[Music]
hey good afternoon everybody welcome to
the work session Las Cruces City Council
today is Monday February 24th 2020 it's
approximately 1 p.m. if you please join
me in the pledge of allegiance please
Jennifer Martinez from our
communications office will introduce our
pet of the week
good afternoon mayor and council I am
Jennifer Martinez with the cities and
communications office and I'd like you
to meet maverick the three-legged wonder
maverick is the perfect mix of cute and
cuddly and he is in need of a forever
home would anybody be interested in
adopting him
you can meet maverick at the animal
service center of the Mesilla Valley
located at 3551 Bataan memorial West the
hours of operation are Monday through
Friday noon to 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday
and Sunday noon to 5:00 p.m. and there
is an off-site location this weekend
that includes the farmers market from
9:00 a.m. to noon hopefully this is the
last time I'll have to mention this
until the winter returns but we ask that
you never leave your pets outside for
long periods of time if your pet has
short hair know their limits if walking
use reflective gear especially with
daylight saving time and darkness wipe
their paws and then for cats make sure
you check vehicle hoods as they make
climb into or onto cars for warmth thank
you ok Thank You Jennifer ok we have one
item for today's agenda and depending on
how long it goes that's why it's just
one item so while back a few years back
and I see
mayor Wharton emeritus Sharon Thomas in
the audience the city of Las Cruces was
one of four cities to receive about a
two million dollar grant to help plan
various what they fill different
corridors and so we were one of four
city
he's selected and we chose to use up a
sale now the drawback or the the kicker
was there was no money involved it was
all planning from the HUD or
transportation department transportation
a few other federal agencies and so we
did some pretty extensive planning but
we didn't really have the money to put
it forth so fast forward today and then
with the success of our downtown area
and the fact that we do have it in our
in our strategic plan to have some type
of means of mechanism of transportation
between the Convention Center and the
downtown so lo and behold that's how
this is this work session here so we may
talk about did talk about that that plan
the corridor and then the charlie
trolley at like type buses and so I was
very fortunate I guess David Armijo it
was was reading I think there was right
as I got elected or re-elected the Sun
News allowed me to put up guest
editorial and I talked about a few
different things and one of them was was
this and so I know that he in
conjunction with the city worked out a
pretty cool-looking plan and so I wanted
to share that with you all and see what
you thought and if that's something you
wanted to move forward then we'll
discuss ways to move forward so I don't
know it looks like we have either David
Armijo David where Mandy Gus and and
Lynn Gallagher Richard Hanway who's
gonna be discussing so I don't know
who's gonna start first oh that's right
we need a motion second to allow
councillor Gil stork to participate
telephonically so moot second motion
made by Mayor Pro Tem ganda a second by
councillor Florida's to allow councillor
Gil stork to participate via the
telephone so Christine this is on the
motion to allow counselor soar to attend
the meeting telephonically councillor
Aveda Stevie yes
Vasquez yes counselor Bencomo yes
princess ork yeah
counselor flooded yes counselor Gandara
yes mayor yes and counselor stork thank
you for being proactive and not sharing
with us your flu yeah we appreciate that
very much
that means a lot to us no no no no clue
what is it a cold virus yeah I get
though I don't know okay well whatever
it is I hope you're enjoying that that
your stint there in Vegas I hope it's uh
turned out pretty good okay guys looks
like David's gonna be discussing here
good afternoon I'm David Hill the
executive director for the South Central
Regional Transit District and I get the
opportunity to come before you today and
give you a little bit of a story a
little bit of a vision hopefully a
little bit of a message on what we think
we can do in El Paseo so with that we
believe that transportation or better
said mobility can help bring economic
develop and I'm gonna take you through a
few slides a little bit of a vision
excuse me Dave before you go can you
just briefly because we have two new
council members a little bit what would
you do currently and what you used to do
because used to do this stuff yeah thank
you very much well have two parts
because I always say this when I meet
people sometimes for the first time
although some of you I think I've known
for a bit I'm actually was born and
raised in Las Cruces now I must say I
was taken at nine months of age and I
was raised in the El Paso Nevada at
school district so I have that behind me
as well but I have family here I've been
here for several years since I've
returned and I bought a home and so this
is going to be where my final
destination is going to be and I say
that because as I go through this
presentation today and tell you a little
bit more about myself I am the executive
director I was brought in to start the
bus system here and there in the region
and oftentimes we over play or under
play who we really are
so the transit district was created by
state organs there's four of us
in 2006 it was created not to be a bus
company per se it's really created to
make connections and preen people
together and so with that said we look
at this opportunity and what's already
been devised for the open sale quarter
as an opportunity and that's why I'm
here to do today now with that said I
also have 37 years of transit experience
I've worked in four different states I
have put together a number of these
little hopper buses or scheduled
shuttles there's a lot of different ways
of doing it but the key to most of the
success as I go through this
presentation is finding something that's
unique and convenient to the community
and I think that's the challenge we have
before us
so with that hopefully I know what I'm
doing it off the slides work so you all
know the el paseo blueprint and one of
the key elements to that when I was
devised almost a decade ago as we go
forward was that there was a shuttle and
why is a shuttle important well there
has to be a way to connect people and a
way to have people with mobility that's
critical to every way we do I can say
this is having grown up in this region
that transportation and mobility has
changed dramatically people are looking
for ways to get around for a number of
reasons we're going to take you through
that here in just a second but we do
believe a shuttle can be a catalyst for
bringing about redevelopment and
economic development in this region
we'll show you why in a minute so I
grabbed this photo because I thought
this is really great is your downtown
this is all the people come out I know I
go down to all the times on the weekends
and on Wednesdays when they have the
market but it's a very exciting way of
bringing people together and that's what
transportation does it moves people it
connects people and the shuttle we're
going to show you here in a moment we're
looking at connecting the downtown
through Main Street
El Paseo to the University we see the
catalyst the bookends of the downtown
university as being critical to bringing
people together we also see that
connecting the residents you have all
these opportunities new restaurants new
pubs shopping and things that are
already occurring into downtown we want
to make more of that and help provide
these opportunities to stimulate this
development this quarter now the shuttle
itself as you can see here in blue now
how is this different than the
roadrunner services we have
well it's different because we're
looking at making this a 15-minute
frequency if shuttles are going to work
you really want it to be high frequency
where you just walk out yes we'll have
schedules yes we'll have Wi-Fi other
buses and people have it in their hand
where the buses are going but it's even
better when you have that on a bus stop
and you can see that it's coming and
going all the time that's where it
really going to be important also
working with our partners for after
hours and we're going to talk a little
bit more of that of how we use other
services the buses I'm going to show you
two and this these slides are coming
ahead our clean-burning we see the
commitment that the city has to energy
the district we just ordered I just came
from California where we have a couple
of our buses being built right now so
we're gonna have hybrid electric coming
in by August September this year and I
know you have plans to have five of
those vehicles of all electric and
that's great so we want to look at that
possibility of how we could do clean
energy and build it into the system from
day one but we believe free and frequent
trips will be really critical to that
and it'll be important to integrate
everything in the quarter because you
know when we're looking at after
transportation we're looking at ways of
moving people we're looking at bike
lanes and all the other pedestrian
access points now transit amenities some
of the transit amenities that people
look for people are looking at digital
world that we have now they're looking
for I can pay my fare off off the board
but course this is going to be free so
that won't be an issue but being making
connections to other buses will be so
having real-time access to the schedules
having it on the bus line and on the bus
is important every bus with Wi-Fi so
people can do that whatever work and
bike racks and so on all those things
would be very important now vehicles can
be a number of things going to show you
a few cut designs here in a moment this
particular vehicle on the left is from a
University campus in California and this
is action all lecture bus so you can get
them in different sizes that also
shuttle buses can be something as small
as a van or midsize bus but we think a
themed vehicle has benefit in fact when
I was active factory the bus on the
right the trolley was actually similar
one was there that was being built and
so that one if you look actually has two
doors that actually runs on electric
energy so that
electric powered trolley and those are
available from two or three different
companies around the country that could
make those available to us now
Scottsdale has a trolley system in there
near downtown that's running very much
on an hourly basis
now why theme two vehicles four themed
vehicles as a vision is something that
people can recognize so there's a lot of
different ways of doing that maybe a
color coding or whatnot but we like that
opportunity Santa Fe has a shuttle in
fact what's great about the Santa Fe one
if you google it you can bring up your
schedule you can sell the information
that's there and they run these kind of
midsize vans we very similar to Road
Runners paratransit type service and we
run some of those midsize buses too but
the door is open to what that vehicle
could be and there's actually now
lecture vehicles in the same vintage
that are now available as well so
funding up because how do we fund this
you have to have a funding plan well one
of the advantages that the district has
right now is we have a multitude of
funding sources and so those are kind of
things we would look at and work with
our regional partners and those partners
could include New Mexico State
University which you already have a
shuttle on campus and some of that's
being funded the Chamber of Commerce all
these different opportunities and
there's a lot of legislative support we
did very well for the district and I
know the cities and counties this
go-around with our legislature and
looking to have some funding there the
department transportation is a number of
funding sources including the
Environmental Protection Agency or
Energy Department where you can get
money for clean energy vehicles the
course advertising could also be another
way of generating some revenue I think
at this point in time what's most
important when you have a concept is you
need to form a task force you need to
bring people together and start to work
out the plan what can you do when can
you do it and where are we gonna get the
resources to do it
also most importantly with that what's
the timeline because if we don't want to
wait another 5 or 10 years we want to
see what we could get going within the
next year and then of course we want to
be able to communicate that vision I
find it's very helpful to have community
meetings it's it's amazing what you
learn from the public we have a lot of
really exciting retired individuals that
are sciences and people from everywhere
else who have some great ideas so I
think being able to get more of that
going it would be something we want to
do so having a task force that could
with representation from the city the
county and even the chamber of commerce
and other groups would be a way to go
this completes my presentation at this
point we're more than happy to engage in
any conversation or questions you may
have thank you David
questions of David de Stevie and
councillor Vasquez Thank You mr. mayor
and thank you to star me home are we
looking at any specific times yeah of
where we want to see this running for
how late that it would run for thank you
that's a very good question it would not
only how late but how often you know
some services are only five days a week
and if you want a service like this
you're probably going to want maybe
something that's different during the
week and then you have on the weekends
the weekends might be a broader time
schedule I think that one of the things
that we're all beginning to look at and
I didn't show it here but there are
eight cities around the country they're
doing what look at autonomous vehicles
so this is a fairly short run that might
be a couple years down the road but that
could be something that takes care of
the after hours and then you have
regular hours during the week again
15-minute frequencies and so on so you
can you could do this within a one to
two bus type of system I think that's
for the task force I think that's
something you want to bounce back to the
community as well is that certainly the
business community I'd certainly like to
see the landowners along for sale
participate now as well as University
and of course the university has its own
shelf so that could play into this - is
an additional connection thank you and
I'm really glad to hear about that
willingness to work with the University
we do have you know a ton of dorms we
have Pan Am just at the other end of
University and I think it will be really
important as we move on to have great
conversations about making sure that we
connect the two and just to make sure
that we are able to take those students
and get them into the community I think
there's a lot of opportunity to do some
really great things with them and so
I hope that they are invited just as
importantly as our retirees to those
community meetings thank you Thank You
Elsa roscas Thank You mayor so I don't
want to put the cart before the horse on
this discussion I think the to me the
impetus for this working is actually
having an El Paseo that's desirable to
have stops along the way to downtown and
I would think that we would invest more
of our energy into that and then the
transportation piece comes later but I
did notice as councillor basis to be
mentioned that the stop you had on your
diagram was at Union and University
which is not you know where a lot of
especially students that live in student
housing congregate in particular so
being strategic about those stops if
this were to be an option as part of the
corridor redevelopment would be
important the theme vehicles I know that
the mayor's been talking about the
trolleys but also an electric bus right
so are their electric trolleys yes there
are Oh click the one you saw on the
right that is an extra electric vehicle
okay and then the other piece too is I
think you know the student population at
New Mexico State University probably has
a lot of what would have a lot of input
of what kind of experience they would
like to have as part of their
transportation to the downtown so I
figured that that would be one of the
first stakeholders to reach out to if we
are envisioning that they will be the
primary users of this public
transportation so making sure that
that's established perhaps through a
committee from student government or I
don't know the business department or
some folks who might be able to
participate proactively from the
university to lend input us I would hate
for the city to put something out there
for students that they'll never use
because we didn't talk to them so just
some comments on that thank you well
thank you those are all very good
questions and in fact it certainly be
our intent to go further into a
university I think we show this
initially because we know there's
already a shuttle at the University so
we might want to work those two together
and try to find some efficiencies but I
absolutely agree with you
we need something that's more in line
with what the University students are
looking for and perhaps what's available
after hours I know there's the DWI
program that participates somewhat
our local cab company at some other
groups to help offset we want to keep
the keep those young people out of
driving if they're going to some of
those pubs or places along this route so
I think those are things that can be
decided to discuss a little bit further
we wanted to really show the core of
what's available what we think can do
right now you don't have that option
you're not really able to go
point-to-point at a fast rate so you
don't have that encouragement of those
services and I think that needs to be
part of the planning that maybe Road
Runner does and certainly even our
transit district but I think what we can
do is come back with a more details as
we go forward and again having some
community outreach would be very helpful
certainly with the University and sort
like with the business community as well
thank you
councilor Bencomo thank you and thank
you mister ameta i'd me hope for that um
so a couple thoughts I mean I think this
is a great idea I definitely agree with
councilor baskets aren't on on how do we
ensure that we're also investing in just
a better a better el paseo in general
but my my comments are on this
particular idea though I think also what
brings up something I was thinking about
