Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

I am beginning the planning and zoning commission meeting for Wednesday, 12/10/2025. If staff could call the roll call, please.

Commissioner Easton? Here. Commissioner Cream?

Here.

Commissioner Naughley? Here. Commissioner White? Commissioner Adler? Commissioner Brule?

Here.

Commissioner Hill?

Here.

Commissioner Nelson?

Here.

Commissioner Brown?

Present.

Chair, we have

a quorum. Thank you. I'm moving on to the public comment, section of this agenda. It's reserved for comments from the public on items that are not otherwise included in this agenda. I see no one in chambers. Is there one anyone online attending that would like to make a public comment? Alright. I'm looking for a motion to approve this evening's agenda.

I so move.

Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye or raise your hand, please. Aye. Thank you. Aye. Unanimously approved. Moving on to the business of the commission this evening. I am looking for a motion to approve the minutes from the planning and zoning commission meeting held 11/12/2025.

I move to approve the the meeting minutes from 11/12/2025.

Thank you.

I'll second.

Thank you, commissioner Hill. Would we prefer a roll call vote on that? Yes, please.

Commissioner Green?

Abstain.

Commissioner Brown?

I approve.

Commissioner Naughley? Approve. Commissioner

Brew?

Abstain.

Commissioner Hill? Approve. Commissioner Nelson?

Abstain.

Commissioner Easton?

Approve.

I have four yes. Motion passes. I

need to review and approve the 26 planning and zoning commissioner commission meeting calendar that is attached. Has everyone had time to look at this? Pretty standard. I'm looking for a motion to approve. I move to approve the calendar. Thank you. I'll second. Thank you. I'm gonna just raise hands on that one. All those in favor, raise your hand or say aye.

Alright. Unanimously passed. Thank you very much. Now we're going into the discussion and approval of the twenty sixth planning and zoning commission work plan. So I appreciate staff's work on this presentation.

Welcome, commissioner Adler. Alright. So the purpose of the work plan is to provide a detailed outline of tasks, activities, timelines, and resources required by this board or commission to achieve its annual goals. The purpose of most boards is to gather public input to review policy recommendations by staff when requested and to make policy recommendations to the county council. The process timeline is in November.

There's a strategic planning session with the county. In December, the boards and commissions review and develop work plans. Primarily, it's this December agenda. In January, we'll finalize and submit work plans for council review, and then it's all due to be completed by February 1. And the time frame for this work plan is 01/01/2026 through 12/31/2026.

So the first thing I wanna go over is the list of members' terms, starts and ends, and where they are in their term number. So you can have a second term. So I end my term in '28. Commissioner Hill ends his in '27. Katie, yours is your first term, but the first term ends in March '26. Rachel, unfortunately, you've termed out, my dear. So your last two will be 03/31/2026. Right?

I think so. That's what I was yeah. That's what I had.

Right? Yeah. That's. It's very sad when we're we force you out. Rebecca's ends her second term in '28 as I do. Stephanie, you also will be terming out.

And my name is miss misspelled, I just noticed.

So Oh, yeah. I don't know if that really matters, but it does. Yeah. Thank you for pointing that out. And Bob's also, we wanted to note, is also incorrect. Yes. And my start date is incorrect. It should be September 9. September. Yep. We noted that. Thank you for that. Madam Chair?

Yes. It's the actual term, not the date of appointment. So if if the term is correct, then that's correct, not when he was appointed to fill in

a So was he replacing I believe he was replacing There was an opening. Captain.

But I don't know. But so so it is the full term even though he was appointed within

the middle of it. So we'll leave the term start date as for when because that's when the opening occurred, but he didn't fill it until September for clarification. Got it. Commissioner Nelson, yours ends in '27 as does Marlin, and you all are in your first term. So we welcome you to take a second term. You will have to apply for that, though.

Ron would like you to point, like to point out that I'm I'm the only one that's serving a six year term. Historically, it's pretty crazy.

That's true.

Can we take a note of that? You haven't been '21. Thank you. Alright. So currently, I'm the chairperson. Our department director is Elias Isaacson. This was developed with the department director. Our staff liaison continues to be Danielle Valdez. Administrative support is Desiree Lujan, who happens to be out currently. Our council liaison is on council counselor Herman.

Yes. The work plan has been reviewed by the council liaison. So I'm not gonna go through and read these, but you can see how it's divided up. The first thing is the previous calendar year work plan highlights. So the top five activities from the previous calendar year, these are the things that we accomplished in '25. If you'll review those and let me know if we missed something. Yes.

