Airport Road Proposal Gets OK

The Santa Fe Planning Commission on Thursday unanimously put its stamp of approval on an ordinance designed to improve the Airport Road area. However, commissioners voted to eliminate a section of the ordinance regulating food carts and asked that the City Council, which has the final say, take a close look at provisions on building incentives and alcohol sale floor plan reviews.

The proposed measure would create an overlay zone around Airport Road that, among other things, imposes regulations on alcohol sales – including a ban on the sale of liquor “miniatures.” It also 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.

Dominguez and other city staff acknowledged there could be legal challenges to the alcohol-related section of the ordinance. The ordinance would regulate the density of liquor stores and alcohol advertisements to ensure the area isn’t “oversaturated” and make stores segregate alcohol sales.

City staff has already changed the ordinance to make the latter requirement apply only to new businesses. The change was made after attendees of a recent early neighborhood notification said some existing establishments could be forced to stop selling alcohol altogether.

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.

“I’m not sure how necessary it is to have these kinds of incentives for businesses. Businesses are inclined to go somewhere that over the course of time will be profitable … They’re not coming if it’s not profitable,” Commissioner Signe Lindell said.

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 intent is to remind everyone that we have a huge population in that area, a population with needs and these are some of the things they said they need … the intent is to provide some of those services,” he said.

Santa Fe Land Use Director Matt O’Reilly said other construction incentives offered by the city, including the elimination of residential impact fees, have had some success in spurring development.

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.