was safety and ensuring that so if we're
thinking about starting it at the
convention center on University I'm not
sure I feel like this is a really good
place for university students
particularly young women to be part of
this conversation if these charli's are
gonna be running later at night I think
that the connectivity to the university
should be closer than the Convention
Center you know where students actually
live which is on the other side of the
university right have those things been
considered yes again this is a kind of
initial core if you actually look at the
10-year plan it goes back there was two
very large loops and there's a lot more
routing that's probably someone we would
build to we would work with that I can
tell you that one of the reasons I like
to convince a center when I saw that
option is having worked in Dallas for a
number of years we had three what we
called hapa buses and we actually had
them named the rabbit the the Frog and
they would actually make those noises
when they came in
that I wasn't I was a planner then this
is waves back I wasn't as enthusiastic
till I start writing it and when I began
to understand is that these shuttles
have different unique characteristics
for example the morning shuttle from the
Convention Center was actually used to
bring employees into the downtown now as
a downtown becomes much more successful
parking is going to become more and more
of a premium so if you have an
opportunity where you can shuttle people
within 15 minutes many of those
companies may very well look for that
aspect of well that'd be good because we
have more parking out there a row will
build more parking somewhere down the
road so that can be one viable option
the second one is to be able to have and
we had a very heavy frequency lunch
shuttle so we move people throughout the
downtown into the West End where all the
restaurants were it was a business
opportunity in economic development
today if you go downtown Dallas you find
housing villages everything else has
been built and honestly a lot of that
came from that project the light rail
system and other elements of
transportation so you kind of cut in a
situation well if you build it will they
come or do we wait you know you can go
both ways I think the reality it comes
to is what can we do now to help that
business community what can we do to
bring put help a sale back and bring it
forward to what it could be and I think
the transportation could be a viable
option it will certainly need a lot of
work with the university because that's
a major player in this those students
many of those students are here from all
over the country internationally they
don't have transportation so they're
they're going to be a major element to
this and much really incredible for
transit they're the ones we need during
the off-peak sand then the weekends and
at night that's what helps offset your
employer base part of it so I think
there's a lot of room for possibilities
for this I think more dialogue and a
more divided defined plan you're seeing
the concept here today just the vision
we need an actual plan and then we'd
come forward with that great thank you
yes I just want to make sure that just
safety measures are taken into
consideration in terms of location
lighting things like that
my second thought as I was as you were
presenting about this
and I was I kept thinking about I kept
thinking about safety issues I started
thinking about our current I couldn't
help it think about our current bus
right the one that runs every day for
every day people here in Las Cruces and
thinking about how much infrastructure
that still needs right and thinking
about the bus stop in front of the
Albertson's on El Paseo doesn't have
shade and it's very highly used bus stop
right and I mean little things like that
honestly I would love us to I would love
for us to have a work session around
what free public transit and the entire
city could look like as well as
accessibility in terms of it I love the
idea of an app for this particular
trolley but also for the bus system
Soaker I would love us to have a
conversation about that as well thank
you anybody else before I go to public
comment how many of you all here and
since this is our only Oh counts for
sorry did you have anything you'd like
to say hello counts for sort okay so
hope I give you everyone five minutes to
speak so how many of you like to at
least talk on this initial part and
we'll relax the rules as far as how many
times you can speak well this is just as
one part here just to kind of get things
going here get the get the party started
they don't seem too enthusiastic here so
this gentleman done and then Ross may
pretend Thomas is that Steve Newby yeah
and then I'll start on this side here
just need you to state your name up to
five minutes please I'm done Kurtz and
mayor and councillors it's it's great to
be here and talk about at this and I
don't have any great wisdom I just think
it'd be a great thing to have in the
city and a lot of fun you know
connecting NMSU where there's 15,000
students that are often somewhat
isolated from the rest of the city to
come to entertainment venues downtown
and jump on it especially I mean I
travel all over the country
public transit but even I'm scared to
get on a bus I don't know how much it
costs I'm not sure I can him so having
free service I think would be great and
I actually I second the idea throughout
the city a lot of cities are doing that
around around the country and you save
on the other end because you're not
building as much parking and all those
kinds of things but anyway I think
connecting those those two major parts
of our city are important regular
service seems important to me because
that way people can start counting on it
to go to work for example and go to sue
go to classes and go the other direction
and all of a sudden it creates a
corridor in my view with lots of
opportunities for residential things for
seniors for Millennials for students and
people can come up and down and jump on
and off in and get back and forth and
this is this idea of a pastel which we
inherited is is common throughout Latin
American cities where that's a major
thoroughfare along which people move and
converse with one of those it's a
centerpiece and we can only think you
know think of the paseo de la reforma in
Mexico City which is exactly that kind
of thing and I I picture in my mind all
the vans I see going up and down that
all the time carrying people throughout
the day and night so one last thing I
think it helps brand us as a city and
maybe we don't have really interesting
lives but I would say that when people
come to visit us we would take them to
visit the trolley and it'd be fun to get
on at one end and ride downtown and the
museums and things so I think it becomes
something that's special about the city
and special about us so anyway I just
wanted to share with you my enthusiasm
for the project so thank you thank you
for that and trust
mayor council my name Russ Smith an
exciting idea to talk about the El Paseo
corridor and connecting University in
downtown and everything in between a few
things stand out in my thinking of it
when I was a kid growing up I remember
trips that I would take from Oregon to
California road trips with the family
and one of the destinations with San
Francisco and I do distinctively
remember the idea that when we were
going to go to San Francisco we got to
ride on the trolley cars cable cars
cable cars yeah what's so fancy about
that but it caught my mind it catches
the imagination I think of so many
people it's a different way of moving
it's a different experience
it was the Klang Klang it was the rumble
Rumble it was a stop and go
it was the interaction with that which
was going by and that which you were
riding with it was distinctive how to
get distinctive in transportation in
nowadays is its own challenge another
idea that comes to mind is the idea of
shade so that if the corridor does
create pockets of shade or continuous
shade if the plaza has shade if
destination points have shade that's
really a draw that keeps coming up over
and over and over again shade comfort a
distinct idea and one more thing to
consider from my point of view is as
you're dealing with using a corridor
like this whether it's made beautiful
throughout the extent or pockets of
beauty when you use something like this
as a passenger getting off at your
destination do you feel like you have a
do you feel like you have come to a
place that was important to you or do
you feel like you got off and that bus
took off or that cars were racing by or
the experience of arriving was less fun
so I think creating that sense of
arrival that sense of destination and
this is worth my time it's what I look
for it's what I wanted in the experience
might play a role in all of it thank you
thank you rest
it comes the hardest working lady in Los
Cruces who's retired good afternoon
mayor and city council members i'm
sharon thomas um this is one of the
first projects I worked on when I was on
the City Council and I was in Santa Fe
and I ran into a Ray Powell I think you
remember him from the state land office
and somehow we started talking about
this and he said oh you should apply for
one of these EPA grants and so we did
and there were a couple of councilors
and a couple of planners and some people
from the community and we sent all this
in and then we got a call for a phone
interview so we all got into the
conference room and they called me and
when when we got done we kind of looked
at each other and said we did okay and
then we got it which we just terribly
surprised so but it was a wonderful time
we had great consultants all my
opportunities to work with consultants
and various projects around this city
and county these guys were the best a
couple of young guys from Flagstaff they
got the Realtors Association to buy
disposable cameras and people in the
area went out and took three pictures of
things they liked and three pictures of
things they didn't like and then they
made all these posters with all it you
know so and another thing they did was
they had aerial maps and they put kind
of tissue paper over it and people came
to that meeting and talked about what
they wanted they had artists there who
on the spot drew and a lot of it was
shade whiter sidewalks some little parks
things like that and then there was also
one of the teachers at the high school
brought her one of her classes and they
they drew in that pedestrian bridge that
goes across then they were all involved
in that so you know I really felt like
this plan was incredibly driven by
public participation in ways that I'm
with very many other consultants this is
sort of like University of Arizona
counselor Florida's in counseling under
I remember when we wrote the yeah it's
kind of a light-rail thing but they are
the same problem we have where their
campus in there in this entertainment
area are not right next to each other so
they have this kind of transportation
there's also a private company that has
that of another kind of transportation
where everybody can sit on the either
side and help pedal it and drink at the
same time for what it does have a driver
but we really saw how vibrant that area
was with that connection to University
of Arizona so so I would see things here
like how one problem is I think you'd
like to have both housing and commercial
students would be interested in living
there probably retirees University
Michigan State and Indiana University
both have big apartment and loft and
condos development out near their
university campus and a lot of people
who went to the school there are
retiring and living in those those
residences so the other seven pieces of
land coming up for rezoning tomorrow at
the at the Planning and Zoning
Commission so I don't know what their
interests are but there is some interest
in working in that area electric
electronic caregiver is located there
Albert Parra is here from electronic
caregiver this is the kind of thing that
Detroit did you know they got Quicken
Loans to come and then they made their
downtown really attractive to
Millennials so we have electronic
caregiver they're planning on hiring
much more
we don't many more people they're mostly
Millennials could this be the places
they want to live or you know where they
want to be could it help us attract
other high-tech industries along El
Paseo and so then I finally feel like to
say that El Paseo corridor plan also has
goals and
actions and it's there's a lot of the
planning is done there it includes
things like maybe we need a form-based
code for that part of the city we need
to look at maybe Complete Streets there
was a whole safety road safety
assessment done and and that needs to be
implemented and I certainly both the
transit and a big emphasis on affordable
housing thank you and just as a reminder
thank you mayor Burton we're gonna after
we get done with this public comment
there's some more the city staff will
present and then maybe a little bit more
comment and go back and forth like I
said we've we've got five hours to talk
about this
and mr. mayor councillors my name is
Steve new be a partner in las cruces TV
he sees no further up and can you move
that podium up so if you can hear a
little bit right thanks this better that
smooth soothing voice that I can't yeah
good afternoon it's always hard to
follow Shari because she seems to be a
subject matter expert in darn near
anything I also had not realized that
you all made her an emeritus member of
the City Council and I've been an
emeritus member of the downtown
organization for about 20 years and I
told her all that means it's a really
nice word for being an old fart and she
kind of laughed anyway by way of
introduction for the new counselors I'm
a partner in Las Cruces community
partners our group designed and built
the plaza in 16 months we recently
finished the historic renovation and
adaptive reuse of the old JCPenney
building and to write retro Cade project
almost killed us but if you haven't been
you need to go and we're currently
working on downtown apartments which i
think is going to be the next piece that
we need downtown because you have to
have people living within walking
distance to make a vital downtown and so
we really think that will be another
piece to the puzzle on the shuttle like
sherry we've we've studied this we've
talked about it we've had meetings with
New Mexico State University but I was so
pleased to see a work session on this
and you obviously have a great expert in
David to make this a reality a lot of
what Russ said about shade and
destination is important in any
transportation piece but especially with
one that can connect New Mexico State
University with downtown
I did like Sherry's comment about you
can drink alcohol along the way and
Russell's already volunteered to be the
driver cook hotdogs while they're
serving liquor I think you would have a
lot of customers for that
one other piece though is the safety
aspect one of the things that lost crews
community partners has learned by doing
a large amount of study hiring a number
of experts ourselves is kind of a Rugal
of five that for a downtown to come back
from a long history of being pretty much
dead
you need five restaurants you need five
liquor establishments you need five
retail establishments you have to get a
synergy and a nexus to to make it a
place where when people are sitting
around with let's say visitors and I
asked this question a hundred times and
many presentations raise your hand last
time you had out-of-town visitors you
took into Mesilla everybody keep her
hand up if you took them to downtown Las
Cruces one or two now I think that will
be different but safety then becomes a
concern if you've been to write retro
Kade at 2:00 a.m. in the morning when
they close not necessarily everybody is
coming up fully sober the shuttle would
solve a lot of that because by that time
of morning usually the average age is
way down to about college age and being
able to simply just get on the shuttle
and go back to the University I think
would be a great benefit to the city as
well as to the Vipers lastly many many
presentations I used to say this is
downtown revitalization and we are here
did that for years because it didn't
move finally got Main Street in okay now
we're here it is a long journey I would
say we're more than halfway there
but I learned in a national Main Street
convention in Indianapolis an incredible
speaker said do you think your downtown
is done and this was to 2,000 people and
he said downtown's are never done it's
always a journey that just when you
think you're here or here or even here
somebody moves the bar I think this
piece would go a long way to help us get
towards that point because Millennials
have a much different way to looking at
transportation
just look at Boober and and the impact
that has had and we fully support this
idea and thank you so much for
counseling staff and looking at this
thank you Steve no thanks the okay I
appreciate that is there anyone else on
my on my left mr. Jefferson I think you
had two minutes left from the last
meeting just kidding
my name is Vince Jeffers I think you
guys have resources already in place and
you just may not be using them wisely
when you invested a lot into that hub
over there across the street from La
clinica I know everybody in this
community just loves the word free and
it's thrown around a lot so if you do it
properly I think it could be a good
thing one of the things that I'm
concerned about is it being used
properly and and the route that it takes
if you want it to be used why not
include more New Mexico State University
they got a huge parking lot on the other
end of that university instead of going
to Convention Center maybe make it a
square instead of a little I can tell
you from Atlantic City it worked out
pretty well the jitney it's called where
you can get from one place to another
and it's pretty quick and the students
at the university use it as well so if
you do it the right way I think it can
work if you look at a way of well we can
increase this person's land value here
take that person's land buy land and
destroy the value and just take their
property and I think it's going to be
more of a problem than than a benefit
and again you brought mr. noobie up and
you guys are still looking at all that
as an accomplishment it's a great one
but you know if you know the the whole
history behind that building Wells Fargo
and you know it's great the deal that
you gave to electric electronic
caregiver but Randy McMillan and that
crew
you know they got away with a lot mr.
