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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
NW Quad Plan May Be Foiled
By Kiera Hay
Journal Staff Writer
Santa Fe City Councilor Patti Bushee threw a wrench into the city's long-standing plans to develop the Northwest Quadrant on Monday, announcing that she intends to introduce an ordinance that would set aside the several hundred acres as open space.
“I think this project should go away, and I am going to bring forward an ordinance designating it as open space,” Bushee told the city's Public Works Committee during a meeting that saw the proposed housing project soundly bashed by both councilors and audience members.
Bushee, who has long expressed doubts about the development, said after the meeting she's been thinking about introducing the proposition for “a while,” but wanted to first gauge the level of support for the Northwest Quadrant's master plan. The plan is scheduled to be heard by the city's Planning Commission on June 18.
Bushee said she thought an open space ordinance — which has yet to be written — was an appropriate idea “to throw into the mix.”
Her announcement came at the end of a nearly two-hour review of two contentious aspects of the development: financial feasibility and traffic plans.
Councilors were told that the latest financial projections, put together by local economist Michael Halsey, indicate the project will be about $27 million in the hole if built using a housing plan composed of 37 percent affordable homes, 33 percent “step-up” units and 30 percent market rate houses.
To plug the gap, Halsey and city staff coordinating the project have recommended a reduction in the project's affordable and step-up housing, as well as a series of measures that could include a land lease, outside grants, tax credits or public bonds backed by either gross receipts taxes raised from the project's construction or homeowner fees.
Still, Halsey told the committee he'd advise waiting until local and national economic conditions improved before starting the project. “I would not even recommend pulling the trigger today,” he said.
On the traffic side, Kathy McCormick, director of the city's Housing and Community Development Department, said city staff recommends a proposal that would provide Northwest Quadrant residents with access to the rest of Santa Fe via the Ridgetop Road/NM 599 interchange. The new road would dead-end at Camino de los Montoyas, although emergency vehicles could enter the area through a special, gated route.
That option, along with a plan to keep live/work space, a neighborhood center and fire station to a total of about 120,000 square feet — roughly half of what had been suggested at one point — will keep road improvement costs down, McCormick said.
The Public Works Committee, also composed of Councilors Rosemary Romero and Chris Calvert, voted to deny approval of both the financial and traffic analyses.
As has happened at most other meetings dealing with the Northwest Quadrant, a large contingent of naysayers, many of them residents of the neighboring Casa Solana neighborhood, gathered in the audience. More than a dozen spoke during a public hearing during which mostly negative sentiments about the project were expressed.
Nicole de Jurenev, vice-president of the Casa Solana Neighborhood Association and chairwoman of its Northwest Quadrant Committee, told the committee Halsey's financial analysis proved the development wasn't feasible in the current economic climate.
Noting the new proposal would lower the number of affordable homes, she said, “This is not an affordable housing development. This is a developer giveaway, and we need to stop it right now.”
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