If I can ask a question about the the two openings, are there applications have been received for those yet? Or

I've received three applications. We are going to set up interviews for the applicants. That just hasn't happened yet, but I will have someone to appoint for April 1 so that we will not be short commissioners in our April meetings. I am really sad that we're losing our commissioners. We we have advocated that some of these rules change, and it's a policy change through counsel, but is gonna look into it.

It just won't happen in time for us. But we do have really good applicants, one specifically really good applicant. So we're looking forward to it, for sure, appointing one before, one before the the term, before our commissioner's term out.

Right. Thank you.

Great question. Follow on question. We don't technically have the opening right now. So if you went to the website, would it show that we were accepting applications prior to

the Yes. You you we do not need a vacancy to submit an application. So we have been advertising continuously for all openings on the boards, LTAP, historic, and planning and zoning regardless of no vacancies right now. So we are trying to get ahead of not having any vacant positions through our transition of of terms.

Great. Thank you for the answer to that question. I would also just let everybody know that you need to be sensitive because you do have to disclose your party affiliation, and we have to have a balanced commission. And I encourage you if you're having conversations with people and they express an interest in our community other community members in this commission to encourage them to apply.

And to note, the three vacancies will all be Democrat vacancies. Thank you.

Anything that you would like to add to these top five activities or any edits to them? If not, the next

Good night.

Are the list of go ahead. Nope. List of top five accomplishments from the previous calendar year.

I think it would be nice to note somewhere that we had a national expert on parking come and speak to us. That was pretty cool.

Wasn't that in '24? No. It says previous calendar.

Oh, was it? Sorry.

Top so is previous calendar year '24?

So that This is our work plan for 2026. So previous would be 2025. Parking was established in 2024. Right. And conversations are ongoing about about some of those studies and incorporating them into some future work that is upcoming.

Does that answer your question, Katie?

Yeah. That's fine.

Okay. And then the next topic is list the lessons learned from the previous calendar year. Highlights, obviously, consistent attendance is critical. And in fairness to the applicants, when we don't have a full council, it really hinders the work that we do. So I just encourage all the commissioners to attend as many as possible and give us ample notice ahead of time so we're not scrambling at the last minute to get a quorum.

Yeah.

Okay. So for me, I wanna get into what we're gonna do this year. So I I think other commissioners have some thoughts on what they would like to accomplish this year. So I'm gonna move on to the '26 work plan. This is any special projects, assignments given to the board of commission by the council or department director.

So I'm gonna go over these. So participate in the comprehend comprehensive plan working group, providing input on land use, housing, redevelopment infrastructure to ensure alignment with county goals, continuing education and and training focused on zoning intent, development code, voting requirements for judicial decisions. There are some open spaces because I think we can add there. I'm gonna continue because I want people to start thinking about what they wanna focus on this next year. List other projects or activities being proposed by this board or commission in priority order.

Support staff in identifying code amendments or procedural updates that align with the forthcoming comprehensive plan and simplify implementation for applicants and reviewers. The second one is increase commissioner understanding of land use application processes to enhance review consistently consistency and applicant communication, evaluate accessory dwelling allowances within selected zoning districts to determine potential for expanded housing opportunities while mitigating neighborhood impacts, revisit parking requirements in chapter 16 to evaluate opportunities for rightsizing standards, improving efficiency, and understanding the broader impacts on redevelopment in fill.

So so let's talk. I have a think I don't see it on here. If I can jump in. Yes, please. I believe that council directed us to and, again, I think this fell through the cracks maybe in '24. I can't remember now. They directed us to study Canyon Rim protections, building heights along with Canyon Rim, and then nothing ever happened. So that was a council direction. So I probably ought to go in, assuming council still cares. That probably ought to go into the work plan.

Do we have Can I ask a question? We do have councilor Herman. Is she are we allowed

to invite her into the conversation or no? Oh, hello. Yes. Hi there. Thanks. Go ahead, counsel. Go

am am uncertain about that those instructions on that. I'm sorry. I don't have anything more definitive.

So I can speak a little bit to this. When this was brought up in chapter 16, there was a motion or a comment made by, I wanna say, counselor Reedy and seconded by, oh, come on, Karen, counselor at the time. And what they were looking for was changing. So if you think of the overall plan for downtown, the height, I think, is eighty four feet. Eighty six feet?

