A Few Tidbits on the St. Mike’s Revitalization

Following last night’s Planning Commission approval of Councilor Carmichael Dominguez’s Airport Road overlay district ordinance, I decided to attend a discussion this afternoon at the Santa Fe Neighborhood Law and Policy Conference on efforts to revitalize Airport Road and St. Michael’s Drive.

Much of the talk on Airport Road was a rehash of last night (see my story in today’s paper for more) but there were a few interesting comments on St. Mike’s.

Kate Noble, of the city’s Economic Development Division, said that a recent study commissioned by the Santa Fe Association of Realtors found that as many as 1,000 residential units could be inserted into the St. Mike’s landscape.

Noble also noted that more than 400 surveys were filled out at the recent Re:Mike event, which centered on St. Mike’s potential. Final results are still being processed, but Noble said walkability and greater services are among the top things people said they’d like to see along the thoroughfare.

A student group at the University of New Mexico that’s been studying St. Mike’s is also slated to soon give the city its thoughts on how to improve the area. A few ideas that could be implemented relatively quickly include the addition of more food trucks and using planters and striping to change busy traffic patterns, Noble said.

“The revitalization of St. Mike’s has had a long history as a project…It’s a project that won’t go away,” Noble said.

Moderator Chris Graeser, an attorney, noted that development has been a bit haphazard on both St. Mike’s and Airport, tied largely to individual parcels of land. However, looking ahead, he noted that because the areas aren’t as “tied to history” as other areas of Santa Fe, there’s greater flexibility for revitalization.