[Music]
now live thank you
good evening this is the meeting of the
planning and zoning commission the date
it's february 23rd 2021
and it is six o'clock the first
item is conflict of interest um does
anybody have a conflict of interest for
any of the items on the agendas tonight
raise your hand i don't see anybody
okay next item is
approval of the minutes from january
26th i need a motion and a second to
approve the minutes
this comes
we can't hear you
commissioner smith we can't hear you
i think you're muted when i'll make of
this commissioner make a motion that we
approve the minutes
okay is there a second this is
commissioner bennett and i second it
thank you so we have a motion and a
second to approve the minutes from
january 26th
can we have a roll call are you doing
that david where
uh madam chair i will um and i'll start
with the district one rep
commissioner sanchez yes
commissioner muniz yes
commissioner bennett yes
commissioner smith yes
commissioner guerrero is absent vice
chair gordon
yes and chair thomas yes
so we've approved the minutes uh next on
our agenda is postponements we don't
have any of those
public participation do we have any
public participation
tonight
madam chair does not appear this is
catherine harrison rogers for the record
it does not appear that uh any of our
attendees
have their hands held um i'm looking at
the list and most of them appear to be
those that want to speak
or speaking for um some discussion items
on today's on the agenda okay thank you
okay consent agenda there's nothing on
there
and old business there's nothing on
there so
the first item is under new business
repeal of section 38-59.1 wireless
communication facilities
i need a motion and a second
to approve this move to approve
all right this is commissioner gordon
i'll make a motion that we approve
uh item one in a new business
thank you is there a second this is
commissioner bennett and i'll second it
thank you so is there a presentation
catherine
yes ma'am um again this is catherine
harrison rogers
with community development for the
record this is a repeal
of section 38 59.1 uh which is uh
wireless communication facilities i'll
give you a little background about how
it came to be
and what the issues are and why staff's
requesting this repeal
um back in 2018 ordinance 2872
uh incorporated wireless communication
facilities into the zoning code
it's a subsection of the standard
cell and and communication tower section
of the zoning code it generally outlines
the permitting and licensing process for
these small
cell um on city rights of way
and property so for example these are
these really small cells
that they attach to light poles um or
other
tall structures that maybe are within
the city right subway
the reason for this was to be compliant
with federal regulations
however interesting thing to note is
this particular section of code is
exempt from
some community
so again some of the issues that we
found is that it is exempt from the
zoning regulations so
so we feel that it's not is not best
place
in the zoning ordinance since it's
completely exempt from that chapter
additionally there is some conflicting
language in this subsection
for example some of the definitions
differ in this subsection from the main
section
having to do with wireless communication
structures
again it's just primarily a permitting
and licensing process
and could be best served in the general
municipal code which is volume one
therefore staff after consultation with
the legal department determined that it
really is more appropriate to move this
section
to a different location than municipal
code most likely
a consolidated section related to
telecommunications
and so ultimately what we're doing is
under
uh 38-10 the planning and zoning
commission is required to make
recommendations about any amendments to
the zoning code
so since this lives in the zoning code
we're asking for your recommendation to
city council
so that when we move forward to city
council it can be taken out of the
zoning code and then move to a more
appropriate location in the municipal
code
the rest of section 58 excuse me 38.59
will not be affected
because truly that has much more to do
with the zoning code itself setbacks
um general zones and where things should
be located things of that nature
and so with that staff is recommending
approval we have several findings
one again is that particular section is
exempt from the zoning
code and is only subject uh to review by
building permits in its administrative
the repeal of the section also
eliminates conflicting city regulations
improves small cell tower installation
and promotes local economic development
infrastructure again the remainder of
section 3859 will remain in the zoning
code and will be untouched
and then also as i specified before uh
the planning and zoning commission
does have to recommend approval denial
or modification to all requests for code
amendments
uh per section 3810 of the zoning code
and with that your options are yes
vote yes with conditions vote no or vote
to table
and i'd be happy to answer any questions
about this and we also have rob cabello
with our legal department
here as well in case any questions um
from his perspective do come up
thank you for that um are there any
questions if you
if you raise your hand here on the
on the participants list i can call on
you let's see harvey
commissioner gordon you have a question
yeah this is commissioner gordon
catherine does this mean that any
requests for
uh towers uh communication towers are
not going to come before the planning a
zoning commission anymore very good
question
uh commissioner gordon members of the
commission the answer to that is
no as i had stated before uh the
remainder of 3859 will remain
in the zoning code at this time the only
section that we're requesting
to be removed is the small cell tower
section
those are those very small units that
are placed upon
light poles within city rights of way or
can be placed on
city buildings or other city
infrastructure they're really
small it's not a cell tower as you might
understand it
it's really just an electronic component
that's added to existing infrastructure
those are allowed by federal law
and are exempt from zoning reviews so
these are not the same as those large
cell towers you may be thinking of
hopefully that does answer the question
yes thank you
any other questions or comments
mr nichols thank you madam chairman and
members of the commission on for the
record larry nichols community
development
uh these uh what uh catherine just
referenced was the small cell towers
uh they'll they'll still be reviewed uh
they'll be reviewed through the
building department permitting process
and we work with uh public works uh on
that as well
so it won't be a situation of them not
being
looked at or or addressed uh it'll just
be it'll be primarily with the uh
with the removal of this uh section it'd
be primarily
with the building safety department one
stop shop if you will
and uh this is something that we've had
a number of inquiries
and we've issued a few permits as a
small
cell tower companies begin to filter
into las cruces
as catherine mentioned it is a federal
regulation to allow them
and we anticipate there will be a number
more they uh primarily the purpose of
them
are to take care of some of the dead
zones that we have
with communication uh and with with the
internet
um but that's how we'll address them
i just want the commission to know that
uh they will be reviewed
and under the permitting process
thank you mr nichols anyone else
i guess we'll call for the vote then
okay madam chair uh commissioner sanchez
i vote yes based on staff findings
commissioner munice
yes based on staff's findings
commissioner bennett i vote yes based on
staff findings
as well commissioner smith
although yes based on analysis and staff
findings commissioner guerrero is absent
vice chair gordon uh but also based on
staff's finding i wrote yes and chair
thomas
yes i vote yes based on the staff
findings and the
explanation of why it's being moved
so that passes six to zero
so next is we have two discussion items
the first one is the west mesa
industrial park
master plan and overlay regulations and
zoning map
so do we need a uh
move emotion for this madam chair again
catherine harrison rogers for the
the record no ma'am you do not need a
motion for this this is simply a
discussion item
it's for information purposes um and
it's not
it's not quasi-judicial so we don't have
to
to okay thanks
all right so there's a presentation i
guess
there is so i'm going to go ahead and
introduce
um our economic development department
and we have um several members here
and they will provide an introduction to
this and then ultimately
the consultant with decker parish will
um
provide a presentation i'm going to go
ahead and i have to
to promote a few people to panelists so
that they're able
um to speak and to present
uh let me do that right now
bear with me
so first is going to be celesia villegas
she is with economic development
and then i will promote the um other
folks that are our attendees to
panelists so that they can share their
information
lisa you should be able to to speak
okay good evening all
my name is felicia diegas i'm with
economic development
thank you for the opportunity to speak
with you today
and it's nice to meet you all so
why is economic development here at pnz
i think i'm asking myself that question
um
the industrial park which now by the way
has a brand new name
las cruces innovation and industrial
park
is tied to the economic development
strategic plan
and it's been identified as a very
important
but underutilized economic development
asset
for las cruces because of this
economic development pursued an eda
grant to complete
a feasibility and economic planning
study
for the city to leverage on the park and
airport to support
job creation public-private partnerships
and private investment so the need to
update the master plan
and amend the overlay regulations were
evident to be able to implement
recommendations from this study as well
as to modernize them
and improve competitiveness
as you all know elevate las cruces
prioritize this
in their policy ce 2.5 to support
additional
industry and business growth in the park
and the first action is to update the
master plan development strategy and
overlay
to develop strategies to stimulate
business development in the area
i was recently named the point person
for the industrial park
and we also i believe have francisco
cuatis andy hume and griselda martinez
as part of our team
to help with any questions you may have
our consulting firm decker parish
sabatini
is preparing this master plan and
regulations
which is in draft form currently and
will be presenting
for us today we all look forward and
welcome your guidance
input and recommendations
with with that it's my pleasure to
introduce will gleeson principal of dps
and i'll let him introduce his team
thank you thank you selesia
good evening madam chair uh members of
the commission
um and i i i am not katrina arndt i know
that name is up on my screen and
and down in the lower right that is not
will gleeson but
somehow we have managed to swap
identities for this meeting but
um again i am will gleason i am a
partner with deca paris sabatini
and uh with us tonight is katrina arndt
who has been managing this project
and dan guimond from economic and
planning systems
who uh who conducted the market analysis
and
has been contributing throughout the
project so
um so we have two parts for our
presentation tonight one is to give you
an
overview of the update on the master
plan
and then the second part is to give you
a preview
of the regulatory framework that we will
um that we will be
bringing back to you for adoption as
a a part of the of the land use code
so um so as alicia said you know this is
a really critical piece for
the city's economic strategic
development
and and you know we work across the
state and across the southwest and we
see
increasing demand as you probably know
for industrial space
and this is a real um a real asset that
the city has
so we were tasked and we were working
for a better part of last year
on updating the master plan which really
hadn't been updated for
over 20 years and really kind of needed
a refresh
so our our plan here is partly to
update the the master plan and the
regulatory framework
and to give a fresh vision for this area
for which is
almost 2000 acres about 1820 acres
and and to connect it more to the
airport to really leverage the
proximity of the airport and um and just
make it so that you can use this asset
and really generate uh
new jobs new economic activity in the
city
so our agenda tonight and it's not a
long presentation it's only about 20
slides
so we will not keep you here uh late
into the night
um is to really just to show you what's
in the plan
talk about the goals talk a little bit
about the framework in our next steps
so um so i already introduced our team
and i think some of you probably know
