Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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We are live. Okay, we'll go ahead and call the regular meeting of the planning commission of May 7th, 2026 um um in to session And um Commissioner Mc Reynolds, can you lead the pledge of allegiance to the flag United States of America to the stands one nation? Roll call, please. Madame Chair Clout

present. Chair Capen here. Chair Barber Commission. You mean Commissioner? There's only one chair. Sorry. Commissioner Commissioner Smith here. Commissioner Glet here. Commissioner Mcrenolds here. Commissioner McGee here. Commissioner Miranda here.

Madam Chair, you have a forum. Thank you. Uh the next is the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda from uh any commissioners or staff? Honorable to entertain a motion. Motion to approve the agenda. Roll call, please. Commissioner Commissioner Barber. Yes. Commissioner Rland. Yes. Commissioner Cait. Yes. Commissioner Miranda, yes. Commissioner Smith,

yes. Commissioner Mcrenolds, yes. Commissioner McGee, yes. Thank you. Um, so there's no um consent agenda, there's no minutes, there's no findings, facts, and conclusions. So, we'll move um to the first new business. Um and that is um case number 2025-10766 2780 South Meadows Road General Plan and case number 202510767 um

Madam Chair I I think we have a presentation for urban interface from from Madison staff. It didn't get on the agenda, but uh we they're waiting online and we'd like to push that forward. So, if we can amend the agenda to move matters from staff before new business, that would work. Okay, that's fine. And they will they're on Zoom.

Okay. And we won't call case number the two case numbers that I just said. So, we'll uh wait. Sorry. You can sit down and enjoy the presentation. My apologies, Chair Clow, that that wasn't on the agenda. Uh, but I would like to introduce you to the wildland urban interface. That's one of the first things that we're going to be dealing with the land development code update. It's sort of on a separate track in a partnership with our fire department online is Geronom Grigo as well as Ryan Handy. Um, Ryan is with Headarters Economics, but a native of the of Santa Fe, but is in Bosezeman right now. She's an urban planner whose work has included development per permitting, workshop facilitation, and running technical assistance programs to help communities plan for the effect of of changing climate. Um, her expertise supports Headarters economics, community planning assistance. And so we have a memorandum of understanding with Headwaters. They're a nonprofit that help communities across the country in developing wildland urban interface standards. and um they've helped more than 80 communities. I will go ahead and turn it over to Ryan. It if you can please um allow it I'm sorry Ryan Handy to share screen. Hello everyone. Um hopefully you can hear me. Okay,

Ryan, we can barely hear you. Really? Um, is this any better? Only slightly. What about this? Is that any better? Can you hear me better? There you are. There. Okay, thank you.

Great. All right. Um, hello everyone. Um, again, um, see if I can show my face here. My name is Ryan Handy and as Heather said, I work for Headwaters Economics. I'm going to dive right into um the presentation that I have for you all um tonight. So bear with me while I get it launched. Okay. All right. So, hopefully you all can see that and still hear me just fine. Um, so again, uh, I'm Ryan Handy. I'm a planner. I specialize in, um, land use, specifically around wildfire issues. And I'm here tonight to talk to you generally about how we live with wildfire in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and what we can do to be more resilient um, in face of that. And as Heather said, um I currently live in Montana, but I was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as were my parents. Um so I'm really honored to be speaking with you all tonight. So, uh Headarters Economics is a uh nonpartisan nonprofit um based in Montana, although we work around the country. Um we are a group of geographers, economists, planners, statisticians and we focus on um ways to reduce flood wildfire risk as well as exploring um how our economies are impacted by different types of disasters. And as part of this work with Headarters, I am the program manager for the community plan assistance for wildfire program um of which um New Mexico is a part. This is a 10-year-old

program. We have worked all over the country, including in Hawaii. Now, we are funded by the Forest Service, so we are free to communities. And what we primarily do is work on reducing wildfire risk um through addressing uh land use ordinances and different um development codes. So, I'm going to talk about a few ways that we can reduce fire risk tonight. I like showing this slide because it shows that wildfire reduction is really part of a broader system. Um, and there are only some pieces here that I'm going to talk about that I particularly want to mention to you all. Um, you all are very well aware of the response and suppression side of wildfires also probably with the vegetation management pieces where we do fuel mitigation to cut down on burnable fuel. But tonight, what I really want to focus on is um what you as um public policy developers um and as a planning commission can do to reduce wildfire risk to Santa Fe's um homes and buildings. So, tonight we're going to cover a few things um pretty quickly here. So, we're going to start with like an overview of the wildfire risk in New Mexico. Then we're going to talk through how basically what this wildfire risk means for your homes um and how your homes are vulnerable to wildfires. Then I'm going to touch on some strategies for Santa Fe um and a highlevel conversation about um the wildland urban interface um codes that we're exploring with Heather and her staff. And then I'm not sure if we'll have time for questions, but um I'm hoping to wrap up and if you all are able to ask me some questions, hopefully we can get to that. So let's start with what your wildfire risk looks like. I know you all are pretty intimately familiar with this, but just to put it at a national level, New Mexico um is

sort of at the forefront of worsening wildfire trends in the United States. Um we are seeing hotter, drier days. Um, more fires are burning in greater severity with greater frequency and more so than ever before. We are living in wildland prone, wildfire prone landscapes. As we say, we're living in harm's way. Our growth is expanding into these dangerous wildfire landscapes like it has never done before. So, Santa Fe has a higher wildfire risk than most places in the United States. roughly, you know, 90%. Um, and this wildfire risk is driven by two things. One, um, direct exposure to fire, you know, homes that are in dense forests and areas that can catch homes on fire, and then what we call indirect exposure to fire, which essentially means any homes, buildings that were within a couple miles of the direct exposure area. So all told about half of um the city of Santa Fe is you know within reach of very high fire danger. So broadly in New Mexico um while there have not been as many structures lost in New Mexico as we've seen in places like California and Colorado, the impact in New Mexico has still been really devastating. Um there have been about 4,000 homes destroyed in New Mexico since 2000. Um, part of what we do at Headwaters is we track the structures around the country destroyed by wildfire. This image on your right is um, taken from one of those reports. The report itself actually only goes back to 2006. So, I just added in um, the homes lost in the Sarah Grande fire, which predates our data. Um but as you can see um as you all know New Mexico's two most devastating wildfires in history South Fork and Hermits Peak Calf Canyon happened in the past four years and they account for a majority of the home loss.