Yes. And what they did was segregate. They changed, and they segregated to the right of Trinity Drive looking south, and they lowered the heights of those buildings.

Almost the the it was a step back just within 100 yards or feet within the canyon rim, not the entire so in in 2022, they did make all of the build they tried to squish them all down to 54 feet, which would have made almost all the buildings there, like, nonconforming. So we they that got fixed in '23, raised them back up to to 86 feet with protections within, this is my memory, within a 100 feet or yards of the Canyon Rim, and that's a 54 foot step back if I recall. I'm looking to staff for help.

Is this specific to a certain parcel? Because I'm almost positive. Where is a a a located at to Canyon Rim specifically? Is that

the is pretty far down on DP Road. This was all south of.

Okay. I'm gonna have to look into that specifically. But specific to AAA, they had no issues with with meeting height requirements for the density that they that they are coming in with. Their preferred density, there was no accommodation that they made to meet requirements, but I will look more into it because I am familiar that we did speak about this a couple of months ago. It just wasn't an issue because we didn't have anybody coming in with anything.

So let me look into it, and then we can we can add it to the work plan. So it's it's memorialized, and we can add it to our list. So far, though, it hasn't it hasn't been an issue, so we haven't we haven't brought it. You know, we haven't really dug too far into it.

And if you could look to find out exactly what the code ended up being, because I think it was supposed to be brought up again. Okay. Great ad. Education. The the really big one for me is that we've asked for continuing education for several several times, couple years now, and we just don't seem to be coming up with a curriculum and and executing on it.

So I would ask staff go back, and we have some new members of commission, and I think it would be really helpful to come up with some curriculum and some resources for people. So in the list of projects and activities, we talked about revisiting parking requirements. So that addresses that. Accessory dwellings. Right, commissioner Hill? We wanna revisit accessory dwellings. Sure. I think that

was Dave that was commissioner Hampton's No. But thing.

We were talking accessory dwellings with the temporary parking in the structure. Is it different? Sorry. You asked for better guidance on accessory structures. Oh, I see. Yes. Are we in agreement? You wanna add it?

So

that would be in 02/2004? Yep. Or maybe five because we got Canyon REM too.

Yeah.

It also kinda goes to the Your mic's off. Sorry. And I think that would go along with 2.12, which is continued education and training focusing on zoning intent. And how's does that need better definition? I kinda think it does.

Danielle and I have had some good offline discussions about that. And, but, yep, when when variances come along, like, what criteria do we use to to say whether this meets our idea of homogeneous development? And so that'd be great. I think we could do that. Thank you.

May I

jump in on that chair? Sure. I remember somebody planting the idea in my head that when you see a lot of variances in coming to a planning and zoning commission, that's an indication that there's something wrong with your development code. It's too strict. So So I wouldn't mind having some kind of training on, like you know, variances provoke a lot of opportunities for fractiousness, and and it's just stressful.

So if we're getting a lot of those, that would indicate that in the code rewrite we're write rewriting the comprehensive plan and not the zoning code. But we are diving into the zoning code, I believe, as part of it. So maybe maybe there's some opportunity for us to study that and smooth that out so that we're not getting quite so many variances.

Absolutely, Stephanie. So those two specific chapters are coming in with the comprehensive plan because they're in alignment with each other. The zoning and standards have to meet with the comprehensive plan and future land use maps. So those two will be working concurrently throughout 2026 with our it it was part of the RFP and the contract for the consultant to evaluate and create recommendations and and then, you know, their analysis of how we can better amend those two specific chapters that'll that'll deal with a lot of why we're getting variances based off zoning. Sometimes it's just the community was built, and then the zoning was put in place.

So we will always have variances in especially in certain areas of Los Alamos, but, hopefully, we can create a framework that alleviates issues that we have where there's a misunderstanding of intent or a misunderstanding of how to apply the code and then how we can we don't wanna make it too prescriptive so that it takes away from what we need it to be, but more so what we we we still wanna have the opportunity to be able to allow things without being, you know, prescriptive with it.

Will we also be studying the potential to shift things more toward administrative and away from discretionary? Like, some communities have a pattern book where if your project you know, there's a pattern of six whatever, you know, building types. And if your project fits that pattern book, you are approved by right, and that takes that saves staff a ton of time. It it removes the you know, the community has already decided the pattern book is acceptable. It's a kind of a smoother process. Is that something we're

More of

a form based code?