decaper sabatini
we have an office in las cruces and we
work across the southwest
and you know i think the one of the
values we bring is that we really do a
lot of
uh a lot of development related work and
so we understand the metrics
that will actually result in new
development
versus just um some great pictures
and dan really brings his market
sensibility and
his his really national
uh perspective on what it is that
industrial users are looking when they
are seeking a new site
um so that's that was our scope was to
um
to conduct this marketing real estate
analysis really building off of the
market street report
uh integrate the las cruces airport and
that
what value that brings update the lane
use framework
identify development strategies and
really build upon the
the parks success that it has had with
some
new opportunities
so um so the goals are to
you know make the help the park compete
better for new development
it it now can capture about captures
on average about 40 percent of the
demand for industrial space
in the in the metropolitan area
um of dhoniana county and along the in
in the borderplex area um but you know
frankly it loses a lot of a lot of uh
potential
um tenants to other locations so
we think that you can improve the
visibility the
image of the park that integration with
the airport
and i think there's some real
opportunities to promote some
new kind of environmental and energy
efficiency in terms of distinguishing
the park
from other industrial parks in terms of
what it brings
um in terms of reliability of energy and
sustainability
and then really leverage the the
economic
development partnerships that you
already have with the city
with the county and with the board of
plex and other
organizations in the area
so i'm going to turn over to dan who's
going to talk about the marketing real
estate analysis
thanks will um again i'm dan gimon with
economic and planning systems
um and you know we were a sub-consultant
to
dps on this project we also worked on
elevate us cruises so we've been
working in las cruces for a little while
as we'll mention we this project
really evolved out of a earlier study
2019 study that market street
conducted an economic analysis of the of
the
city and the industrial park and some
specific recommendations on target
industries that should be pursued
and we we essentially picked it up from
there
in terms of looking more specifically at
the real estate
development opportunities associated
with those target industries and how
that would translate into
an updated master plan um
we did some analysis on industrial
demand
in the in the county and in
uh our estimates are approximately
uh an average of about a hundred little
over a hundred thousand square feet
of industrial space is is uh the
potential
uh the approximate potential for the
industrial park which is about
40 percent of the county or regional
total
this demand would would translate to
approximately
200 acres of industrial development over
the next 20 years
so as the park has
1820 acres and only
some small percentage of that is is
developed at this
point in the time this is adequate land
to accommodate
the future of industrial demand uh
in the region um so i mean this
it's a strong asset from that
perspective and and something that could
accommodate a wide range
of uses the um
market street report which was called
the economic assessment and target
sector opportunity study um identified
three high priority target industries
for the park those being
aviation aerospace and defense and
that's primarily
uh uas drone type vehicles
being the the niche within that larger
sector which of course is quite strong
um in in the county and
in the larger region including white
sands and the space port
second being value-added agriculture
basically
looking at opportunities for
value-added manufacturing that that
starts with the
agricultural base of the county um
the dairy uh ceputo that's already out
there at the park
um the this concentration of
of chile and pecans in the area
and the growing opportunity uh for hemp
related industries overall things that
were identified in the study
and then thirdly advanced manufacturing
or more
higher value manufacturing uses so
next slide um
but one one thing that we did want to
note that those are
those are the the the best
sort of target opportunities they're a
little bit aspirational in the sense
that they're not well established at
this point
they're things that that are being
recommended to be pursued
um and it's
um
but from our perspective it's still
important to pursue multiple
industry sectors um in order to achieve
the economic development goals
of the city they're incorporated in
elevate las cruces
um as well as into uh the
the goals uh the economic development
goals for the industrial park itself
so our one of our recommendations was
that the industrial park be configured
into
separate districts with
lot sizes and utilities that were that
are targeted to support those three
targeted industries
as well as other types of industrial
development that we think
you know will continue to uh be
opportunities for the park and that
includes uh warehouse
distribution more general manufacturing
and other
uh logistics type uses that are
also growing industrial sectors in the
region
um one of the major strategies that
we've tried to incorporate in the plan
uh uh in the master plan in addition to
the regulatory
uh modifications that uh uh katrina is
going to go into in a moment
is also more of a active proactive
implementation plan and that includes a
recommendation
for a proactive sales and marketing
program
include includes a recommendation for a
full-time
property manager includes um
a streamlined uh sales
and uh and transactional process that uh
currently is
is is really quite quite convoluted and
quite slow
and it also includes doing some more
um specific um essentially
raising the visibility of the park
getting it to have its own website right
now you can
if you get on um google and
type in westminster industrial park you
you don't even
you don't even get the park it gives you
some
other location in las cruces it does
there's just no identity out there
in in in the marketplace for the park
currently
so we think it needs a dedicated website
it needs um uh
specific brochures uh marketing
brochures for the targeted industries
that we're suggesting
uh that have been uh identified as well
as a
branding and wayfinding program for the
park itself
so um next slide
so i think it's okay thanks dan
we really built upon uh dan's
recommendations
and you're seeing here the cover of the
of the
report and now that we have a new name
for the
park um we might need to uh
revisit the the name that we have in the
in the report so we will talk to us
lisey about that
um but and i do think the new name is a
is an improvement upon
west mesa so um you know we
this report was developed over the last
six months and
i do want to say that um you know this
was all done during the pandemic
but we did do uh we did an online
outreach to the
existing park tenants at the at the
beginning of the project
uh we met with andy hume we toured the
park
and uh and we did set up a website to
provide information and we conducted a
survey
in terms of what people liked about the
park and what services they felt
could be improved upon um
so so that all by way of saying that
informed the
this master plan that that we have
created and we're not going to go
through the whole master plan here i
just want to give you a couple
highlights before turning it over to
katrina to talk about the regulatory
framework
so um we think that you know what dan
was talking about when you look at this
now this is our new
our new kind of land use recommendations
for the park and this is not
to say that thou shalt build industrial
in the purple and thou shalt do
value added agriculture in the green
areas
but rather to suggest and to
recommend that if there is a value-added
agricultural activity that it locates
in that southern part of the park and if
there's an
activity like uavs that's that that can
leverage the airport that it locates in
that kind of mustard color
on the north side of i-10 so
um so and then if you're and if it's a
commercial enterprise
it locates in those uh red
areas near the interchange itself
so it's a way of organizing this giving
a little more
identity and a little more um just kind
of
sophistic sophistication in terms of
what land uses
are intended to go where and then we
built upon this
and um i want to go to and created
a kind of a future build out to indicate
what could what it could look like and
we think that this can be used for
marketing purposes
and also to kind of test fit um
what certain uses might be where they
might be most appropriate in terms of
parcel sizes
and available infrastructure so this is
all done in sketchup so
it's something that we can give to the
city and that they can use as a tool
going forward and then
these are our recommendations so
you'll see this at the end of the report
very specific
recommendations about for implementation
in terms of
investment in new extensions of roads
utilities
management branding development process
with a time frame and a cost range and
potential funding sources
and we also have a longer term
matrix along at the bottom as well
so um some some of these are very
straightforward
and really if if i recommend if the city
does nothing else
get rid of the ordinance that that
requires
every sale over i think it is fifty
thousand dollars to get approval by city
council
and from our research that is not
something that is needed
that is legally required um and i know
this alecia will really help streamline
that process
um and we think that just just some sort
of
operational changes can really help make
the park more competitive
and then some small investments as well
as we also put in here some larger
investments that
the city could consider um
constructing a spec building
for incubator for incubator-like uh
companies to attract new uh investment
in the park
and to attract new companies in the park
but that is a major lift so
we're not saying you have to do that but
we provide some
information about that in the report so
um and then so that's kind of the last
part and then really the part that
we will come back to you for is the
regulatory framework
which katrina will take over now yeah
thanks will so the regulatory framework
um really is um anticipated to replace
the overlay
um zone the west mesa industrial park
overlays on standards
and then be adapted as ordinance and
um we did because um as will was
alluding to earlier the last or the
creation of this plan was in 1996 so
it's kind of old
um so we basically updated most
everything
within this regulatory framework that
was associated with the overlay zone
standards
and as will was alluding to we
generated this different land use
framework in order to
create these um nodes of activity and
try
try to have similar uses
um create the synergy and in the same
areas and then
with this new land use framework we have
associated
um land uses that are permitted
committed
by district um and so we updated the
land use sorry the use categories
we made them a lot broader the initial
um
framework just had a list of uses that
were permitted and a list of users that
were
prohibited and we kind of um
differentiated a little bit by area in
order to
promote the synergy of uses basically
in the commercial district for example
that
we created along the and i'm going to
flip back really quickly
which is basically
located along the inter exchange so that
they can take advantage of
through traffic but this is really
meant to support the local workforce
we've
had a lot of interviews with
stakeholders that either
work in the park or are somehow
associated with it
and we were trying to find out what the
biggest challenges are and one of them
was
that there's no services out there and
as you know the park is kind of
a bit of a drive away from las cruces so
the desire was really there to
promote more commercial uses or
more services they could um provide
amenities to the local workforce and so
in the red
areas um we committing
commercial uses which weren't permitted
before only as
accessory users and then in all other
areas we are committing
committing commercial uses as accessory
uses up to 40 and that's the initial
um number i think was 25
so that if there is a use that wants to
provide a cafeteria
or a little restaurant they can do that
and then we have the manufacturing
district that kind of
captures more of the manufacturing and
then
aviation related as will was alluding to
is
is supposed to be um
promoted to be in
conjunction with the airport and then
the well you added
agriculture um at
the fringe of the park basically and so
our use categories
um we try to broaden them up so that in
the future if there's a new use coming
along you can just plug it in
rather than having tremendous and adding
it to the list of users
and so for example light manufacturing
