I just
it's almost like you're turning your
back on companies that kind of put that
area on the map and certainly support
our biggest employers and I don't think
that's right I just want to switch gears
um as as the housing's grown out there
we've seen more and more interests
basically just to meet the demand of
that housing by by especially uh
convenience tour
operators uh gasoline operators and and
car wash operators and things like that
the next Horizon now that snowman 70 is
grown out seems to be at Mesa Grande and
Highway 70
um the one thing I just want to mention
is that these companies are as Anytime
You Look At Any Corner that's ever had a
had a life to it whether it's snowman 70
renin
70 Don Roser University anything that
you're a fan of in this town it
typically you got to crawl before you
walk I'm almost done there I
promise you have to start with
convenience store light Fuel Services a
start and if those are successful you
typically get your light eateries and
then there's a domino effect for other
retail that might be a fan of whether
it's medical development retail
development what have you I just don't
understand why that has to be a special
use permit conversation when when you
look at the history of any major
intersection it kind of starts in that
format and you're creating barriers to
entry by companies that are actively
either closed on land in this area
looking to close on land in this area
and there's likely to go to Castle Rock
Colorado yum Arizona or anywhere else in
between if you're if you're just
creating those type of barriers and I
just hope you'll look at that Corridor
because it's a 10 Mile Stretch of your
looking to to eliminate that and I
really think you got to relook at that
thank you for your time right thank
you thank you City councilors and mayor
I'm Sarah Smith I want to say thank you
to the Community Development Office
David Weir and the consultants for lots
of work on this greatly
appreciated um to address councelor bomo
and Graham I would really like you to
look closely at the current code
compared to even this new revision there
are still significantly more
opportunities for apartments for
triplexes duplexes in this new version
that they just presented than there are
in the existing code right now so we
have a situation where some people would
like to live in an apartment area and
some people want to live in a single
family home area my house I have mobile
homes on my street I have HUD apartments
really close to me doesn't bother me but
if some people would like to still have
those zones they should be allowed to
have those zones this new code even as
revised now is still going to provide a
lot more opportunities for apartments
and triplexes and duplexes and some of
these other housing types that you guys
would like so I think it's a really good
compromise personally between what
people are wanting what you guys are
trying to achieve for moving things
forward in a way that can please
everybody hopefully um one other thing
is the parking I'd like to reiterate
there are some serious problems with the
maximum parking caps that are built into
the new Revised Code as an example a
3000t restaurant which could have
seating for 100 customers and 15 to 20
staff would only be allowed to have 15
parking spaces with the way it's written
in this code right now Los cruus has
tried having a maximum parking cap
before they got rid of it because it
didn't work right it limits the
businesses I know this is a place where
there's Common Ground I've heard people
on both sides saying they really want to
get rid of the maximum cap so I would
hope you guys will please remove the
maximum parping cap leave it up to the
businesses so they can decide thank you
all right thank you
[Applause]
my name is George Pearson I'm uh was
member of the TAC but not speaking on
behalf of the TAC and I'm also vice
president of vusus local bicycle and
pedestrian advisory organization realize
L crues is an important update to our
zoning code its intent is to create a
more flexible environment to promote
additional housing units and safe travel
for all modes of transportation
including bicyclists and pedestrians
uh car ownership costs in the area of
$10,000 a year uh with affordable
housing and the infill area and proper
bike ped facilities a family could
change from a two vehicle family to a
one vehicle family and be able to put
that $10,000 in their pocket but this
won't happen if there are not safe
bicycle facilities this includes safe
and secure bicycle parking at
destinations for example grocery stores
right now safe and secure bike parking
does not exist at most grocery stores
current and the realized L cruus update
only requires bike parking for new
construction however parking lots are
overbuilt
uh increasing bicycle mode share is a
solution to multiple problems including
traffic congestion and added health
benefits and economic Prosperity so
please require bike parking for existing
properties you can have reasonable
limits um maybe properties that
currently have 15 parking spots require
would be the minimum to require bike
parking
um and you you can phase in the
requirement over a certain number of
years instead of requiring it
immediately so um please consider this
change uh this was talked about at the
TAC there was no push back at the TAC so
I was kind of disappointed this didn't
appear in the draft thank
you thank you
good afternoon Mr
Mayor city councilors um it's nice to
see everybody here
today uh it's couple things stood out
for me today first uh the the wide
public uh if you can state your name oh
I need to oh Donald Wilson sorry about
that I'm the current president of velc
Cruses um it strikes me today that there
are some some common themes that this
realized Los crusis effort is is hoping
to bring about when I look on the
website for the city of Los crues talks
about wanting to be an inclusive
community having a vibrant quality of
life enhancing our livability and uh
having a socially sustainable and doing
all this in a socially sustainable
manner so this is an opp this is a great
opportunity the updating of this
code if we're only going to do it every
20 years we have to be sure we do it
right when we do it so I think the the
thing that I'm struck with today is
given how many people are interested in
this it probably makes sense to take a
step back and get some more input from
people rather than moving forward with
the plan I think the idea of meeting
with the Home Builders Association you