It's a little different. I think the pattern book is a little different than the form based code, but you would know.

I I'm I'm unfamiliar with the pattern book, but from what it sounds like, it it if it meets this form within the zoning, it we can move it forward without having to go through multiple steps. It just we just have to be able to justify it with beating those certain standards. Preferably, there would be ways for us to administratively approve things the same type of way, like the same type of justification staff reports and documentation being public. It just not needing to go through multiple processes or come come to the board for smaller things that are too big for us, but really shouldn't be needing people's you know, it's just dependent on it, and and we're working we're working with with the legal department to really kind of help us understand what we can do and then how we can kind of loosen and or or make more efficient, not even loosen, just make more efficient processes.

Okay. So we've added two things under projects and activities. I've done the building height because I think that's what we've called it in the past. It's been brought up as building height, but it was related to canyon rim protections. And then, two point two point five is, a discussion around, more clarification on accessory structures. Anything else that people want to add?

I have a couple Okay. Questions or points. Just to what Stephanie and Danielle were just talking about, I think it would be really interesting to see an actual like, see the data on variances, and I don't know if that's something the consultant could provide. But, like, in the last five years, let's look at every single variance application and, like, just graph what what are the sticking points that people are coming up against because I think that could really inform, you know, the code rewrite to make it fit more with what people need. And then my my second thing was I I think we've talked in the past about looking at single family zoning versus allowing more density in town, and I think that's something that's a priority for a lot of us here.

So it would be great to see something about that on our work plan as well.

I will add that to both. I'll add both to the work plan. The variance information we can do for you, staff can do for you. We don't need the consultant for that. So we can pull our our applications on variances and the types of variances, and we'll we'll bring that to the commission to just inform inform you all.

And then I'll add the the density studies. That that will that will be duplicate duplicative because that is part of the comp plan update, and all of that work is being completed by the consultant and the studies and the the recommendations and everything for how we increase density responsibly. I'm I'm not sure how to bring that to you earlier, but we can bring the consultants in, and have them speak to the speak to the commission prior to, you know, prior to completing the plan or prior to having drafts of the plan. We can have working groups with commission first, speak to commission, understand what it is we're trying to accomplish here from the board, and then how to incorporate that in into their into their scope.

Yeah. That sounds awesome. I definitely don't want people to duplicate work. I just wanna make sure that we keep that as one of our priorities.

I think it would be enlightening personally to have the housing group come before us with the current housing starts, site plans, the number of density projects that we've accomplished so far. Right? Because if you think about it, we've done the senior living down on DP Road. We've completed that. The affordable housing, you've got a eight that's been in site approved. And moving forward, it'd be nice to know where we're at with that.

We should have an application in the next few months. We've already done the pre application process with the with the developer. So we should have their application coming forth pretty soon.

But it'd be nice to know in the last year how many single family developments, how many multifamily developments are either in the works or completed. Because I think that we actually have made accomplishments in this county since I've been on this commission in going that direction. And I just don't think we've had the numbers to you know, you could just put it in a report to show us where we're at. I think that would be helpful for

You got it.

Yeah. And, obviously, we'll continue, Katie, working towards that. Thank you,

madam chair, if I may. Yes. Just there there is currently a list on the county's website of some projects and initiatives, so that would be a good starting point that the commission can look at now prior to getting additional detailed information.

And what is it? Where is

it on the county website?

Well, it's losalamosnm.us/services/housing/housing-development. So I just put housing into the search

Yep.

Bar in there, and that's it brought me there. So it has there's a whole economic development page that talks about the housing projects, the downtown revitalization, some other projects. So and I think the the county's goal is to continue to add to those websites, I but just wanted to bring that to your attention now.

That's a great resource. Thank you very much. Have we done a a gap study on number of houses available versus people looking for them lately?

Not lately. Okay. There was

the most recent one that I saw was was not too long. It was April 2024, and I think it indicated the number I'm remembering is 7,500 gap. K. So seven I think that's individuals and not

That's typically the number that we'll use in our reports because that's where we're pulling our data from. Was that was that 2024 report. And we'll include that in our our, you know, our our housing reports when we're when we're talk discussing the strategic plan and when so that that is very accurate. And that that's what sounds familiar, and that's where we're getting our numbers from is this as Katie mentioned, go to the Los Alamos website and click in housing, and you'll you'll find our our current projects and projects that have been completed. And then we'll continue to update that.