captures everything that happens within
a building and so we are looking at the
uses not so much
at like what each specific use does but
what the impact is on the environment so
anything that basically you can do
within a building
it doesn't spill outside is captured
under light manufacturing and then
heavy manufacturing for example is stuff
that spills out of the building a little
bit and so that one
gets um conditional use standards that
are
here in that far right
column and each of these
uses that have an x basically have
conditional u standards associated with
them
and for heavy manufacturing it regulates
screening for example
um yes
so that's the use table that we updated
um
and then we we generated we went into
the development standards and there was
a lot of
outdated architectural standards that
really weren't fitting
for an industrial part there were pueblo
architectural styles required for
facades
as one of the architectural standards
and
that does not really work with a
industrial building and so we updated
them to make them
more practical to the users that are
actually anticipated there
um we also created more
um fine-tuned landscape standards that
kind of
as well was alluding to go into in
in the direction of sustainability
measures so
storm water harvesting low impact
development features
um we also reduce the parking
requirement
that there basically is no parking
requirements so if a use goes in
because there is a lot of land um they
can
decide how much parking they think their
their workforce and or patrons will need
but what we put in there is some
requirements
on electric charging stations and then
also on
impervious surfaces in order to reduce
the amount of pavement that is within
the park
and so yeah we you all had
have um a copy of both these pieces part
one the master plan framework and part
two
the regulatory framework um and we hope
you had a chance to look at it if um
our next steps are going to collect
all the comments and all the feedback we
will get and then revise
the both the master plan and regulatory
framework
and create a final master plan and then
hopefully go through the adoption
process with this document
and i think we'll if you have anything
to add this is our last slide
yeah so um i think we just stand for
questions
and i we are anticipating having a
public meeting
uh in the next um month so
that will be one final kind of
push for more input from the public it's
not
something that generates a ton of
interest but we are doing our best to
advertise and promote that
so there any questions thank you very
much for that presentation
any questions or comments raise your
hand
not seeing any hands arrays
okay i have some comments
and questions okay
um so um i really liked what you did
here and it
it looks like um you know you're trying
to make it into a place where people
want to be
and whether there's you know it's
pedestrian
safety and trails and you know all kinds
of things like that that i thought were
really nice to see um
what else did i like um
i you know certainly the marketing we've
just not had any marketing out there and
the
website all those things really need to
be done
and a bit i like the class the fact that
you were
going to do us plaza and shade
structures i
those are things you recommended and
connecting to the airport i think is
really important
as well
my concerns are and this doesn't really
have anything to do with you it's just
that
we and it's not that i don't want to see
this
park grow and and actually
provide more jobs and more economic
development it's just that
it's way out there on the west side of
town and so i this is
i hope the economic development
department is also looking at
um some other areas in the city for
for jobs more things on the east side it
does cause a lot of
driving when everybody's so many people
live on the east side and then they're
driving way out to the west side so
that's a concern of mine my other
concern is and you brought this up too
and it's
because i'm on the workforce connection
board
but the biggest area of concern is the
availability of a skilled workforce
and you know you saw that right away and
and we're very aware of that
we're trying to work on it i'm just
saying to economic development
department this is a
great plan and maybe the economic
development department would like to
come and share that with the workforce
connection board so
you can say to them and these are the
kinds of
skills we're going to need these are the
markets we're targeting and so
we would like to see programs
for training workers for these kinds of
jobs so we can kind of
get all on the same
direction which is something we've been
trying to do for a while
and it is a state level
priority and then the only other thing
is
um there's this thing called the
sanitaries to border area transportation
plan that was done a few years ago and
one of the things they talk about is the
fact that in texas
and arizona and california they took
their whatever their border crossing was
like our santa teresa
and they used it to develop a whole
state
economic development plan that built on
that and
and went through their state and into
canada
they're called the the canna mix
corridors
and texas and arizona and california
have all done that and new mexico
has not and so i don't know if it's
possible for you to
add some of this in here but um
this plan is about to be
updated by the el paso npo
they're supposed they're supposed to
have a group that meets regularly and
talks about this whole regional economic
development so i would just like as part
of planning for this
our own industrial park that we make
sure that we're
participating in this broader regional
economic development because
you know that's how tucson and phoenix
are growing off of their border
crossings and and california off of
theirs and
and we are not doing that in this state
and it needs to be state level
work but um i i can send you more
information if you want but just some
some suggestion that part of this
planning also get
folded into some of this regional and
actually statewide
economic development that's you know
very
just beginning so
that's a very important comment
chair chairwoman um we did one thing i
neglected to mention as we did in the
implementation session talk about
just doing a better job of working with
the
economic development partnerships that
are already in place including
mavita and orderplex and and the state
as a whole
and i think we can add some of that
language regarding the
canada mix kind of max corridors that
you outlined
and we'll do that we'll add that to the
to one of the recommendations and it
it's the
new mexico department of transportation
that's supposed to be orchestrating that
in this part of the world and they're
supposed to set up this protocol group
that works together so
that's um it's not much has happened but
like i said el paso mpo is updating it
and
we're watching that and so is um you
know all the people in santa teresa
are very involved in what's going on
there
thank you madam chair and i do think
like the you know the fact that the
park is is is really one shift away from
the west coast
is really uh a good advantage that the
park has
and that combined with the fact that you
know we
this this plan will be in place for some
time
and i expect that there will be a lot
more self-driving
uh traffic along i-10 and everywhere
in the next 10 years and that that
you know the park is in a good position
to take advantage of that
and we and that's part of the reasons
why are we are not
recommending any parking requirements
for the park
because parking requirements are
probably going to change dramatically in
the next decade
well yes i noticed that you would you
ask for electric vehicles
sticks in hookups and
people have been talking to me lately
about the electrification of buildings
it was just a thing on npr tonight about
what's happening with that
some cities are passing legislation that
all new buildings have to be
electrification
ready and then there are some state
things going on where they're
um passing legislation that says you
can't
force people to do this electrification
of building
yeah but um some of the developers are
actually doing it because it's
it's much cheaper to build the buildings
like that you know and just have the
heat pump on the wall and not have to do
all the other
stuff with gas so i don't know if that's
anything to mention under the utilities
but
i think it's something the city needs to
be watching
and be aware of i agree
because if if electric electrification
ready buildings are the way to go we
want to make sure we're
on that bandwagon too
okay anybody else commissioner gordon
i have i have two things i'd like to say
first one is a technical question which
may require
uh our city
councilor to answer i don't know whether
or not
is the city restricted in any way in
offering
uh someone to come here to to take space
in the park
where we can do a lease and sail back
and that way the money that would be
required to buy an extensive
portion of land could be used for
building and other resources that they
may need
and at some time in the future if
they're hopefully they are successful
and they can just go ahead and whatever
raiders they made with the city
to just buy the land that they sit on is
that someone can answer that question or
are they prohibited the city prohibited
from doing that
yeah madam chair commissioner gordon i
don't i don't have an answer to that but
uh maybe griselda does yeah
good evening good evening
uh pnc committee thank you for that
question
member garten what we're doing right now
is we're actually
evaluating what type of incentives uh we
can
more aggressively provide for
recruitment
and um and actually expansion of local
companies so
what we're doing is we're we depending
on the
types of jobs average wages
if they are within the targeted
industries that we want to
have clusters around we can evaluate
options so
uh one of the main reasons why we have a
designated point of contact
is to channel all those potential
interested parties
to to inquire more information and then
we definitely
evaluate options
we we have a number of different tools
one
important element to remember is the
anti-donation
clause at the state and that that um
that's a restriction in a lot of the
different things that other states do
new mexico is the only one with this
uh anti-donation class so some of the
incentives
other states can do we cannot
um to benefit a private entity with
public funding even if it's an exchange
of
jobs or other economic development
efforts but
we are definitely um planning a very
aggressive recruitment effort and also
expanding on the current business
retention expansion
opportunities to not only attract
companies from outside the region but
also
grow the ones that we have within the
city
madam chair i can understand what you're
saying but
my thought is like for example you said
that there are certain things that the
city
cannot do like for example they don't
believe that they can do tax abatement
say real estate taxes unless somebody
come in here for 10 years
and not pay any real estate taxes i
think the city is prohibited from doing
that
but i decided this is just a thought i
had it's just a way to give an incentive
to somebody to come here
where they have to buy three 400 acres
to build a plant or something it's
that's a lot of money that they would
have to put out that they could use for
something else
and if it's a viable option there's
something that maybe perhaps
somebody should consider
and my other thought is i remember when
the planning and zoning commission
worked very hard along with other
departments on developing the elevate
las cruces
comprehensive plan that i made a remark
that i thought
that the key to elevate las cruces
is economic development i think without
it
the city is just going to remain we'll
just grow very slowly or perhaps even
stagnate
we need something like the park to bring
in
uh really good business perhaps if we
can get an anchor like a
uh a mall has like a big department
store we get a you know on one end of
the mall
that that entices other companies or
other stores that come in
hopefully that we might be able to
entice uh somebody to come here and if
we could really spur something like that
it would just take off i think
because the site is very very nice it's
very easy to access
and we have 10 we have the airport we
have possible rail lines we're close to
the border
uh we're not far from a lot of economic
areas
and i think that would be if we could do
this it would be an unbelievable
tremendous success for the city
totally agree hey thank you uh robert
cabello you wanted to add something
oh yes so there are industrial revenue
bonds that kind of
function in the way that uh commissioner
gordon was
you know indicating um and there's also
of course data which is slightly
different
yeah there are tools that we can use
again they have to be
restricted to very specific things
they're actually funding
that can be done
okay anyone else
