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Sunday, December 2, 2007

Rezoning a Little Late

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    Santa Fe City Councilor Patti Bushee's proposal to rezone the Juanita Street neighborhood next to the Railyard is too late— and too little.
    Bushee herself freely admits that the problem in the area between St. Francis and the Railyard "should have been dealt with six years ago." The problem is the proliferation of high-density and (at least for Santa Fe) high-rise development in what was, before the Railyard finally took off about three years ago, a neighborhood of modest one-story homes. Now three separate condo developments, at least one of which will rise to three stories, are under construction. The neighbors are understandably upset at losing their backyard privacy to these looming behemoths, not to mention their views and sun. Bushee wants to rezone a portion of the neighborhood to prevent more of the same.
    That's fine as far as it goes, though it won't do anything to about the already approved three-story complex that put the neighbors in an uproar in the first place.
    Bushee's measure also won't solve the real problem, which is that this same situation will likely crop up again and again all over most of the residential areas that border on downtown. The reason simple. They're currently zoned to allow high-density and high-rise development: 21 units per acre, three stories high, with up to 70 percent coverage on each lot. Think big city-style apartment complexes.
    We're not opposed to this kind of new-urban, high density development. But when it's retrofitted into existing neighborhoods full of one-story homes, it has be done carefully— cramming in big buildings next to older low-slung homes isn't the way to go.
    The city was supposed to rezone these neighborhoods six years ago, as Bushee has noted, downsizing both density and height. That didn't happen. Unless the council wants to continue being confronted with a new set of irate city residents who discover a three-story building taking shape above their once-private backyards on a regular basis, it should take this occasion to make sure the mandated rezoning happens not just in the Juanita Street area, but in all the close-to-downtown neighborhoods.
    Otherwise, sky-high property values coupled with the present too-permissive rules will virtually guarantee any new construction will be "upfill."