So Santa Fe and New Mexico really has seen an exponential uptick um in the impacts of wildfire in recent years. What's more, Santa Fe's wildfire risk mirrors what we call an urban urban confilgration risk that we've seen around the country. In the wake of the LA fires in 2025, we decided to study what other communities were at risk of an urban conflration like we've seen in LA. and we looked at some different parameters around um climate, wildfire risk and density of structures and identified a thousand communities across the country with a similar profile. Um New Mexico has a handful of these communities and Santa Fe is one of them. So, of course, there are many impacts to wildfires that go beyond just home loss. Wildfires have uh tremendous impacts on local economies. They have disproportionate impacts on um different types of people, the elderly, um lower income people. Um they have a a horrible effect on health that sometimes is not well understood. And so part of what I want to talk about is the broad implications of a wildfire to Santa Fe's general economy and community. So, our research has shown that most of the burden of recovering from a wildfire and cleaning up from one actually falls um on a local government and the state government. More than 60% of total wildfire costs end up being borne by local governments like yourself. Um, this is usually a surprising statistic because we of course have federal government help and federal government aid, but the impacts of wildfires are so farreaching um that often the the cost to local um cost to local governments is really underestimated. Another really powerful statistic um that we track is what happens to your local businesses after a wildfire. So

again, we're thinking beyond just home loss here. 40% of businesses um that close because of a wildfire disaster never reopen again. And of those that do manage to reopen with time, a quarter of them close within a year. So this is kind of an irreversible impact to your economy um if you have a wildfire. So another really important thing to think about, of course, is what this all means for your insurance. I know this is top of mind for everyone in New Mexico right now. Um the average homeowner premium increase in New Mexico um has gone up 19% between like the last year that the last period that was studied, you know, between 2021 and 2024. Um looking nationally at this year 2026, New Mexico is expected to have the third highest premium hike in the country after Nebraska and California. And also in general, New Mexico has the second highest number of uninsured homes in the United States, only second to West Virginia. So you have a lot of people who don't even have homeowners insurance, and your insurance rates for those who do have it are spiking faster pretty much than anywhere else in the United States. The other thing about New Mexico that I really want to highlight is beyond um your communities and your buildings and your economy. Um New Mexico is a really rich recreation dependent place. There's a lot of beautiful things in New Mexico to do that are very much at high at high fire risk. This includes skiing, mountain biking, hiking, all sorts of outdoor activities. And generally speaking, communities that are recreation dependent are twice as likely to have high wildfire risk. So, now that I've covered really quickly, I know the kind of wildfire

risk facing Santa Fe, I want to talk about what this means for your buildings, for your homes, um, in the community itself. So, we're going to talk about how homes burn down. Um, homes really burn down in three different ways. The one that we all tend to think of is direct flame. You know, you live in the woods, a tree catches fire from a wildfire, and it burns your house down. Um, another though very common way wildfires destroy homes is through radiant heat. Um, this is kind of what we saw in LA last year. You know, a home is completely engulfed by flame and it burns so hot that the radiant heat causes the home next to it to combust. And the final way um that homes burn down is through what we call embers. Um, wildfires, just like a campfire, you know, in your backyard or when you go camping, spit out sparks, little burning, you know, pieces of ash that can fly in front of the direct flames and land on your roof or a deck or on a tree in your yard and ignite a home that way. So, the thing about embers um that is pretty scary is that they can travel for many, many miles in front of an actual flame front. So, you don't have to be living in what most people would think of as the wildland urban interface to be exposed to high wildfire risk. And this is why embers account for 90% of the home loss in a wildfire. So this is also why um we increasingly see examples of neighborhoods around the country um with green living vegetation that survives a wildfire um but with homes destroyed within it. Um what we are increasingly beginning to understand is that the homes we build and the way we build them um these homes are fuel themselves and often they're at much

greater risk of burning down than the trees surrounding it. Um, an ember can land on a roof and ignite it much quicker than it can these trees. And again, this is sort of the urban confflration landscape we've become familiar with. A fire will blow through um and homes effectively um are sort of like dominoes. They burn each other down. They light each other on fire, then they combust due to radiant heat. And the plants and trees surrounding them are fine. It's the homes themselves that are the source of the wildfire spread. So, I just want to illustrate for you what I mean by you don't have to live in the wildland urban interface. You know, where the wildland interacts with homes in order to face wildfire risk. This is a really powerful photo from the Sleepy Hollow Fire in Wan that uh Washington in 2015. um homes on the edge of town, you know, near a forest, classic wildland urban interface, um caught on fire through direct flame contact, but then they spread embers 2 miles further towards the center of town. That giant smoke plume you see there is the town's sort of commercial and industrial district. Um the embers landed on apple packing crates outside of a fruit packing plant and um burned down several buildings in the center of town. So this really illustrates that anything within you know 2 to four miles of a wildland urban interface is considered um to have high wildfire risk. So I want to show you what this looks like in um up close and personal. Um there is fortunately we have the ability to study how homes withstand embers, what embers do to homes. The in the insurance the insurance institute for um home and business safety um has a

massive facility in North Carolina where they build structures and they dows them in embertorms to see what happens. So we are going to watch really quickly what this looks like. So, in this super quick video, you're looking at two homes. Um, they are attached. The home on the left um is built from what we call traditional materials. It has um cedar shake uh shingles on the side, a wooden door, single pane non-tempered glass, a wooden deck, and bark mulch. It is being rained on by thousands of embers. And it ignites extremely quickly. You can see the plants in the front have already ignited. The embers have begun to go under the deck and before long we'll start burning under the door. They're going to climb up the wall and get into the attic. And I also don't forget to look at the home on our right. Um it has also been dowsed with thousands of embers. It has um fireresistant siding, fiber cement siding, a class A roof, rock mulch, um tempered windows and glass. It is yet to ignite. This simulation has been repeated multiple times in the course of this research and the home on the right has never caught on fire. So what does this mean? What do we know about how to protect our homes and how do we translate it into some actual measures on the ground that communities like yours can adopt to protect homes from burning down? So again, I'm going to revisit um where we began this presentation. Um some of the most effective ways to reduce the spread of wildfire in your community is to look at policies for new construction, to think about how you build homes, um what materials they use, how you invest in those homes, um how is your infrastructure protected. And the bulk of what I do and what I'm doing with um Heather and her staff is looking at how