i just want i want to also add because
everybody here knows i'm i'm the transit
person so
i was happy to see that there was some
planning for that
on the um i didn't see it
anything about the transit and one map i
saw
transit facilities but then i didn't see
anything about how that was actually
going to
happen and um you also mentioned the
department of transportation
work with um
with one of the agencies i can't
remember the name of it
do you remember griselda who it is that
which car rental place it is
enterprise enterprise yes thank you yeah
so i talked to jennifer this morning
they still are doing that program
and so um and we it's still possible
to work with them to set up a
transportation for people from las
cruces out to the
industrial part
any more comments
okay well we thank everybody for the
presentation
and um um if even half of it
materializes it's going to be a great
place out there
so we look forward to some of that
very good thank you madam chair thank
you new commissioners
thank you humanitarian members of the
committee have a great evening
thank you you too
okay um then the next item is uh some
training
catherine are you leading that or
susanna not sure who it is
chairperson thomas this is commissioner
sanchez if i can just interject
briefly um i'm just curious so
um unfortunately just to notify everyone
this is going to be my last meeting as
part of the planning and zoning
commission
um there will be a new commissioner for
district one in the next meeting and so
for that reason though i'm curious if
it's okay if i just sign off
this portion because i don't know that
it's necessary for me to stay in the
meeting beyond this point
um i will definitely encourage the
person who will be replacing me
to re-watch the stream of this because
this seems like it will be very
important for that person
so thank you i did have on my list here
that this was your last meeting so
i want to thank you for the the uh
all that you've done for us we really
like to have your voice and
your good comments um as far i think
it's probably okay if you
leaves as you pointed out were this
probably not going to apply to you this
next part so
we wish you um fame and fortune and your
next endeavor is
i don't thank you for that chairperson
um and i would like to just briefly
thank everyone
of course who serves on this board um
and then also
um the deepest gratitude for city staff
and all the hard work that you've always
done
thank you so much for always positioning
this board well um to do good things for
the city of las cruces so
thank you all so much i look forward to
seeing you and engaging with you in
other ways
in the community um but yeah thank you
so much
hey don't leave i think
abraham you will be missed
and i wish whatever you're going to do i
wish you all the luck in the world
and your comments um decisions this
commission has made
have always been very intelligent and
creative so we will miss you
hope to see you around town would this
pandora go we'll have a beer one of
those breweries
okay
okay catherine i think we'll turn it
over to you or whoever's gonna do the
training next
hey good good evening madam uh
chair and members of the planning
commission
my name is srijana bassett senior
planner with the community development
department
let me know if
you can see my screen
i'm sorry give me a minute
oh
okay i'm having more technical
difficulties than uh
i would like to admit right now
okay now we see your screen
yeah um
it's fine mark mark is going to share
the screen for us today
um so with that um let's get going
this is the third time that we try to
have this training and
we're this close to not having it again
no
so uh we're gonna cover some broad uh
basic topics today
regarding planning uh but we're also
gonna hone in on some of
some of the planning related legal
topics that you all as planning and
zoning commissioners
sometimes have to deal with so
um i'm going to be tag teaming with the
rest of staff today and they're going to
introduce themselves as and when you
know their presentation slides come up
it's a lot of ground to cover but we
will at the end
all be available for questions and we
can go back to
particular slides um if you uh need us
to
um so with that uh the city of las
cruces receives
its land use planning authority from the
state of new mexico
um and the state also enables the city
to establish a planning commission
the city has zoning authority as part of
its state delegated police power
specifically for the purpose of
promoting the health
safety morals and general welfare within
its jurisdiction
and within a five mile extraterritorial
jurisdiction in the case of subdivisions
next slide please
um as you're aware the city council um
establishes and appoints members to the
planning and zoning commission
um and delegates to them the power to
make land development decisions
on some planning matters such as
subdivisions
um and make recommendations to the city
council on some other matters
like zoning and amending the
comprehensive plan
next slide most cases that are brought
before the commission
involve a certain level of staff review
or technical review
but as pnz members you are also expected
to have basic knowledge of the plans and
regulations that influence your decision
making
so i'm going to run through a list of
plans the city council has adopted
or endorsed through the years to give
you a general idea
of what is already available for you to
use and and most of you are aware of
these
uh but since it's just going to be a
standard training
going from broad to specific we
have regional plants uh like one valley
one vision 2040
um mobility 2040 which is the mpo
plan um these provide guidance on
issues that could have regional impacts
they talk about things that can traverse
jurisdictional boundaries
like the environment or movement of
people and goods
and then we have plans that are
applicable city-wide
and provide more technical guidance on
more narrow topics like city parks or
urban agriculture
next slide please
so um this is uh kind of uh the the
framework
of elevate las cruces which is the
city's comprehensive plan
um most of you were you know on
the comprehensive plan advisory
committee
so you're aware of this but some of you
might not be
so i'm just going to run this real quick
um our city's comprehensive plan which
is our umbrella
plan uh really guides the vision
for the community what we want to be
when we grow up
as a city in the next 20 25 years
so it has a vision framework um it talks
about these
uh these goals that we aspire to
as a community then there's a physical
framework within elevate las cruces
and that is the future development
program there is a future development
map
there is a future thoroughfare map and
what this
does is it provides you with
guidance on where the city wants to see
growth
um and how we want to uh kind of see
that growth happen
the policy framework are these sets of
goals and policies and action items
and that provides a lot of guidance to
both staff
organizationally operationally as well
as to you all when you're making
decisions on whether
a certain request or a case has merit
and is in alignment with the
comprehensive plan
then we have more technical or you know
specific plans uh policy plans
um and some of those were you know i
mentioned earlier
uh the the parks and rec master plan
the active transportation plan would be
one um
and then we have all these tools uh
the municipal budget the municipal code
which is you know this
it includes the the land development
code uh the subdivision code
uh then we also have the city strategic
plans the department strategic plans
um and then we also have uh the capital
improvement plan
which is a part of the city's uh budget
and these will help uh city council
and staff and the community itself to
really
implement the ideas in the comprehensive
plan and these other plans
next slide please
so this is just a brief um like a couple
points
talking about you know how the
comprehensive plan was adopted
um it's been a year now since it was
officially adopted by the city council
uh of course it's been a unique year uh
but we did have the baseline report
uh that's the first part of the annual
progress report
for elevate that was presented to you a
little bit a couple of months ago
and so work is ongoing on this
and and it's really meant to be used to
guide
uh comprehensively uh things that happen
in the city in terms of
growth and development next slide please
okay and so another one of these plans
that will be more pertinent to you
in your work as as planning and zoning
commissioners
is the active transportation plan uh
this is
a plan that was created to
focus or you know kind of highlight
the needs of pedestrians and cyclists in
the community people who rely on other
modes of transportation
who may not be able to
have a vehicle or afford one or
desire to have multiple vehicles in
their houses
so they want an alternative way to get
around town
and of course walking and biking are
excellent for
the environment and just in terms of
sustainability and resiliency
so we want to encourage that as a city
this plan has policy recommendations it
also has a bikeway network
that is proposed so when you see
subdivisions coming before you
uh master plans uh these will have
proposed networks and proposed
cross sections and things like that and
and this is where you can kind of
look back for a little bit of guidance
you know what does
our active transportation plan advise us
next slide
and i'm not going to read through these
but
here's a whole list of area plans and
blueprints that we have
um community planning blueprints are
kind of quick and dirty uh plans that
you know city staff
has been uh we'll actually have a few
consultants that have
helped us do a bit more involved
blueprint as well
um but these are plans that are specific
to certain areas of town
uh they focus on the needs of a specific
neighborhood or corridor and so they're
unique in their own way
the infield policy plan is an area plan
as well
it's it's larger an area to
almost every other plan on this list but
uh
nonetheless they have specific set of
recommendations and policies
uh that staff then you know applies and
and
uh helps you in your decision
uh when you're reviewing the staff
reports in cases that come before you
so this is just generally speaking the
planning process if you ever wondered
you know
how how how do we plan how do these
plans get on the books
um it's just you know step by step kind
of analyzing
data collecting um and it is kind of
cyclical because you don't really
stop evaluating uh even when the plan is
adopted
uh you do want to make sure that you're
measuring uh
and monitoring um and tracking success
uh maybe some policies worked and were
applied correctly maybe some didn't and
so then you have your amendment process
where you re-evaluate plans and and you
will see some plans come before you and
policies come before you
um that apply to land development
next line all right with that
i'm going to hand over to catherine
she's welcome to
share her screen at this time
so
good evening everyone again catherine
harrison rogers with the community
development department is everybody able
to see the screen
yes very good
alrighty so i am going to go ahead and
talk generally about the development
process
um with the city and ultimately
how we get from raw land outside
the city into the city and ultimately to
building permit and then theoretically
in some cases a
a business registration so
as you all know raw land is
is taken into the city through an
annexation process
you all are part of that process it
involves a legal
document a plat showing what those
property boundaries are it goes through
a review process
with both um donaiana county as well as
the city of las cruces
and typically involves master plan and
zoning
now master plans
and zoning can also encompass a pud that
consists of both
then from there of course it moves on to
final site plans or
subdivisions then construction drawings
those technical documents and
ultimately building permits i'm going to
talk about a few of these in a little
bit more detail
those that really impact you and that
you all are part of
in terms of being able to review and
influence the way the city grows
so first i'd like to speak about master
plans
ultimately these are conceptual plans
that really dictate
the location of uses the layout of
roads um and conceptually how the
infrastructure might work
again there's some phasing um that's
involved with that
and they are only required for certain
types of projects those projects that
have multiple phases
those projects that have multiple uses
again if it's part of an annexation
and whether or not it's larger than 40
lots
and also we use utilize those master
plans when we have commercial officer
industrial development
it wants to use what we call the
alternate summary process
now this commission does not review
alternate summary subdivisions
those are subdivisions whereby
applicants are able to break off one lot
