thank you
foreign
[Music]
welcome to the work session of the Las
Cruces City Council today is Monday May
8th 2023 it's approximately 1 pm before
we have our Pledge of Allegiance I'm
going to ask you to please rise for a
brief moment of silence for all the
people who lost their lives over the
weekend as well as their families who
are grieving their loss
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands
one nation under God and indivisible
with liberty and just as far
thank you
okay so we have Amy the Felix
on Zoom who's going to introduce our
pets of the week
Amy you're there
hello yes I am here
good morning everyone I am Amy Felix I
am one of the adopt University
coordinators for the Animal Services
Center of the Messiah Valley and I'm
here to share the May the week of May
8th um our pets of the week I'm starting
with our cat of the week
um her name is Sadie her number is 61306
and she says I've had a roof two years
of life so far being brought to the
ascmb with injuries and with milk but no
babies the ascnb Spade me to make sure I
wouldn't have any more babies after my
injuries are healing I'm hoping that
ascmv helps me find a family that will
treat me like a baby and let me live the
easy easy life full of love that I
deserve
and then we have our dog of the week
um his name is Jax his number is 25220
and he says I'm a curious and playful
boy who likes to check out all of my
surroundings while I am sometimes really
interested in my environment in the end
I absolutely love affect your attention
and play time I've been at the ascm for
10 months now and I'm hoping I can find
my forever home before my anniversary
and I do not have a slide but I would
like to share that this Saturday on May
13th we will be at PetSmart off of East
Lomond from 10 a.m to 1 pm for adoptions
come and also to keep up with these uh
this month's theme of kitten season
um I'd like to share this little slide
about um leaving those kittens alone so
kittens less than eight weeks or two
months should stay with their mothers
even if they are located outside when
kittens are brought into a shelter or
rescue without their mother especially
as newborns their survival rates
significantly decrease the astmv does
not have a nursery or neonatal Ward so
we have brought kittens that weigh less
than 0.75 pounds and if they don't eat
on their own they need to be
consistently bottle fed the entire time
we cannot keep them at the acmb
especially overnight so when we are
brought these bottle babies as we call
them we are like the rescue and Foster
coordinators we're scrambling to try and
find either our own Fosters or rescues
to Fosters to try and take them before
the end of the day because these babies
need to be fed as
uh soon as like as I guess as little as
every two hours and then you need to be
be kept constantly warm they have to
have a heating pad or another heat
source and that's something where when
we don't have staff when we're closed
that's something we can't provide so we
need those kittens out of here and prep
Ripley not brought to us if at all
possible
so to kind of help
mitigate this sort of uh concern we like
to suggest that if you spot a litter of
kittens outside and you don't happen to
see mom that doesn't mean that she isn't
around she could be out looking for food
or especially if you're there if she
could be hiding so we have to ask for
you to kind of check out the babies do
they look healthy and well fed they look
a little a little chunky like fed
bellies are they pink and warm and if
they are then that means mom is probably
still caring for them and as an extra
safety measure if you're still not too
sure a lot of organizations have
recommended if you have just spare
flower at home or even buying just cheap
flour to have around to create a
decently sized enough ring of flour
around the babies and then leave for a
few hours or even a full day and come
back and when you see cooperates in the
flower or other sort of kind of signs of
graphic that does mean that Mom is
regularly coming back for the babies and
taking care of them so you don't have to
worry
so
we like to
encourage everyone to remember that Mom
is probably feral or at the very least
really shy with strangers so if you
stick too closely to try and wait for
Mom even for however long you were able
to she will probably not come back you
probably won't be able to see her so
definitely give them some space and come
back later I know we ourselves don't
have a whole lot of Fosters to be able
to care for bottle babies we only have a
handful so do local rescues our bottle
baby Foster pool is very limited so we
would like to sort of uh save those
resources for the babies that really
need it the ones that seem like they've
been a little kind of going hungry for a
few days that seemed cold or sick the
ones that really need kind of human
intervention in care but if you are
interested in fostering we are always
welcoming more Fosters and if you're
interested in bottle feeding we have
staff that it is more than welcome to
train you to make you guys feel more
comfortable so if you're interested
shoot us an email at ascmv at Las org or
call us at
575-382-0018 to give you and we'll give
you more information
just as a next slide for the future
reference or in general this kind of is
a guideline uh this one is posted by
alicat allies and it's just kind of like
at a gauge a kitten's aim
so you can tell when they're newborns
still definitely needing mom's milk
um newborn eyes closed ears sometimes
folded sometimes may be popping up but
definitely eyes closed at seven days our
eyes start to open they're still kind of
like a they don't move a whole lot when
they're this young they kind of just
wiggle around or kind of stay still they
mostly
primarily move towards mother to nurse
from them but other than that they don't
really walk as they keep getting older
you can kind of see their progression
around four weeks is when they start
reading around four weeks and if they
were a little way way more than 0.75
pounds that's when we are able to house
them independently from the shelter
overnight but we would still encourage
people to wait until about eight weeks
when even they're available I guess they
went for adoption even through us when
they're playing actively kind of acting
like a like a mini adult kitten or a
mini adult cat basically
but this kind of helps
any anyone sort of look at the litter of
kittens that they're seeing kind of
identify okay about how old are they and
kind of gauge their next steps from
there and like I said this Pro this
little
flyer resource you can find that Alley
Cat allies at alleycat.org but there's a
bunch of other organizations that have
their own version you can search it up
on the internet like kitten age chart
and you can find your own sort of
resource from there if you'd like but
that's all I have for this week thank
you
okay thank you Amy
okay so next is going to be our jobs of
the week and Giselle palomares from the
New Mexico workforce connections we'll
be presenting
presentation
good afternoon mayor and Council my name
is I'm with New Mexico workforce
connection for the jobs of this week we
have city of Las Cruces hiring a
building official it pays between 72 000
to 104 000 and it closes May 16th
White Sands Missile Range is hiring a
security guard and that pays 37
37 000 a year and that closes June 30th
South Central Council of governments is
hiring an administrative specialist and
that pays 15 an hour to twenty dollars
an hour depending on experience and that
closes on May 31st Trinity Services
Services Group is paying 13 an hour and
that closes on July 25th and it's hiring
a food service worker base Auto Sales is
hiring an auto detailer that pays 12 an
hour to 15 an hour depending on
experience and that pays that closes May
26th and Coca-Cola Southwest beverages
is hiring an order replenishment
merchandiser that pays twenty four
thousand or thirty thousand a year
depending on experience and that closes
July 27th
to connect with the New Mexico Workforce
Connection office you can always contact
them via telephone at
575-524-6250 or you can visit them in
person at 226 South Alameda you can
always visit them at employee name.com
or download the app thank you
thank you Giselle
all right so now we're going to go to
the work session where we have three
agenda items
the first one is going to be the Las
Cruces neighbor Woods program
Shannon horse
will be presenting
mayor counselors Robert Nunez interim
director for Parks and Recreation I'd
like to introduce Miss Shannon Horst of
executive director of tree New Mexico
um can I push it up with this or I do
this either either way okay
hi welcome hi thanks so much for giving
me a chance to visit with you today
about something that I think is near and
dear to most people's hearts trees
um anybody here not had at least one
good experience with a tree sometime in
your life
so I'm the executive director of tree
New Mexico and I'm going to tell you a
little bit about Tree New Mexico and
then I'm going to talk about two
programs that we have been funded this
year and for the next few years to
replicate and share with the rest of the
state we are Tree New Mexico we were
founded in 1990 so we've been around a
long time we are a private non-profit
our focus is to engage urban communities
throughout New Mexico to plant and care
for trees
we have a very successful public-private
Partnerships we like to set up
successful public-private Partnerships
and we have one right now in Albuquerque
that's been running since about 2018.
