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Yet another (opinion) on the proposed Walmart development at Coors and Montano has recently been published solely in the West Side Journal. What part of “this is not just a West Side issue” does the Albuquerque Journal not understand?
The proposed Walmart development violates the restricted zoning code for this site and does not comply with the city’s Large Retail Facility (LRF) Ordinance. If this big box applicant is approved in direct violation of the existing city ordinances and sector plans, it will set a precedent encouraging developers to attempt unsuitable developments wherever there exists an available plot of land in our city.
Walmart maintains that a big box store is a permissible use on a site with C-2 zoning. The problem is this site is not zoned C-2. It is zoned SU-1 for C-2 and O-1 uses with a subdivision site plan that calls for a pedestrian friendly plaza and village concept with significant green spaces.
A big box store cannot and does not exist in a plan for a “pedestrian-friendly plaza” especially when located on a site at the edge of two bosque parks – the Aldo Leopold Forest and the Rio Grande Valley State Park – where the city’s highest concentration of pedestrian, bicycle and other recreational traffic exists.
City Planning staff gets it. In their report, they state the proposed subdivision is inconsistent with the vision and development goals established in the design standards for North Andalucia at La Luz. The primary goal is to “achieve a vibrant, mixed use community that fosters pedestrian accessibility and maintains a village type character.” These design standards were proposed by the developer and the neighborhood associations participated in this process and agreed with the design.
The applicant’s attorney responds to the City Planning report by acknowledging that a big box store was never part of the site plan by stating “While the approved 2005 Site Plan does not contain a LRF, it also fails to rise to the standard of strolling villagers.”
I don’t believe neighborhood associations envisioned “strolling villagers” when they agreed to the pedestrian friendly plaza design any more than they envisioned a Walmart as part of that concept.
The proposed big box development does not comply with the LRF Ordinance, which requires big stores to have full and primary access to a major four lane collector road. Specifically, both Walmart’s primary access onto Coors and Montaño is only partial as left turns are restricted.
Walmart acknowledges this failure and addresses the issue with regard to truck traffic by claiming that trucks intending to travel south on I-25 will access Coors northbound to Alameda, which is the first east/west collector street that allows truck traffic and from there will travel back south. It’s an absurd plan to suggest for a major, unfixable deficiency.
Immeasurable time and resources were expended in creating the zoning and site plans in this area. Because of the abutting state parks, which are primary quality-of-life gems for Albuquerque, it involved city-wide public debate, careful consideration of the needs and rights of the landowner and the community, and ultimately, a compromise, which allowed for well-planned, thoughtful development.
If the Albuquerque Journal and the citizens of Albuquerque continue to falsely perceive that this proposed development is a permissible use and is not an issue that impacts our respective individual and corporate investment in our city on a number of levels, then we, at a minimum, best glance at the remaining vacant tracts in our neighborhoods and come to grips with the fact that the enforcement of the existing ordinances that guide their future development are at great risk if this proposed development is approved by the Environmental Planning Commission.