at a time
in order uh to facilitate development
however in order to be planful about we
do have to have a master plan
showing how that might work um prior to
them getting broken off
before you get off the screen i'd just
like to ask you a question yes
what is the definition of the size of a
lot
and referee i'm sorry excuse me in
reference to what sir
well you said that required for 40 or
more lots
is that an acre a quarter of an acre or
half an acre what is a lot
sure a lot isn't is any developable um
parcel uh that that can be
um that meets the the general um
requirements and standards outlined in
the zoning code
so it depends on what zone it's in um
so let's say so for example rem
uh regis residential state mobile the
parcel size must be an
acre um has to meet several other
provisions in terms of
lot width and depth however when you get
down to
some other types of parcels in the city
they can be much smaller
so for example r1a a 5000 square foot
lot
so it's really variable and then to
complicate things even more harvey
excuse me commissioner gordon those
those lots can can also be even smaller
if variance requests are approved or if
it's part of an infill project that's
approved by the board
okay thanks absolutely
um so master plans um
are also utilized uh when um
we're doing initial zoning and they can
be processed concurrently with other
zone changes
for properties that may be changing from
one type of zone to another
they don't have to be stand alone
interestingly enough the master plan
um in terms of who who reviews that
versus the zoning the the planning and
zoning commission is the final authority
on master plans
whereas the city council is the final
authority on zone changes
so interestingly enough um they although
you can
process them simultaneously the final
authority is different depending upon
which one
generally with master plans there are
few to no deviations from the standards
if you get into a situation where
somebody is asking for multiple
deviations
that type of project has to go through a
planned unit development
um planned unit developments require uh
are required when there are three or
more deviations
from the codes so those are
typically you know let's say somebody
wanted to deviate from the
front setbacks and they also wanted to
deviate from the height and they also
wanted to deviate
from certain um engineering standards
those would ultimately be processed as a
planned unit development and that
while it goes through this board and
commission as a
as a recommendation to city council it's
ultimately approved at city council
so master plans again not beauties but
master plans are approved by pnz
they are not approved at city council
unless it's part of an annex station
um so some examples of master planned
areas and towns
in town is sonoma ranch um
it of course has several master plans
tied to it there's sonoma ranch east
gnome ranch
north um but it was a large area
that was master planned it was approved
by this board and then ultimately had
subsequent subdivisions and phases
throughout its
its life to end up separating out those
lots for further development
now i'm going to talk more about planned
unit developments i touched on that a
little bit
you can see here here's an example of
the one in metro verde
it's a little bit different but similar
again this is a type of
zoning district um that is master
planned
it is a master plan itself while it does
have zones incorporated in it it's not a
standalone zoning district
planned unit development is its own
zoning district it is does include a
conceptual plan very similar to the
master plan we just talked about
um however uh planned unit development
provides a lot more flexibility and
creativity
um in order to do things that wouldn't
normally be allowed by code
while we allow this creativity and
flexibility they
have to actually provide some benefits
to the community
in as sort of a trade to be able to do
those things
so some of those benefits could include
components of affordable housing
they could include going beyond the
normal development standards
and creating additional parks
or open space they could provide maybe
more of a regional
drainage system as opposed to a system
that's specific just for
their uh development things of that
nature
again this type of this type of process
is required for multi-phase developments
again with three or more deviations from
the code as i had touched base upon
before
master plans don't have those types of
deviations
again those public benefits do have to
be included
and that's each planning related
deviation
so if they were deviating from the
height and the setbacks
and parking requirements they would have
to provide
some sort of public benefit for each one
of those again
engineering deviations are also allowed
and
need to be approved by public works and
incorporated into that plan
these concept plans related to puds do
act as master plans very similar to what
we reviewed before
they specify uses densities
infrastructure
as well as any other
types of land uses related to the
project
again they can create their own
standards and codes they could create
entirely new design standards and zoning
codes specific to their development if
they wanted to
these are reviewed by staff and outside
agencies and ultimately recommended pipe
pnz
but again city council's the final
approval on these
and then our best example that you all
are so familiar with
is the metro verde south um pud concept
plan
uh it differs from sonoma ranch
in that it is its own zone and also that
as part of the project
they do have some deviations and have
provided some public
benefits that are outside the normal
scope of development
beauty final site plans um
just so that you all know what these are
these are very similar and akin to
what you would see in terms of a
subdivision
um we have a different name for them but
frankly that's what they are they're a
subdivision they act as a preliminary
plat you see these frequently
they are basically
one phase among many in the pud concept
plan and they have to be consistent with
that concept plan so we review it for
consensus
consistency against the pud again those
are reviewed by staff and outside
agencies
uh to make sure that they are consistent
and then we provide you recommendation
ultimately those are approved by pnz um
and uh not by city council the only time
that
that is a little bit different is if
it's submitted simultaneously with a
concept plan
then interestingly enough that acts as a
package that ultimately goes to city
council
if there are separate um submittals then
pnz
is the final decision body on that an
example of that is
is metro park village that was one that
this particular board approved
ultimately what we're looking for when
we look at these types
of of plans master plans puds things of
that nature
the first thing always is health safety
and welfare
of course we also look to see if it is
in keeping with the comprehensive plan
that being elevate las cruces and of
course whether
it is consistent with other applicable
plans
uh some of the more important ones that
we look at would be the park's master
plan
would be the active transportation plan
and
of course any blueprints or any other
neighborhood plans that may be out there
we also look for area impacts so is it
going to increase
traffic beyond that that should be
allowed
on on city roads um
or does it require some improvements
is it going to create some density that
would be
unsustainable or noise that
that would really create problems for
neighborhoods
and also we look at compatibility and a
number of other
things related to impacts of an area
some of the other things that are maybe
lesser known by this group but we do
look at it is case law
that can be either federal case law or
state um case law in terms of
of the types of land use actions taking
place
we also of course look at the citizen
input where applicable
as you all know people get very very
emotional about
land use and things going on next next
to them people don't like
change um often times and so we do
listen to people but oftentimes have to
weed out
um kind of what is emotion and then
truly what what is a true impact that we
must be concerned about
um and i know that you all have become
very adept at doing that in the last
couple of years
we've had some very active neighborhoods
that that you've
that sometimes you've agreed with and at
other times have not
um and again it's just a matter of
reading through that information
and then some of the other things that
we look at are fiscal impacts
um in terms of how this might impact the
city long term
in terms of maintenance or whether or
not it improves our tax base
things of that nature so hopefully that
was
that was sort of a fast and furious um
overview of what we're looking at and
and those types of plans
and again this was just skimming the
surface of course we have a lot of other
functions and and other development
proposals
and applications that you all um as a
board and commission
review on a monthly basis and
and i would be happy to be able to
introduce some of those a little bit
more
in depth at a later date
and we'll go ahead and turn this over to
robert with our legal department robert
did you need somebody to to run the
powerpoint presentation for you or will
you be doing it
let me hear if you let me show the
screen i can do it
you should be able to share the screen
now okay
um i'm robert cabello i'm one of the
attorneys here at the city
and i'm going to give a presentation on
a few subjects eminent domain
due process reluca which is a federal
statute regarding the
religious use of land and how we can
regulate that
and fair housing i'll go ahead and share
my screen
did everybody see my screen yes yes
excellent yes oh no sorry
i had it on the right side
okay there we go so
eminent domain so the term eminent
domain comes from
dominus eminent which is supreme
lordship
and it's obviously the concept that the
government can take the land for a
public use
and there has to be some sort of
compensation for that um
let me just go over the history a little
bit because it actually is kind of a
broader topic but
thomas jefferson i'm sure you remember
know who he is he was the person that
drafted
our bill of rights and he was of course
an anti-federalist
he wanted people to have an america
elodial rights which was
on land and elodial rights is sort of
this sense of property that is
the only way to describe it is
especially back then if you went far
enough
west and you had the ability to defend
your land and exclude it from others and
i guess west would be somewhere in ohio
at that time
and i guess you'd be able to defend it
from the shawnee or
the pawnee or why not or those people
you would have this land
ownership without complete rights to the
land without having sort of any sort of
dominion over you there'd be no
government be able to take it from you
now at least from a legal sense
um the compromise with madison was that
we would have
instead of getting rid of all the feudal
aspects of property ownership in america
we would keep some aspects of that
meaning that the sovereign could still
take some of your land
for a public purpose and it would be
your rights were protected if you had
you know the government would have to
pay for that public purpose
you couldn't just take your land and
lose it and be left without it
um and so the term fee simple the term
fee is actually
harkens back to that little aspect of it
but it's simple when you have it means
you have a right to enjoyment of the
property for you and your heirs in
perpetuity
meaning pretty much it's just yours the
occasional
the government can come in with eminent
domain
and so uh
obviously there's some basic definitions
there's a black slaw definition basic
it's well they all mean the same they
can can't
government entities has the ability to
convert privately owned property
especially after public use for
reasonable compensation
the taking um in
a lot of property law actually turns on
what is the definition of peaking
obviously if i just go and take your
land that's a taking
however it gets a little bit more
complicated when there's regulations
that are not taking the land
like let's say if you own a timber farm
and government says state government or
federal government says you can't
whatever reason you can't do timber
farming anymore on your land
well they didn't take your land but they
essentially took the value of it so
there is at some point there is an
argument
in case it gets more complicated
um obviously no mexico constitution
article 2
section 18 you know it kind of uh
mirrors exact language from article um
sorry the fifth amendment
constitution basically right to
life liberty and property without due
process law cannot be deprived of it
private property should not be taken or
damaged for the public without just
compensation those are
kind of the same things also in process
which we'll talk about later
and then we'll talk about kind of the
more interesting