And then I'll find out how to do a gap study. It may be something that we can complete sooner than the comprehensive plan because that would be helpful to understand. And then how many residents did we lose, and how many how much turnover did we have these last this last year and a half or so, and then what that did to to the housing market in those numbers.

Great. I'll just mention to you the the affordable housing plan is just a wealth of every time I go back into it, I just find more stuff. So that's it. You could just

cozy up with that thing at night.

Cup of tea.

Thank you.

I have some very exciting news, but I can't share it with you because it's not my news to share. But you're you're all gonna love it. So I will wait for the housing person to discuss that with you, but very exciting news coming up on on the affordable housing.

K. Anything else that you guys that's percolated up? Anybody online wanna add anything that you wanna focus on in '26? Education.

Oh, I was gonna ask Danielle, is there has do we have on the on the education front, do we have permission to get those books from Sarah Bronin to the I meant to bring I've got I bought some copies of my own self.

I feel like that order should be coming in. I should have checked on it today, but I'll check-in with our admin staff tomorrow.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. So then we're gonna go on to 2.6, which is list the guiding documents and plans used by this board and commission. So these are all available to you, and I would encourage if you haven't reviewed them to go out and review them.

It is the old comprehensive plan 2016. The chapter 16 development code from '23, the downtown master plan from '21, the White Rock Town Center master plan of '21, and the strategic leadership plan of '25, which is updated annually. Identify interfaces with the county departments and other boards and commissions that are necessary to achieve this work plan. Community development department is vital to what the work we do. The county attorney's office, the community services department, the public works and public department of public utilities, other boards, environmental sustainability, parks and rec, transportation, and historic preservation.

This says list any special events this board plans to participate in that will support this work. There's nothing here. Does anybody have

I recall you asking several times for us to coordinate with the transportation board on Mhmm. Stuff. So that still we that still hasn't happened either.

No. And it needs to happen. And I think what I'm gonna do is actually just invite isn't it isn't David Hampton the chair of that? I think I'm gonna have to reach out to him to him directly and have a conversation about scheduling him to come and just give us an update on what he's working on, what their

You, me, David, and Eli discussed that at the previous luncheon that we did for boards and commissions.

Yep.

I think we're just I know there was some issues with the transportation study, the North Mesa transportation study that needs to be fixed and has not yet been fixed yet. And I know there was delays in presentation to the school board, so they haven't because they haven't released that data to the people who have hired them. They can't release it to us or can't meet with us yet. So I don't know exactly where we're at with that, but I can follow-up on on the transportation stuff. Is there is there a time frame that do you wanna do that sooner than later? How how do you wanna schedule that?

I think the work that they're doing is really vital to what we're doing. They're kind

of related as far as

the community is concerned. I would just like to know what David and the commission his commission are focused on this next year, and if there's anything that we can be paying attention to as we're reviewing site plans and things like that. So it's more commission to commission rather than, yes. I wanna see that study. I wanna know how that project we have up on North Mesa is gonna impact and what they came up with, but that those two things are not tied to each other. That makes sense? So I think just a general invitation to that commission to do a report out on what their focus is for next year.

Yeah. Madam

chair, if I may, there I don't know if it's still happening with the other boards, but there was a time where almost every board and commission had liaisons to other boards. And so we would the board would appoint a member of its own board to attend the ESB, to attend the transportation board, whatever they were the liaison to, and bring that back and report to the commission at every month or quarterly or, you know, whatever was appropriate. And we would put something on the agenda of board updates of other board liaison updates from other boards to not only know what, you know, transportation is, but, ESP, whatever you felt was appropriate. And sometimes the other boards would you know, you would cross cross liaise, I guess, would be

the the right word.

But that's also an opportunity that if maybe once we get a full commission to, you know, put the fillers out as if anybody would wanna do that. And then they would be tasked with attending those meetings, you know, bringing the concerns that maybe you guys as a commission have to the the t board and then bringing back and reporting to you. But that is another way to do that.

Thank you. I think that's a

great idea. If we have

once we have a full board, that would be a great idea. Okay. Anything else related to that? Any other special events? Are there any I mean, there are always conferences. Are there any conferences that planning and zoning commissioners attend?

I can look into that for you.