I'm going to share some of that with you
and we've recently reached out to Las
Cruces to see if we can create some
efforts to get some more private
residents and citizens involved in tree
planting and create Partnerships around
planting trees about
so I probably don't have to go over the
benefits of trees I think everybody has
a pretty good idea of air quality shade
those kinds of things there are some
benefits that people are not aware of
there's some pretty good research that
shows that trees decrease the speed of
traffic
they decrease crime they provide wind
breaks there's just there's a lot of
benefits of trees and
um
that's part of why people love them
they're more and more important in our
current world because of course of
climate change they mitigate climate
change
as well but lots of benefits of trees
a planting program the public-private
partnership that I want to share with
you today is one called Albuquerque
neighbor woods and this is a program
that was set up in partnership with Tree
New Mexico by the city council one
counselor sort of took the initiative
and helped us create the program and we
have in the last five years we've
planted 5 000 trees in the City of
Albuquerque we have an 80 to 85 percent
Survivor rate
and the program is designed not only to
plant trees but also to strengthen
neighborhoods so it's a program that
engages the community to actually put
the trees in the ground the homeowners
adopt the trees and they they are the
ones that essentially inherit the care
of the trees so another cool thing about
this program is that the city doesn't
end up responsible for the care of those
new 5000 trees the homeowner is
responsible and they in fact sign an
agreement with the city to take care of
those trees
um we also have a smaller program where
we can we've been asked increasingly to
also plant on the neighborhoods program
is a hundred trees in the ground at a
time and those are trees that are Street
trees so they're designed to go just
back of the street usually 10 to 15 feet
into the homeowner's property because
they're a street tree and they're
designed to create shade and walkability
in the community we also sometimes are
planting schools we've been asked to
plant schools we sometimes are planting
private social service agencies if they
have a campus and they're really in need
of some tree cover so those are the
kinds of programs that we are always
involved in
I'm going to go back just a minute can I
go back
let me nope
how do I go back can anybody tell me how
to go back Robert's coming down
sorry
listen
nope not gonna let me go back at all
uh take me back to that one
I'm back to say okay I just wanted to
point out so this the um the slide the
part on the left is a map we map all of
the trees that we're putting in the
ground so this is a really cool program
a GIS program called tree plotter and so
every single tree that we're planting in
the City of Albuquerque gets plotted
that information also goes to city parks
and rec so that we can continue to track
trees and each of the colors represents
a different species of tree
so it's just a really cool way for
Citizens and the citizens essentially
learn to use the tree pop the tree
plotter program so they actually are the
ones who are going out and talking to
neighbors talking to homeowners getting
them to adopt a tree and plotting it
into the tree plotter and this is the
preparation for a planting on a Saturday
we'll have about a hundred volunteers
show up and they'll then put those
hundred trees in the ground in about
three hours
yeah
this is an example of the tree plotter
program for one of the smaller programs
planting programs this is in the city of
Santa Fe it's a park that was in the
middle of a low-income development
Housing Development that actually never
got quite finished so it was going to be
inherited by city parks and rec and they
asked us if we would work with the
developer to essentially finish that
Park and get those trees in the ground
so that's going to be a planting in the
fall where we'll bring the community
around that little Park in to actually
put those trees in the ground as well
um how we choose communities and trees
we're mostly looking for communities
that are high on the heat index lower
socioeconomic and traditionally
underserved communities that's about 80
to 85 percent of the communities that we
work in under Mo under all of our
programs
when we're looking at trees we are
looking to to choose trees that are on
the climate ready tree list that's a
list that was created by a variety of
technical experts in New Mexico and
organizations like ours looking at the
survivability of trees 5 10 50 100 years
from now which ones should we be
choosing and putting in the ground we're
looking at Native and adapted to New
Mexico and we try to find that sweet
spot of a tree that the homeowner will
also love
because if you ask a homeowner to take
care of a tree that they never liked in
the first place the likelihood that that
tree is going to survive goes way way
down
in terms of our education programs we
are a very much a lay person education
organization we want the homeowner to be
able to understand the tree basically
planting watering and the basic care how
to stake how to prune very very simple
things that almost any homeowner can
learn to do we do have a more advanced
program called tree stewards you guys
also have a tree stewards program
and the tree Spirit program it's like
it's ours is designed like Master
Gardener you come in you do a 10-week
program you have to graduate out of the
program once you graduate out of that
program to keep your certification up
you have to volunteer a certain number
of hours every year back to the
community we are increasingly weaving
our tree stewards program into our
planting programs so the tree stewards
will tend to be also planting team
leaders we also share tree stewards with
Parks and Rec
um the Water Authority so if they have a
program that's going on we'll we'll send
the tree stewards over to help them and
we try to coordinate volunteer
activities so that we're not competing
for the same educational resources
across a planting season
so the neighborhoods program as I
mentioned is an especially
um effective program as I said we've
done 5000 trees in the last five years
including right through the pandemic we
planted every planting that we had
planned to do through that through the
pandemic we did it in small little
groups of family groupings no big
Community Gatherings of anything
um this program can be easily replicated
and it can be scaled so you could have a
neighborhoods program that was doing 50
trees or 25 trees or 75 trees it's
there's no requirement of a hundred
trees it's just that we've got a model
that will do a hundred trees if the
volunteers and the core group is ready
to do a hundred trees and you have a
hundred homeowners who are willing to
adopt a tree
um
we train the core group of the
volunteers and we about we we've been uh
funded this year and as I said going
through the next year to spread the
neighborhoods model around the state of
New Mexico so we had and that's the
urban and Community forestry for the
state of New Mexico they're the ones
that wanted us to replicate this program
because it's been so successful in
Albuquerque we also had two private
funders that specifically asked us to
look out look at and reach out to Las
Cruces so last fall we reached out to a
handful of folks that we knew here in
Las Cruces and we began a conversation
about how we might get a neighborhoods
program started here in Las Cruces a
number of the volunteers and people
involved in that group are here today
behind me and
um
what we can provide is the training and
the education and how to replicate this
model and ongoing support we can help
raise funds we've raised quite a bit of
money to put behind this kind of a
citizen-driven private planting program
and we also have been funded to replica
to spread the tree Steward program
around the state so beginning this year
we're going to have a Statewide online
curriculum so that even in if you're in
a community where there is no tree
stewards program you could come into the
Statewide program and you can get your
theory and the online learning and then
we will identify a mentor in your
community and help you create the
practicum that you need to do doing it
right there in your community
and so I know that your tree stewards
program I know that your Parks and Rec
is wanting to get that I think up and
running again in we would be happy to
help with that and to support that and
see how we can how we can be a support
to that
[Music]
so this I think was our smallest group
of tree stewards this was in the middle
of the pandemic or just shortly after
when they were able to actually get
together and take a picture that they
had graduated those two years were a
little tough for everybody to
everybody's tree Steward program
so that's Tree New Mexico and
my I think I'm my ask is
that the city somehow support the group
of volunteers and and folks that have
already come together to get a program
like neighborhoods up and running in Las
Cruces
questions
I have a couple questions if no one has
I'm April 10th did you are counselor so
listen go ahead
thank you Miss Horst uh is this similar
to tree people in in California
the tree people are you familiar with
that okay no they do a similar program
but um
so my question I have a couple of
questions the first one is you say that
the homeowner then becomes responsible
for the care of the tree and then makes
an agreement with the city to continue
caring what happens when the house is
sold to someone else who doesn't have
the wherewithal
you know maybe an older person maybe
someone who has disabilities uh maybe
someone who just you know why should I
so how does that in your to the new
owner
um so the homeowner commits before the
tree goes in the ground and we do have
some challenges with rental units but we
have been able to work out where the
homeowner signs it the renter agrees to
care for it
um if the ha if the household changes
hands I think there is a five-year
initial agreement on that paperwork and
usually if a tree gets good care in its
first three years it's mostly going to
flourish if it gets its pruning its
third year especially it's mostly going
to do well now it's true that somebody
can choose or somebody cannot have the
capacity to continue the care for that
tree
what we have seen happen and again we're