concepts here so cities city of las
cruces under nmsa 31810 has the power
of animated domain but if you read the
definition there on the bottom paragraph
you're pretty much down to the rights of
basically public access
utilities very few things
and there's a reason for that um and
i'll kind of go to
why we lost the power of eminent domain
uh for economic development going back
to some
poor cases so it was a case in 1896 the
supreme court is burlington railroad
company versus chicago
that was the first time the supreme
court said because of the 14th amendment
the power of eminent domain essentially
the
rights the protections of of the
domain i mean the government could take
your property but they had to pay for it
was established essentially that no
state could just take your land
compensating me great so let's flash
forward here
like much later later uh there's a case
called uh berman b
parker it's a case based in washington
dc
now it's an interesting case at that
time in the 50s i guess dc was
there's a lot of tenements that were
such light
there was abandoned uh
dc wanted to uh take the land
from the other property owner they
couldn't didn't have the resources to
actually develop
and do it with another developer
and so they can make condominiums and
the supreme court
actually sided with uh the city
they allowed him to do that because of
economic development it was a public
purpose for it
but you know the case gets more
interesting as time goes on
uh in 2005 this is a big case this is a
really important case it'll be booking
lots of things
it's a connecticut case kilo versus i
think the city of new london
in connecticut and in there you had a
situation where
the city of new london took land
under exit domain for economic
development but the land itself was not
blighted
there was no safety hazard or public
health hazard it was just not being used
to its maximum economic potential
and it benefited the city to
raise revenues in a sense the idea was
it would go to a developer
and it was and it was going to be part
of like some sort of a
large campus for pfizer you know the
pharmaceutical company
now you know well they sided with the
city
that got a lot of
in the power of eminent domain
development
you'll see here um on this slide
my connection's a little off on this
slide in 2007
the state of the state of new mexico
eliminated the power of municipalities
to use
eminent domain for economic development
this is literally two years after that
rule
and and to give you other ideas about
that ruling what ended up happening with
that city
it was an economic disaster it was
essentially that
pfizer left four years later the
property never was never developed
again it was similar disaster for
property owner rights and actually for
the city itself
um it's so also in part of this you know
the city of las cruces
you can see this in 20 in 2008 about a
year after that
took limited's own authority to the
eminent domain economic development it
really wasn't necessary
but i think it was just as also saying
property owners
throughout the city we understand
respect your rights
okay due process and this is a kind of a
honestly i could go on for days about
this i won't
um there are two different parts of the
process here's your procedural due
process
and that's obviously whatever action
you're taking
or whether you're being deprived of
property
or your liberty and the government wants
something from you
you have a process for that and
obviously you know this um
anybody that's watched these sort of
procedural show about criminal law
like law and order you know that okay
criminals have rights and so
if you're charged with a felony the the
district attorney will either
charge you through a secret proceeding
called a grand jury
you get a notice saying i've seen these
when i was a d.a
to read these those greetings you're
being charged with
so and some felonies these are the these
are the this is what the actual statutes
are for the felonies
you can testify you have the option to
justify if you want
you know and then if not that or they go
through a preliminary hearing which is
like a mini trial
where they establish both both processes
that establish
do you have probable cause to charge
some of the felony so
that's kind of like whatever's due for a
person for a
particular issue whatever process has
been set up by law
by by case law or by
statute or regulation that's the process
you have now there's another aspect of
the
process it's called substantive due
process that means
it doesn't matter what the process is
even if the government follows the
process
the question is is the government
justified
in taking the action it does whether
it's taking your property
your life or liberty by by the
based on its justification and
essentially is the government justified
to do what it's doing
by law and that's a whole separate set
of sub
questions but it's important to
understand these concepts because
sometimes property rights can be go fall
into both
but um as far as and i put some
definitions of this
he hears due process of course the legal
requirement the government respects all
rights
that are owed to a person and basically
if you're similarly situated
you have the same process as the person
next to you doesn't matter
what their race is it doesn't matter
what kind of wealth they have it
those things don't matter a person is
the same as any other person
and of course as you know we kind of
went over this earlier
both the mexico state constitution and
the u.s constitution
both protect your due process rights
and in kind of an important case and let
me discuss this
the the what's so important about due
process it is a right
just like your right to free speech or
your right to be protection from
unreasonable caesar seizure or even
unreasonable force and i'm sure of
course you know that
police officers can get sued under the
constitution for
using excessive force well
if a government entity deprives a person
of due process you can also be sued
and uh there was a good case and i can't
remember now the name it was either
matthew v eldridge or
no not that but name's not important the
point is that
in this case they're a bunch of it's
like in the 30s and a bunch of college
guys
who are being really stupid essentially
did a prank
and this prank was
and can everybody hear me right now i'm
getting an error message
yes yes i can't hear you
just making sure because i was getting
an error message on my you know
so in this case the college kids did a
really stupid prank it caused
essentially they took this original desk
they destroyed it
it was caught on fire and
they were immediately expelled because
you know destruction of this professor's
property is obvious was obviously a
violation of there's the code of conduct
for the school
now the way they were kicked out of
school was just by a letter
and even though it's obvious that they
should have been kicked out they were
still
deprived of the right of that they were
supposed to have a hearing
and even though the hearing should have
been a foregone conclusion they were
still deprived of it
and they were still allowed to sue for
damages for not having the process
itself
even though the the all the evidence was
pretty obvious he had enough witnesses
to know that
look they did this prank they caused
this property damage it's a violation of
the code of conduct it the fact that it
was a foregone conclusion
did not you know obviate the fact that
you have to provide
somebody due process um
and so let's talk about how that really
affects us
in in in terms of planning and zoning
and here's a quote from the batter shell
case
essentially the hearings we're going to
have the judicial hearings the
qualitative judicial hearings you will
have
are essentially about certain decisions
to make on property
on parcels of land you'll have somebody
and you've seen this people will come
and protest
a certain position as part of that
the example batter show what it
represents is that if you're going to
have testimony
the court realizes that
you know an administrative hearing by
planning and zoning or like most
administrative hearings
are not going to have all the same
safeguards and procedures
for you know a criminal case
where somebody is being convicted or
means possibly going away forever
it doesn't have those same set of
procedures what it'll have is though is
that
it it should have the basics and one of
the things is that if you're going to
have testimony that testimony should be
under oath
that meaning that there should be the
potential of a perjury charge if they do
lost somebody does lie and that
a purpose the witness the the party has
a right to
cross-examine the witness meaning that
the witness makes a testimonial
statement
the opponent opposing party has a right
to ask follow-up questions regarding
their statements
their beliefs how did they come to these
conclusions how did they see certain
things
and basically test the veracity and
and the possible bias of that a witness
might have
now again the court recognizes that
these hearings are not going to have the
same procedural safeguards you're not
going to have
for example in a civil case and some of
these like last seven days along the
federal court
i have to make there's a whole
month-long process before that where
i make motions of liberty where there
are all these like sets of motions where
we argue
even before the judge can i raise a
certain argument can i use a certain
exhibit
in front of the jury you don't have to
do those types of things you don't have
to have like dauber hearings whether or
not
somebody is an expert to figure out that
they have the ability to testify about a
certain thing
or you don't have to testify or worry
about and vanir a witness and
ask them hey how do you know these
particular facts
you don't have to do those types of
things um
you just have to get testimony has to be
on oath there has to be some sort of
cross-examination
just to have you know the testimony have
a certain
level of credibility and reliability
the the fact finder and that's you the
body the commission
has to be able to make a determination
that these statements
are not just some statements on a piece
of paper but that they could
the uh the person may or may not be
telling the truth or maybe
not necessarily not lying or not telling
the truth but maybe they don't actually
know or have reason to know the things
that they are saying or maybe they don't
have enough
information or maybe that they do have
too much bias about a particular issue
okay so okay this slide kind of shows
the procedural process that
there has that the for plenty of joining
um charter article six and it says
section
6.01 601 it really is all of article 6
is about planning and zoning it
establishes commission
in its powers and its duty in a general
terms not specifics
when you go to the mexico state
statutes 319-1 they're right there
they establish the fact that the the
city of las cruces has the ability
to establish a planning and zoning
commission
this was even before these statutes
existed way before even our charter
right to create our charter than the 90s
did
and so under 38 lcmc
under our municipal code 3810b
those are the duties that the planning
zoning commission has and we don't have
to go over in detail over them
but there they are on the next going
down
on your left and after a
a final issue or a decision by
the pnz board at the very bottom it can
be appealed
to the city council and i'm just going
to go
really briefly over this but all those
decisions and
again the the person the party that's
that's doing the appeal can elect to
have a battleship process
meaning and there's been some sort of
debate between the different city
attorneys that have been here um
at least when i was around it was that
from for maine to pete connolly
to rusty bamington and jennifer vega
brown
there was always like a as far as what
was the appeal process you can have a
battery shell process where you
literally take testimony you have a de
novo review meaning the testimony is
done again
and they make determinations based on
this as long as the same witness are
testifying
you can make a decision no
or you can do a sort of record review
process and
at least that's what pete conley was
saying you could do a record review
process meaning
you just took the transcripts any
exhibits
you reviewed that and based your
decision without testimony without just
reading what's on the transcripts
and on exhibits and then make a decision
um
as far as the if there is sort of an
appeal of that decision
on city council there is a under the
district court rules
there is a rule nmra 1074
that allows you to just take your
decision it's not a lawsuit you're
taking
a decision you're peeling it into
district court having a district judge
make a decision and the decision they'll
be making is
did the city have a reasonable purpose
you know you know government purpose to
making the decision
and was the decision reason that you
know wasn't reasonable not capricious or
arbitrary
