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EDGEWOOD — Ray Seagers is not happy with Santa Fe County’s Sustainable Land Development Plan or the corresponding land code that is under development.
Seagers is a real-estate agent based in Edgewood. He said, like many others from the greater Edgewood area, that the plan is based on the United Nations Agenda 21, a nonbinding action plan that addresses sustainable development.
Seagers said the county is attempting to force people to form “cluster developments.”
He said it is similar to a plan that was developed over a decade ago. That plan is part of what spurred several people from Edgewood to incorporate and form a municipality there.
“It’s going to be very difficult to continue the lifestyle of large-lot development,” he said. “The town of Edgewood was formed to avoid this type of planning.”
When asked what can be done, Seagers said a separate set of rules for folks in the Edgewood area might work.
“Let us take the situation we have down here and create rules that apply down here logically and reflect what people down here want to do,” he said. “… Nobody moved here because they want cluster development and high density.”
According to Sarah Ijadi, a community planner with Santa Fe County Growth Management, something similar to that is already written into the existing plan.
“It does show intent to create (an Estancia Basin) area task force to address regional growth management issues,” she said. “… They anticipated a need in the Estancia area.”
As far as Ijadi knows, that task force has not been created.
There is also a provision for an area plan to be developed, she said.
“An area plan deals with conditions on the ground that are different from other areas of the county. More refined policies and code,” she said.
Ijadi said that County Planning Manger Robert Griego has said that no one has approached the county to form a group of stakeholders and hammer out such a plan.
According to Karen Torres of Santa Fe County Water Utility, getting dedicated volunteers for that kind of work is always tough.
“That’s a problem everywhere,” she said.
Edgewood Town Councilor Sherry Abraham — also a real estate agent — said another issue with code enforcement in unincorporated Santa Fe County as well.
“Edgewood was established to make permitting easier, so that Santa Fe County wasn’t dictating what we could or couldn’t do,” she said. “The thing is, I think they just ignore the rules …”
— This article appeared on page 11 of the Albuquerque Journal