noobie benefited as well as other
employees or former employees of the
city so it's nice to see the people want
to make a difference but their motives
are just needing to be you know to help
the city and the citizens instead of
helping you know self-serving and
there's a lot of that and I'm just
hopeful that you guys keep that in mind
when you move forward Thanks thank you
so that about on my right the first row
second row third row fourth fifth yes
so gentlemen from electronic caregiver
did you want to say anything
no okay I think that's really rude you
know just come forward please
got that short thing going on
good afternoon everybody usually don't
come to these sessions but this session
seems kind of important because it has a
long structure of what what's gonna
happen with our transport systems
everybody did you see train I did not
I'm sorry about that man my name is
really really wrong I live about 26:15
Creston Las Cruces New Mexico eight
eight zero one one real easy to find but
uh back to my to my presentation sorry
about that it's good to see guys all up
there you guys are doing great work I've
been watching you guys from the
sidelines have been pretty busy with
other affairs and now that there else
summing up real quick like I have more
time to be more involved with my
community as I am a community member and
always have been since elementary school
when I was a hall monitor in student
council president all over the world as
I was a u.s. army brat married to an
army
married to a a doctor which is not
working for Pfizer as a medical liaison
but uh my thing about what this whole
thing is it sounds pretty great as a
person I was I was saying before I was
interrupted by our mayor for not doing
my proper procedure
I wrote public transportation and walked
around this city for
long time coming from a person that had
seven vehicles when he moved to this
city and recreational vehicles
motorcycles boats you could ask anybody
I had everything before I came here as a
master electrician with the journeyman's
license that I didn't even need in the
state of New Mexico because I was just
didn't need it but but with the garden
is what that said I come here and say
how great this is because I am a world
traveler about 36 countries on my
passport I've traveled all over America
and these trolleys and bus systems are
awesome and I I encouraged this very
much so but I encouraged to leave it
open so I I was so surprised at Miss ban
Como's let's do everything the whole bus
system as a person like I was saying
I've been disabled since 2010 when I
came up here I thought I had a mental
breakdown sir you remember I had a
stroke I'm sorry I've never been sick a
day in my life as a rosebud Sioux we
don't get sick of my reservation we're
the Sioux tribe that fights and we're
civil rights activists so if you wonder
why I got everything where I got it was
all those senators and it's the same
that the Senators took all this money
away from our school district
they took untold amounts of money away
from our schools these senators and I'm
sure they have their reasons why but I
hope that these senators find it in good
grace to provide for our schools that
that's also important as this trolley
system but uh what I believe what this
thing should also incorporate maybe at a
later time is why don't we go up to
Dripping Springs on the weekends or
something like a to trip thing go take
them out over there because you know as
a Native American I love all that and
that's a federal land and I'm all about
federal but uh that would be a good
place we could even get some money
probably and help Dripping Springs out
incorporate Las Cruces to a better place
maybe even build I know there's a lot of
land that's going out there for sale
usually when I'm other than a lot of
fancy resorts in place and they have
resorts for places like that so they
could go walk out plays shoot a couple
games of golf a couple games of hoop go
over there to Dripping Springs and enjoy
it or how about we make it when the loop
that that they were talking about
we're doing these horseshoes I can't
animus you have two or three stops and
come back this way because that guy said
I wrote this public transit system for a
long time because I was disabled and I
could barely walk and so I wrote it and
I saw all everybody standing out there
in the heat and shade and everybody
driving by all cool and their air
conditioning vehicles why our citizens
are sweating and dehydrating in there
but this system here you guys have a
great plan and with two million dollars
I know what I could do it did I would I
was also attacked that it's not
necessarily adding more money to fix a
problem we can incorporate a lot too if
everybody is going for the front door
and nobody knows about the side door all
the commotions gonna be at the front
door but if we educate people there's a
side door for an alternate motive to go
into over here then all of a sudden our
influx of it people has been dispersed
and you have less of a conflict of
interest and everybody's happy because
everybody's getting what they want and
as far as all this I will stick to the
New Mexico theme and I wouldn't try to
change and I think is what are we known
for we're known for our culture the
Gadsden Purchase stuff like that history
stuff we can't change but I reserved my
15 seconds thank you thank you really I
think that pretty much completes the
initial comments on this so now I think
David is gonna go to part two
accounts for sword you still with us
hello yes man I'm here okay great you
did do you have any questions of before
we go into the next part mayor no I I'm
gonna reserve my comment to the end
okay got it thank you David
mayor city councilors a good afternoon
I'm David we're with the Community
Development Department and I'm part of a
group presentation by the Community
Development Department the quality of
life Department and Economic Development
Department CD will cover some of the
history and planning efforts and
development has taken place along the El
Paseo corridor economic development will
provide an overview of financial
incentives or tools that can be used
encourage redevelopment citywide but it
can also be applied to the El Paseo
corridor and then quality of life we'll
talk about the transportation services
have been provided to that area and the
ongoing planning for the area just to
familiarize yourself I'm sure you're all
from there with the area but we've
already had some mention of the El Paseo
community blueprint this is the
boundaries of that study area and just
to orient yourselves a little bit the
cursor is going down El Paseo this is
the corner of University and Union El
Paseo where the convention center is
this area in the center is las cruces
high school so this is the Missouri
bounce intersection up in this area is
Wyatt Drive in the El Paseo area of
Albertsons former Kmart site and up in
this area is the electronic caregiver
tower in the community and so on the far
east side you basically have Espina on
the far west you have Main Street
basically goes down to university and
then goes up to allowin Amador
downtown corridor this is a little
better map of this this is the map that
was actually provided in the El Paseo
blueprint
now it's this a little bit cleaner but
again it shows you the boundaries of the
planning area another point you might
want to notice is there are other
special planning areas there's the
University District to encourage
interaction between University in the
city there's the South mesquite overlay
to recognize that historic neighborhood
the Alameda Depot to recognize historic
district on the west side of the
downtown in the downtown has some
special planning that's taken place for
it also this is a timeline for your
reference basically you can see that
Mayor Pro Tem emeritus talks about the
the picture in El Paseo on the the Elvis
ale corridor blueprint you see both of
those started in the 2010 2011 2012
timeframe and if you bring it up today
just last Tuesday you adopted the new
comprehensive plan for the city elevate
Los Cruces one thing that as committee
of element we always like to talk about
is the other plans that apply see why it
would also apply to this area I just
mentioned elevate las Cruces but we've
also done citywide planning related to
active transportation the pedestrian
transit bicycle efforts affordable
housing citywide consolidated plan is
the the instrument that's required for
to use federal monies just this past
summer you adopted a new Parks and Rec
plan that would also impact this area
and the city there's already an infill
development plan the incentivize
redevelopment reinvestment in the area
and then back at about the same time the
City Council adopted a complete Street
policy for all development throughout
the city so just wanted to highlight
that there's planning going on citywide
and those policies and efforts can it
would apply to this area also and just
to just kind of to reinforce that you
can see this is the future development
map from a love elevate las cruces you
can see it specifically calls out El
Paseo as a corridor that the city needs
to pay particular attention to active
transportation plan also shows out shows
the importance of this area from a
pedestrian standpoint and also the need
to make bicycle
improving transit improvements getting
to the actual planning that took place
for the El Paseo corridor back in you've
already gotten a little bit description
of how the planning effort started the
city did receive an EPA EPA grant to
look at Smart Growth applications to
communities there was also further
outreach in which the US Housing and
Urban Development Department and the US
Department of Transportation joined that
effort and provide technical assistance
to this planning area and the results
from that not only did we have a vision
and a manner of encouraging the kind of
grassroots planning where the
neighborhood folks that would be
involved with it would become engaged in
ways that the city could encourage that
we also did an assessment of road safety
and also did a preliminary study of
properties and redevelopment potential
and are there any brownfield properties
that would need additional review before
they could be redeveloped the actual
results of this first phase is picturing
El Paseo was an efficient was adopted
for that area there was a report from
this project that put forward all the
engagement activities that the city
could utilize and many of them they used
whether it was promotion there were
visioning exercises you already heard an
example where the cameras provided to
provide that input we had workshops in
which people came in and did preferences
of what type of community they would
like to see what type of improvements
they'd like to have in that area and
then at the result of that this effort
was nominated to the New Mexico APA
chapter and we did receive recognition
as an innovation and public engagement
because of that effort one of the other
things that came out of that result was
a call to go the next step and so at
that time the next thing that staff did
was undertake the community blueprint
that had been recently adopted and so
this was one of the first areas we went
through that process this slide kind of
goes over the goals that were for that
and you've already hit on some of them
to make this a safe a user-friendly Kent
corridor one that you'd want to go to
encourage the mixed land uses provide a
variety of housing types so that it
provides for everyone within our
community the desire to further explore
flexible building flexible development
codes what could be done to improve the
aesthetics or the appearance of that
area making it a destination within the
community and then the desire was to
make sure that this was all done in a
sustainable manner
we started there was some in the picture
in El Paseo there was discussion of the
green infrastructure and ways to plan
and construct your infrastructure so
that it be more in tune with nature and
environment that you're in and then also
healthy community designs meaning that
you have an opportunity where you can
live shop play go to school all in the
same area where you wouldn't need to go
very far from your community basically
traditional Neighborhood Development was
encouraged actions from that you've
heard again a little bit of this also
there was a desire to look at what you
could create a flexible development code
to encourage reinvestment in that area
whether it be a form based code or if
there was some hybrid going forward with
that there was a call for redesigning it
so you had a complete Street so you had
one that dealt with the ability to
handle and accommodate pedestrians
transit bicycles and nerado it was to
implement some of the improvements that
were called out in that road safety
audit and then also to implement some of
the best practices from these the
Institute of traffic engineering it's a
guide on walk it and they were changing
some of the recommendations they had for
urban streets advanced the integration
of transit and making sure that any
planning done in this area made sure
that that was a viable option for
transportation and have kind of touched
on also encouraging a mix of housing and
affordable for all segments of the
community and doing that in with the
utilization of green infrastructure and
then last exploring what type of
incentives you could encourage
redevelopment
in the area after that was adopted
another opportunity came to the city to
continue developing in this area
Portland State University had a program
called the urban sustainability
accelerator and it was a particular
theme for this was University and City
joint projects the city put forward the
el paseo blueprint and it was accepted
and so this was a again it was technical
assistance it wasn't anything that
Portland State did to us but they
allowed us to work with peer
universities our excuse me peer cities
that had similar desires for an area of
their town and also they provided an
opportunity for us to go to to
Portland's itself look at some of the
urban sustainability some of the
redevelopment that they have done there
was also a trip to San Diego Air and
Lihua and looking at the Complete
Streets so it was an opportunity to look
at how to implement the plan itself some
of the resulting work from that a
complete Street workshop was was held in
which some of these concepts were
provided where input was taken from the
businesses the stakeholders residents of
the area New Mexico State University
their civil engineering program had
project teams put together where they
actually put together a cross section of
a street and where they said if you the
city were to redesign it these are
various options to consider how would
you improve the basically the urban
design and what type of landscaping
how would you incorporate the sidewalks
how would you create a mixed-use
corridor the other thing that took place
was a person that was introduced to the
city was this Michelle Reeves she is a
consultant for basically start-up
business as an incubator type of
situations and so she provided a
workshop or an event where she discussed
how companies are businesses that she's
worked for successful taking vacant or
underutilized properties and being very
successful with different projects and
arian and she showed examples when we
were in Portland and then she actually
came down and visited sites and her
expertise available for anyone that was
in interested in consulting with her the
whole time I started the presentation
with the timeline so while these
planning these engagements were taking
place there are a lot of activity that
did take place on El Paseo some of them
may not be related to it but we would
hope that some of the conversations that
took place encourage some of the
redevelopment so this slide just kind of
highlights that the El Paseo Plaza where
crunch Fitness is now they went through
a total facade renovation some of the
landscaping was improved in that area
and still undergoing reuse of that a las
cruces high school if you recall at that
time the school district was looking at
possibly converting the use of the high
school and I through the discussions
they decided to go ahead and renovate
that property one of the concepts that
was discussed through the engagement was
the sky bridge and so you see that
coming to place during this whole timing
frame the the Kmart property was closed
but it's currently been repurchased by a
local church and it's in the process of
reuse and receptor vision of it the the
first kind of project you see from that
was the Dion's pizza the church itself
is looking at the landscaping and
improving of the the parking area right
now and then I'm not sure this had
anything to do with the result of the
plan but it was certainly guide guided
by it when they did some facade
renovations Brazil Plateau Plaza where
Albertsons is you saw the facade chain
you saw the landscaping that by that
time was informed by these planning
efforts that took place infrastructure
improvements itself there was that road
safety item so there were several
changes along the corridor for the
intersections in particularly Idaho
Avenida de Mesilla you saw the Idaho
Road diet when I went from four lanes to
three on the west of El Paseo you saw
the medians that were installed at the
various intersections you saw additional
striping
crossings you saw hawk system down with
las cruces high school for the students
to cross from one side of the street to
the other and then there's ongoing
pavement management and safety and hatha
so they've just as a part of the regular
maintenance of the street area that
again was informed by this plan and the
studies that took place with that I will