and that's what the purpose of having
these comprehensive guides these master
plans
if you're basing your decision on that
that that that's one of the things you
can use to defend
you know i can use it to defend the
city's position
okay relupa okay and
you can read that the religious land use
is institutionalized persons act and
let me preface this before i start
talking about in detail about this
let me take you back to 1994. uh 1994
newt gingrich and the republicans took
the con to congress and as part of his
contract with america one of the things
that he
was championing was sort of and it was
it wasn't
a law it was the religious freedom
restoration act
and it was very encompassing it sort of
told
it gave instructions to state
governments and local governments
it actively told them there were certain
things that they had to do to protect
people's religious freedoms
and you had this important lawsuit come
out
uh that in 2005 the supreme court it was
called the city of bernie
the flores now flotus was a catholic
bishop
in the city of bernie and bernie is like
a little bit west of it's kind of
reminds me of riddle so it's kind of a
little bit of west of austin
it's kind of a quiet town um this
bishop had this church that was i think
built by
german immigrants at like the turn of
the century
and he was since it was a very small
church he wanted to
do a bunch of expansions to that church
for you know current worshipers
the city of bernie said they couldn't be
done because any sort of expansion
would be a violation of that of their
historic district
it was a historic you know church and it
was
and there was a process for that and it
certainly went went through that process
and it
definitely wasn't and and the expansions
would violate any of
the historic district code and their
building code for it for that historic
building
the bishop brought suit and then it went
across the supreme
court under the religious freedom
restoration act
and he basically said he bought it as a
cause of action said that the city of
bernie
is in hindering his ability
to practice his religion and to be a
priest and have other parishioners come
to his church
by having these this historic district
regulation
and of course the city of bernie said
well hey
this historic district regulation has
nothing to do with catholics or church
or
religious people or not it's just this
it's a historic building
it happens to be a church um
the supreme court shot it down shot down
the the religious religious restoration
freedom uh
act and it basically said that this that
the congress didn't have that ability
to tell states and didn't have the
ability to tell states
in local governments that you could you
could just regulate
uh you could regulate in this way
causing sort of sort of causes of action
and and creating um these sort of
affirmative rights to
like people within the states and cities
regarding religion
so they took and they took another
different act and they came up with
lupa and one of the things that does and
we'll go over that
really quick roulette but no government
shall pose and implement a land use in a
manner that imposes
substantial burden on the exercise of a
person including a religious assembly
um as a further it's a compelling uh
sort of a compelling interest and it has
to be at least a restrictive means
furthering that compelling government
interest
and and so what it does with lupa was it
provided
if you were going to get federal funds
and we'll go over this
it goes to people that are incarcerated
so if it applied to people essentially
that were in prison so if you get money
if your state gets money for
prisons federal money you basically have
to follow these rules and
that causes a number of other different
issues that we're really not here for
today
but the other substance if kind of under
the commerce clause
if there's a substantial burden that you
put some sort of regulation on a church
and there's a substantial burden
in in just the practice of
of of commerce with another nation then
it also is implicated with this but also
in the number c which is the easiest
part i think is kind of dealing with
plain zoning if you're making a planning
and zoning has
an effect on a real religious
institution
you could be having a there could be a
cause of action
under lupa um and so let me talk about
the cases
they're kind of in under relupa and so
there's not a whole lot of like case law
saying
particularly under lupa regarding this i
think
under there was another 2009 i think
eight case
cutter the wilkinson in that case they
upheld
lupa regarding prisoners but there
hasn't been a whole lot
as far as going to the federal courts
regarding
who what can actually be done regarding
um
what what what are the actual like case
law think precedence that
we can follow but we know this from like
the second circuit so there was um
sunrise detox v the city of white plains
and in in that the the little city there
was saying
okay it was a real religious institution
had a sort of detox center
it was sort of as part of its you know
religious establishment
beliefs they had this sort of you know
rehab center where they were using
religion and they were getting
people to sort of um you know obviously
rehabilitate people from their drug use
and
the city said you can't do that church
because if you're going to do some sort
of rehab
you have to be zoned for that well the
second circuit said that
you you actually they came down in favor
of the church and said you have to
actually
let them do this because it is having a
substantial impact this
even though it's a standard zoning
regulation it has a
substantial impact on the practice of
the religion and the practice of that
church was that they wanted to do rehab
for people and so you can see there's a
number of decisions like there was
another one in
hackensack new jersey where
uh you know it was an orthodox
okay it was an orthodox uh synagogue and
it was
there was issues about they wanted an
expansion
to do an expansion they had to add
additional parking
and a lot of the neighbors complained
when they went to like
uh the pine zoning commission there said
you know
you know it's just going to cause a
burden of all these parking issues and
stuff in the area because i guess
there's not a lot of parking in that
area
it's a very urban area and
you know the church said well the
synagogue said look look
we you know since we're orthodox we have
to walk
to our service and you know
they ended up losing at that level at
the city level
but of course it goes to the um i think
it was the second
third circuit now fourth first circuit
anyhow the point is
they went to the federal court and they
basically said like look
even though this is a generally
applicable sort of uh
you know guidelines regarding parking in
in
setbacks and all those things are very
general and applies to everybody and
even though it's just a synagogue
it's still having a substantial effect
on the practice
of that religion and you can't do it
so i don't have a whole lot of guidance
as to what can and can't be done it has
to be made
evaluations have to make individually
but key on a case-by-case basis
okay fair housing so fair housing and
we're talking about fair housing you're
talking about
title eight and and under the civil
rights act of 1968
and i think um there's some basic stuff
there it is this fair housing it
protects people from
discrimination whether they're buying or
renting a home or applying for seeking
you know housing assistance or engaging
in sort of other housing activities
and so it obviously protects people from
race color national
national origin religion sex family
status and disability and
let me go over this in more detail
because i think there's something's
missing from this slide but
so in 68 obviously protected against
race color
national origin
and religion and that was in 68 and 74
on the basis of sex so
you couldn't discriminate against people
be you know based on their gender
in 1988 the family status be
people with children could not be
discriminated against in regard to
housing
and then of course later on flash
forward and under the obama
administration under 2012 uh
hud made some regulations saying that
on the basis of sex which originally was
established through for gender you
couldn't discriminate against the lbgt
community
and in 2020 and i forget what month it
was
the supreme court made a decision saying
sex
included on the basis of sex concluded
the
uh included lbgt or sort of sexual
orientation
and gender identity and then about two
weeks ago actually
uh the biden administration i think two
weeks or one week ago it was this month
the body administration regulations that
actually establish those things
that are both gender identity and
orientation
in hud regulations and so essentially
those are the statuses that are
protected from discrimination so
under that you certainly can't refuse to
sell a dwelling to any person based on
those protected classes
or statuses um as far as
discrimination you can't discrimination
regarding any of the people regarding
terms
or privileges about the dwelling so like
if you have a condo and there are
certain like amenities
you can't say that certain people can't
use the pool or
or the gym or whatever
um again it's also it bars sort of
you know discriminatory advertising
saying i only want to rent these people
or
not those people and
you know this thing as far as neglecting
you can't do things like you sort of
neglect maintenance or
or repairs as a unit or make things
unlivable for a person just based on
those types of statuses
okay so you know one of the things
with
those things i mean obviously you know
obviously the people have a right of
action and there's a lawsuit to that but
you know there are certain things that
the government can do like as far as
one of the things that's prohibited is
sort of like
obviously there's a case called
albuquerque commons
which prevents spot zoning spot zoning
is like when you have a zone
an area that's zoned for something and
then you have one partial land that's
zoned differently
and that has you know has a different
condition you know sort of it's zoned
differently for a particular person
well those types of practices and in the
subset of that it's called contract
zoning
where you get a
you you give somebody a favorable
decision it's sort of like spot zoning
out of the zone you get their parcel you
give them a favorable zoning if you
they stick to the point that they can't
use their land for very particular
purposes
even though everybody else in the zone
can use that doesn't have the same
restrictions
and and those things are actually kind
of conditions that
sometimes city governments have used to
do things like redlining or purposefully
making sure that certain people
are not allowed in certain areas it
doesn't say it doesn't say like a
certain minority can't do something
there or buy a house there
but it would make does it would make if
it had
if you make restrictions making it hard
to have multi-family
unit housing or low-income housing or
affordable housing
that would often has a disparate impact
on people that are
essentially a minority status people and
what
could happen is that if there's a
finding of that then of course they
could be subject to a lawsuit
so there are certain practices that of
course are prohibited
that you can't do
so obviously and then this kind of goes
over the same thing obviously we can
never use
land use or zoning practice to result in
unjustified discrimination
that has caused or predict or
particularly cause a disparate impact on
people
and so kind of the thing and you've
heard this before and i know the
assuming the commission has done a great
job of like catherine said responding
to concerns from the neighborhood but
sometimes you do hear
people say things like well they don't
want
multi-family housing units and because
uh it'll cause
crime and it'll you know
i've been heard somebody say once i
don't want those people there or
something like
here in the neighborhood and it
obviously was talking about they thought
they were getting this in they're trying
to create this image that there would be
this crime
would just pop up out of multi-family
housing units
so that is you know one of the things to
look out for when people are
when you're making your decision your
decisions is that
you know they're you know some of these
things can have a different impact on
people and so
we should obviously we can't stop them
from saying certain things
but we should also we should temper our
uh
the commission should temper you know
the the views it sees and understands
that the position
that you know you can't necessarily
listen to all those statements because
one you're getting it gets close to
discriminatory practice and
violating the fair housing act
um and i guess then i'll open
discussions i'm sorry i should probably
send it to how do i stop sharing
okay so at this point i'll open it up to
either my section or catherine or
somebody else so they can have a
