Santa Fe Planning Commission Approves Airport Road Ordinance

An ambitious ordinance to improve the Airport Road area cleared its first major hurdle Thursday when the Santa Fe Planning Commission unanimously gave its stamp of approval to the measure.

However, commissioners voted to eliminate a section of the ordinance regulating food carts, and asked that the City Council, which has the final say on the ordinance, take special consideration of provisions on building incentives and alcohol sale floor plans.

The proposed measure would create an overlay zone around Airport Road that, among other things, imposes regulations on alcohol sales and creates a healthier “food zone” by, in part, banning new restaurant drive-throughs.

The ordinance also establishes architectural and zoning guidelines aimed at making the area more attractive and walkable, and waives or reduces permit fees to entice new businesses to build in the area.

City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez, the measure’s sponsor, said it’s the first of several proposals he plans to introduce to create a higher quality of life in southwest Santa Fe.

“What I’d like to do is create a healthy and safe community. The way I define that is people need to have places to live, places to recreate, places to shop,” Dominguez said.

“Really, it’s intended to begin, much more than we have, to improve the quality of life for the people in that part of the community,” he said.

Dominguez noted that the provisions of the overlay zone ordinance grew out of meetings and discussions with residents of the area.

The proposed regulations on mobile food vendors prohibits the trucks from being located within 500 feet of a school, recreation center, park, library or youth center.

Commissioner Renee Villarreal said food trucks are an “up and coming area” and the issue deserves deeper attention from the city. Many food trucks serve healthy good, she pointed out, and shouldn’t necessarily be made to stay away from places like parks.

“I guess I feel that could be an ordinance in itself,” she said.

Dominguez said he would be amendable to removing the requirements from the overlay zone ordinance for now.

Some commissioners also questioned the need for incentives, which include waiving construction permit fees for grocery stores, farmers’ markets, medical providers, schools, day-care centers and recreational facilities, as well as discounts for other enterprises deemed desirable. Commissioners said they’d like to see a report on how much revenue the city might lose.

Dominguez said the idea is to bring businesses to the southside that residents have indicated they want. For instance, there are no dentists now based in the Airport Road area, he said.

The overlay district would stretch from the intersection of Airport and Cerrillos roads to Airport and N.M. 599, and include all property adjacent to the Airport Road right of way. That’s about 108 lots, approximately 40 percent of which are vacant.