only this program is only five years old
so we haven't probably had all of the
experiences we're going to have what we
have seen and this goes back to the
building of the neighborhood
the fabric of the neighborhood often the
neighborhood that came together for that
planting the core group they will
continue monitoring those trees and if
they see a tree that's in stress
sometimes they'll call us and we'll send
a tree Steward out but often they'll
just go up and knock on the door and say
Hey you know that tree was planted five
years ago in our program do you need
some help with it I've actually watched
people drag their hose across the street
to the guy across the street because
they were worried about a tree that
wasn't getting enough water so it's kind
of you you get a sort of a good part of
peer pressure keep those trees alive in
this community
thank you and then my other question is
um
oh you provide training and you provide
funds
the training I understand
but funds well we can help if there's a
community group that that wants to get
their own program up and running we have
a certain amount of support for our time
and our travel to be with a community
and help them create the structure help
them do a pilot planting Etc but we also
can help a community group apply for
funds if they want to go for example
there's we we're aware of some
corporations that will pay for trees for
example and we can help a community
group learn or know the process to put
in an application for that particular
corporation great yeah and um and thank
you very much Miss source thank you Mary
thank you thank you thank you mayor
thank you so much for being here I
appreciate it Craig Pinsky out in the
audience reaching out to me
um we had a meeting or two to sort of
organize ourselves and and have an
understanding of what the role of
the city would be mayor I appreciate you
supporting it I know that Craig and his
group have come to district one when we
spoke specifically about our lived up
area is as the identified area hopefully
and so what sort of conversations have
you had with Parks and Rec and what do
you need from
Council
I would probably have to ask Craig to
come up for that I've had a couple of
neighborhoods and tree storage staff
down here mostly and I this is my first
time down so maybe Craig could come up
because I know that when we first
reached out you were in the middle of a
transition with your city Forester I
believe
we've been working with Franco granillo
he's here excuse me I just need you I
need you to state your name sorry Greg
Penske and I'm resident of District Four
so
and I'm a volunteer with the
neighborhoods program I've been working
with the neighborhood since I was Jimmy
zabriskie when he was Community Forester
asked me if I would be willing to kind
of do an interim connection with
neighborhoods and we've developed a
contact list of about 40 people we have
about 20 people that have been meeting
regularly
Franco and the new city Forester Orlando
Flores are both here and both have been
very Cooperative Orlando is just getting
his feet on the ground so I think
one of the things we just did this
morning to kind of capitalize on Shannon
being here as we've discussed a grant
group to address the the IRA grant for
urban and Community forestry has a June
1 deadline and it's got sizable dollars
that could help us do a five-year
kind of a demonstration Grant with
neighborhoods so we would like the city
to be a partner in that Grant we
approached The doniana Soil and Water
Conservation District to maybe be the
fiduciary agent with that and Tree New
Mexico as the three key Partners so I
would really like to see Parks and Rec
participate in a meeting next Monday to
kind of formulate that Grant
so that's kind of where we're at
right now
would you need help with the technical
writing Craig
yes okay
good thank you okay Jennifer is with the
doniana Soil and Water Conservation
District she's here I think she would be
one of the lead people in putting that
Grant together I think we would
appreciate the expertise of the city
Natalie Green has been she was here it's
been very supportive in in providing
information uh Lisa with sustainability
has been contributing data so we've been
getting great support Sonia Delgado is
her name tags here but Sonia has there's
a Cooperative agreement that we need to
have go through legal department Sonia
has moved that forward to legal as I
understand and is kind of carrying that
forward for us so we have different
partners that are so there's a lot of
moving parts and correct I I do feel
that at least from my perspective
Council in the past and currently has
very supportive of this tree idea and
especially more specifically in the area
areas of our lower income our
marginalized those that are experiencing
more heat the heat indexing specifically
so ifo is this something that we're able
to have grants help us navigate and
apply for
June 1st
it is a June 1 deadline on this round
yes
yes it may pretend if it's necessary we
Water Conservation District maybe the
fiduciary agent Tree New Mexico would be
a key partner that we would partner with
for their expertise and sure so I think
that's I think the more players we have
the more likely we are to be successful
I agree I I think coordinating and
collaborating is is probably the best
way I don't know that we need another
entity to be the fiduciary I think the
city could gladly take that on
um although I don't know I that's why
I'm asking people
um anyway this is a priority for me I
think it's something that we really need
to consider moving forward and I
appreciate both of you coming in and
addressing Council thank you
thank you we have um councilor Graham
okay
councilor beta that's fine thank
you thank you a question regarding
um usage of Staff time for this type of
item in Partnerships I know that I'm not
sure that the staff is
that our Grants Department is fully
staffed at this moment and considering
that's a very short turnaround time and
we have I'm sure competing priorities so
I'm just curious on how that looks in
that regard
yep thank you mayor concert
yeah we'll we'll look at and see what
our staff situation is that like I said
if it's necessary I know staff has been
really supportive and to this point is
uh bringing this forward and so what's
from my understanding we're pretty close
to
to where we need to be but
um
yeah we certainly we certainly do have a
shortage in our grants uh thank you for
for calling that out uh
okay thank you and any sort of
management that would have to happen for
this type of Grant
the text part of the grant is fairly
short but the numbers of various things
that you have to verify and document and
reaching out to get the partner letters
will be the place where you might get
slowed down and so those that's the part
that sometimes can be more difficult
okay thank you I think that we all agree
to address be friend
Mr Graham
thanks so much for the presentation and
for everyone who's been working so hard
on this
excuse me glad to hear that you're
working with Parks and Recreation I'm
hoping too that you'll be in contact
with Public Works just thinking
specifically I was looking at some of
the photos you know obviously we want
these trees to be able to live out their
lives where they're planted originally
and especially in areas where where
we're slated for some Road Redevelopment
particularly as we're moving into
complete streets just making sure that
where a tree where a tree is planted is
where a tree can stay long term without
any without any potential effects on
Public Works utilities as well so just
throwing that out there hoping that
they're involved yeah in that program
mostly we look for areas that are
readably plant readily plantable fairly
soon if the area is slated for a lot of
Hardscape Redevelopment you would push
it off to a later date until that part
was done because the trees won't survive
that okay great thank you so much thank
you mayor yep
for the ninth time Council Flores thank
you
second time but I can go nine times
anyway thank you again
um so do you go to areas
that are being developed to plant trees
or I think you met you touched on
something like that but I'm just
wondering how you would do that if you
do
um we have had a couple of conversations
with developers about possibly coming in
as a a community was being developed so
you all were probably be familiar with
the Mesa Del Sol development south of
the Albuquerque airport
um
that's a little bit complicated because
you have to get a commitment not only
from the landowner the developer and
it's often a multitude of housing
develop agent organized businesses right
and also the HOAs we have done some work
with HOAs one of those was very very
successful and one of them was not one
HOA followed up and did exactly what
they said they would do and they've got
I think a 98 survival rate on the trees
that we planted we did 200 trees that
day the other one failed to get keep
their irrigation up and we've had a 50
loss
so it just depends on the HOA the
developer we would love more
opportunities to do that kind of work as
well when you say you'd like more
opportunities do you see any
opportunities here that you can transfer
to transfer that skill from the
Albuquerque area I think we you know our
city is growing like exponentially maybe
a little too fast for my likes but
there's literally a desert where the new
developments are going up I mean it's a
desert we know that but a tree desert so
we haven't had we haven't been working
long enough in Las Cruces to do that
we've been just really focused on the
group that's working with Craig and the
other agencies and organizations to to
start that first pilot planting we want
to make sure that that first pilot
planting is really successful yeah
okay well I'll talk to Craig about that
thank you again thank you mayor
okay anyone else
okay so we have uh what's needed to move
forward
thank you so much thank you for your
presentation thank you for coming down
okay next item is going to be the 3.2
New Mexico legislative update and our
City lobbyist Larry Horan will be
talking about the millions of dollars
flowing to Las Cruces
thank you Mayors I'll see if I can
navigate this
thank you mayor member for the council
Larry Rand Lobby for the city of Las
Cruces today's already a success because
my anxiety of getting the PowerPoint
going it actually worked Barbara and
I've had a couple conversations about my
love of PowerPoint this week
so
um
this legislative session 60-day