discussion
questions oh
i think i did something wrong
jefferson thomas are you still there
sorry i was muted yeah i don't see any
hands up
anybody have any discussion questions or
um i would like um robert would you go
over
the albuquerque commons thing again
because that was a big
deal for a while what happened there
sorry there were three sets of cases for
that and
and one of them was about trying to
remember the
case on the top of my head
well let me go over one when i was to do
a spot with the
reason i brought it up was about spot
zoning we just shouldn't do spots only
meaning
if an area is zoned there's a zone for
an area a whole region
and in that zone you have one parcel
land that
is just has one different zone for it
that's called bodzoni and it's really
prohibited we can't do that
i mean this can't be done um we can
change the zone for the whole area or
maybe change zone
but you can't just deal with partial
land
um as far as the other issues with
albuquerque comments another thing we
really never brought it up in
in in this in the context of my
presentation
but there was a case where it kind of
blurred the lines it kind of made you
think about
what is causing judicial and what is
sort of a legislative
usually legislative decisions that the
commission will make are things like
comprehensive plans
master plans whereas a judicial uh
is usually about you know people
somebody with a parcel of land or couple
parcels land they want to do some sort
of change
so with albuquerque albuquerque in
common's case one of the cases was that
there was a
section in albuquerque but there was
doing a master plan i think it was that
area where they have that outdoor mall
it's gonna be wrong about that okay but
uh it was the outdoor mall or the area
that would become the outdoor mall it
was a huge chunk of land
and they re-zoned it or was part of some
sort of master plan
but the problem was was that really
that area even though it's a large chunk
of land it was really just
one landowner they were making one
landowner you were making a decision and
they really should have been given
even though it was like again a broad
range plan
i'm going to do additional process a
quasi-judicial process and again
that goes to your batter shell and other
things like that
thank you anybody else
okay srizana do you want to give us sort
of a wrap-up of what you hope
we're taking away from this
sure madam chair this is true and
investment for the record
um yeah so i think this was a good um
introductory training for the planning
and learning commission
we would love to hear back if you have
feedback
if you'd like to have
another training on specific issues or
questions that you all may have um you
can just you know send us an email or
let us know right now
so um i don't really have a lot to add
other than that
and we just thank you for your time
thank you for the information it's
i'm a little overwhelmed at the moment
but i took notes and i'll look at it
again and try to
digest it more i think one of the things
that
one plan one problem i've had often with
puds is
i don't really see lots of times
developers do puds and they don't really
give that much in the way of
you know public facilities in return for
getting the pud
so i don't know
is there anything in the puds that that
says
a list of the kinds of things they have
to do or does that just get
negotiated individually
this is catherine harrison with the with
community development chair
thomas members of the commission um it
really is
negotiated staff tries to negotiate
those
items as part of the review process
sometimes we have to provide some
guidance or even make some suggestions
uh it is something that i would like to
see maybe made if we're going to keep
the pd process
um during the code rewrite it something
that i would like to be made a little
bit more robust
to ensure that there are triggers there
are timelines
things of that nature because we have
seen issues with some of our existing
beauties
um saying a lot of nice things that
they're going to do x y and z
but then they never they never do it and
there's no mechanism by which to force
them to do it
and so it's definitely something that we
would like to at least make more robust
or a little bit more clear moving
forward
that would be good yeah i'd like to as
we go forward with the
um rewriting the codes that would be a
good that would be an area i'd be
interested in seeing what they do with
that
so
i know yeah go ahead
oh i have a question for probably for
this this is commissioner gordon for
catherine
uh i was under the impression that if a
developer or someone's developing a
piece of property
that borders on a road that has a median
is it not the fact that they are
required to landscape their side of the
median or is that their option
commissioner gordon members of the of
the commission
so we do have language in our code that
requires
that they are responsible um for
for landscaping half their half of the
median
however they can negotiate that
and and pay a fee in lieu um of doing
that
to uh to the city and so that is an
option for them they can do a fee in
lieu they can landscape it
or in instances where
it's a state highway the city can't
force them to do it unless the
unless the dot allows it and sometimes
that can be an issue
well what happens for example let's take
let's take sonoma ranch boulevard for
example
the um the northern part of it now where
they're building all that
uh development on both sides of
snowmobile range up by the state police
headquarters i think you're familiar
with it
um there's a big district there's
medians all the way up to normal ranch
boulevard
and they're developing both sides of
that um
of that road and i remember when they
came before us
i asked a question about landscaping it
was not in their proposal
to to install landscaping and i didn't
remember anything
excuse me about being said that they
negotiated the fact that they didn't
have to do it
is that true
members of the commission i'm i'm
unaware of any sort of special
um exemption regarding that
i do want to say that's something that
we can look into uh but
generally when a commercial business not
not the subdivider
but when a commercial business develops
a long adjacent
to those types of rights of way they're
the ones responsible for landscaping
that
so that means that that moment is a dead
issue as far as landscaping is concerned
unless the city does it
commissioner gordon members of the
commission um
in some areas yes it will be the
responsibility of the city some of those
areas were developed before that
provision was put into place
and in other instances some of those
individuals or
individual property owners did pay a fee
in lieu
the reason that i bring this up is i've
been approached by
uh someone who lives here who asked me
the question
and if i remember correctly they're
going to spend 25 million dollars to go
ahead and
and do the entranceway off at 25 up on
university
isn't there a pot of money that the city
can go to to perhaps
uh the reason they're doing part of the
reason they're doing university is to
beautify the entrance into the city
coming off at 25.
now if you come off of 25 up on loma and
you go up lower then you look at that
barren
median there it's ugly and people ask me
why isn't that being done
and is there not a pot of money that
somebody could go
to city council and ask them perhaps
maybe in some way or form
to to landscape that or do something
with it
commissioner i know this is a little off
off the question about training but
it sort of brings up the fact of what
requirements are
when it comes to doing perhaps a pud
mr uh commissioner gordon members of the
commission um now these are all very
good
questions uh so there's some areas that
are adjacent
to the the interstate for example and i
forget that
the distancing but it's a significant
distance um
where those those rights of way are
actually controlled
by the dot um surprisingly far
um from the the interstate and so in
some instances the
city has zero authority in terms of
landscaping in
in other areas um along loman
yes i'm there there are some monies
perhaps that could go towards that those
are some things that would have to be
budgeted
into the cip and would either come from
the general fund or special funds that
um maybe parks and rec had access to
but those are all things we can find
some additional information out for you
and if you have a very specific
location along loman i'd be happy to
look into it for you
and have the appropriate staff respond
okay thanks were you talking
uh commissioner gordon you were talking
about sonoma ranch right
not loman no that was initially when i
talked about
that there is development going on there
now if you go up sonoma ranch boulevard
going north or just this along where
they
just passed the state police
headquarters that that was built there
they're doing development on both sides
of the road and some of it is commercial
and we voted on this about a year or so
ago i think
and i don't remember them making any
commitment about doing the
and i brought it up at the at the i
think at the commission meeting that
night
about the question of doing landscaping
and i never did get a good answer
and then that just prompted me to to say
also about
lorman where there is no chance now for
anybody to contribute landscaping
because there is development already
done
on both sides of this of the road all
the way up
to road runner
yeah that's been a problem in the past
too there was a further
on south sonoma ranch there was a big
area that
didn't get that that nothing got done in
the median so
yeah it would be good if we could have
more discussion about that
maybe at another meeting
okay thanks anybody else have a comment
or question
okay i guess we'll go on to item number
10 which is commission
commentary anybody have anything to
they would like to speak about at this
point
see none how about staff announcements
are there any staff announcements
madam chair this is david weir we don't
have anything to report um
this evening but if there's any
questions that you had of staff
or any pending cases we'd be happy to
respond
david there's a commissioner gordon have
they actually started on
working on revamping the zoning coach
that the outside consultant
madam chair and commissioner
commissioner gordon
uh this past
was it just monday catherine or last
week the council approved the contract
with freeze nichols
to start that project and
later or sometime next week we're going
to have our initial
background information meeting with the
consultants and once the contract is
signed and executed
we will go forward and schedule the
initial activities for that project so
the short answer i should have given you
first is yes we are approved to start
that project
and i would assume that like working at
elevate las cruces you will have all the
parties that basically were involved in
that
i would think that pertain basically
only to the zoning
uh will participate in the development
of the changes
um madam chair and commissioner gordon
it's a bigger project than just the
zoning code we're going to review the
zoning code
the subdivision code the public
infrastructure design standards
and create a new zoning atlas for the
city
and also have a
[Music]
for lack of a better term a user's guide
to help implement the the plan so it's a
rather
large project now one of the difference
between
elevate las cruces and the ordnance is
that the ordinances are
more technical in nature they are
you know their their laws their
engineering standards
and their you know processes that go
forward so the review will be a little
bit different but you as a planning and
zoning commission who have to make a
recommendation all those will be
integrally involved and i would
anticipate providing
periodic updates to you and i would also
assume that the consultants will
interview you
and ask about what type of issues or
concerns you have
dealing with development cases on a
monthly basis
but one of the first steps they're going
to do is go forward with that
engagement process and outline how they
are going to receive
input from all the stakeholders involved
with the process
this is going to take forever
yes that's been quite a discussion on in
terms of the
uh south uh the el paseo and south
solano and the things that people want
to do in those
neighborhoods and we'll will that
actually end up being in the
in the updating of the codes
so we're going to have an interesting
couple of years going forward
never stops all this work okay
well thank you everybody for
participating and i will uh
entertain a motion to adjourn i make a
motion this commission gordon i make a
motion with you adjourn
a second this is commissioner bennett no
second then
thank you all those in favor say aye
aye all right we're in we're adjourned
and it's
eight i don't know what does this say up
here 13 13
8 13 p.m thank you have a good rest of
the meeting
of the evening now thank you everyone
and good evening and and uh
be safe thank you