hand it over to Mandy Gus to provide
information on tools for you thank you
good afternoon Council and Mandy guests
at the Economic Development Department
and so today I wanted to talk to you
about some tools that we could
potentially use to help develop al paseo
corridor one one of the things I want to
talk about as you know in the state of
New Mexico sometimes we're challenged to
provide incentives because of the anti
donation clause in our state statute and
so or in our state constitution so some
of the things that we are allowed by
state statute are a tax increment
development district public Improvement
District Business Improvement District
Metropolitan Redevelopment area and I'm
gonna go into a little bit more detail
on what each of those is and how they
may or may not work for this area and
then along along those lines some
non-financial options
so first thing is a tax increment
development district a tax increment
development district can provide GRT and
property financing for public
infrastructure and its supports economic
development and has to have a job
creation component it's a funding
mechanism for construction operation and
maintenance of public infrastructure
that's within the boundaries of the tit
and the investments are paid for with an
increase in property tax or GRT that
comes from the development so that is
what the increment means how does it
work it has there has to be a majority
landowner vote in the district for it to
come to fruition there will be a GRT and
property tax baseline set and then as
revenues are generated and reinvested in
that dish
you hope to see what is shown in this
chart where you have that baseline that
baseline always continues to come to the
general fund of the city and then the
increment financing goes back into that
specific district it's from at its
perspective there are no new taxes the
tax rate remains the same in the area
but it's distributed differently and as
there's an increment the growth that
comes from the increment not from a
higher tax rate so what areas are best
suited for tins ones that have a lot of
underutilized or empty space because
there's currently no GRT or property tax
or low property taxes being there there
has to be an increment potential because
the increment is where the money comes
from to reinvest into the tit and it has
to be an area that needs public
infrastructure needs because the tip has
to pay for public infrastructure not
private a best practice for determining
if a tid is appropriate is the but-for
test and that means that the development
would not have happened in that area but
for the tit and so as we're looking at
El Paseo we have to determine if it is
an appropriate place for a kid or if it
does not meet some of these criteria and
then just we're all City Council's
familiar with Ted's because we do have a
tip currently in Las Cruces in downtown
and so I wanted to give you just a
timeline of that the resolution of
intent to create the tid came in 2007
the election was in 2008 at that time
the city did ask for both county and
state shared portion of the increment
which was approved in 2009 one of the
wait the reasons that downtown was a
good candidate is there's a lot of
city-owned real estate which means it
was not paying any property tax and so
the idea was that we could develop these
and and and start putting increment into
it and some of the completed projects
that have been paid for with Ted funding
are the Plaza de las Cruces
though church water conversion project
and then the Amador project was paid for
half by the did half by the general fund
one of the things that I would like to
make sure you all are aware about aware
of is that we no longer received the
state shared portion of the GRT
increment that was by design we knew we
would only get that for ten years but it
has significantly reduced the amount of
money that we're bringing in to the
downtown did so some other options one
is a public Improvement District there
are no public improvement districts in
Las Cruces there is one in Rio Rancho
and in Rio Rancho it's being used to pay
for some water and wastewater
infrastructure there has to be an
application for the public Improvement
District and then at least we're at
least twenty-five percent of the real
property owners participate in that
application you go through a public
hearing and election process similar to
Ted but the pit then establishes and
imposes and collects special LIVE levies
on property tax to fund those
infrastructure improvements or services
here have a list of some examples of
that and generally that levy is on the
property tax for about a twenty year
period similar to a Ted the app it would
have its own governing board and that
can either be chosen to be the existing
governing body of the city or it can be
appointed by the governing body of the
city moving on another tool could be a
Business Improvement District we don't
have any Business Improvement Districts
in Las Cruces but there is one in Gallup
which is considered it it has to be
managed by a committee or a 501c3 that's
what they do they have a 501c3 for their
bid which is in their downtown district
the bid comes as a petition from the
property or business owners in the
district there again has to be a notice
and public hearing and then there'll be
an assessed business improvement fee on
either the property or on the businesses
it does require management committee to
operate that district and it is reviewed
by City Council every five years to
determine if it is still needed and
should remain in existence they can
finance additional and extended services
to the businesses and also local
improvements so another tool that's
available to us through state statues is
the Metropolitan Redevelopment area the
Metropolitan redevelopment area was
created as a way to rehab and redevelop
deteriorated slum and blight and
underutilized areas the eligibility for
an EIR to find out if a place would be
appropriate for an MRA is high
unemployment or low income low business
activity deteriorating buildings a lot
of his owning conformity issues and the
way that it is determined to be eligible
as you have a professional planner
architect come in established conditions
and then designate the area as
appropriate for an MRA the once a
designation is set we would move forward
with an MRA plan and the MRA plan can
designate specific projects to eliminate
that blight some examples of projects
would be land in building acquisition we
have some flexibility within an MRA to
purchase land and then sell it instead
of that market value at what is would be
considered by the state fair value and
so you can give some consideration to
price if it helps reach the goals of the
MRA plan it helps you to do some
demolition zoning regulations you could
do transportation improvements cultural
community facilities that's often used
in downtown areas in other parts of the
state and housing projects the big
advantage of MRA of course is that it
eases some anti donation restrictions
and allows development agreements with
the privates
an example of how we're using that here
in Las Cruces is our renovate Main
Street program which allows us to put
into place some agreements where we pay
contractors a portion of a project to
help renovate or put in new
infrastructure for for businesses it
allows us to do public-private
partnerships where we can leverage
private money with private money like we
did with the Amador project it also
helps us revise our zoning regulations
and set and some incentives and gives us
some opportunities for other funding the
tax increment financing
we used the MRA in Las Cruces to help us
get ready for the tip it's not required
to put in at it but we used it that way
there's also some bond financing CDBG
and brownfield funds and again we do
have an MRA in Las Cruces it is the
downtown the boundary was adopted in
2006 the plan was created in 2007 and
then some of the projects that we we
completed based on that plan or not is
the Downtown Development code was
adopted in 2016 there were some transit
connections done China miss you which I
know our our transit team is going to
talk to you a little bit more about
there was a project talking about the
importance of east/west streetscape
improvements we've got some of those
zones with a church water project in our
Caius ITA's it talks about the
importance of facade improvements which
we've started to do with renovate the
renovate main street incentive plan
dining and retail the need for
recruiting dining and retail
establishments which we've seen a big
emphasis on and we've we've been very
successful in bringing more dining and
retail to our downtown the last couple
years and another goal is shared parking
structures which were still working on
and so what I wanted to just bring to
your attention is the boundary was
adopted in 2006 the plan was created in
2007 and we're still working through a
lot of those goals even today and so
those are the tools that are given to us
with the with the state statutes there's
also some non-financial options of ways
that we can focus in on El Paseo
engaging with the businesses for their
input their needs trying to figure out
what what they want to see so we can
target our BRE efforts various business
retention and expansion so we can target
the businesses in that area again
understanding their input and their
needs there are some communities that
have done business walks and that can
either be from the city perspective or
working with partners with our partners
with the Chamber's or other types of
businesses and a business walk would be
an actual scheduled event where elected
officials or other business owners go
and we go to each of the businesses in
that area to to spend money to to walk
through give them foot traffic all the
above that potentially we could work
with the businesses that they wanted to
set up a Merchants Association obviously
that wouldn't be necessarily driven by
the city but we could help them with the
tools to get that going we could also do
some temporary pop-up projects that
could be business focused such as like a
food truck event we could partner with
some businesses there an example would
be the church that used to be where the
old Kmart was they have some free space
would they be open to working with
businesses doing some pop-up retail we
could also do some pop-up projects that
are not related necessarily to retail
but instead to like the streetscapes
could we do some temporary layouts with
with temporary barriers to see how those
would be how those would work and how
they would change the look of El Paseo
and so with that I will hand it off to
Richard in quality of life Thank You
Mandy
good afternoon mayor council like to
start off with a little nostalgia I
guess history on transit excuse me do
you mind stating your name was Richard
Hanway I am the transit operations
supervisor here at the city road render
transit actually started out as Las
Cruces area transit 1986 this was a
flyer that we had found in our history
books I figured you guys might like that
there were four original routes that
started in the city that actually
included NMSU
animus you had one route at the time the
operating hours were 6:15 to 8:30 p.m.
on weekdays they had five buses that
started to run the whole system and
there was no dialer ID at that time
dialer ID actually started in 1987 with
two vehicles by April of 87 there were
actually six routes that were
incorporated current transit services we
have a fixed route we have ten routes
that are in the city at the time at this
time right now at peak service that
includes the Aggie routes there were 13
buses that run at peak service
dial-a-ride
is our 88 complementary paratransit and
senior transportation we have 13
vehicles that operate in peak service on
that our ridership for last year for
fixed route was over five hundred and
sixty thousand rides provided for dialer
ride it was over 53,000 66 percent of
dial ride rides our senior
transportation and we currently operate
6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through
Friday 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on
Saturdays this is a timeline about the
El Paseo corridor blueprint and how
transit was involved in that there was
talk amongst transit back in 2012 when
we were looking at our short range plan
that we are currently under now they
were talking about doing El Paseo
corridor recommended for transit
oriented development consideration we
had established a long-range transit
plan in 2012 that ranked that corridor
is number 3 on the list in the city our
short range plan in 20
sixteen actually combined three of our
existing routes that we had prior to
2016 into our current route to what that
did was it actually helped connectivity
it combined Don Jana shuttle that was
going from the mall up to the dACC East
Mesa campus and our route 20 and 30 that
had bi-directional service but they were
all both on our headway so we ended up
with three three buses on that route
which we currently have now that gave us
30-minute service on that route we also
followed the city strategic plan
transits connecting downtown and mesh
you in the convention center that that
route to is exactly what that does that
at this time along El Paseo downtown it
also goes on bouts it's being onto
University and that's the corridor that
we run right now on route to the
reconfiguration and July 2016 again
route 2 was a 30-minute service it
combined those three routes we go
downtown El Paseo bouts Espina it also
covers the Dona Ana branch
tell Shore area all the major hospitals
in here in town and a lot of businesses
and medical offices our route for
services downtown Lucia and the
convention center along Union and
University our route expansion and March
2018 added 30-minute service frequency
to Picacho which was part of one of the
goals of our short-range plan we also
introduce or reintroduce service on to
Solano corridor which is our rowdy
service expansion May of 2019 extended
our hours of service from 7 o'clock to
10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday this is
a picture of our current downtown our
route to that that we run right now the
area that we're talking about is you can
see it runs from the downtown area we
reconfigured it out of the intermodal to
cover the two-way conversion on Church
Street and it does housetops downtown
area it come continues on to compo ought
to help us say Oh to bouts and then
along the corridor of Espina to
University one of the reasons why it was
reconfigured in the study during the
time that we redid this was because
there was a lot of housing on that
helped us being a corridor to connect
the people that were living in that area
this is our route for right now it
currently has one our frequency in the
in the downtown area which is the
intermodal if it is what I'm referring
to but it does serve the convention
center the the turnaround point actually
is is that the Convention Center so it
would be a 30-minute trip actually from
the intermodal to the convention center
for reference I included our route 8
because route 8 does go along the Solano
corridor it boundaries the area of El
Paseo and one of the major three ways
through there it is actually one of our
strongest routes that we have in the
system today I do have some some numbers
right now Wow to is actually running as
our second highest with monthly service
about 3900 per bus and that's per bus
route eight is about fifty nine hundred
a month on average the short range plan
consideration this is one of the areas
that we were looking at in the corridor
to add existing service to our route
that we already have one of the
possibilities that we could study would
be adding another bus onto this part of
route 2 by doing that if we staggered
the times that we could probably we
could get 15 minutes service out of this
on this corridor so this is one of the
considerations that we would be looking
at to add to our short range plan
the cost of the additional service right
now there wouldn't be a capital cost if
we were to do with an existing bus but
if this was going to be a long-term
project there would be capital costs
that wouldn't need to be incurred
currently we have $78 an hour's
operating cost for fixed route so
depending on what hours of service we
would want to run at whether it was a
peach service or all day or what have
you the $256,000 number is actually
running it from 9:00 to 6:00 Monday
through Friday and I think till 10:30 on
Saturday remaining short brings plans
goals realigning transit routes we are
already doing that that was one of the
major topics that we have on our current
short range plan we've already completed
that we increased frequency to West
Picacho by 30 minutes we've done that
solano service has been re-established
it is on our headway but we do have
service on Solano again and we have
extended weekday hours of service well
what is remaining on our current plan is
Sunday service addition and our Saturday
service expansion those are the two
things that are left on our current plan
this 2020 short range plan is something
that we have just embarked on actually
it went to two council for acceptance we
are in the plan of or in stage of
planning right now
some of the things that we are talking
about looking at are to assess the
effectiveness of current routes so
identify service gaps in the next five
years improvements at dial-a-ride and
senior transportation recommend
technology implementation and recommend
bus stop improvement plan these are the
things that we have vetted through n
MDOT they are a partner they are funding
80% of our study and any changes to this
plan we would need to vet through them