legislative session that started on
January 17th as you can see since I'm
back before you we did survive the
session it was it was a as all sessions
are it was it was challenging and um
lots of issues that we had to that we
had to tackle and worked on on behalf of
the city of Las Cruces a total of 183
bills were introduced in both houses
along with 210 memorials joint memorials
and joint resolutions we I was tracking
about 192 pieces of legislation for the
city of Las Cruces so although 1083
seems like a lot it actually was a
pretty light session for a 60-day
session considering how much money there
was and so it was light but a lot of the
issues were pretty pretty heavy issues
before I get into the specifics I'll
just give you a little bit of highlight
of how it started coming into the
session we knew we had 17 new members in
the House of Representatives and at the
top of the Heap was we're going to have
a new Speaker of the House and so a lot
of what the discussion was during the
interim I think I talked about it when I
was here before the session was who was
going to be speaker and what was what
the Fallout would be Javier Martinez
from Albuquerque was elected speaker of
the house he had previously been tax
committee chairman and also majority
leader
that wasn't too big of a surprise what
was the surprise is on the first day of
the session the speaker has the
authority to name all of the committee
chairman chair persons and also members
of all the Committees and the first
action the speaker took was he removed
Patty lunch from the longtime chair of
the House Appropriations Committee not
only as chair of that committee but from
the committee entirely and changed
pretty dramatically the um the committee
structure in the house and so it set the
tone that this was going to be a
different kind of session from the very
beginning
and in the house the Republicans also
had had a change in leadership top to
bottom all three had changed
and then within the first week their
their minority whip who's Jason Harper
from Rio Rancho who is always and we'll
talk a little bit more about him as we
get to tax reform always pushing for tax
reform he had been elected whip prior to
the session
with within that first week his caucus
removed him from that leadership
position so you had removal of the most
powerful chair in the house and you had
a change in leadership during a session
both of things both those are two things
that have not happened in the past we've
had other committee chairs removed
because of leadership fights but never
removed and taken from the Committees
and so
it since I I guess a shock wave would be
kind of an understatement for for the
response in Santa Fe
um but it also created opportunities
because we had talked before about
legislative members from doniana County
and who we have in key positions
representative small was the vice chair
of the House Appropriations Committee
and so on that first day he found out he
was going to be chairing the committee
and Meredith Dixon from Albuquerque was
named as Vice chair
probably of the most surprising we're
telling thing about that occurrence and
how it happened there had been
speculation leading up to the session
about what the speaker was going to do
but up until 5 20 on that first day
nobody actually knew what was going to
happen including those new committee
chairs and staff and so it was for a
place like the capitol with politics
it's unusual for for there to be very
tight-lipped but it was very
tight-lipped and it gave an indication
of what type of speaker speaker Martinez
is going to be
so as we talked before really what the
focus was on is this 3.6 billion in new
Revenue coming into the state and how
are they going to spend it with all of
these new members
and we've talked also before with 17 new
members in the house and a lot of new
members in the Senate this was actually
their first session of full in-person
session because we had covid we had a
post Cove at hybrid session so you had a
lot of legislators who had never been
there when everybody was in the building
so I think it was a bit of a change
probably a bit of a shock for some of
them
kind of high level what did they talk
about education and education reform tax
reform again was a big topic and I'll
get to that specifically a little later
on there were several pieces of
legislation relating to gun control
um as far as as taxes the particular
piece that they discussed was an
increase in the film tax credit which
actually did happen I'll talk about that
in the Omnibus tax bill
House Bill 7 was the reproductive and
gender affirming health care act that
that had two pieces to that act and some
some of those issues as it relates to
Capital outlay and and Facilities
actually played out not necessarily in
donana County but the the facility
that's going to be built down here was a
big topic of a discussion in the capital
outlay legislation what what this bill
does is it's two things really it's a
preemption bill for local governments or
any political subdivision to
discriminate based upon reproductive or
gender affirming health care and it also
sets criteria for health care providers
and health insurers that they also
cannot discriminate based on a person's
choice for use of reproductive or gender
affirming health care and there was a
lot of discussion and debate on that
legislation it actually moved through
pretty quickly and early on during the
session we worked proactively and and
appreciate staff and particularly
Elizabeth Teeters for working on Senate
Bill 251 Metropolitan Redevelopment Act
changes I'm going to leave it there it's
a little will teaser for a little later
and and at the bottom remember we had a
priority for airport improvements for
the city of Las Cruces originally there
was discussion of about a 300 million
dollar bill
for airport improvements that was going
to be introduced that was paired back to
just over a hundred thousand I mean 100
million ultimately what happened is in
the budget they included 55 million for
airport improvements Statewide there's
no call out of what those improvements
are or for which particular airports
it's a program that now was going to be
run through the dot and so now that the
bill has actually been signed and Dot is
going to develop criteria we'll find out
what the criteria is to get a piece of
that airport funding pie but the plan is
through the municipal league and my
understanding the executive as well is
for this to be an ongoing Revenue stream
so it's not just a one-time 55 million
dollar hit we're going to be going back
next year and the year after to try and
work on Airport improvements Statewide
so when we get to Capital outlay we did
include airport improvements as far as
of capital outlay requests which is good
we always wanted to hedge our bets it
proved to be beneficial for us to do
that because as you'll see on this list
there's just over 1.6 million for
um airport improvements that we got from
regular Capital outlay the next several
slides are just the capital outlay I'll
pause on them briefly I won't read them
out because you have them and we have a
list of all the projects of what we've
um what we were successful in in
obtaining this year and also I'll remind
you again now the legislators a list is
published of which capital outlay
projects they actually funded on an
individual basis so we have about 147
pages of projects we can look at and so
we know which legislator funded which
projects which actually as we're as we
talk about building our next legislative
priority list going into next session
it's very It's really informative
because then you can see which what
legislators like and we can try and
tailor our requests
um to the actual the legislators and
what they like I actually want to go
back to lift up
at the bottom uh very bottom of page
four this slide this is the first lift
up Las Cruces Capital outlay request we
had it was a new effort we tried
something new with legislators with Mr
peely at the lead we had a different set
and type of meetings with legislators
and we really focused on lift up Las
Cruces I think we missed full funding by
5 000 if if I recall but pretty
successful in that effort for lift up
Las Cruces
and the other thing I'll talk about just
call it a little bit specifically you'll
see on here you have a lot of the
Community of Hope
um Capital outlay requests we ran into a
little bit of a snag with the capital
outlay process this year last interim
when miss basford and I put on a
workshop for non-profits in council
chambers to talk about not only the
state capital outlay process but also
the cities so we could be they could be
more informed and prepared going into
the session there's a little bit of
confusion the the those last four
Capital outlay that they didn't get
their request forms in time submitted in
time we were able to flag it in an in a
in a timely manner and such that they
allowed us to submit those forms late so
we were able to get them in and and save
those projects and as you can see they
were pretty popular amongst legislators
so we were glad that we were able to do
that one thing that we've already had
discussions with Senator Hamlin has
already reached out again and asked us
just to again sponsor a workshop so we
can continue to further improve the
process and so miss de Leon and I've
been talking about that for discussion
to set up a time for that
I'll pause there briefly on Capital
outline in case anybody has anything
because if I have to try and go back I
might not be able to figure it out
foreign
also this year as we excuse me Larry and
I have a question on mesquite historical
district what what is that for the
million
at the top
I don't suppose that came through if I'm
remembering correctly there was a
presentation the same day I was here a
former representative Antonio Lujan came
forward with that request I'm seeing
some head knots I think that's the right
one well I know he came forward and I
was wondering if that was what they were
asking was
to reduce Lowman from I don't know Main
Street to Solano from four lanes to
three
and so one of the things I was telling
them will be nice if we had some money I
mean the city and I don't know if that
was what that was foreign
you probably know best yeah this
specifically mayor forced um
a study a lighting study I understand
and some way finding signs but not
to specifically to the
um and I think an improvement of the
Bandstand there was some issues around
that but this was later