building codes and land use codes can help us craft homes that are more resilient in the face of wildfire. So um this is what we call wildfire resistant construction. It's construction materials that have been tested both in the real world and in the scientific world to withstand wildfires. And what we're talking, we're talking hurricane-like wildfires. They have gale force winds. They're spinning thousands of embers. They are true urban confilgrations. And time again, these construction methods have withstood and have been able to survive. There are two ways to approach doing this in a municipal context. One is looking at new construction um and the materials used in new construction. And the other way of looking at this is through what we call retrofitting, which is just what it sounds like, changing an existing structure, changing the materials, you know, doing a new roof or a new deck so that it also can benefit from wildfire resistant materials. Um, so what are the key elements of building a wildfire resilient home or building? There's a few pieces here. um each play a really crucial role in preventing embers from burning your home down. Um and these include um exterior walls that are non-combustible or resistant to ignition. Um gutters that are um also ignition resistant, you know, metal gutters, eaves um that prevent embers from entering in the house. typically a class A roof. Um, uh, decks that are not made of combustible material or of made of material that has been treated, so it's slow to combust, and then landscaping very thoughtfully so that your home is not adjacent to a bunch of plants that will catch it on fire, just like we saw in that video a minute ago. So, one of the questions I get the most is, you know, okay, this this

construction helps, but how much is it going to cost us and what is the impact to our residents and our developers to build these kind of buildings? So, I'm just going to roughly break these into um you know, less expensive and more expensive items and also talk about how well those items protect you from different elements of a wildfire. So, first we have measures that I would consider um on the more affordable side. They're what I call good or better wildfire resistant measures. They will protect you from embers. Um, and they include, you know, making sure your your roof alleys and gutters are clean, installing metal flashing at key points to prevent embers from entering the home, clearing away brush from your deck and your under deck area, um, having if you can a non-combustible fence, removing like wood mulch from around your home. A lot of these are great retrofit projects, things you can do to change your existing home on a weekend by going to Home Depot and getting some materials. Um, and so the price reflects that you can the rough range that we have for this type of work for a 2,000 foot home. Um, you can see up there on the screen. So there are what we call better wildfire resistant measures and best wildfire resistant measures. The best wildfire resistant measures are the ones that are more likely to protect your home from various wildfire threats, embers, direct flame contact, and radiant heat. They are um the bigger ticket items. Um they are also the ones that are more easily regulated in building codes, and they include class A roofs, non-combustible decks, um non-combustible gutters, metal gutters, and downspouts, dual paned or tempered glass windows and doors. um and then enclosed eaves that prevent embers from getting in. Of course, the cost of these

different elements can vary um from community to community. So, there's a range of what they can add to new construction. Um, but again, if we're looking at all these different levels, good, better, best, from cheapest to priciest, you can see that the best alternatives protect you from many different types of wildfire threats and are more effective overall. So, um, the thing I know I just gave you some specific numbers about how much these can add to overall construction. It's important to compare wildfire resistant construction. you know, this home we saw on the right here to what we call traditional construction in terms of cost. So, if both these homes are going to be built today um from scratch, new construction, how would their costs compare? And typically, our research has found that the cost of building what we call a vulnerable home is roughly equal to the cost of building a wildfire resistant home. Um we have been studying the cost of wildfire resistant construction um for more than a decade. We renew our research um every year basically to make sure it's fresh. We just released our latest study in December. New construction on average we have found using national data sets that look at um the cost of materials around the country can add between 2 to 3% to building costs. Retrofitting is much more expensive. it can add up to 10% to a cost for an item. So I think another takeaway here is that in addition to investing in our homes to ensure that they can survive a wildfire, investing in wildfire resistant neighborhoods and communities is also a way of protecting your budgets, your local economy, and your taxpayers from the broad impacts that can come from

wildfires. Generally speaking, research shows that $1 invested in wildfire resistant neighborhoods can save up to $4 in avoided disaster costs shouldered by the taxpayer. And these types of, you know, building materials and construction and land use codes have broader impacts and benefits for communities like Santa Fe. Um, they ensure that housing remains durable, affordable, and sustainable over time. Um, sorry, there's a Montana reference in there, but it applies to New Mexicans as well. Um, really importantly though, the this these types of building codes are what insurance companies are looking for when they ask communities to reduce their wildfire risk. And there is some evidence to suggest that building smartly can reduce your premiums. And it's pretty widely accepted that they can mean insurance retainment. So you're getting fewer non-renewals. And then of course the final piece of this is um the more you can decrease home loss during a wildfire, the more you will preserve your local economy and protect it from the broad impacts of a natural disaster. So, when I think of a community like Santa Fe, there are so many things that are so valuable here that can be really dramatically impacted by a wildfire. Santa Fe has a beautiful setting in the foothills and the mountains um with many historic buildings that are irreplaceable. It also has extreme fire risk. There is much to lose and much to preserve. It also really benefits from a wonderful outdoor recreation economy which again is also really vulnerable to wildfire. And while land managers, federal land managers, firefighters are working in the foothills, um the

decisions that communities make are up to you. And recognizing that you also face risk um is really the point of my talk tonight. So that's it for me. Um this is my email. Feel free to email me any questions anytime um about anything. Um this is a QR code that gets you to our newsletter. We just sent out a newsletter uh yesterday. We have a lot of great research, not just about wildfire, but outdoor recreation economies, flooding if you're interested in it. Um and a ton of wildfire stuff. So with that, I think I can wrap up. And I'm not sure, Heather, if we have time or the ability to have questions, but I am here um for whatever you need.

Yes, thank you, Miss Handy. I really appreciate that. We also have Fire Marshall Toronto McGrego online as well if you have questions for him. Um we can also do a follow-up study session with the subcommittees if you're interested in doing that. Sorry for the last minute change on the agenda. I communicate well. That's no no problem. Um, you know, I'd be curious if um cities are um requiring um neighborhoods or individual owners of houses to um clean up uh their areas because I know some neighborhoods are doing it and others are not.

Yes. Chlow. Um there we do have inspectors that go out and site properties for weeds and trash, but um just due to staffing levels, it tends to be more reactive than progressive, although we're getting more staff. So, but it is a really critical point um to make in that we really need to make sure the community at large understands the risks and how that causes. Commissioner Smith.

Um, to put it mildly, Santa Fe has a a historic construction style. None of the options that she showed us uh mirrored it in any regard. Is there an inherent advantage to our historic construction style or not? And how do we adapt? Chair Clow. Um, Commissioner Smith. I'll defer to Miss Handy to respond to that, but we do have an advantage.