again as well so with that being said I
will stand by for questions after the
presentation I'll turn it back over to
David thank you Richard thank you
mayors and city council the
presentations include a lot of
information for you but just something
that that I know that you're all aware
of but you can see that the city plays a
major role and has a large influence on
this court or whether it be guiding
development investment whether it be
managing the public services that are
provided by the city whether it's
maintaining and improving the public
infrastructure and and then you know a
big thing is just the partnering with
the the various individuals that are
impacted by that corridor whether it be
residents businesses we've already
touched on New Mexico State University
Las Cruces public school system but we
also have nonprofit providers that
operate out of this area
elfin Butte Irrigation District has
infrastructure that goes through this
corridor and so all of these things that
that the city is involved with and with
the intent of assuring that it's a
vibrant safe and productive area of the
city so we have the city participates in
a organization called strong towns and
it demonstrates the the benefits of by
investing in your established
neighborhoods and reinvesting in those
we have a series of clips to get to the
discussion I won't go through them but
they are embedded in this presentation
and it's a great resource for you to
look at if you want to see what some
other communities have done when they've
reinvested in their downtown's and their
corridors we want to end the
presentation by kind of laying some
considerations that kind of feed out of
the presentation that we've made you've
seen the planning that's taken place the
activities that have been encouraged
over the last 10 years that we really
want to see this area redevelopment with
a complete Street meaning that it's
aesthetically pleasing that it handles
the environmental conditions that it
addresses all the needs of all the users
whether it be the business whether it be
homeowners whether it be renters whether
it be someone that uses the corridor as
a walker someone that drives a car
someone utilizes transit or someone who
trem moves around on bicycles and those
are all things that you've done other
plain efforts were from an active
transportation standpoint how do you
encourage that to take place how do you
make it a pleasing area and make it a
desirable one for you to visit work in
live in provide and then with the
adoption of elevate Los Cruces
the city has taken a stance that they
really want to encourage the increase in
use of existing urban areas to encourage
the mix of uses and you already have one
investment in there you would like to
see continued reinvestment in those
areas and so that's something that you
need to consider as you go forward with
direction that you provide for this area
the other thing is you know this is just
one of your areas in the community and
you've done a lot of planning from
others one so you kind of have to
balance how what the priorities are
going to be for those areas and and and
how you go forward with that and then
last the community has really moved
towards providing and maintaining
equitable transit system so we just
wanted to make sure that we you heard
that from staff that that's very
important to us because we heard it from
you and so with that I'll conclude the
presentation and there's a multitude of
staff here that would answer any
questions or providing additional input
that you'd like well thanks David and I
appreciate that very much I'll go to
Council here in just second but it looks
it seems like it depends on where you
start let's say you start in downtown so
that's district 1 and then as it's
moving its way to the University area
University area which ends up in
district 2 it crosses over 3 & 4 so
that's that's pretty good the only ones
left out is 5 & 6 so counselors are you
still there yes I haven't died yet
all right good just want to make sure
you have any questions before I go to
council
okay yeah I'm just really impressed in
all the presentations and the
volume of information that was presented
everybody did a excellent job
the information presented I was using
the blueprint PDF that was provided to
us to follow along with the different
parts of the plan because on the video
the high definition is not there I
couldn't even read some of the graphics
that were showing but yeah I can see
where where we need to build the
infrastructure we need to have transit
we need to have housing and other
transportation such as active
transportation and so I understand the
whole thing I've been active for 89
years myself
i-i-i-i one thing that came to my mind
when David our middle was talking at the
beginning he mentioned Tod transit
oriented development and if I understand
that right correctly that that means
that if you build the transit the
development will come if that if that's
true I'll add to be corrected if I'm
wrong so that a one thing oh and as far
as University involvement in this
excellent we need to do that there is a
person on staff the University that some
of us at least at least I was approached
that wanted to get ways in which the
university can be involved in the
community and that's just in blessing
sure so that's a person to reach out to
to help with the administration at the
university as well as the students and I
totally agree the question is said about
destinations not only to have the
downtown but the destination correctly
at the University and and of course
shade we got to have those green leafy
trees and all along the corridor so
mister where I the timeline of the
overview that you gave the activity that
was very very good
let me see there's one more oh yeah
together with olga petrovna comes to
Pedrosa attended the event in san diego
with the Portland State group and the
two other cities that were involved
there was Duluth Minnesota and Auburn
Alabama doing same things we're doing so
there was a lot to learn there too so
man I think that good for now I'll let
you have it okay thank you counselor
those are very good points that you
brought up and I think if if we were to
move say towards a task force to study
this a little bit more further we may
want to include I know I talked briefly
with the chief of staff den RV Sue's
chief of staff Eleni Martinez about how
to encourage the university kids to
students to be able to just be able to
jump on and off but all as well as maybe
reaching out to the president ASN msu
president to get his his feedback but
yes going forward
I just wanted to emphasize this thing's
already been done and I think we don't
want to start and thread we want to use
that as a starting point and go from
there absolutely a good point
counselor I appreciate that and let me
just tell you this much and and I know
you've seen this because you go to
Washington from time to time let's take
the metro and and if you remember
they've added a new line they're called
the Silver Line and let me tell you
something the hope especially investors
or developers are interested in see
where those stops are because
that is where that land not only does it
increase in value but it's also where
they're going to put more apartments and
housing because nowadays especially
those with their seniors and Millennials
if they want to kind of diverse
themselves from divest themselves from
using their automobile if you stop think
about if we have apartments and such
housing along this corridor
you've got grocery stores like
Albertsons there you've got the downtown
areas for entertainment I believe
they're going to start working on that
video for and I think the Yellen
theatres are going to build that up a
little bit you've got all kinds of
different things in El Paseo you know as
a young man growing up here I remember
El Paseo was the business Street it was
so expensive to try to get a to rent a
place on there in fact Glen cutters was
was right there at the corner of Foster
and El Paseo I mean it was it was
literally almost impossible unless you
were willing to pay a lot of money to
get your business on El Paseo and so I
just envisioned it getting breathing
back that life into El Paseo and I think
there's going to be a lot of energy
involved if we can move forward on this
so I appreciate your comments okay so
councillor mayor you're right
thank you thank you I baked us to V
Florida San Marcos and big hole Thank
You mr. mayor and I think mr. word that
my first question probably can be for
you I could use a little bit of a
historical context it seems like so much
energy and resources and time was put
into this al paseo blueprint plan what
were the barriers at the time to kind of
move forward on that project
I know funding is always an issue but
what were the reasonings not to kind of
readjust to continue with that planned
Marin and councillors do they I think
you kind of hit it wanted to in the
presentation show that the actions never
really stopped
the improvements that the intersections
were desired were made by the city and
there's been an effort to continue with
the improvements whether it's the street
maintenance working on sewer
improvements working with private
investors in that area probably one of
the things that stalled it was the Great
Recession you had it was a little more
difficult to redevelop areas I think
we're now at an area where you see
citywide projects being proposed and
then it's just the balancing of
activities and improvements citywide but
I don't think there was ever any desire
to stop this is the city whenever we
talk about community development
whenever we see a dome change or
development proposal we always use the
plan as a reference point and encourage
the actions and the goals being being
addressed and from that manner and then
with the changes that we've made to our
capital improvement programming the
plans are reviewed at that time also to
help prioritize projects thank you I
always feel if we're going to spend a
lot of time and energy on these things
that you you definitely want to see
projects come to be and this is
something that I could think would
really be helpful for a lot of people in
our community so that I hope that some
of those barriers you know are gone and
so that we would be able to see this to
its full potential so thank you sir
bethe
Stevi also at that time and gosh it's
amazing that it was 2012 I thought it
was like four or five years ago
downtown hadn't really done come up to
where it is today and so you have el
paseo and you know I mean it was like
but so this is now an opportunity to
connect the University area and and the
downtown area and then also to address
the concerns of council Bencomo and
Mascis is that is that would be like the
hub
kind of like when Southwest Airlines
flies to Dallas Love Field and then from
there the the scatter to different
places and so we'd go to the
Convention Center there could be other
little other areas I can go to the dorms
or other this place this nature but this
would be the main thing because think
about those conventions that come in and
they're wanting to go to downtown then
now you have a way to get them back and
forth back and forth so and all new
hotel exactly
so with Telstra Florida's council vaskas
and excuse me yeah sound here twice
Oh big homo sorry so council Florida's
fuscus and Bencomo Thank You mr. mayor
and thank you mister we're so we're
talking a lot about bringing the
students to the downtown area and it
seems to me that we have to be thinking
about connecting people in the city to
the University and when I was living in
Los Angeles I didn't live very far from
UCLA and I actually had my
ophthalmologist at the jule styne
Center there and and a lot of my friends
did and we would just take the bus and
we just instead of dealing with parking
because parking used to be 25 cents in
the day back in the day and now well 10
12 years ago it went up to 11 dollars so
we just jump on the bus for 50 cents and
go over to Westwood and I also had my
the school of dentistry there provides
dental services and I've heard that NMSU
has a School of Dentistry as well but I
think that it's imperative that we work
closely with the University to find out
what the university has to offer the
community so that the community can jump
on a bus and we can have people and then
of course it's all I mean transportation
is everything because parking isn't that
great on campus either and so we need to
have it has to be literally a two-way
street
not just
so let's bring the the students over
downtown what are they going to come
downtown to I mean on a Friday afternoon
to go to little toad or something like
that I mean you know and I think
councilor Vasquez brought out an
excellent point about and the same along
the same line lines as Russ Smith that
you have to have destination points
along the way the destination just can't
be to get to downtown it just can't I
mean it's not going to work there isn't
that much happening downtown to bring
that much oh look if you had Sonoma
Ranch on that if you had Sonoma Ranch on
there everybody would be going out there
no I'm just saying that yeah I mean yeah
there's a lot going on relatively
speaking but we're talking but in the
context of making it alluring to the
University students I'm not sure it's
going to cut it right you know that I
just might I think though I mean you
that that's been the focus and then it's
university to downtown and have a
wonderful whatever but I think we really
have to focus on getting our people to
be using the services the university has
to offer
perhaps extension course classes and
just get the you know and get and I'm
talking about all ages I'm not talking
just about the retired community or
paying but to know that I think that
that that's the beauty of having a
university in in in any town it makes
the universe it makes the town of
vibrant and and it's an attraction so to
people wanting to live here so that
would be mine and I think that also
councilor Bencomo brought out a very
good point when I was a student at USC
we had a tram called the rape escape so
I was living on 29th Street I think I
can't remember so many years ago but we
had a we had a tram that actually would
pick us up from points on the
on the campus and over to where we were
living so so that's a factor to safety
and and and not necessary and not not
and and also I think it was mr. Rodney
who or someone else brought up the point
that when you have people going downtown
and they're going to be leaving oh no it
was mr. mr. noobie I said they're gonna
be leaving the establishments there and
maybe not be sober so that's another
factor too but not a big factor but I
really really want to stress I how
important it is to really integrate our
community with the University and have
the university totally involved totally
involved with that whole process and
think of them because it can't just be
so isolated just for students or just
for visiting professors or whatever but
to really be offering a lot of things to
the community and make it clear to the
community that the university has a lot
to offer and and as far as Russ's common
about the trolleys in San Francisco
again back in the day we jump on the
trolleys because I lived on Van Ness and
I would just go over to height to get
down to McCallister's to the law school
and it was only a quarter and sometimes
we didn't even have a quarter you know
law students here on food stamps and
scholarships and stuff like that and we
would just jump on and they're just a
few blocks down and so just jump off
before they could yell at you but now
the trolleys are actually not
functioning that way anymore the
trolleys are actually it costs I don't
know either 5 or 15 or 20 dollars to get
on just to go from Hyde in McAlester to
the Fisherman's Wharf so it's become a
tourist attraction and people actually
paying of course we don't have a
Fisherman's Wharf but I'm just saying
you know you never know what one thing
is going to turn into but but I really
think that we have to stress the
University and
and mr. Smith also brought up the same
point as councillor Vasquez that we have
to have interest points along the way
and I don't know you know which comes
first Thank You mayor and councillor
Flores I think staff would support
collaboration between the two and
understand the ongoing efforts Ms Lynn
Gallagher has some quite said some
examples of kind of what city is done
addressing some of the comments that you
made mayor Councillor Flores Lynn
Gallagher director for quality of life
just a couple of points to some of the
comments that have been made about
transit so that Roadrunner Transit
System has taken under when 2012 the El
Paseo corridor blueprint came about that
the Road Runner transit responded in
kind by increasing the frequency of
stops along the El Paseo corridor for
those reasons alone as well and I'd like
to point out that there are six stops
along the university one on Union and
then on on on University that actually
connect the students or the residents to
the University from downtown and it's
about a 15 minute time frame to get from
downtown to the University of the
University to downtown depending on what
route you take so where we already have
a pretty fast connection from downtown
to the University one of the things that
we're doing is part of our strategic
business plan that that we work on
annually is we're trying to change the
culture around ridership for bus public
transportation services
I too have lived in many other cities
and I've used transportation one of the
coefficients one of the corollaries in
all of those other cities is that they
have paid parking stanchion so you have
to pay to park your vehicle so there are