and I and I think
they want to move on that um
specifically but there wasn't Capital
outlay identified for it
councilman come on did you want to add
anything I mayor I was just going to say
that I was just at Las esperanzas on
Friday they invited a couple of us and
they talked about a couple of these
projects and but none of them were that
particular one you know
all right thank you
sorry about that Larry no problem here
and also this year as we discussed they
and I'll talk a little bit about Capital
outlay as well they had excess general
fund Revenue when you have 3.6 billion
in new money coming and you're going to
have excess they're going to try and
spend so they spend 100 million dollars
and what they called House Bill 2 Junior
the thing that can be frustrating about
junior is
it changes the rules change from house
to house and also from year to year so
last year they allowed Capital outlay
funding and also ongoing operational
funding this year
they allowed some Capital funding but
wanted more programmatic spending but it
could only be one time and so it's a
very fluid process we were successful in
that we received significant funding
through Junior
but when you look at the governor has
the authority to line item veto all
Appropriations bills which includes
capital outlay capital outlay
reauthorizations and Junior
she vetoed a total out of a 1.2 billion
Capital Outlet Bill 260 000. she vetoed
three projects
there was significant vetoes in Junior
and what she vetoed in junior was what
she considered to be projects that
should have been funded in capital
outlay we had one of those the trails
projects we had improvements for trails
that was subject to line item veto
will we have Junior next year probably
just because they have so much revenue
coming in so we need to again as we're
developing Capital priorities identify
areas that we would we would like to
obtain Junior funding so we've done meal
programs in the past you see some of the
things we had Lita Public Safety
Equipment vehicles and body cameras that
did not get vetoed and so I just tell
you this not to get you too far into the
weeds but to say we need to continue to
build these indoor our priorities next
year because they're going to have them
again and the other thing that happened
in capital outlay is they are not going
to issue any bonds they're going to pay
for all that 1.2 billion in capital
utility funding with cash general fund
excess Reserve that's good and bad
because we'll have better we'll have
better bonding in the out years I don't
like to be too much of a downer but
if we have a downtrend in the economy if
it's general fund money it can be swept
immediately so it's important for us
always to remember this is the cash
money it's the easy money for them to
sweep if we have a downturn so we need
to spend it quickly
and the all the capital outlay sites I
cannot take any credit for any of these
I stole them from Barbara she gave them
to me so we got over just over 12.8
million dollars in capital funding
through both Capital Outland Junior
projects so we did better than we did
last year
this is just a list of the
reauthorizations so most of these were
for either time or language an unusual
thing happened to us this year is we had
six hundred thousand dollars money that
had been parking garage money that was
going to go to Amador and Airport
improvements last year we had that exact
same issue with we did the exact same
thing there was some confusion at staff
level and legislative Council so this it
inadvertently got left off last year
it made it through we we did it again
this year in the governor Illini and
vetoed it so we didn't have any warning
that that was going to happen so we're
going to have to figure out we still
have 600 000 out there we're gonna have
to identify for reauthorization for last
year and we also weren't contacted about
it so it was it was a surprise once we
saw the veto we didn't have any
indication that we were going to have a
problem but we still need to work on
that parking garage money
the Omnibus tax bill House Bill 547 is
what it was called so because of there
was so much money there was a
significant discussion on tax reform
um just one of the one of those
changes in committee chairs in the house
that did occur was Christine Chandler
had been chairman of the tax committee
and she was moved in as chair of the
Judiciary Committee so representative
Derek linte from San Diego Pueblo was
the new chair of the tax committee and
so he was tasked with with piecing
together the Omnibus tax bill what they
do is they take all of the tax bills
they hear and they combine them into a
big Frankenstein and decide which one
they want to pass this one actually went
to conference committee so it wasn't
decided until the last day of the
session
lots of things included in the Omnibus
tax package including a cut to the gross
receipts tax by half percent income tax
retirement for for veterans health care
practitioner tax credit I won't spend
too much time on all the specifics you
have them there because they had over 30
sections of of in the bill itself
including single sales factor a lot of
of electric vehicle charging station
change in liquor tax a little bit change
in tobacco tax I'm going to go through
it quickly because it all became
irrelevant at the end because of the
veto
but what is important is what was not
included in the tax package and so the
biggest issue we were looking at as a
city in during the session maybe the
biggest issue single single issue was
business to business pyramiding so
business to business pyramiding was
included in a separate bill by
representative Jason Harper to eliminate
that gross receipts tax on business to
business
the there were several issues with that
and the timing of the hearing on the
bill was good because it happened to be
Municipal day and so we had a lot of
Municipal officials in Santa Fe
including councilor beta and Mr peely on
the hearing on that legislation because
when the state like when they when they
eliminated the tax on food
they really it has a bigger impact on
local governments because our biggest
share or our biggest Revenue stream is
gross receipts tax the elimination of
business to business pyramiding means
Millions to cities
probably around over 100 140 million I
think is what we finally settled on in
the end that would have been an impact
on local government so local governments
the municipal league and also several
several local government officials
testified in opposition to the business
and business pyramiding piece so that
was eliminated from the conversation
early in the tax reform
discussion although
there was significant effort by both the
administration and representative Harper
to come up with the solution they never
came up with a solution that would have
I hate to use the word hold harmless
because it makes me think of food tax
which which we've been dealing with for
years there was never a way to hold us
harmless from that Revenue loss And So
It ultimately was taken out of the tax
package and so that actually was the
what's not in there was the biggest win
for us and
in the session as it relates to tax
reform and out of those 40 or 35 or 42
sections in the tax bill four things
were left by the time the governor
finished her with her veto pin and that
was income tax rebates
um an increase in the child income tax
credit expansion of a rural health care
practitioner tax credit and the you know
the increase to the film tax credit she
vetoed everything else
um in the legislation that doesn't mean
we're not going to see it again
but her veto message said essentially we
have we are in good times but we don't
know how long they're going to last and
so we need to have sustainable tax cuts
I don't think this is a sustainable
piece of legislation so she left us with
four
uh Senate Bill 251 this is one we
actually took the lead on um the idea
first came out of Albuquerque but
um city of Las Cruces pushed the
legislation and changes to the
Metropolitan redevelopment act so cities
throughout the state have
Metropolitan Redevelopment zones that
have been designated as blighted and
under the current structure which was
passed in the 70s you could use an
incremental growth in property tax to
pay for improvements within that zone
what this piece of legislation does is
like a tax increment development
district will allow you the county and
the state to decide if you want to use
gross receipts tax growth within that
zone to put money back in the zone as a
funding stream and so Senator Hamlin was
the sponsor on this piece of legislation
it's the first bill I actually got to
work to try and pass with her and
Elizabeth Teeters was came to Santa Fe
to serve as expert witness on a couple
of different occasions we were
successful it was passed and signed into
law and so this is now a tool that will
be available not beginning this July 1st
it's pushed out for a year because tax
and rev needed some time to implement
rules on it but this was a this was a
piece of legislation we pushed and were
and were successful with
Public Safety
I anticipate we're going to see
Public Safety and law enforcement reform
kind of as on an annual or at least
every 60-day session you'll see
legislation related to to reform this is
kind of a continuation of what we did a
couple years ago
which includes a law enforcement
database so you can find out about a
publicly searchable database to find out
about officers who have have outcomes of
adjudicated misconduct changes to the
standards and training Council
membership
also requires every Department to have a
use of force procedures Act
um this piece was interesting in having
come from former law enforcement I
didn't know we would have to legislate
it but it bans discharging firemen to a
moving vehicle unless the threat of
imminent harm that's not the piece but
the peace that you must move out of the
way of the vehicle if you can so to some
of these use of force issues do are
dealing
um with shooting at people in vehicles
and so they they
pass legislation related to that and
also use of vascular neck restraints is
prohibited unless it's an imminent
threat of death or bodily harm
and also passes the duty of intervene to
intervene so off if an officer observes
an unlawful use of force they are now
required by Statute to intervene and to
also report
that unlawfully physical force and then
Senate Bill 250 is the firefighter death
benefit what this does is it puts all