That would be great. Any

specific interests, comprehensive plans, zonings, density, form base, they do break them up. Typically, it's dependent on what your interest is and then what type of which, I guess, organization is hosting the conference. So, to your answer to your question. I'm sorry. Your the answer is yes. But it it's are there specific interests and people who, you know, would would like to attend one of those? And we can we can have those discussions and see if we can coordinate something.

There's an organization called Yimby. It might be cool to see what they're putting on.

How do you spell that, Katie?

Y I m b y.

Yes. In my backyard?

Yeah. Yimby Action.

Is that

the one?

Yeah. That's

Alright. I'll take a look and

There's let's coordinate. I'm

so sorry.

Go ahead. There's also Strong Towns. I think they have conferences.

I know that we say that Los Alamos is unique and not like everywhere else. It is to some extent. But the challenges we're faced with where you have part of the town that was built by the corps of engineers and nineteen forties construction with all the things that that brings and then new construction and then all the other things that we wanna you know, especially with the comprehensive plan, what we're trying to accomplish with density and livability, I would just be curious to because conferences are about networking with other people and having discussions around similar challenges, but I think there might be some benefit to that.

Yeah. I just wanna second that notion. Another organization, the AARP has been way out in front on these issues too. So, you know, they're they're they you know, there's a big aging population in The United States, and housing has become a huge crisis for seniors. So and and mobility issues tied up with that too. So if they have a conference or if they'd be willing to send someone to train us on, like, how zoning relates to mobility, relates to housing, that would be fascinating, I think.

And timely given that we're doing a comprehensive plan where we're looking at that overarching. What do we want our town to look like in the future? I think gathering as much information about what's trending, what the challenges are so we can plan for that makes sense to me. Are the other commissioners interested if there was an opportunity to attend that?

I just wanted to add. I think it would be great if commissioners do go to anything like that, if staff, you know, could also go.

Agreed. Have you guys been going?

Des went to a few last year. I've been catching up on stuff since I got here in March, trying to just make sure that it's we're we know what we're supposed to be doing. I think we'll be attending one in March. That's I can't recall which one it is, but we'll be attending one in March. And then I'd like to send Desiree to another one sometime in the in 2026. And then, hopefully, we'll have a, an associate planner by the January. And I would like to send them to training as well. So, hopefully, yes, and we can get some ideas.

I have a

yeah.

I've got so many more thoughts. I also would be remiss if I didn't remind everybody about Homewise, their livability series right there in Santa Fe, and I think they're gonna continue it. But they that has been I've seen a lot of the CD staff attending those and the and some planners sorry. Commissioners have attended those in the past as well. Very informative. That that's usually something like, I wanna say, May through October. And it's once a month, and they have a speaker come in on all this all these issues.

Dan typically attends that. So Dan Dan is on I don't know if it's a board or a membership or something, but he he goes to all of those meetings, comes back, and lets us know what has been discussed. So far, not too relevant to Los Alamos or to what we're doing, least in Homewise's aspect, but we will continue going to them. They're they're helpful, and, hopefully, they will be beneficial for the future.

Thank you. Any other thoughts? Otherwise, I'll go on to five, which is list active working groups within this board and commission, if any, along with the purpose and member names of each one. So, what's been listed is the comprehensive plan update working group, and we were having an earlier discussion about that there may be different committees or working groups. I know that, commissioner Hill, you expressed an interest in working on the comprehensive plan. Did I hear that right?

No? And I Yes. I I would like to work on it. Sure.

And commissioner Sheen and commissioner Nelson, is he still on? As I recall.

Yeah. Will we run into

Nelson is is a yes on that.

Chair, will we run into quorum issues if

we have too many of us?

Well, there's different working groups. Right? There's different groups.

There's a steering committee, a focus group, and a and a technical advisory. Technical advisory will be for staff, DPU, engineering, planning, housing, where the steering committee will be people from commission members of commission and boards that have their members of the community, but they have more they serve in more of a advisory role. And then we'll have focus group meetings that are members from the community and and public outreach. So whichever one of the the group's technical advisory is gonna be specific to staff.

So we have the conference comprehensive plan working group. We have a steering committee. And was there a third one? The focus group. That's really open to the public. What role would a planning and zoning commissioner act in that focus group?

Open to the public where members from the business communities, you know, local business owners can come in and give feedback. They'll probably be about four meetings an hour, hour and two excuse me, an hour and to an hour and a half meetings with each group every time we meet. Findings from those meetings will be incorporated, and then we will review those findings within their analysis.