also a common denominator and a common
theme in that taking public
transportation becomes a better Avenue
than riding and having to pay to park so
some of the things that we are trying
to do in quality-of-life a roadrunner
Transit is look at the short-range plan
to say what are our vulnerable system
routes where are those gaps and we want
to really create an equitable transit
system when you look at a transit
oriented development that means that
business development springs up around
some of those those common themes around
trail systems around business districts
about work-life balance where you can
work and live and so some of those
things were already looking at under the
short-range plan and if we add this
consideration to then increase frequency
along the El Paseo quarter again that
could be an additional thread but really
what we need to focus on is having a
comprehensive equitable transit system
that meets the needs of all of our
residents but also changes the culture
and characteristic of why and when
people take public transportation it's
very simple for a university student to
jump in their car jump in their car with
their friends to take it wherever they
want to go in the city and they don't
have to pay to park so these are some of
the considerations as a city that thread
into how and why people take public
transportation then before you leave let
me just ask you something so I know
there's a couple of these routes that
overlap so if we were to do this and
this was really more consistent I mean
and this is I think one of the speakers
said you know they would love to take
public transportation when they go out
of town but kind of kind of fumble
through it you don't know how much is
going to cost you know where it's going
to go I mean this is a dedicated route
that goes back and forth back what you
know where it goes from between the
convention center or the university or
wherever you know whatever you know I
was hoping that we can at least have a
task force to kind of iron out some of
the comments that were made here but
but if you had one that was very
consistent from from six o'clock
whatever time in the morning until 10:30
or later
couldn't we we're probably gonna have to
reconfigure the bus the the lines
because why have two of them when you
can just stop at one end and go to the
other and
and that way there if you need to get
down to a particular area just after you
stop in district 2 or whatever and you
just jump on this particular trolley and
you go wherever you need to go and so
not only is that allowing the residents
at large from the city
you're also eliminating and probably
saving some money doing it this way that
as well as there's a lot of residents
that that live in one area of the city
that could use some shopping or do some
other things and just go back and forth
because I know there's some apartments
in on Montana there's a senior area
that's off a foster that I think could
also utilize that as well so getting
back to the question could wouldn't that
be something to look at to eliminate
that and just use that as when you're
going through El Paseo this is what you
use all the other ones you just have a
different configuration to to jump on
may are one of the considerations that
they would look at in the short range
planning process is that assessment and
that gap in how are we connecting you
know the the Solano area the the
corridor more north on on 70 becomes a
consideration as we look at how do we
bring people from where residential
locations are into into business
districts and so that that is something
that can be considered but it has to be
considered as part of that short-range
planning to say what is the gap analysis
where do we have a gap now where what do
our current route configurations connect
us where do they connect we have several
connections you can take any route along
our current eight route system and
connect to downtown and be 15 minutes
away from University if that's the
council's goal and so the the short
range planning process looks at the
entire system and it says what is the
city grown how is the city grown this
year and how do we need to grow with it
and and shift that and then what does
that cost right great
and then again that's what I think a
task force would take a look at so we
can get this iron out and then come back
to Council and say okay here's it here
it is figure out the cost but I have to
and I've heard this from I don't know
for the last year or two that we have
these different routes to go through the
city but
I'll be candid with you there's no way I
would do that I wouldn't because one
doesn't go to work what if I don't need
to go where I need to go that means I
could get off of one route and I gotta
jump out on another one and take a third
one to get to where I want to go that's
the way I look at it okay yeah well
there you go two hours for ya so really
when you wrote when okay okay well this
is so this saves you an hour and 45
minutes okay well I appreciate those
comments Lim thank you questions now for
councillor boskie oh I'm sorry we still
have no answer bus kiss and then council
think home Thank You mayor appreciate it
and thank you to Lyn David Mandy Richard
yeah I just want to start by saying that
I was a fresh out of college I was
graduated in 2008 and wrote a story in
2009 as the business editor of the Las
Cruces bulletin about this project right
when it was kicking off and the
charettes were happening and I remember
that during my time on campus El Paseo
was where the fast food was at right
that was really why students went there
it was because that's where McDonald's
and Taco Bell and Wendy's was all really
close to each other and they stayed open
after you know 1 a.m. or something like
that and so that was what I that's my
impression of El Paseo was a student in
terms of how much I interacted with that
particular part of the city and I was so
excited to learn that the city was going
to take on this project as part of this
EPA and HUD grant and I remember
thinking man in 10 years this this area
is just going to be awesome right
because the plans that we saw I think
that were included as part of this
presentation right with the improved
sidewalks and the trees and the green
spaces and the lively you know vibrant
business community I've been waiting for
it since ever since and I think it's
only deteriorated probably more since
that time I think it was actually more
vibrant than than it is today
so so I do have to agree and you know
with councilor Abeyta soubise concerns
about man we spent a lot of time a lot
of energy
we even got this amazing grant that we
were recognized for after the planning
process was finished and and maybe
haven't really seen it through too
realization I know we have limited
resources at the city to either focus on
you know different particular projects
but I always talk about downtown as what
happens the results of downtown or what
happens when we focus on one one one
area one issue we use a mechanism like a
like a tax increment development
district to actually fund this
so it's possible it's possible right
that that we could redevelop this entire
corridor if we if we collectively say
we're gonna put all our eggs in this
basket or at least focus staff time I'm
being able to do this and so that's
something I strongly support I think the
problem with with El Paseo and and I'm
gonna throw south Solano in here during
this entire conversation because I've
been pushing that since I got elected
for the same type of redevelopment is
urban flight right suburbanization
has led to a general disinvestment in
certain areas in the city so we've grown
east and west right we have brand new
really nicely manicured beautiful
neighborhoods with mixed-use business
and retail and housing things that we
wish we could have in other parts of the
city and so you have this urban flight
right the more desirable places to live
in the city are now on the East Mesa or
on the West Mesa if you're a business
owner right you could either spend your
money rehabbing one of these really old
dilapidated commercial property
buildings in on El Paseo and and
probably maybe not be a great investment
or you could go up to a brand new
building in Picacho Hills or Sonoma
Ranch and have probably a better shot at
making it out there with the customer
base that potentially has more to offer
for your business than in a place like
El Paseo and so that's a product I think
of a changing class system it's a
product of like growing wealth
inequality right where people with money
and don't choose to live in the city and
I think part of that is is like the
faults of the city and I think inequity
in the way that the city has really
spent its resources and development
efforts has led to the neglect of
certain areas like El Paseo we're just
on the corner of white drive across from
crunch
I think there's six empty buildings
there now all across from each other so
blight has
to more blight these vacant unmaintained
lots I think they they add to this
feeling of like disconnection and
ambivalence and so what that means is
that the social fabric of that
neighborhood deteriorates too and so I
think that's what we really should focus
on is the surrounding residential areas
on El Paseo and Solano these are folks
that perhaps are not you know the
highest income a lot of a lot of
families there this is their first home
or for a lot of people who can rent a
place to live that has three bedrooms in
a backyard you're gonna get your lowest
rents in this area potentially but it's
also close enough to services that you
can still access close enough to schools
and so so I think this should really be
about people right about those
neighborhoods about how we actually help
those families by redeveloping the the
built environment and I'm and again I'm
going to pitch for South Solano as well
because that's such a hub also for small
businesses right along that corridor and
so creating a plan as part or in
addition to the El Paseo or the El Paseo
blueprint for example identifying vacant
developable properties undeveloped
properties redevelopment hotspots empty
lots that that we can turn into pocket
parks playgrounds things that improve
societal bonds in those neighborhoods
landscape design that actually delineate
between those public and private spaces
right because I know we have a growing
problem a homeless problem and a lot of
it is concentrated on the El Paseo area
and on the South Solano area and I think
that's a product of these massive oceans
of parking that we've created and giant
back alleys of you know with hidden
walls everywhere that people can feel
like a I don't know what's private
what's public and so I'm gonna hang out
here for a while so I think we need all
those things needs to be included in in
what this corridor redevelopment could
look like so I think to focus on it as a
transportation corridor at first perhaps
at least in my opinion is not the best
way to approach this I think we need to
focus on it as an urban redevelopment
project with transportation being a
component of that but I think if we
focus on getting students from the
University to downtown I think we're
missing
the opportunities to be able to do that
I will say that from looking at the
options that Mandi presented the
Metropolitan Redevelopment area to me
seems to me like the the best tool in
terms of actually finding finding the
mechanism through policy through
financing through access to capital to
be able to to rehab and redevelop what I
would call blighted areas right and so
land in building acquisition demo zoning
regulations transportation improvements
cultural and community facilities
housing all those things included under
an MRA I think are things that I could
vision being part of this project and
I'm gonna pitch strongly I know that the
el paseo blueprint only goes up to
Espina but we're just one street away
from another major business corridor
that's in my district where tons of
really vibrant small businesses abound
on South Solano and so that MRA I would
I would ask that we push that to South
Solano because I think we need to think
big about this entire area because all
the housing on either side of Solano and
El Paseo would benefit from this
otherwise we just be pushing all the
activity we'd be pushing all the blight
up to salon or up to that area and so I
think that's within itself is a really
important district to redevelop and it's
a good way also to honor the investments
of all those businesses and all those
homeowners who throughout the years have
have invested their their time and money
into living in this part of the city so
those are my comments for now but I'm
super excited for this and again we just
ask that we that we think about South
Solano as part of this but as part of
this corridor because I know a lot of
students are going to outdoor adventures
to fix their bikes they're going to Papa
John's to order pizza they're going to
get haircuts and Zumba or whatever you
know at the at the Plaza there and there
and they're gonna get their beat they're
going to the fad glass - you guys know
that I hear anyway so so this is a you
know if we want to get students involved
in all these places we we need to we
need to think through through South
Solano as well so thank you mayor Thank
You Lonnie Thank You councillor you
discussed South salon I'm gonna have to
recuse myself from that
I told you many times I've never even
put you up to this on why you keep
throwing up sauce alarm button
I know I know I know I know Cal sir yeah
well I know right now we're on El Paseo
right now council Bencomo
would you like a microphone to drop okay
Thank You mr. mayor thank you for that
cow service because I but I think that
you're right on on everything you just
said most of my questions were honestly
if around getting some of this
information in a document because it was
a lot of information from all of you I
would love to see the numbers that you
presented if maybe that you could email
them to me around total number of writer
ships in 2019 I'm really interested in
in looking into that I mean having a
conversation about what three public
transit could look like and you know
considering everything that you just
mentioned miss Gallagher as well
honestly I think as Mandy was presenting
all these opportunities I also felt like
the MRA was the thing that I would
coming to and honestly I'm glad we're
having this conversation about this
trolley system because I feel like it's
really cracked open this bigger
conversation that we really need to have
around El Paseo which councilor Vasquez
just beautifully said because I think
that now as as I've been sitting here
listening I feel like focusing investing
these kinds of resources to just do one
project feels really narrow and so I
would really like to discuss what yeah I
would really like to encourage this
conversation be a lot wider I'm curious
about the task force I'm curious about
how quickly we can get that together and
if they would ultimately be the ones to
decide what option would be best for
this project I'm also curious about
actually does well no well yeah does the
MRA have its own governing governing
body as well like the tit or the pit
mayor Councillor Ben Coleman and Emery
doesn't have to have its own governing
body in Albuquerque they have
about 20 MREs and so they do have an EMR
agency that is funded through some
Metropolitan Area Development bonds but
it doesn't have to have one depending on
how you use it and what tools you're
looking at okay interesting yeah I mean
I would just like maybe will you send me
the list of all of those without the
rest of the information not just that
outline that you provided here I'd like
to learn more about those but anyway I
would like to encourage us if we you
know if we are thinking about a task
force to have to relief flush this out
that it'd be a lot wider than just
thinking about a transit line from the
convention center to downtown Thank You
mr. mayor Thank You counselor the reason
for the El Paseo corridor blueprint
obviously is because it's already done
and along the lines of what councilor
beta Stevie said you know why are we
doing it to go into another part of town
that's possible but you know now you're
gonna see exactly how if that does you
know if it's something simple I don't
know what's a task force I just the
number the people I just put together
real quick was say chief of staff to the
to the University to Chancellor dan
Arvizu is Lani Martinez and then the ASN
msu president representative or himself
or herself I was thinking maybe each one
of you could could nominate a business
member and then the council members
maybe three of you from for sure either
District one and two since you're the
bookends and then either three or four
District three or four to make three
council members so it'd be a total 11
come up with some ideas and bring have
another work session and share with us
what you know in working with staff what
they've come up with and and just see
exactly how how would it what would
entail to to go to a little bit further
area things of this nature
don't get me wrong I mean I would love
to see an area developed but you know it
just makes me uncomfortable because
you know it's right in front of a
building that I own and that area and I
know that I just happened to happens to
be that way but that's all I mean don't
get me wrong nobody everybody loved to
see here is improved but I just need
four cow service cos to swear in a stack
of you know Bibles that I've never put
you up to this I've never told you to
say this you know this is strictly your
own feel you've been talking about this
since you got elected and I have no idea
where this comes from but you know your