public safety so fire and police death
benefited a million dollars which was
done the law enforcement was done last
year to go into effect this July 1st
firefighters were left out not because
of any reason other than they shouldn't
have been and so they now will have a
million dollar death benefit that will
go into effect at the same time as law
enforcement
uh and as it relates to law enforcement
also there were some changes to the
inspection of public records act it's
primarily to deal with body cam issues
and so
um I listed the the the areas in here
that were changed but it's like death
notifications if you have um
personally identify information
of victims or Witnesses of domestic
violence in certain sex crimes you don't
have to release that footage if intimate
body parts a dead body you had people
coming in and obtaining body cam footage
and then putting it on YouTube and so
this is an effort in in order to try and
make some of those changes so that did
pass
interestingly when you look at the last
thing it talks about I.T systems
exemptions that's what the bill started
as it was to deal with I.T and economic
development kind of proprietary
information and then it was used as a
vehicle to make those changes to
specifically to Public Safety
we talked about the green Amendment
before the session
those are joint resolutions two were
introduced one in the house and one in
the Senate neither of those resolutions
to pass a green Amendment
um in this in within the Bill of Rights
in New Mexico Constitution moved forward
in fact there may have only been one
hearing if there was even one hearing on
they didn't really they did not gain any
momentum
modernization I know this was a
discussion we had about modernization of
the legislature there were several
pieces that were introduced the only
thing that survived as it relates to
modernization is House Bill one at the
top is the feed bill that's the first
bill they always pass because it pays
for the legislature itself
they included 2.5 million to study
full-time staff and salaries so they're
going to issue an RFP to do that over
this interim all the other efforts to to
make changes to the legislative
structure did not pass the legislature
and out of all of the Firearms
legislation that was introduced to Benny
Hargrove act which is the safe storage
act which creates a crime if you
improperly store your firearm and it is
accessed by a minor that's the one that
was passed and signed into all the
others none of the others passed and so
I think now we're at questions
thanks thanks mayor thanks so much Larry
for I feel like you did that in one
breath it was very impressive thank you
um so just can you clarify a little bit
more on Junior money so
Junior monies for more like programmatic
things
mayor and councilman come that's correct
so
if you had if you had a position you
wanted to fund for a year for a
sustainability officer for instance that
would qualify for junior if you wanted
to build if you wanted to add it into
airport construction she would have
vetoed it
um we've done like we received money
last session for the meals program
um with I think the Boys and Girls Club
I might begin to make two of them
confused but for like a meals programs
for seniors things like that it's pretty
flexible but
um they can't be for ongoing so if
you're gonna have something that's going
to be funded a grant writer for instance
if you wanted it for more than a year
you'd only get a Year's worth of money
for it okay interesting studies things
like that yes okay on the policing
database Larry
the
database is that up to the municipality
to report to the database or how's that
going to work
mayor councilor then Comey yes it would
be that's information that has to be
reported to DPS through the um now you
have a certification board and you have
a Law Enforcement Academy board it's to
the board that will be responsible for
the um for discipline and certification
okay interesting do you foresee us
having to pass any local process for
implementing this
mayor councilman Como I don't believe
you'll have to pass anything the only
thing that would be that you'd be that
in the legislation that you were
required to actually
Implement if you have not is a use of
force policy okay which I believe I
don't presume we've already got one so
we already have one yeah are you there
okay
um housing bills I don't think any of
then pass straight mayor and Council no
but there is funding so there's funding
in in the budget for housing we had good
we had a good meeting with the
governor's housing coordinator and also
chairman small continues to push for us
to work on affordable housing and come
forward with projects so it's still an
issue that's at the Forefront yes thank
you I think you'll be a great partner on
that and then when do you expect my last
question is just around the airport
funding and when you expect we'll have
guidance on that
mayor and councilman come I don't know
when hopefully I would think by July 1st
beginning officially where hopefully we
would it's a conversation and and I know
councilor beta is going to be attending
a meeting related to airports and also
working with municipally so I might punt
a little bit to her on that but
um
soon yeah I assumed my next thing was
going to say that I'm sure I'm sure
counselor beta will keep us posted as
well
thanks Larry
yes thank you
um we are going to be getting uh more of
the details here I would say within
about the next month I will be up in
Ruidoso on uh Wednesday Thursday
for the aviation
conference and we're going to get a
little bit of information there we're
also going to hear from panelists
chairman Munoz and actually
representative Hodgkin B Hill are going
to be on a panel to talk about airport
funding we continue to advocate for Las
Cruces I know I do very heavily on
making sure that we retain a large
portion or Equitable portion of that
funding but this is going to be a
priority for the municipal League to run
this type of Bill yearly and so while we
know there's a really large need that
all the municipalities have throughout
the state
we we will continue to run something
like this in this sets precedence of
what we can potentially expect at least
on good years to have
and I'm sure with my tenure
next year with the municipal League I
will continue to advocate
okay councilor Koran thank you mayor
thank you Larry for this presentation um
I I guess it sounds like you're
forecasting a little bit to the 30 days
upcoming 30-day session we definitely
need to think more about how we can
leverage our Junior Bill asks I'm
wondering if there are any I know that
sometimes 30-day sessions have a
less fewer policies more money
orientation although that's really just
in theory not necessarily in practice
I'm curious if there are any specific
policies that you see that might come
back that we should be tracking on or
thinking about I think about the tax the
the GRT reforms in particular that sort
of overlapping in both and also if there
are other other things that you
anticipate that might come up especially
on the policy side in the in the short
session as a priority or that you've
heard or feel like we should be thinking
about as well mayor and counselor yes
tax reform well that's always something
we need to pay attention to so gross
receipts tax any changes because anytime
the state decides to change it they can
pull a lever that will hurt local
governments so that's always at the top
um I think there's going to be continued
Push by the governor for changes to uh
for health care not just Behavioral
Health but Health Care in general and
expansion of services that's a big
priority for the governor and then also
the hydrogen the hydrogen Hub idea we
didn't we didn't see the big legislation
this year that we did last year but she
continues to discuss that as a potential
um that she that she is going to want to
push and I presume would be on the um
being on the call and as it relates to
tax reform I think some of those things
that were vetoed will probably be in a
bill that the governor May support as it
as it comes forward it may just not be
as robust as this one was because this
one's price tag was a I I forget the
final number 1.2 or 1.4 billion on an
ongoing basis
um and so it was a significant hit and
so that's what that's part of why it was
vetoed
councilor beat that yet another comment
yes thank you
I think um education about
um
pyramidity is
important especially as we saw the
municipal League does have a Tracker
system now on what
um this type of tax changes does to
communities and so as we were doing it
the impact to Las Cruces would have been
about 7 to 10 million which is quite a
hit and so I think as we move forward
this is something to really to keep our
eyes on and and to make sure that we're
advocating for a way for solvency in a
lot of ways if we're going to see that
level of deduction
thank you
okay
so
Larry the great presentation I do have
just a couple comments so
regarding the reduction in GRT it'd be
nice if the state just reduced their
portion left ours alone right I mean
they probably wanted to do it I don't
know what they were thinking but I think
I'm I'm okay with that but it's the
mayor that was our number one ask either
actually that was it it was if you want
to reduce it reduce it just the state
rate level right the second way to do it
with the municipleague was to increase
we get the 1.225 out of that state rate
distribution was to increase that
and so that we would have an ongoing
stream from that they did not really
bite on either one of those the other
issue with the increasing the 1.225
cities some cities were treated
differently so it wasn't quite across
the board a good fix but the best fix is
exactly what you suggested and just for
those members of the public who are
watching or they're roughly
two-thirds I think of it goes to the
state
so it's quite a bit of the of whatever
whatever our trt is
they get the Lion's Share so
and the second thing just out of
curiosity do you do you remember what
the change in capital gains was did it
go up go down I didn't think it went
down did it or did it
I don't I'll find out for you I don't
remember from the top of my head it was
vetoed okay
well great and mayor if I made the other
thing I would say is appreciate the
participation we had counselors come up
we had good meetings with the governor
we had good engagement with the
municipally with members Mr peely I hate
to do this to him but he was a natural
when he came up and got to talk and
