Senator Wants Traffic Study For New SFCC Learning Center

Becca Katz, a student at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, walks along Siringo Road at Yucca Street Tuesday, near where a Higher Education Center will be built by the Santa Fe Community College.

In addition, the Santa Fe Democrat is sponsoring a capital outlay request of $800,000 to plan, design and construct improvements to Siringo Road and other roads leading to the center, to be built adjacent to the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

“Lots and lots of people will be attending the learning center, and we already know that area of town is overloaded,” Rodriguez said. “Because of that, it’s inevitable that there will be an increased traffic flow, so we need to make sure adequate access is provided.”

The Higher Education Center had been on hold because Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration argued the community college needed legislative approval for the project, causing SFCC to file a lawsuit last November.

State District Judge Raymond Ortiz sided with the college, noting that legislative approval is particularly “conspicuous by its absence” from the state learning center statute.

Last month, the state Higher Education Department’s Capital Projects Review Committee gave its consent to build the $9.8 million facility, where four-year colleges from around the state will offer classes and students can pursue bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

This architectural rendering shows the planned Higher Education Center Building for Santa Fe Community College.

The 31,000-square-foot, two-story Higher Education Center is to be located on the north side of Siringo Road behind De Vargas Middle School and directly across from Garson Studios.

Rodriguez said she’s discussed the traffic issue with Mayor David Coss and SFCC President Ana “Cha” Guzman, and they are fully in support on conducting the traffic study.

“It’s always been in the plans to make sure that we knew how to arrange the traffic pattern,” Dr. Guzman said, adding that a traffic study was called for in the sale documents when the city sold the property to the state and the state sold it to the college. “So Senator Rodriguez is just assuring that we get some help, because finances are so tough, to make sure we have good traffic patterns for her district and our students.”

Guzman said she’s spoken with Santa Fe University of Art and Design President Larry Hinz about the issue.

“We have committed to ourselves and to them that we will be good neighbors and we’ll utilize our facilities so it’s a win-win for everybody,” she said. “We’re all working together to assure the neighborhood will not suffer.”

Hinz could not be reached for comment.

Rodriguez’s Senate Joint Memorial 19 calls for the city and community college conduct a study “to identify the need for improvements to roads to provide adequate ingress and egress” to the proposed learning center. It notes that the area is accessed from Siringo and Cerrillos roads, Camino Carlos Rey, St. Michael’s Drive and Llano Street and that traffic in the area is already heavy and will increase when the higher learning center opens. The purpose of the study is to identify the need for improved and adequate road infrastructure that would provide adequate access to the center.

Once the study is completed, the memorial asks that the report be given to the mayor and community college president and presented to the appropriate legislative committees by November.

Rodriguez said she introduced the request as a joint memorial so both houses would see it. “I think it’s an important memorial, so I wanted to give the House committees and opportunity to approve it,” the senator said.

University has concerns

Ike Pino, public works director for the city of Santa Fe, said nearby Santa Fe University of Art and Design has recently expressed concerns to the city about the impact the Higher Learning Center would have on traffic in the area.

“In the last three weeks they pointed out that this could be an issue and we need to be concerned about it, and they aren’t wrong,” he said. “We have started the discussion about how we’re going to deal with that, although it seems like it’s still a ways down the road.”

Pino said city officials will have to examine the lease to the property, its requirements, and which authority — the college or the city — is responsible for what.

“Once that’s understood, then it’ll have to decide what do we do,” he said.