K. So do we need to worry about quorum? Yes. Okay. So thank you for all the volunteers that are interested. I'm gonna go have a side conversation later about how we spread it out so everybody participates, but we might have to have you on a committee in a different role. So we'll figure

that out. We'll figure that out. We'll draw straws or something. I don't know.

Are there any other working groups? The liaison that isn't really a working group, is it? It's more like no. Okay. There's an attachment a.

This is the column on the right if the council priority is related to the work of the border commission. So from the council, what we would contribute, inform and educate, solicit feedback from the community boards and commissions on county projects, policies, priorities to promote a culture of open communication collaboration, foster exceptional customer service. We hit on deliver customer focused, accessible, reliable, and sustainable services to the community through sound financial management, collaborative decision making, and efficient implementation, increase the capacity for a new housing development and amount variety of housing types to meet the needs of a changing and growing population, particularly middle and lower income households, encourage the retention of existing businesses, facilitate startup of new businesses, and assist in opportunities for growth, revitalize the downtown areas of Los Alamos and White Rock by facilitating development opportunities in accordance with the downtown master plan, improve and expand access to an all ability accommodations for alternative modes of travel, including public transit, cycling, walking amenities, and services, promote educational and cultural opportunities in accordance with or sorry, in coordination with community partners and provide for the preservation, restoration of historic buildings and protection of archaeological sites, manage county open space, and maintain and improve parks and rec facilities, trails, amenities as defined by adopted plans and approved projects, take action to protect wildlife, wildland interface, safeguard water, mitigate tree loss in the community, establish targets for achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and integrate sustainability and resiliency practices into the county policies and operations, reduce potable water use, and increase non potable water use and water harvesting for irrigation where suitable.

And that is what they have indicated that we contribute to the council's priority. Anything else that we wanna review? Because the next thing we're gonna do is, I need a motion to approve that modified plan for '26. Any further discussions or questions? If not, I'm looking for a motion to approve our modified '26 work plan.

I moved to approve our modified FY '26 work plan, or is it calendar year '26?

Calendar year. It says 2026 work plan. I move

to approve our modified 2026 work plan.

I'll second that.

Can I get a roll call, please? Commissioner Green?

Yes. Commissioner Brown?

I approve.

Commissioner Nochley?

Yes. Commissioner Adler? Yes. Commissioner Brule? Yes. Commissioner Hill? Yes. Commissioner Nelson? Yes.

Commissioner Easton? Yes. Motion passed.

Thank you. Going on into the remainder of the agenda, do we have any department reports?

We do. We have two excuse me. We have two cases going to counsel on appeal, and those will be heard in the next two months.

Can you review with commission what the process of that is just so that everyone is aware?

Process is the application to appeal. They provide us with their their justification on the grounds of appeal. And then staff assembles the record. We work with legal on brief, and then we work with the council on legal works with council on how to hear and then be the new quasi judicial body hearing the case de novo. So that's it's it's record on record.

It's not de novo. And so so they'll be reviewing the case from record and voting on it to overturn, approve, or remand back to PNC? So the options are if after they are presented council and they vote to approve, it does not come back to us. It just does not come back to

you. And if they say no, then we're done.

Then it does it's done.

And then if the council believes that the commission needs to make the decision, it'll come back to us. Correct. Got it. K. May I ask a quick

question about that? Sure. So what you're saying is that 22 projects that we approved have been appealed?

Two projects that were denied on a no vote decision or no decision vote Gotcha. Have been appealed.

Okay.

Thank you. Madam chair, if I may, the if it's not remanded back to PNC for a decision, council's decision is then appealable to district court. So it doesn't end there.

Okay.

There's still a couple clarification. Yeah. Great. K. Any other department reports? Thank you very much. My only report is that I appreciate all of you and the work we've done this year, and I'm very proud of the cases we've reviewed. And we've accomplished a lot. And I wish you all and your family a very happy holiday. So that's my report, and thank you to staff who we couldn't do this without. So thank you. Our council liaison, Ren Herman, you're up.

Thank you very much, chair and commissioners. So we the council met last, most recently on last Tuesday, December 2, for a general session meeting. And, just highlights for you. We had a great presentation about the, draft fleet conversion plan and the community wide, EV charging plan. And they're moving along quickly with that.

You may have seen, some of the new EV chargers going in, at the county building, I think, also over at the, library. So, but they're trying to work out where all they're going to put those, and that's been very interesting. Two different ordinances were presented introduced about funding to do with water replacement lines, one specifically on San Ildefonso Road. Let's see. We also passed a maintenance agreement.