committee did a really good job of
explaining the problem with the hit to
to the grocery seed stack so appreciate
the support I thought the way we we
entered into the session through the
interim was good and I hope that that's
our plan to continue that so thank you
yeah no we have a really
participatory Council and I'm glad that
they enjoy going and speaking as well
and if we need Miss Teeters again she's
also she's a very good expert witness
great great thank you thanks Larry
okay so last item 3.3 East Lowman
development update David Ware deputy
director of Community Development
good afternoon mayor and city council as
he's noted David Weir with Community
Development Department
my presentation today is kind of giving
you a status or update and overview of
the sloman property that's owned by the
city and so what I'll do in my
presentation is give you some background
history an overview of the slowman
development plan and then next steps
uh again just as background information
the city purchased the East Lowman
property in the fall of 2017. it entails
approximately 114 Acres the city entered
into actions to clean up and remediate
the site in the spring of 2020 and that
was completed this past spring
the plan for the property was contracted
in the summer of 2020 and it was adopted
by the city council in the fall of 2022
and so the next steps would be to
actually begin the activities to develop
the property
um just want something I wanted to
highlight as as the plan and the use of
the property has been developed there
was a lot of public engagement that took
place when the plan was initially kicked
off the some of the stakeholders that we
met with included the Mountain View
Mountain View Regional Hospital local
businesses in that area real estate
agents Economic Development partners and
then also the residents in the
neighborhoods and that General vicinity
there was also a series of work sessions
not only with city council but the plan
zoning commission and also the plan and
its Concepts were presented to the
League of Women Voters there was an
on-site presence there was a survey for
what the development statement
development of the property there were
charettes were done and if you recall a
lot of these activities took place
during the covet shutdown so a lot of it
was done virtually and then where people
were comfortable there were some
in-person meetings and discussions
those scenarios took place in the uh the
winter of 20 and 2021 and it did result
in a vision statement and just want to
go over that for the plans development
and the future development of property
the plan outlines a desire to build on
an existing medical uses to provide a
variety of housing types to make sure
that the site integrates with existing
terrain and uses in the area and that it
portrays a healthy sustainable
development and the infrastructure it
all fits into that area and I think this
last line in the vision statement kind
of summarizes the intent for the
development become a mixed-use
neighborhood center serving residents
and Regional medical needs
again through the plans development and
process there were major components were
done with it so what I'd do is just kind
of give you an overview of the site the
street Network active transportation
components an emphasis on The Pedestrian
Network and last the the open space
hmm
so the site itself and through the
development of the plan they really came
up with a nine distinct land uses for
the property you can see more intense
high density pedestrian area with the
amenities in that area an area for the
missile meat missing metal to again
provide that variety of housing types
than to transition into the area some
detached housing there's also a desire
to create areas that would complement
the hospital uses and have an emphasis
again on that that healthy living there
are a couple of key components the way
the and we'll get into this a little
further on other slides the way the
streets were laid out was really to
address access and walkability but that
also includes a site down here on the
West side where the city could build a
Transit transportation system and again
connect this to the rest of the
community there were amenities
throughout it you'll see the open space
and Parks but there were also some
features that make it unique and have
its own identity and then just the
opportunity for park space and to
connect to the trail system
the street Network system itself in
these higher density areas you see that
the they're a little bit more walkable
shorter in distance but there is good
access and viability throughout the the
entire tract of property
this slide just kind of shows that not
only is there opportunities for the
walkability in the transit there are
connections to the trail system and
there's also identified ways to
incorporate bicycle into the
infrastructure of the development
Again The Pedestrian networks it was so
that
almost any place throughout the
development would be walkable shorter
blocks more connectivity to the
different areas connections to not only
the the transit center but also the
opportunity to have be able to safely
walk bike
connect with transit or use your own
vehicles
open space
again one of the keys that wanted to be
done with this plan was to respect the
existing topography in open areas
provide connections to the Arroyo that
goes on the south side of the property
use that area where you have a lot of
topographic relief but then also in the
higher density areas have those
neighborhood parks or almost a Promenade
or Plaza type of setup
uh that gets us to the implementation
the plan itself indicated three
different uh strategies the city city
should support support excuse me uh the
first one was investment uh the second
was to adopt a development framework and
then once the properties developed to
have an ongoing Administration and
management of the property
some of the Investments that are called
out in the plan one is to make this
segment of Lomond a complete street
again make those
bicycle improvements into the area build
out the medians have that connections
where it's safe for pedestrians to get
over to the north side of the property
same thing for the existing Paseo De
anate street I'll have that to take
place those would be commitments the
city would need to make to improve the
property and make the the vision of the
plan take place
the other ones would be one that
typically when we have development
private development does if we enter
into some type of agreement the city
would participate in that too but it
would be like this extension of what's
called Foothills road and these other
local streets would need to take place
and then also the connection of the
excuse me the trails into the park and
those other this features and and the
public parks is an invest investment the
city would need to participate in
um the development framework the
property currently is in a PUD is open
space so there would be a need to use
what we we in the development field
called entitlements so there would have
to be an amendment to the planned unit
development and basically there would
have to be standards created and adopted
for the different areas as they're
called out the blues are the the parks
and Civic uses
Gateway treatments to make that a you
know a distinguished neighborhood
these service uses and then all the
housing they would have to have
standards adopted for those areas
the key one is where we're really at now
the administrative actions like I
started to hit on the entitlement so
that's where we had established the
zoning subdivide the property extend the
the infrastructure the streets drainage
and your your solid utilities the
identification of funding make sure that
we incorporate this into our Capital
Improvement program look for
opportunities to collaborate with others
seek any grants that could also help
with the the site
once that is determined then you would
actually go through the construction on
the site go go through actually building
that infrastructure and constructing it
and then once you have building sites
identified go through the permitting and
construction of that
the other key thing is is how this will
be managed the development of the
property what staff is proposing is that
we enter into agreement with a master
developer they would basically become
the city's representative to do all
those administrative actions once that
is entered into and the development
begins they would be responsible for
Branding and marketing the property
actually seeing the the build out and
once that takes place long-term
management of the site
and the step that we're at as staff is
beginning to prepare a requests for
qualifications to try to solicit someone
to enter into that Master development
arrangement with us and so that was
rather quicker than I thought I would
speak so I have any uh we'll entertain
any questions you may have
thanks David did Christine ask you to
speed it up or I didn't check my time
there's inside joke here we're good
counselor Council Flores he was trying
to be Larry's time I think
um thanks David just I'm sorry I think
you said this at the beginning but
remind me the cleanup has been
officially completed
and Marin and councilman Como my
understanding was in March of this year
that it was completed in
I think Adrian sort of shook her he did
yes at me oh my gosh you're hiding back
here
Mr Mayor counselors Adrian Woodburn
utilities director yes most of it has
been cleaned there is one particular
cell that is still needs to be done that
is currently owned by the BLM
other than that it is completely clean
you all should go out there and take a
look at it we
um we put the seeds down and stuff you
know to make sure erosion so it'd be
nice you know to see some of the plants
come back until it actually ends up
getting developed so it was a very
successful project so congratulations to
you all and to you thank you
thank you to you so the BLM are they
responsible for the cleanup or
I will let David answer that question
mayor and councilman Como um either BLM
or whoever they transfer the property to
would be responsible oh interesting okay
do we know yet what their
deal is
councilman come I do not okay
if my if I may enter interject
if you want to go back to that map if if
I remember correctly the BLM land is
extremely valuable if we can get that
from them because it's at the corner
right where that number five is oh it's
let's put it this way I think there's a