Yeah, I I absolutely agree with Heather. Um, I know that none of the architecture I showed you looks like Santa Fe. Santa Fe does have an advantage um because you tend to favor um Stuckco or Adobe construction, which is considered non-combustible um particularly concretebased stucco. Um, Santa Fe also doesn't tend to have, you know, um, wooden siding or wooden roofs. Um, although class A roofs are not universal. Um, they tend to be more common. Um, I know that parts of traditional architecture there include, you know, wooden beams and vas, but these really large pieces of wood, you know, heavy timber are actually, you know, considered safer. They take a much longer time to ignite and most wildland and urban interface codes allow them to be used anyway. Um there are some vulnerabilities that are unique to Santa Fe. Um things like coyote fences um are very common. They're a good part of the aesthetic. Um they're made of um some of the driest, most fireprone wood there is out there. Um, but there are ways that you can build these fences to ensure that you know like the panel that touches the building itself could be made of something non-combustible and then the rest of the fence can be that. The other vulnerability I think Santa Fe has is the vegetation and the landscaping. Um, the beautiful pinion juniper trees that we all love are extremely flammable and people tend to like them right next to their home. And I mean like there are foundation planting. They're up against the building. So that is also a tremendous vulnerability but one that is pretty easily rectified. So in terms of the architecture of Santa Fe, it's really compatible and in many ways ahead of a lot of communities you see in the west when it comes to being wildfire resistant. Commissioner Capen.

Um, I had a question for staff, but I just want to say a lot of I think a lot of people are seeing the need to clean up because their insurance premiums are going up and the way that they're getting ranked um for risk has seemingly randomly changed. Um, some of it because of the fires that we had here, but I think constituent wise that's probably where they're seeing some of that directly right now. Um my question was are we uh looking at any requirements or incentives or anything for new development or uh retrofitting in this code current code update

cloud commissioner capen? Yes, absolutely. Um we have been working with the fire department. We've also in our kickoff meeting had representatives from um insurance industry um as well because it is it is a huge problem. a lot of people are losing their insurance and so right now we're trying to assist the best we can but we do need that code framework and um you know we also have already identified areas of more vulnerability and a less vulnerability but for the intent of or the purposes of the code all of the city of Santa Fe is somewhat vulnerable. So uh we are definitely in need to update our code which hopefully can allow people to have more access to insurance and remodels. Where we would um implement this is either through construction permits for remodeling in with existing housing or with new construction. Also, I remember a case that we did recently which was a variance on a hilltop and the issue wasn't before us, but it was one of the facts of the case where um there were pinon trees in front of the house that their insurance company requested they take down and the city would not let them take them down. So, um I found that interesting. Um, so perhaps I know, you know, you can't cut trees down, especially pinions, um, if there are certain sizes. So I think that that might be something we'd want to look at, too, um, in relationship to the new the new code because it's pretty rigid right now.

Yeah, the landscape standards, there is a lot of conflict. You bring out a good point, Sher Clow, and um, we actually have been working also with the fire department on fire breaks. We did a walk over at Monte Serino uh to have a what is called a natural fire break where it sort of curves the the separation curves and it really helps to maintain the character of the ridgetop but also allows for that extra level of protection. So we'll be working with our landscape um and terrain management team as we proceed through the code update. Yes, Commissioner Rick Reynolds

for the presentation. Ryan, um, in your research, are you all also looking at, so, um, so I I I do real estate or I work in the real estate industry and I was speaking with an insurance agent here in town and he was mentioning that a lot of people think about, you know, just areas close to um to forested areas like homes up near the forest. But he was also saying that we are running into in Santa Fe and uh surrounding communities uh insurance issues with properties that are along the Royo or near like sort of just brush not necessarily uh what you would necessarily consider when thinking about wildfire uh not just forested areas but are you seeing that is that part of your methodology or research as well at those areas?

Yeah, absolutely. And um I think you may all be familiar with the Marshall fire in Colorado in 2019. It burned in a super urban area that was not near a wildfire landscape. It was near kind of an open space with just grass and it burned thousands of homes down in a matter of hours. And insurance companies have been watching this and they're well aware now that um if you know all it takes is a shrub or a dead tree um next to a home with a really old dry wooden fence and things can get going really quickly. So I think unfortunately wildfires like that have changed the conversation about what is an at risk landscape. So, um, most of what I do actually looks at how to reduce wildfires in these really urban contexts. And again, it's, you know, we spent all this time thinking about wildfire risk is for people who live in the foothills and the mountains, and unfortunately, that is no longer true. And insurance companies absolutely know that.

Commissioner Wheeland. Thank you, Cher. The other thing that I think our community, there's a company, Southwest Fire Defense. They'll actually go out and assess a property and then also assess an entire community and give a neighborhood an idea. So, they've been very helpful for a lot of our clients in gaining insurance once they get their property into compliance. You guys can speak a little bit closer to the mic because we actually do need to capture you on the video.

Maybe we're done. Thank you very much. It was really helpful and scary. Well, uh hopefully you're not too scared. Thank you so much for having me here. It was great to speak with you and we've really enjoyed working with Heather and her staff thus far. So, um, hopefully you'll be hearing from me again. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I'd just like to add that I I do think, um, having, uh, headarters economics involved with subcommittees would make a lot of sense. Um, just talking through incentives that could happen through the rewrite. Yeah. Thanks.

Okay. Now we'll move to case number 2025-10 um 0766 uh 2780 South Meadows Road General Plan and case number 2025-10767 2780 South Meadows Road resoning thing. Go ahead. Are you ready? Check. There we are. Good evening, uh, Chair Cloud, distinguished members of the planning commission. My name is George Terry and I'm a senior planner with our land use department. Pleasure to be with you tonight. I'll thank you in advance for your patience and I'll get started if it pleases the chair.