Let's see. I'm sorry. It it basically is it's called a rectangular rapid flashing beacon. It's going to be a crosswalk on Trinity Drive at Oppenheimer. Right right in between, I believe, Oppenheimer and and 20th Street, right along in there.

So look forward to that. It's the construction on that is going to begin in the spring, and they're also going they're also going to be working. They're trying to come up with a new bollards to go along. Trinity right there at the pond too. So that should be interesting.

Let's see. We did get an update on the county's legislative agenda because there there will be a legislative session in January. We had an update, from, county manager Laurent about, follow-up from the, council's local and small business engagement working group and the Los Alamos business coalition recommendations and what actions are being taken there, different things we're considering. And then we did appoint a new person to the Rogers Tax Board. It was Brandy Ingeman.

And those those were kind of the highlights from that meeting. Does anybody have any questions about those?

Bren, I have a question. Are we losing you in January?

That is my understanding. This is the first time I've gone through this whole cycle, so I'm not exactly sure when my term as your liaison ends. But it I assume it's either the end of this month or sometime in next month. So I, if I'm not here next month, I I do just wanna say this has been very, interesting and a real learning experience for me getting to be a part of of planning and zoning. And I admire the work you all do.

I think you do a really great job for our community. So thank you all for your serving on this board commission.

Thank you, counselor Herman. Is there anything that you could give us feedback on with your experience with our work plan going forward? You heard kind of what the things that we are focused on, things we're looking to improve. Any any thoughts? Any comments

from No. I I appreciate that you're interested in getting ADUs up and running. I appreciate all of the housing that you have worked on. I'm very interested to hear what Dan has to share. But I I think that the planning and zoning commission has done really great work moving things along this year.

I think it really, really is the biggest thing that we're all trying to focus on here for the community is is housing and getting that higher density housing in there, getting workforce housing in there. It's really been a focus for everybody, and I just I appreciate you all staying focused on that.

Thank you. Public comment.

There is no public but us.

Do have a commissioner comment?

Oh oh, I'm so sorry. I was looking staring right at it and thinking that we already did that. I'm not We talked about it. We did talk about it. So commissioner Hill attended a county sponsored event, and I would like him to talk about that. And I wanna thank him for attending on our behalf. So thank you.

Well, I I attended the I'm I'm gonna use the trying to use the right term here, the transgender cultural awareness, seminar. And, it was I I I can't really go over everything that we we listened to because it went on for two hours, and it was like drinking from a fire hose. Ton of information about, all

the

different services that are available to the transgender community, here in Los Alamos, but also in, you know, Santa Fe and Albuquerque and and a lot of issues that transgender community has to deal with, the same issues that other groups have to deal with, like homelessness and food insecurity, but but they have an added barrier that they have to deal with where it makes it hard for them to come forward and and address those challenges. So a lot of the services are just to sort of help them, get to those services without additional challenges, we'll say. So, unfortunately, I had to leave, like, ten minutes early, so I I wasn't able to pick up a lot of the handouts and stuff they had. But if I I would encourage anybody that that wants to learn a little bit more about that community. It's eye opening.

There's, a ton of information and super informative guy. Since I have this bizarre ability to remember numbers, those kind of things stick in my head. One of the things he said was that he asked us, well, if anybody knew, like, what percentage of people in the world have red hair? And it turns out there's, like, one point seven percent of people in the world have red hair. That's also the same percentage of people that are intersex.

Those are people that are born with both sexes. And sometimes it's external, sometimes it's internal, and it varies in lots of different ways. But for me, that was really eye opening. Like, it's it's not it's it's a large group of people. Very and and that's just sort of a minor subset of people that are transgender. And and, anyway, that's what I have to share. It was a it was a it lasted two hours. I was I was thinking it was gonna be an hour, but the whole two hours was just full of information, and stuff's worthwhile. Thank you.

Thank you for attending on behalf of planning and zoning. I really appreciate it, and thank you for sharing that. Are there any other commissioners? I apologize. I skipped right over you guys. Any other comments? Anyone online? Rebecca, welcome.

Thank you. I'm so sorry that I had flight trouble today. I just wanna say how much I enjoy working with this group, and I'm looking forward to a very productive 2026. And I wish everyone happy

Thank you.

Likewise, Rebecca. Thank you.

Alright. Commission is adjourned.