know I worked in business and when
government was going to regulate me I
always wanted to be at the table even if
I didn't like the result I felt like I
had the opportunity for input so I would
encourage the council to think about
that two uh other thoughts that I had in
listening to all this um walkability is
important uh for all of our citizens
roadway design standards are very
important um councelor m talked about
Equity I'd like uh the council to
consider equity in a different um
context which is to make the road ways
and um the the space is accessible to
all Los crusins and finally U I want to
reiterate my pitch for this city council
to adopt a vision zero approach that
will take us you know
into you know 20 years from now and 30
years from now so that eventually we'll
have a city where all users of the roads
pedestrians bicyclist and drivers can do
so safely thank you very much thank you
I don't have to lower the mic often
privilege um I'm Susan Greenwald Cabo
executive director of downtown Las
Cruz's partnership um I'd like to Echo
the comment of our board chair Donn
Munoz um we're really excited about the
possibilities of realiz Las crusis and
the development code uh the the very old
numbers are that there's about 6,000
people that live and work within an one
mile um radius of downtown that's a
2,000 probably 16 number so I would say
that's probably 20 to 30% higher um now
so what we want to provide people is a
place that they can live and work
downtown where they're not driving as
much that it's walkable um I was showing
our interns our district and I said that
we really want to make it walkable and
Kylie our genius intern and said well
technically any distance is walkable I
was like too smart for me fair enough um
but um I sent them out this morning they
came back they were red they were hot
they were sweaty it's just a big area um
and there's some areas that aren't safe
for pedestrians if you cross compo I
mean you're taking your life into your
own hands downtown so really want to
emphasize I know compo redesign is in
the work but making this a walkable area
I was so excited when I saw the parking
lot with the green space
um really want to kind of avert some of
those effects of us being a heat desert
downtown we love the plaza but it's
concrete um and it kind of makes things
hotter um also really excited about the
possibility of mixed use development
down town so commercial space on the
bottom maybe some residential on top
guys we are in the fantastically awful
place of running out of space for retail
downtown um so all this exciting thank
you for your consider
um so really excited about making all of
Los cruus more walkable um for our
citizens thank
you thank
you hi my name is jod Crowley uh I'm a
member of a Las cuses um I was asked to
come and give a little presentation I
have a letter that I can uh give to the
clerk from our uh executive director Dr
Sanchez um the city of Las cuses is a
designated member of a arp's network of
age friendly States and
communities and is well positioned to
support housing that will offer
walkability options being close to
schools amenities jobs Etc in particular
we hope that Las crues will consider
policies that encourage the development
of missing middle housing particularly
adus um or um accessory delling units an
accessory delling unit is an an
independent housing unit built on an
existing home site it could be an
independent building it could be an
apartment within a building what it
allows is for seniors to age in
place you can build an Adu that is
completely accessible for a senior who's
getting some mobility issues you can
have
multi-generational housing so that a an
adult child can be living in that or the
or a a traditional granny flat where an
an older person moves in with an adult
but in in an in a more independent way
okay um seniors are a rapidly growing s
segment of the population especially in
New Mexico we are predicted to have the
third largest percentage of of uh
seniors by like 2050 or something
um land use regulations that facilitate
ad use and other middle level housing
will per permit the uh housing needs
well prepare the community for the
housing needs of um created by
demographic change I encourage the city
to address those needs as they develop
their codes thank you thank
you Christine
is that
everyone okay well thank you all for
your comments before uh before we finish
I just want to acknowledge those that
were on the TAC committee if you were on
the TAC committee could you please stand
up we want to recognize you and say
thank you for all the work that you did
I think Mr
Moscato thank
you anything else from Council
good all right well I think uh I think
that kind of answers you know as far as
the openhouse event maybe look at having
some meetings with the associations that
uh requested the the invites and maybe
coordinating with staff and get those uh
meetings done and then I know like I
said the uh Mr sados had mentioned that
the Tia uh meetings are going on in
progress as well and then when that open
house comes up then maybe then we can
have all those uh issues addressed I
hope that helped the comments and
everything
else yes that was that was very helpful
thanks to everyone who shared their
comments um I wanted to make a
suggestion before that that does clarify
that instead of scheduling a date on the
open house pushing it back as maybe you
saw planned to get some input from the
other associations and those private
meetings
first yes my suggestion was um here on
number two where we say conduct the
openhouse event and revisit with code
users for feedback we switch those and
so instead of doing that at the same
time as the open house we could meet
with the um the code users that would
include the the Home Builders
Association Etc so we could do that
ahead of the open house instead of at
the same
time yes that would be fine okay I think
that would be good thank you okay thank
you well again as as it was mentioned
earlier it's been 20 years right so I
don't think we have to just check the
box as Mr Wilson was saying we don't
need to just check the box and say we
fulfilled it this is an opportunity this
is exciting this is good for Los Cruses
and we want to do it right and we want
to do a good job so thank you all for
your input we really appreciate it
[Applause]
thanks next is item 3.3 uh geobond
quarterly update uh Mr David
CIO you don't want to tell him to sit
down and watch your
presentation watch it
good afternoon mayor and counsel David