Yes, please do. Tonight's item includes two related cases for 2780 South Meadows Road. The first case is 2025-10766. That's our general plan amendment. The second case is 202510767. That'll be our reszoning. The applicant, Mononttoya E. Garcia LLC represented by Sr Karns and Associates requests to amend the general plan future land use map for approximately.70 acres uh 7/10 of an acre precisely from very low density to low density. The applicant also requests to reszone three contiguous parcels totaling approximately 7 acres from R3 to R six. Staff recommends that the planning commission recommend approval to the governing body on both requests. I'll begin with the location and existing context. The property is located southwest of New Mexico State Highway 599, also known as Veterans Memorial Highway, of course, and South Meadows Road. The site is near the South Meadows interchange and is in an area with nearby multif family residential development, including Madero Apartments and South Meadows Apartments. Now, the property is also within the Southwest Santa Fe Community Area Master Plan or the Southwest Camp as I'm calling it and specifically the river corridor plan area. Staff's analysis considers that planning context including the residential development pattern in this area and the relationship to the Santa Fe River corridor. Importantly, the request maintains the residential land use character of the property and the open space designation near the Santa Fe River is not proposed to change. Now, this next slide gives the annexation and zoning background. The property was

annexed into the city as part of area 2 phase 2 in 2013. It is currently zoned R3. The applicant is requesting a reszoning to R six. Now, here's an attempt at the existing site conditions. Forgive me if you can't read that. I've attempted to number those photos and then give you sort of a positioning on the site of where each of those photos were taken. Number one in the upper left there, that's facing the future Alama frontage road from South Meadows from that 599 interchange. Then we've got a view facing the southern portion of the parcel from South Meadows Road towards Santa Fe River. Then we're number three there. We're facing the entrance from South Meadows in the 599 interchange. that frontage road, what the future frontage road entrance. And then lastly, number four, there we're facing the northern portion of the parcels across South Meadows Road towards 599. I hope that's orients you somewhat to the site. Now, I'll talk about the zoning request. The property is currently zoned R3 which allows three dwelling units per acre. Again, the applicant has requests a R six zoning which will allow six dwelling units per acre. The reszoning applies applies to the approximately 7 acre property. Nearby zoning includes R1, R3, R21, and C2. staff finds that the requested R six zoning is compatible with the requested lowdensity future land use designation which allows a range of 3 to 77 dwelling units per acre. Now the general plan amendment is even narrower than the reasonzoning. This slide shows the future land use map. The general plan amendment applies only to approximately.70 or 7/10 of an acre. That area is

currently designated very low density which allows one to three dwelling units per acre. You can see it there in the red box at the bottom. The applicant request to change that area to low density which allows 3 to seven dwelling units per acre. The other future land use designations shown on the property are not proposed to change including the open space designation near the Santa Fe River. Now before moving into agency review, I do want to emphasize the scope of tonight's action. This is an important scope point. No development plan, subdivision plan, site plan, or building layout is being approved tonight. The planning commission is making recommendations on the general plan amendment and reszoning only. Future development would require applicable review under the code in effect at that time. That future review may include traffic, water and wastewater, terrain and drainage, archaeology and development plan, or subdivision review. Now, with that scope in mind, staff also reviewed future utility and agency considerations. Water and sewer services are located within approximately 200 ft of the site. Future development will require utility connection review, a water plan, a water budget, and a wastewater plan. Traffic analysis will also be required when development is proposed because no traffic generating development plan is being reviewed tonight. Now the site was also reviewed for terrain terrain drainage and flood plane context. This property does have an approximate 30-foot elevation change from north to south. Staff's analysis identifies an overall slope of approximately 2%. The property is not located within the FEMA 100-year flood plane. Terrain grading and drainage review would occur during future development review. Now this next slide summarizes

Oh, give me density and dimensional standards. Lost my note. Got them back. The dimensional standards remain the same under R3 and R six. The front side and rear setbacks do not change and the height limits remain 24T for residential and 35 ft for non-residential. The the main change here is density. Of course, the maximum density increases increases from three dwelling units per acre under R3 to six dwelling units per acre under R six. Staff also reviewed the request for consistency with the 1999 general plan. Staff finds that the request supports general plan goals for infill development and housing. The main policy themes are infill housing, compact development, and residential density near existing and planned infrastructure. Policy 3G3 supports infill development at densities that support affordable housing and balance to residential growth. Policy 41G2 supports concentrating population at greater densities in developing areas to encourage pedestrian scale development, reduce auto dependence, and support central central transit nodes. Chapter 4 infill density policies also support minimum gross density of at least three dwelling units per acre with higher target densities for appropriate infill sites. staff finds that the GPA and the resoning improve consistency between the future land use map and our zoning map. The applicant also completed the required neighborhood notification process. An early neighborhood notification meeting was held by Zoom on April 24th of 2025 and staff did attend that ENN meeting and no members of the public attended. for the public hearing. Signs were

posted on the 22nd of April this year, and public hearing mailers were sent also on April 22nd of this year, including certified mail to properties within 100 ft. Staff then reviewed the requests against the applicable approval criteria. Staff reviewed the general plan amendment under Santa Fe City Code Chapter 14-3.2E1 and Santa Fe City Code Chapter 14-3.2E2. 2 E2 and staff finds that the general plan amendment criteria are met. Staff also reviewed the resoning under Santa Fe City Code Chapter 14-3.5C and staff finds that the reasonzoning criteria are met. Future development remains subject to applicable chapter 14 review requirements. Based on that analysis, staff recommends approval. Staff recommends that the planning commission recommend governing body approval of case 2025-10766. That's the general plan amendment. In case 2025,10767, that's our reszone. So, two motions are required. The first motion is for the general plan amendment 1076. 10766. The second motion is for the reasonzoning 10767. Now, staff does recommend considering the general plan amendment first, followed by the resoning because the reasonzoning relies on consistency with that future land use map. That does conclude staff's presentation. Thank you so much and I'm available for questions.

Well, thank you for being very clear and very quick um at a really helpful, very organized presentation. Any questions before we move on to the applicant? Thank you very much. We'll move on to the applicant to Mr. Summers.

Madam Chair, uh, members of the commission, my name is Carl Summer. My mailing address is Post Office Box 2476, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth and do this under the penalties of perjury? Please proceed.

Madam Chair, I'll be very brief. I'm here on behalf of Carlos Garcia. So many of you know um and Monica Mononttoya who many of you know she used to work here for years and years and years. She was a planner. They're partners in this deal. Their LLC is called Mononttoya E Garcia. uh they acquired these properties and they um um both have a lot of experience in doing what's needed in this town which is producing housing. Um Mr. Garcia um pulled together where the Madera Apartments were was uh fundamentally involved in getting that housing done to the north of that same property. Mr. Garcia pulled together and PY is building two neighborhoods over there. got a lot of experience and the idea with this property is to provide more housing in this community. Um, I can't add anything to what Mr. Terry has added. I think it's all consistent with both the policy, the general pan plan and the uh reasonzoning requirements. Stand for any questions you might have. Um, and I think that the project will enhance our housing stock and provide for a quality of life for its residents.

Thank you, Mr. Summers. Any questions? If not, we'll move to public comment. If there's anyone here um in chambers um that would like to come forward and make a comment on this project um please do. Is there anyone on Zoom?