lot of business that won't want that and
if they would be willing to give it to
us to add it to our to our master plan
that would be incredible has anybody
approached them mayor
okay no I haven't before
put that on your list Larry said you
were a natural I think this fits right
into that
um okay thank you for that and thank you
so much Adrian and your team please pass
that along do we have I mean I think
generally we have height restrictions on
across the city on buildings is this
I assume it's the same here mayor and
councilor Ben Como we talked about the
entitlement process we will have to
establish those standards but they I'm
not aware of any PUD that didn't address
height and so it'll go through that
public process okay I'm just wondering
right given the conversation we just had
a couple of weeks ago with realize Las
Cruces and a couple of the things we
talked about in terms of
allowing for more floors if if they
commit to doing a certain percentage
affordable housing right those kinds of
things they feel like are really
important and they know that there's
been a lot of advocacy to ensure that
there is a lot of affordable housing
within this particular
um lot so I'm looking forward to those
conversations and then honestly lastly I
I know that we had a lot of community
engagement some was well attended some
not given that it was all virtual but
the health I'm the health pieces are we
we making an assumption that that's
needed or we've gathered good
information that there is you know a
need for that particular designation
mayor and councilor Ben Cuomo that was
stated one through the feedback that
we've got in this area the other thing
that was a part of this project there
was a real estate
analysis that was done and that
identified it as a use that would do
well at this particular site and so um
but the plan itself is conceptual and so
whoever the city ended up partying
partnering with there is enough
flexibility for some variety of uses to
take place okay and then lastly on on
who we partner with is that going to be
like an RFP process
councilman come with that that is the
intent we're using the term
request for qualifications so basically
we're looking someone who would enter
into an agreement with us and and
basically take all of those steps
and it is something that the city has
has done before but we're purchasing and
all the city manager's office Community
Development Economic Development are
providing input into the development of
that document great thank you so much
David
and if I may counselor photos to jump in
about uh what councilman Cuomo was
asking so counselor I know that you know
of course I'll be leaving at the end of
the year but it's just as a reminder of
course if we can't you know bind future
councils but that area where they're
talking about health
two things when
when the developers found out that the
city purchased it and they were going to
clean it up you saw immediately across
the street already building there all
right so that's one thing I think that's
going to be commercial and one of the
things I had suggested to both some of
the former council members as well as
maybe some of you was that the city
never sell them but to lease it so it
has income that comes into the to the
city for indefinitely this the the area
where it says medical and then the last
thing I think if you look at the at the
price that they that they're gonna that
they charge on the other side and on the
same side as Mountain View but it's
pretty far away this is across the
street I think not only does that
enhance the the attractiveness of the of
the area to be able to have maybe your
doctor's office is right there I I think
there are people just waiting that like
that other piece property I told you
there are some major stores that wanted
to buy that so I mean this is
we're so thankful for the City of
Albuquerque for selling this to us for
such a small price you know and this is
a prime real estate yeah
okay counselor Flores thank you Mr Mayor
and thank you Mr Weir for the
presentation I think we had there were
two or three virtuals on that wasn't
there mayor and Council froze that's
correct and there were many people who
participated and chimed in I remember
Sharon Thomas stressing that Sherry
Thomas our previous counselor and mayor
protem Emeritus stressing that we
keep all income levels for housing
and
and stressed I think we all agreed that
we want to make sure that it's developed
or built so that
the rich the upper scale or upper
whatever
you want to call it she's I remember so
well when she said we don't want people
to say oh well those people over there
in other words to make everything very
integrated
um
but so the people that that design the
presentations
aren't going to be the designers or the
developer or how is that going to work I
mean if the city hires a developer would
they have to go buy that blueprint
um
mayor and Council Flores first I didn't
go into the how did the housing comments
you might wanted to make two points on
that the plan identified
um
means to provide a variety of housing
whether that be a higher density provide
that missing middle and then also single
family but it also provided instructions
on how you could do that to have like
the mixed income where you have the
different things the second point I
wanted to make is the city owns that
property so as they enter into
development agreements for that property
we have say in how the mix of that
housing will take place and what product
and and what we want to Market that too
so that that's another key aspect of
this and that was something that was
brought up through that public input
and I forgot your second question I
forgot to so it doesn't matter but as
far as
um that number five area
that's BLM land
no um that area it's across the street
is um the corner of uh road across the
street yeah Road Runner and Sonoma Ranch
is a property that's not owned by
private ownership it is under BLM
control and it was also a former
landfill
oh well you know what would it be
possible to um
talk to the BLM
the Bureau of Land Management about
purchasing that land
for the middle missing middle
I think I think that's the the missing
middle
is really having a very difficult time
finding housing and and what I what I
heard from a very credible resourceful
person is that the BLM
I mean I think they lease land but they
will actually sell it if you're using it
for the good of the public
councilor Flores staff will investigate
that but I recall what your second
comment was was it was how to um
incorporate that all of these areas
the the policies and the the concept was
to make sure that it would there would
be housing available for the whole
social economic strata of Las Cruces and
the city would be able to dictate as the
the zoning code Etc is going on
just into this it may be more
advantageous for the city to concentrate
on these areas we've already identified
for housing and since that is a key
intersection
table that for more intensive uses of
like a hotel or some of the the business
uses so we could generate more funds but
the housing and providing housing for
anyone that lives in our community was a
key component of the development of this
plan and there was direction to
encourage that throughout so um
to your point that was a key
consideration in the development
thank you very much Mr
Council Coran thank you I see that there
is not a designation for the essential
services that caliches provides and I
would like to see a very clear walkable
pathway from this area to caliches just
to clarify our priorities just just if
we can prioritize that right there the
the houses will be sold in seconds I'm
sure
I think this yellow line gives you a
direct route
that was the extent of my request just
designated caliches is an essential
service in the city of Las Cruces if we
can do that please
another question
Mr we're I I think that um
things take a long time to happen you
know just just because because
um so
how are we going to assure
that the plan that the people voted on
what two three years ago whenever it was
will be implemented is it something
that's cataloged in the city in the
department and it can be looked at and
make sure that the Builder
is you know complying with that you know
because there was a lot of talk about
where the bikes would go where people
would walk and all that sort of stuff
mayor and counselor Flores you you've
tossed me a softball oh wow
the great thing about this is this plan
has been adopted by city council so it
is your policy and it's a stated desire
it also was in compliance with your
Elevate Las Cruces plan as an
opportunity for a neighborhood center
and development so from a policy
standpoint this is what you said you
want to do built on top of that the city
owns it so before we turn it over to
anyone else to utilize we can kind of
indicate and and put conditions on how
it should be development and then third
the city council is the body that
actually places the zoning on the
property so you will see those design
standards before they come forward so
[Music]
you have a lot of influence and control
over the development of this property
and can you guesstimate as to how long
it would take to start the building I
would estimate if if we were to get a
master developer on this year that
probably within a year you would start
seeing construction on the site
wow thank you thank you very much
anybody else
okay well it looks good
um really excited uh
did we discuss the waterfall
a long time when a counselor sword was
here we talked about that little
waterfall
blue lights
yeah okay I know it's a little bit over
the top but never mind
great thanks looks good looking forward
to it
all right uh
there's nothing further
looks like somebody was wrong on their
time
they entertain a motion to adjourn move
to a turn
second gram motion made my counselor
Abate the second by counselor Graham
that we adjourn Christine
[Applause]
this is an emotion too during the work
session counselor beta yes councilor
Graham yes councilor Ben Como yes
councilor Korean yes counselor Flores
yes councilor Canada yes mayor yes okay
we are adjourned it's 2 35 pm thank you
I know
foreign
meeting for our May 15 2023 city council
meeting number one non-consent one
non-consent two consent two consent
three non-consent three non-consent four
non-consent four non-conscious five
non-consent five non-consent six
non-consent six non-conscious seven
non-consent seven non-conscious eight
consent