cevo Public Works director for the
record both myself and Miss Natalie
Green will be going over this quarterly
update for the 2022 General obligation
Bond projects if you recall there was
four questions approved by the public
that was for a new Fire Station Number
Nine the continuation of the East Mesa
Public wreck complex affordable housing
and park
improvements for fire station number
nine the construction documents have
been completed where at 100% and
currently the project is out to
bid once the bidding is completed within
2 weeks we will go into those
negotiations and we're estimating
starting construction about
midt if you see the construction
schedule down below it does show that we
are on track to having the facility
built by the end of quarter number four
in
2025 for the continuation of the East
Mesa public rec complex and those funds
the remaining portions of phase one that
this money used is substantially
complete contractor is working on the
punch list couple of those items that we
still lacking on there is the shade
structure throughout and the playground
equipment both coming in at the end of
July and the end of
August for the continuation of the new
portions of the facility design has just
completed the 60% and we're anticipating
having the 90% by the end of
July as part of those improvements to
the
continuation mentioned to you at the
last meeting those does include eight
sand volleyball courts two basketball
courts concession building and a
restroom at the 10 acre Park if you look
to the photo on the right that does
depict the locations of those
improvements within the
complex here we have the schedules for
all of these projects as I mentioned
before the remaining work in phase one
is substantially complete we're working
on the close out for that the musco
lighting I did report at the last
quarterly meeting that that was
completed back then and you have the
schedule for the continuation of those
other improvements that we just went
over the sand volleyball court
basketball the concession and the
restrooms for the park improvements for
Lona Park those construction documents
have also been completed and are at 100%
at the last update we mentioned that the
international Boundary Water Commission
wanted to review the 100% construction
DS for the issuance of the permits but
also to lease the amendment on which
Laur Park is sitting on as part of our
next steps also we will be moving on to
the bidding process here in August and
as previously mentioned if there are any
funds left over from the Improvement of
laurona Park those remaining funds will
be shifted over to Tel Brook to replace
any exercise equipment at that Park and
with that I'll turn it over now to miss
Natalie
Green sorry after this one she let me
know that I have to update you on the
schedule if you can see below we are
moving through our schedule a little bit
behind schedule however we are on track
to have the construction done by order
number four of
2025 thank
you good afternoon Mr Mayor members of
council Natalie Green for the record uh
the third question was $6 million for
affordable housing um our projects are
well underway so Three Sisters is under
construction um they're moving pretty
quickly on that one uh we have vertical
construction that's gone up and I have a
few photos to show you uh the padrina
senior apartments has also started
Construction and so they've started
framing some of the out buildings and
they are pouring most of the foundations
in the next uh couple weeks uh the peach
tree Canyon Apartments phase one has
closed at the New Mexico mortgage
Finance Authority that it will be coming
uh to council for final approval of all
the loan and mortgage documents and then
uh we'll close on the entire financing
package uh shortly thereafter our hope
is uh the second week of September
um and then we'll have groundbreaking
and construction to follow shortly our
land acquisition we did receive our
first appraisal we are soliciting the
second appraisal um the cost did come
back substantially higher than we had
anticipated so uh staff is just trying
to come to terms that housing costs more
and construction costs more um and then
we'll bring those that purchase
agreement to council uh revolving loan
funds the three uh uh single family
homes are near completion we were hoping
they would be done this week but we
think it's going to be next week and so
we are
planning um Mid July uh a ribbon cutting
of all tent houses um not just the pilot
program houses but we also have some
that were funded with home investment
Partnerships and so we'll do um a big
ribbon cutting for all 10 houses on
Bolero Court uh we are well underway
with predevelopment for Amador Crossing
we anticipate that the
75% completion documents will be done um
by the end of July and then we are
sending those to a third-party cost
estimator so we'll have final costs on
on the construction for Amador
Crossing um these are pictures of three
sisters we did a driveby today so it's
actually more advanced than this they
now have Windows and they've framed um
building number three and are starting
to frame building number two and then
this is the community
building uh padrina also started
construction and again um they've now
started to frame the out
buildings one yours I'll turn this one
over to
David thank
you this you've seen before mayor and
Council again it's just representation
of the cost for each of the projects as
we go through once we get into
construction we will be reporting back
on those expenditures as they come
forward on our next quarterly
reports and with that both Natalie and I
will stand for any questions Council may
have none
no well I have a
question won't let him off the hook that
quick now it's just um as I recall we
had a a consultant as a project manager
in the previous Geo Bond and now you as
Public Works you guys are fulfilling
that obligation as the lead project
managers correct mayor council that is
correct okay we are trying to maximize
the funding to be able to do more
improvements on these projects as
they're more advanced okay so my
question how's it going it's going well
okay thank you David I appreciate you
thank
you okay I think that's it that's the
last one on the item uh on the agenda so
thank you all uh looking for a motion to
Ajer so moved Graham second
Beno this is on the motion to adour the
work session councelor mlar yes
councelor matis yes councelor Graham yes
councel cran yes councel flus yes counc
Beno yes and mayor
yes
e e