I see no hands raised. If you're interested in commenting on this project, please raise your hand. No response. Okay. So, we'll close the uh public comment portion of this um meeting and move on to any comments or questions by um commission. There are none. I'll entertain a motion. Uh Madam Chair, I do have a question for staff.

Yes. Go ahead. Um, regarding um the applicants uh response to criteria F, is it correct that essentially because this is simply a zoning change that staff is unsure if that fits that criteria till there's actually a a full presentation or was there other reasons for there to be a partial feeling that that that criteria was met.

Thank you for the question, Commissioner Mirando. And I believe I understand it. It is that I believe the simplest answer is my fallback answer, which is that there is no development being proposed of any type. So that really limited the scope of our review at this stage. Does that answer your question adequately? It was really the only note I had reviewing it. I I'll say in general the staff responses are really good. Um they're extremely they had a lot of context to them and yeah just going to say that in general stuck out. staff appreciates that comment and I would like to add that I have been working with my colleague Cruz Hab Bear on this case and much of this good work you're enjoying tonight is the result of his excellent work. I do want to say that it's sad that he's not here to hear my compliment but

I'll share it with him. Commissioner Morando, I'm sure you I'll have to let him know. Madam Chair, if you will bring Mr. Terry up at the end of the meeting since we've already done this communication of some staff. I'll introduce you to Superman properly. That would be good. I was wondering who he was in that suit and tie. We're not used to that. It's an honor to be before you, Chair Flow. Thank you. Um, any other questions? If not, there a motion.

Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion for approval in case 2025 10766 for 2780 South Meadows uh zoning change. Motion to approve with uh staff's technical corrections and conditions of approval. Second. Roll call, please. Commissioner Mcrenold. Yes. Commission. Commissioner Barber. Yes. Commissioner Rayen. Yes. Commissioner Kaitton.

Yes. Commissioner Miranda. Yes. Commissioner McGee. Yes. Commissioner Smith. Yes. Uh, chair cloud. The motion passed. Thank you. Now we'll move to case number 2025 10767 resoning. Chair claw. In the case of 202510 uh7067 uh resoning, I recommend approval. Second. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Smith, yes. Commissioner McGee, yes. Commissioner Miranda, yes. Commissioner Rayan, yes. Commissioner Cadith, Commissioner Mcrenolds, yes. Commissioner Barber, yes. Chair CL, the motion passed. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Now we'll move on to case number 2025-11625 which is 1335 Camino um day Jacobo development land.

I'm here to talk about 2025. The agent is Autoro. The agent is Autoroof. The applicant is the county of Santa Fe and TWWG development and I am case planner Claudia Cath. The applicant is requesting approval of a two-phaseed development plan to construct two 45 foot high fourstory buildings and one 28 1/2 ft high building totaling 148 145 square ft of new construction. The uses include a 159 unit multifamily community with a daycare facility. The subject properties comprise 5.92 acres located within the suburban archaeological review district and are zoned C2 general commercial. Uh before getting started, I would like to point out we have DRT members uh online and we have Fabio Chavez here and Leroy Pacheo. So this is the location map and you can see here's Serios and here's airport road. This is the Santa Fe Mall. This is the Lowe's. This is Rufina. And here's the project. The site is, as I mentioned, is zoned C2. It's bordered by mixed use R7 and R29. And for the future land use map, it's

zoned u trans transitional mixed use as are the apartments, multif family apartments that are behind the Lowe's store. So as mentioned, this is the existing site. As you can see, it's vacant and the there's the self storage just to the south is existing. And you can see we came in just on the existing site. The um this out outline in red comprises 5.92 acres and it's actually made up of two lots. Tract B1 and our primary site is here and lot um one which runs up and down uh along to the east of the subject site. the applicant is proposing because this is a 100% affordable u development plan um the applicant is proposing several lot line adjustments and a lot split. So the applicant wants to create a tract B-1- A which is where the development would occur and the lot portion of the lot that is to the north would be there would be a lot line there would be a lot consolidation and that would become lot 2A and the lot below the site would be lot 1A and then the roads of San Ignosio and Kamino de Hakobo would become tract B1B. And I think I forgot to mention that this is county owned land.

So these are a few photos from uh the site. This number one is looking north on Camino uh Dehokovo and the site is over here to the right. And the second one is looking south on Kamina to de Hookovo. Then um number three, this is looking at the future San Aign agnosio. Then you could see the water line is under construction that's going in there and four is the site. And so I put together a future vicinity map where I plugged in not only the site we're talking about tonight but essentially this super block. So staybridge suites will be to the east and the future San Aignio apartments. We have not received it received an application from that applicant. they've just done in ENN so far is to the southeast and um this is a slight zoom and enlargement of that area and then this is the site plan itself that we're talking about. So this is building one that is proposed which is multifamily and this is building two. That's phase one. And then this is the daycare. That's phase two. So this um plan is slightly rotated. So you'll have uh Camino Alberto to the top of the page, San Agnosio to the left, and Camino de Hooko to on the bottom. And

then the self self storage would be on the right. So going into the DRT comments, um this bottom photo is uh on Camino de Hooko looking towards the site. It's kind of close to airport road and you can see the existing self storage on the right and then the top photo is going down the road a little bit and uh this is our site is uh Nova Sea would be over here. And we wanted to point out in the code it says local streets shall be constructed extended and widened in accordance with the general plan and to accommodate the orderly development of the types and intensities of development shown on the future land use map. So, we wanted to point out that the applicant's application did not include a design for Commamino de Hooko and staff is recommending that the applicant um develop Camino de Hooko to city standards uh at the same time that the development occurs. So moving on to traffic, I would like to invite um our traffic engineer to talk about this part. Good evening. I guess it should be stated at first that traffic discussions with the developer, his traffic engineer, Santa Fe Engineering, and the city's traffic engineering agent, Wilson and Company, began about a year ago. July 29th, 2025 was when we had our scoping meeting for