property is very nice so I don't think
it needs a whole lot of work okay okay
yes David mr. mayor members of council
David Dolan good afternoon a couple of
things were close at the next meeting to
adopting the remaining policy review
committees and we hope to have them
appointed by the March 16th council
meeting that includes the transportation
sustainability and infrastructure a
policy review committee that would be a
great starting point to have this
discussion to talk about a future task
force I think there's two things you
need to look at from a task force
similar there's the public task force
that involves in MSU the general
community the residents then there's a
technical component of it
that involves staff when we did the MRA
study in 2006 because I've been here a
very long time we did that as part of
the consolidated plan update in that
year for HUD programs because CDBG is
one of your eligible funding sources if
you have a Metropolitan Redevelopment
Agency so we're about to start the
process on the consulting for the next
consolidated plan we're at the end of
our five-year plan so that is something
that we could also take to that next
level to include in the consolidated
plan and MRA study and when we did the
one for downtown it was a detailed
inventory of every building it also
looked at vacancy rates rental rates and
so forth so there are a lot of things
that we can include
within that but I think we can go to
that next level of discussion with the
policy review committee but a task force
and a Technical Committee will need to
be occur with anything that we go
forward you need the public buy-in you
need the community's buy-in business
owners property owners students the
university the university has avenues we
should be using the students they are a
land-grant University they have research
methods within all of the universities
so we should be using them as a resource
so we can make that connection so and we
can do this the last MRA study in 2006
we we did it within a relatively short
period of time with a hired consultant
and and now is the time for us to
identify that and I think counsel asked
is your expanded area you can only start
big and come down to a smaller area
rather than go out start small and
expand out so we need to look at all of
these avenues well thank you for that
David I think what really I'd like to do
is still have that taskforce be able to
meet so they can at least get some
general ideas and then work with your
PRC that way they're you know you can
you can have the best of both worlds you
can see what you're talking about have
run through the PRC and let the
technical side of the cities take a look
at it because I think I don't what I
what I envision is just having
free-flowing ideas and then just then be
able to take that to the PRC and see
exactly what has dual or not Richard I'm
sorry I forgot your last name um I'll
just call you mr. Richard you said that
there there's a steady in the works with
n MDOT right did I get that right or no
mayor Councillor Bencomo that is correct
we have partnered with n MDOT they have
they have eighty percent funding for our
study I believe it's in might be a legal
review right now but we are moving
forward with it this year what's the
timeline when you expect to finish it I
would not be able to tell you that at
this time I foresee it happening in the
next few months it is an extensive study
I was involved in our current study now
that was implemented in 2016
there's public outreach we have meetings
they do a lot of pop population density
studies they're going to take into
consideration where people live where
people are going where they're shopping
all the things that the different
demographics and everything that
mattered to transit to do this study and
and and give us the best advice going
forward on what we should be looking at
in the city based also on the topics
that we had chosen to study as well
mayor Councillor been : Gallagher again
regarding that particular short range
planning process the topics were already
selected that have been funded to be
looked at if Council's decision is that
they would like this particular addition
to be added to that we would have to
figure out a funding mechanism and amend
the agreement the contract with for that
short range planning process I wasn't
necessarily thinking that I was just you
passed by it pretty quickly and I would
really be interested in and getting
updates from how that study goes I
actually thought the topics that were
chosen were work topics that I would
bring up myself so thank you well wait a
min before you go
I vaguely you know I was obviously
focused on this share with me a little
bit about this study you talked about
who's doing it and how much is it cost
me currently we've partnered with n MDOT
they've given us some funding I believe
it's $80,000 the city's committing
20,000 for a total of $100,000 for our
short-range transit Plan Update we are
still going to go out to bid for the
consulting firm now that will be
involved in this the last consulting
firm was actually Nelson Nygaard I would
assume that they would probably bid
again on that but I wouldn't be able to
tell you who that consulting form would
be at this time but it is an extensive
study on what we've done where we're at
where we want to go how transit is
growing in the city different
demographics things that we're looking
at
well I'm not gonna I'm not gonna propose
a policy here and I'm not gonna put
David on the spot but I think what we
might want to consider a way that may
bring up to counsel at another meeting
for a work session is to when you take a
look at transit and how important it is
not only just in our whether it's the El
Paseo corridor whether it's a C Las
Cruces or it's the county as a whole I'm
wondering if because there's there could
be there could be cost savings if we
were to partner with your your
department there David so that now we
have just one whole network instead of
piecemeal even so I don't know I can't
save too much hasn't been advertised so
is this what I'm thinking here so thank
you for bringing this up because you
just gave me an idea here we may just
have a whole big network instead of just
one here and one here no it can be the
whole thing we have to pent spend more
money and put this this up cell corridor
and as part of it it's fine but thank
you for mr. mayor I would like to add
that we are in discussion with mr.
Armijo I do he's doing his own plan but
there there has been talk about
collaboration between the two again we
do understand that this is transit as a
region it's not just a city and we are
in in contact with mr. Armijo and
hopefully it is part of our planning
study to hopefully get both of them the
people to talk whoever is doing his
study and ours to collaborate on that
okay thank you so let's see here was her
after council Bencomo did mayor pro-tem
did you have a comment thank you on that
thank you everybody for your
presentations a lot of information and
so I I agree with I think the AL Paseo
blueprint is an important plan and I
can't help and then I know when we asked
mr. weir about whatever the gaps what
were the barriers to getting this up and
moving and I can appreciate that the
comments there
but I continue to be concerned about and
I appreciate counselor bus kisses
comments I'm really concerned about this
blight at you know the vacant properties
I continue to hear especially I have
folks in fact of week doesn't go by
without having someone come to me and
say I'm interested in a property
I need this amount square foot footage
I'm going to the business owners or the
you know the people who own the
particular office space I'm not getting
much back from them and it's it
continues to be a struggle where they
either won't rehab it or they're asking
for way too much money and so I'm
thinking that we are needing other
ordinances resolutions and policies in
place in order to encourage people I
don't know if it's but again I'm hearing
all these wonderful ideas from folks
that want to expand their services to
people who are just starting out and
continue to hit hitting a roadblock with
real with real estate
the property owners those kinds of
things so I'm asking from your
perspective as staff what if any of our
laws either need to increase or do we
have what sort of incentives do we need
to have in place in order for this to
happen and it is some of this like them
at the mr a's like the Metropolitan
Redevelopment area plans are those ways
by which to assist people to come to the
table with us because I know of two
people now right now that have come to
me and say we would like to expand and
we've gone to several business owners
and there's no way that they would even
loosen up their requirements
to which at the end of the day hurts us
right in terms of increased GRT mayor
and Mayor Pro Tem Chandra I think there
are a couple are a few tools that the
city could utilize the MRA would empower
the city to enter into those and give
them more authority to assist with those
type of things with the elevate Las
Cruces just being adopted our next step
on that and we already have it
programmed is to update and modernize
our building and zoning ordinances to
assist with the development and then
again just prioritizing our capital
improvement projects throughout the city
but as far as those are other than the
MRA in other areas of the city those
other are tools that we can work on with
direction from Council miss Gus had some
other comments about the MRA mayor Mayor
Pro Tem Canada the MRA does as David
mentioned does give us some additional
tools to work with property owners we
similar to what we do for end of 8th
Main Street it allows us to use some
public funding to match private funding
which can help balance some of those
issues
it does also give us some abilities with
current property owners to ask them or
go in and inspect them on a more regular
basis instead of just when a youth
changes so that may be an opportunity
for us yeah okay all right
I do agree that this is more narrow in
scope and I'd like for it to increase I
agree with David we should start larger
rather than smaller makes it more
difficult I think in terms of I'm in
agreement to establish a task force I I
want to ensure that we include the Las
Cruces public schools there you know we
have Las Cruces high and other
especially
that I am aware of there's many kids
that are students that are going because
they have dual the dual programming
right with Arrowhead and different
things we need to just I think
ensure that we're including the Las
Cruces Public Schools and in that and
I'm and along that line is that district
the school board district the same as
our districts they're different right so
I think it mayor when you spoke of some
of the the housing that house the
elderly and students and those kinds of
things we have some lower income
properties over there I just think that
ensuring that we also include folks like
the Housing Authority that I think would
be really important they're really
struggling I think to get there they're
residents and whatnot involved and
encouraging them to to participate in
other other avenues I think having
speaking to our Home Builders
Association and others around housing is
going to be extremely extremely
important and the other thing is is one
of the questions Mandy that I had in
terms of the public Improvement District
is can you explain a little more about
what that would look like
in terms of the kind of the steps that
we would take to do that and the reason
I'm asking is is the infrastructure
up-to-date there on the El Paseo
corridor or would we need to update it
as we did the downtown I would not like
to speak to the infrastructure of
probably hint that let somebody else
answer that part of the question but the
public Improvement District is for us
for a little bit more clarification on
that there would be an application from
25% of the property owners that want a
public Improvement District and it could
be used to pay for public infrastructure
improvements or or enhanced services so
just
as an example if there was certain type
of maintenance that was being requested
or landscaping that could be that that
that money could be used for that and it
would have to be but it would be taken
as a public hearing and an election and
at least 75% of the qualified property
owner and voters would have to want this
to come into place because it does
establish additional levies on the
property tax that answer it does it does
I guess when I see something like this
I'm thinking that you all have done some
more research in terms of what the
infrastructure needs are there right and
if the if this would be the best avenue
to take in terms of updating because it
certainly needs landscaping update right
I envisioned that El Paseo Corridor
looking very similarly in terms of
landscaping like it looks on the tile
shorter you know that just beautiful
trees and just landscaping that's what
I'm envisioning there but I don't know
about their water and sewer and sort of
what that looks like
and Mayor Mayor Pro tonight the the
blueprint talks about different types of
trees and that type of infrastructure
which would be something this could fund
answer good afternoon mayor Mayor Pro
Tem Gandara David masters of the public
works department with respect to the
type of infrastructure that is in place
for water waste water the utilities
great question
because anytime we do any construction
on roadways that have been in place for
several years we are going to have some
difficulties through that corridor we
have run into some areas that have
already been maintained
you might recall an emergency wastewater
installation that was completed on
helplessly on Farney so some of that
area has been upgraded I would
anticipate to answer your question
specifically with comparison to our
downtown project it wouldn't be as
significant
for the utilities that we've run into
there the other thing that we do have is
we do have additional right-of-way and
corridor through there so as we do
improvements some of the trees that
you're talking about that you're hitting
on we have room if we build within the
corridor to help with those type of
installations so would it be completely
unheard of to start maybe like how long
would this public Improvement District
be did you say five years is that what
I'm or is there a time frame mayor and
Mayor Pro Tem the public Improvement
District does not have a time frame it
was the Business Improvement District is
reevaluated over every five years the
public improvement one does not have an
end date unless the committee or
governing body chooses to end it once
the projects are completed and paid for
and the election would be a ballot I
mean a mail-in ballot probably that that
is correct okay so for me if we're gonna
do this we have to look at this first
especially laying conduit and just the
things that are needed because of the
trolley system and the kind of
transportation that we think it'll
require I'm not suggesting in the public
Improvement District what I'm thinking
is infrastructure first right building
that up or maybe simultaneously is it
completely unheard of having a public
Improvement District an e/m metropolitan
can you do both you can't oh we did you
did say that the church and water you
are I don't know I'm confusing them it's
a lot of information but I'm wondering
if we can do one first and then once we
update though I mean I guess it's hard
for me to say what to start with when I
don't really know other than David you
seems for my interest that this is going
to be a significant as mayor mayor
pro-tem Kandra David - again one of the
things that we do differently on our
projects now is we incorporate
subsurface exploration in advance of the
projects and that might be something
that we could consider before we get to
the next phases of moving forward with
reconstruction projects or designs for
reconstruction projects and that way you
have
idea of what the utility system looks
like underneath and how much we will
have to put forward to upgrades for
those type of infrastructure systems
yeah I would really like that
information as we're moving it would be
really important to me and and I would
agree that the Metropolitan looks the
redevelopment area looks like the better
of the of the ideas as we move forward
in terms of tools in our toolbox let's
see and pretend the question of what
should go first it it's open to to City
Council's direction
metropolitan redevelopment plan could
help us establish some of the goals
which maybe would help us determine if
one of the financing options the tid the
pit or the bid is is most appropriate
try to say that right I appreciate that
I think again I want us to be really
cognizant of the fact that that
infrastructure there is really old and
it's going to need to be updated but I
think this will definitely give the kind
of base lift in terms of ensuring that
we have that I mean councillor busca
tonight earlier weren't in a meeting
along with the mayor and our public
safety but law enforcement and you know
I I think this would be a way to
encourage folks that we haven't left
them behind
that we really do care about them and
care about what's happening in their
area and this
is certainly I mean I came to school
here in the 80s that was a very vibrant
place that's where I mean kids were the
hangout they they you know they they did
that evening that nighttime ritual
driving you know cruising cruising
around down the opposite was like a big
a big deal it doesn't look that that way
and I I think that we need to be able to
improve in there and and I think this is
a great idea so thanks mr. mayor
it is Mandy a question on your slide is