traffic and we we um we public works have submitted a traffic comment memo to the DRT team in January of 2026. So what's in your packet is I was a little surprised that this was on the agenda and so Monday. So, it's sort of a interim discussion of traffic issues that have now been resolved with a memo that was submitted today from public works to land use. And so, uh, Claudia has that memo and I think it should be made part of the public record as this discussion continues. Um, and it's part of that memo is reflected in what's on the screen. The revised traffic impact analysis for phase one of the NE noa apartments examined all key intersections and roadways in the study area for the 2028 implementation year and the 2038 horizon year including cumulative traffic from the proposed adjacent Ulyses project and other known approved developments such as the Stbridge in and others. findings. The project generates no new failing movements on the streets that were studied and requires no neighborhood mitigations or off-site improvements. It should be noted that phase one frontage improvements along Camino de Hakobo are not currently reflected in the infrastructure plans to be fully built to acceptable city standards. Until those improvements are completed and accepted by the city, Mino Hakobo de Hakobo remains Santa Fe County property and is not acceptable for city ownership nor maintenance. In addition, the airport road Lopez lane signal deficiency is documented in the

analyses and in our uh responses for future city ICIP consideration. and I'll let Claudia finish her presentation and I'm sure there will be more questions. So, moving on, um the applicant has requested um a reduction in parking through an administrative deviation and as required in the code, the applicant prepared a parking demand study. So um the property should provide 218 parking spaces which is you know about um one and a quarter one and a half spaces per unit depending or two depending on the unit. Um but the applicant can provide 165 spaces and I one of the things I forgot to mention this project was submitted last December. So it they came in under the old code and under the old code they would need this parking deviation but now we're in 2026 and if they had um per the new code they comply. So um that's in the works and um just wanted to point out the utility plan. So this is Camino de Hooko and there's existing water and sewer under Camino de Hooko. This is the Stbridge Suites site over here. They are building San Agnosio to this intersection. And then this applicant is building satnazosio to Camino de Hooko. So there there will be water and sewer under that

street and then a water line down Camino Alberto and they will tap into the Camino Alberto for their water and fire and into the sewer on Camino to Hooko for their sewer. And in the process, they're going to uh they're required to upgrade a manhole to city standards. And they have an approved water plan, which you can see here by the signatures. There's an approved water budget. And uh they have a fire access plan. And then this is the architecture. And uh just wanted to point out the different elevations and the applicant will do a deeper dive into this but um believe this is the can't quite read it but the San Agnosio elevation. This is the elevation from the courtyard. And this is the um elevation from Camino Alberto. And this is the elevation from Camino uh dehooko. And these are further elevations from inside the courtyard. And then these are the elevations of building two from um this is the courtyard side. This is

um okay sorry entry side on the south side of the building. And this is the opposite side. And then these are the ends that respectively face uh Camino Alberto and Camino de Hookobo. And then these are the elevations of the daycare with uh the bottom elevation being the one that fa was has the entrance and phases Camino to uh Alberto and the applicant is proposing signage which will be um reviewed and approved prior to permit. But basically there are three wall signs. And then I just wanted to mention that the Santa Fe Homes agreement has been approved and the applicant is um wanting to gain approval of permits by August 31st in order to receive their funding. And this was also mentioned in the staff report. And staff would like to add a condition that the final approval of the development plan will occur at the time of recordation of the development plan at the county clerk's office with signatures of the planning commissioner, city engineer, city manager, water division, and affordable housing. The applicant held an early neighborhood notification in October 2026. There were approximately three members of the community in attendance and discussion centered around road construction, traffic flow, parking, sustainable design, design features, building aesthetics, and design considerations.

The land use department recommends approval of case 202511625 subject to the conditions of approval and technical corrections. One motion is required in this case to approve or deny 2025 11625 subject to conditions of approval and technical corrections. Yeah, thank you. Um,

madam, madam chair, I'd like to edit that condition just a little bit. And the city manager does not need to sign on that. We can substitute the land use director in place of the city manager. Uh, that would be a more appropriate uh signature on this development plan.

That makes sense. I have a couple questions. So, I I got the impression from reading this report that there's a time constraint here. Um, and I know that we dealt with that on the the apartments on Siler Road. Um, you know, getting public money, there's a lot of hurdles and then when you finally get down to it, there's that time limit. So, um, so all permitted permitting needs to be done by August 31. Is that correct?

That is correct, Madam Chair. There there's some caveats here in that this is county property which means that the vertical construction will go directly to construction industries along with those certificate of compliance or the CFOs. So we have dual uh inspections that have to occur. The exterior portion and all the improvements that are required by the development plan that must be uh part of the construction phase but we will have no control over the vertical construction of the buildings since that will be that will be sent to the state. So these are the nuances that we have to deal with and that are part of the difficulty reviewing and approving this this development plan. Um, and I, you know, I I know that DR DRT had some concerns and I think what um had a number of concerns about road um but I'm assuming from what uh Leroy Pacheco stated that those are pretty much worked out that we're okay with those.

Madam Chair, member of the commission, there are two elements to a development standards. So when you look at the DRT and you look at the land use department, we're just part of a large body of of people that review an application and everybody reviews for their components, traffic and and public works. They have their elements that they have to review for which deals mainly with maintenance. But the land use department has to deal with the actual construction and design of a project and those are our mandates um u provided to us by by ordinance. So we have to look at the road width road design um drainage all of those elements are are put on the land use department in our different divisions. So we have the zoning department which is the current planning. You have the technical review division. You have within there you have landscaping accessibility and um uh terrain management. And all of us work together to ensure that when this is designed from from subsurface to surface construction um everything falls into place. And that that means that we have not aligned oursel with that portion because we have conditions in place that require specific design elements for Hakoba Road that must be put in place at the same time the construction is going with the building because otherwise you have a structure and rental of that structure that will happen with sub sub uh infrastructure. So until we can work those elements out and that's why we've structured those conditions so that the land use director and the county can work work something out that is acceptable to meet those demands. Uh we have to continue to negotiate those elements because we still have to follow our own ordinances.

Um, but I guess my point is there's a lot of conditions, but um, if you're comfortable working with those conditions um, to make the so that the project moves forward, I guess then I'm comfortable too. If staff is comfortable. Thank you, Chair Clow. Yes, we are comfortable. We it has come to the finish line, but we've worked together with our traffic engineering team and our civil engineering team, and I think we can find the path forward so they can have access to the funds.

And on the parking issue, it says that um a parking deviation was sent to the land use director. So, you're you're the one that controls that. Yes, Chlow. Uh the unique circumstance here is that the applicant submitted the application before the adoption of the code. The parking deviation is required under the old code, but not with the code that is current now. But because we're judging it with chapter 14 prior to January 1st, 2026, we we have to we had to have them submit that parking deviation. And then I guess you sign off on that. Yes, that is correct.