that a typo does it say at least 25% and
you said verbally 75% 25% has to make
the application seventy-five percent has
to approve it in the election thank you
mayor pro-tem you know you have the
that's a good idea about including city
schools and let me tell you why and this
I think Jennifer FLOTUS would like this
it just dawned on me there's I think the
students at the the high school students
that live is let's say their parents are
attending the University and live in
student housing I think a lot of them
going to Las Cruces high schools so if
they have access that will include the
superintendent's office and transit
department because they may want to just
use that to go instead of a school bus
they can make it there to school pretty
quick so I think those are some pretty
good ideas as well so ok so anyone else
come serve boskie's Thank You mayor and
get some follow-up questions on the MRA
is so I'm thinking about in particular
rehabbing or redeveloping existing
private property right and incentivizing
people to do that on their own
so that they become more desirable but
also evaluating what's what's up to code
what's not you know where there's
opportunities for acquisition on the
part of the city you know not to keep
but obviously to put it into good
productive use so with the MRA can you
just talk a little bit about you
mentioned land and building acquisition
demolition and zoning regulations
through this establishment of an
which you said a planner has to
designates a professional planner
essentially determines if the MRE is
eligible to be an MRA or the certain
area and then how does that process then
float down to the policy spectrum of
like okay what kind of policy decisions
can we make with the MRA that we
couldn't without it mayor in Kelso
Vasquez so the it has to be designated
with a professional planner professional
architect and that is that they would
come in they would do an evaluation of
the designated area to talk about is it
an area of slum and blight what are what
is the inventory what is the vacancy
rate I think all of those have been have
been stated so that's how we would start
to see what is the current state of the
area and that that is why it would be
appropriate to be a designated MRA the
MRA plan then would be something that
would identify all of those things that
you just mentioned what are some of the
goals are there land and building
acquisition and redevelopment and sale
opportunities are the zoning regulations
out-of-date do they need to be updated
for example in downtown they adopted a
Downtown Development code to make it
easier to develop those areas so that
that plan would kind of outline those
goals and then it would be adopted by
council at the policy level and there
would be items that could be decided by
council such as how do we bring them
into into conformance for the zones how
do we or what items would would be
interested in purchasing or redeveloping
or or what that may look like so
theoretically the MRA could use the
recommendations from like the El Paseo
blueprint to establish the plan so like
the the the corridor could be used as
the guiding document that would just
okay
mayor Kelso Vasquez any if we were to
bring somebody to designate the area and
also the MRA plan we would provide all
those documents to them so they have the
same history to move forward I really
like that I mean that gives us a tool
that's both a plan and a tool to
implement the plan right through these
different policy decisions that we can
make that would be guided through the
plan and then determine if there's some
additional tits or pigs that might be
appropriate right for additional funding
when it comes to I guess I'm thinking
about El Paseo and how how massive some
of these parking lots are in the big box
and kind of old retail areas that to me
is just a huge barrier in terms of what
can you do with a space that's not yours
that's huge and there's no way there's
going to be 500 cars you know parked at
any given time or however many spots
they have there so through the MRA
potentially you know the city could
acquire pieces of parking lot and put
those into better productive use right
through a public-private partnership
perhaps kind of like what we did with
the Amador councillor Vasquez that's
correct okay and I think that's really
important because I think we could we
could landscape the street beautifully
we could have corridor signs you know we
could have lots of leafy trees but
ultimately if we can't get the private
sector to cooperate or to incentivize
them to do the right thing in terms of
redeveloping this area with with you
know the resources that they have in the
city with the resources we have it's not
going to work so I'm glad that that tool
is that available to our disposal to it
for us to use it the zoning regulation
piece does that also allow you to enact
certain regulations like let's say
against on signage within that MRA so if
we were to say okay you know you have to
have certain type of signage or you have
to retrofit your signage to a certain
style is that's something that also
available as a tool
Marin councillor Vasquez I'm not sure
I'd have to look at it specifically
mayor and counselor Vasquez that's a
tool that you have available to you
today but it would just be provided an
additional justification if you included
it in
MRA okay okay the downtown and
university have different sign standards
and some different development standards
than the rest of the city so okay that's
a tool the city's familiar with okay
Thank You mr. weir Thank You Manny thank
you ma'am so just to clarify the leafy
tree comment on my state of the city so
years ago when we were planning the the
Plaza
I thought the pictures we were showed
were leafy trees instead of little
little little twigs that will eventually
grow up into a leafy tree so that's why
we're gonna do leafy trees okay okay
anyone else before we go back to some
public comment anyone wish to speak two
minutes on yes don't just come forward
on what you've heard so far and done
Kurtz and Thank You mayor and council I
just want to mention on the leafy tree
concept I was part of the I participated
in the El Paseo Corridor project ten
years ago I went to the groups and there
was a woman there that told me that
after movies downtown about 45 years ago
they would walk down El Paseo together
under cottonwood trees that that went
along the whole that whole area there
that a lot of its no parking lots I
personally remember the drive-in theater
that was on El Paseo with many big leafy
trees at any rate I think the threat as
the mayor pointed out in his state of
the city of climate change one of the
threats for New Mexico Los Cruces
particularly is extreme heat and getting
shades shade in place will have a huge
impact on people's quality of life but
anyway I just want to say it was there
once and it can happen again I think so
I just want to put that thank you for
that that was must been a really long
time ago because I don't remember those
leafy trees
okay so this is what I envision and this
is just a start and we don't have to
just but what I was thinking is a couple
this task force if you all concur a
couple members from the University from
the chancellor's office or his chief of
staff and then they ass and miss you
president Las Cruces Public Schools from
the superintendent's office and transmit
transit Department because it'd be nice
to have the council I mean the school
board and they can come as an ex-officio
but you know these are the ones who are
gonna tell us there's somebody we need
so many kids drive the bus you know
someone was more technical from the
business community each one of you and
that doesn't mean you can't but someone
from the homebuilders are from the
housing authority I mean those are all
business whether they're for-profit or
nonprofit you know there's no real hard
and fast rule on that and then the three
council members I think District one and
two since you won't book in and then
either three or four will have to flip a
coin or draw straws or something like
that you can hit okay there you go and
then this is of course in excluding we
need to obviously include David and city
transit staff and then after this after
they meet at least one time then come
back and have that PRC the
transportation PRC and that's that task
force and I would prefer that it be more
of a public meeting so that the members
of the public and can chime in and hear
it and then decide from there and listen
to what they've been able to come up is
that something you guys would support
clarifying question is this task force
just to study the bus or is it the
entire thing everything that the whole
thing do you think that that that seems
to me it's a pretty wide-ranging right
what we're talking about with the MRA
and the tid and the pid' and so in terms
of the membership of that group would
the school district be it just as
invested into talking about those things
than they were just about the just about
the transportation about the bus have
that makes sense well if the see here I
was I made it a point when I was 15 and
a half because back then I could get a
driver's license so I would have to walk
to Cruces
you never know if you extend it to where
you're wanting to do it they still want
to you know they'll be able to take that
well and I take that back but even even
in the near the college area they're
gonna be able to jump on that that bus
hopefully or that trolley and make it to
class instead of you know those rare
times where your parents would drop you
off and you tell them he dropped me off
about a block away and then I'll walk so
then sees you dropping me off this case
no I I mean I I agree I think it's it's
a good good group of folks to be
involved I'm just wondering if they'll
be just as invested into looking at the
city policy mechanisms or making
recommendations on things that we just
discussed today about m-ras and PIDs
like is that the right group to bring a
recommendation to well I guess they
could leave I mean if they got tired
they got tired of listening to that part
but we needed them you know I think it's
important and to include them because of
the the when I think about it that could
be an additional means of getting the
kids to to school and supposed to just
waiting you know for the school bus and
having to go to all those different sure
stops and happy kind of kind of neat
this just see them driving on the under
I'm just wondering if it wouldn't be
wise to separate those two issues
because they seem one potentially is a
fifty-four million dollar project or
something crazy and the other one is a
you know two hundred thousand dollar bus
line in terms of the transportation you
know the actual bus going from campus to
downtown and what that needs to me is a
much smaller budget item than
redevelopment of two entire districts of
the city does that make sense
sure I just don't I just want to make
sure that it's so how would you envision
the task force then you know I would say
if if it's just the transportation piece
that you would like folks to focus on in
terms of that trolley right in the most
effective use I think that's one
conversation and the other conversation
is like okay let's redevelop El Paseo
and and let's use the blueprint and
let's use the knowledge of staff let's
have discussions about the proper
mechanisms that's um that seems more
like a higher dialogue kind of okay so
so have one with the one that I just
mentioned and then have yet another one
without them yes and I think maybe the
larger
discussion that could be something that
could go straight to the PRC or on
infrastructure and public transportation
for that discussion to start there in
terms of the redevelopment of El Paseo
and Solano okay okay so okay well let's
let's do this if you don't mind let's
just get the task force started and then
let him meet once before we go to
another schedule and then what would
that be okay yes ma'am propose something
mr. Muir sure um how about we ask
someone at the public schools if they'd
want to be interested in participating
in a project like this and then then
they could decide if yeah does that make
sense
yeah we'll make them an offer they can't
refuse right I mean I think we're just
making into something yeah I would think
that they would I'm just presuming that
they would because yeah I I envision
high school kids jumping on the on the
on the trolley just to get the class and
instead of having to walk and you know
listen list traffic for them and you
know again yes councilor bleep de Stevie
say I do you think that the public
schools might have a vested interest
considering that bus courses high school
is right on El Paseo and if we do start
doing projects around their there their
input would be necessary for the Reeve
development not just transit so I I
agree I just want to make sure we're not
over committing some it seems like a
super big discussion to have and that
would folks both have the time and
expertise like I can't imagine the chief
of staff for the president actively
participating in a policy discussion
about redeveloping like El Paseo for the
longer term does that make sense yes the
reason why I was gonna bring Lenny along
is to be able to win the new NMSU
students come to the campus this could
be included in there and there
student card ID car whatever it may be
and and and those those fees or whatever
that they encompass so that they now
know that they have access to a free
ride back and forth sure because only
they should know where they can only
they can do that and then of course they
ascend miss you president so that they
can filter it through their their
legislative body they'll let them know
there's something there that you know
perhaps they may want to change the
boundaries a little bit I don't know I
just thought it about including them
okay thank you mayor I think mayor
former mayor pro tennis could I add
something miss junior you can take as
long as you want
Thank You Sharon Thomas again um I don't
see councillor Vasquez the University
and those people talking about MREs and
all that sort of stuff I think that the
corridor plant the blueprint Carter
neighborhood blueprint includes much
more than the transit so it seems to me
like the conversation would be mostly
about that document but not on to some
of the things that you've been
discussing here that are pertinent to
the city but more than just the transit
you know so that would be my suggestion
thank you yeah
err Pro Tem emeritus what were you so
what is your suggestion again my
suggestion is that the discussion is
primarily around the quarter blueprint
neighborhood blueprint is that what's
called quarter neighbourhood blueprint
set the correct row so it's more than a
quarter the document is more than just
about the transit but you know it's
about that whole area and how how you
would redevelop and rehabilitate that
whole area and so it seems like that
would be the starting point for the
discussion with some of these other
entities but not stuff like you've been
talking about like m-ras and where all
that goes I I don't think that would
work for schools or the university or
so do you think we should include the
University and the Las Cruces Public
Schools oh yeah I think they should be
included talking about the course we're
sure it could almost be like two parts
the first part is this this the transit
area part of it and then part two would
be now how we get more of the
infrastructure if we need to the MRA or
the tid and then from that point we they
just fall off if they want to they don't
have to come to the meetings that was
you know I think I was more saying that
the that the transit is not a separate
entity the transit is part of the
quarter neighborhood blueprint and so I
think that those other entities would be
interested in that part and you know
developing the whole quarter in
including the transit but not into the
details of how we're going to go about
doing it the m-ras and those things
because that's really more a city
consideration okay so I think if we get
them all first together I think would be
the first part and they can kind of
figure like councilor Vasquez was
thinking you know maybe they just think
well we've done our part and we're good
guys carry on yeah right okay thank you
thank you anybody else have any comment
so does that this is that something
we're moving forward with understandable
just to reiterate so have about 13
members in a Miss you lost Chris public
schools that's assuming if they want to
join which I would think I'll personally
invite them and and then you all if you
start thinking of your business members
either for-profit or nonprofit can be
the housing authority or the
homebuilders and then the three
counselors one two and three district
one two and three and of course David
Armijo and city transit staff council
sorg do you have any comment Thank You
mr. mayor I appreciate that
yes as you all been discussing this I've
been going over the El Paseo corridor
community blueprint and I help can't
help but notice that as we go through
the goals that are on that blueprint
they're matching what you've been
discussing today and all the action all
ten actions are dealing with all of
these ideas that have been shared here
on the council again I'll say it one
more time that's where we start and we
go from there
all right great well thank you I
appreciate that
so I does that include city
presentations yeah okay I guess if
there's nothing further entertain a
motion to adjourn so moved second second
motion made by councilor Florida second
by councilor vasca said we adjourn all
those in favor signify by saying aye
okay okay we're adjourned is 3:43 p.m.
Thanks
okay so