Okay. And then my other question is from the drawings there looks like there's some balconies. Do does I know the new code requires um 200 square ft of balcony in all um new apartments. does, which I guess doesn't apply to this one, but do do how many B do each apartment in this construction, do they have um balconies?

I might want to defer to the applicant to explain that, but yeah, there's a difference between the old and the new code. And in the old code, there was not requirement for each unit to have that private open space. Um, yeah, I know, but we sort of encouraged that to happen and it pretty much did happen. Um, so we'll wait to hear from the applicant on the balcony issue. Are there any other clarifying questions from any other commissioners before we hear from the applicant? If not, we'll hear from the applicant.

Oh, Commissioner Smith. Um this is um maybe a dumb question but in the material that we saw and then again today there are different colors in the building and they are being used to describe different aspects or to illustrate are the color are the buildings actually going to be. So um the the applicant has informed me they have um developed the architecture uh and enhanced it since we received these drawings. So I think it might be best if the applicant answers that. Any other questions? Madam Chair?

Yes. Uh I might add that um Claudia did inform me that they did meet the open space requirements. So, the open space is not an issue with our review.

I'm just curious in terms of balconies, seeing as I get claustrophobic thinking about being in a space without outdoor space. Anyway, um so I guess we can move on. We may have a few members online that we should promote to presenter mode in the event there's questions or commentary from them.

I have their names. Um Megan Adams would be one. Mike Gomez would be another and possibly Christina Olivant as well. I will go ahead and elevate them so they can speak. They'll just have to unmute and if they choose to speak, state their name and address for the record for to be sworn. Understood. Shall I be sworn in?

Um, for those that are here that are going to talk, if everybody wants to stand up, give their name, come to the mic and um and swear in, we can do that. And then we can probably hit the ones on the Zoom individually. So that that that'll take care of that. That'll be easiest. Great. Andy, please raise your right hand. Um, each one of you will need to state your name and address for the record. Alexander Durk, 222 East Marcy Street, um, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.

Jen Lopez, uh, 224 Hermosa Circle, Durango, Colorado 81301. Greg Schaefer, uh, Santa Fe County Manager, uh, 102 Grant Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico. You raise your right hand. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth, nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? Please proceed. Madam Chair, members of the planning commission, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak about this um, exciting project tonight. I'm Alexander Durk. with Autoroof Design. We're the applicant agent in this project. We're a local architecture and planning firm, the the architect on the project. We've we've assembled a really exciting project team for this um for this endeavor. Um Santa Fe County and TWWG Development, our co-artners, co-developers on this project. Uh we have Megan Adams from TWWG Development online. Uh we have Mr. Schaefer from Santa Fe County here in person to answer any questions and make them up. Again, I'm Alexander Durk with Autoroof Design. Uh we also have Jen Lopez with project Moxy who's a consultant that's been working with both the county and TDMG and us to really work through all these issues. Um we're working with James Corporation which is an Albuquerque based general contractor very experienced in multif family affordable housing construction. Um we also have uh preliminary uh discussions with the Boys and Girls Club to provide the services for the daycare that we're proposing in this project as well as other uh multiple other service agencies will be involved in the course of the um implementation of the project and service of the project. Um I know Claudia did a great job of really setting up the project and what the issues are there. So I won't belabor this bel this too much. Um but I I thought she actually did a great um illustration here and I borrowed that Claudia. I didn't tell you that, but um um but it really shows why this project is important. It gives us the opportunity to provide affordable

housing uh to to the people of Santa Fe um at 100% affordable unit, but also with the infrastructure improvements, the roadways that that we've already started discussing, this is going to really start to to knit together this fastly uh this quickly growing part of Santa Fe. Um this is more coherent and promotes connectivity for residents and neighbors alike. Um it is 100% affordable. We're providing 53 senior units, 106 family units and a phase 2 uh for a future daycare. Um and um um it's it's an exciting project to have a collaboration with Santa Fe County and a developer and to work closely with city to implement these infrastructure improvements. With this, I'm going to turn it over to Jen to talk a little bit about some of the project uh information and why we think it's so important.

Good evening. Good evening, Madam Chair and commissioners. Again, I'm Jen Lopez. I run a consulting firm called Project Moxy. Uh I have been doing affordable housing work for 26 years and I haven't been in this room for 25 years. So I started my career at the city of Santa Fe. So it's nice to be back with you all. So excited about this project. I've been honored to work with Santa Fe County since 2023. The role that our team plays as we really help with project management, financial consulting, packaging, um all of those things. And so I was asked to come tonight to be available uh to answer questions about the financing and the timing of the financing. So, thank you for having me. I I talk fast, but mostly gets because I want to take questions. So, I apologize, but let me know if I'm talking too fast. Again, this is an intergenerational community, right? A best practice nationally. We're so excited to bring it to Santa Fe. We have seniors, we have families, right? We create this beautiful space together. We start to solve issues of isolation. We're excited about that. Um, again, we know that you need about 5,000 affordable rental units in Santa Fe. So, we're happy to be part of the solution with you. Uh again, this is permanent affordability. These units will be affordable for decades. And again, it's a mix of one studios one, two, threes, and four. So, it's a really nice mix. It's going to meet a lot of different needs in the community when we start. And again, we're grateful for Santa Fe County uh to have the a wherewithal really and the mission and the vision to keep going. They bought the land in 2019, so or 2020. So, it's they've been at this for quite some time. As you all know, it takes a while to build these projects. And again, it's really got uh a access to a lot of amenities. And for this reason, it's scored as one of the top applications in 2025 for tax credits from the state. I kind of talked already about who it's going to serve. And um I want to say this for the record, it's going to serve uh households uh earning between 30 and 80% of area median income. And for folks that don't know what that area median income means, it's a HUD standard at the county level. they

they look at wages every year and they say these are the folks that need um some kind of housing assistance. So it's it's just a a matrix that we use in our industry, but what that means is it'll serve folks making between 20 and probably 70,000 a year. So you're going to have folks that are on fixed incomes and folks that are working in families. So again, um a a large swath of need. And again, we're using two different tax credits. I can answer high level questions about tax credits, but I don't want to go there unless you want me to. But I do want to acknowledge that this is the first combined tax credit in the state of New Mexico, which is super cool. And um that came about because the county recognized they want to bring in an experienced developer. They ran an RFP and found TWWG. Megan Adams is on with us today. And in the response, TWWG said, you know, you're trying to do a lot here. We'd like to show you a new way to do it. So we're very excited about this model as well. Um again, you know, we're leveraging public land, creating this affordable housing. This is Santa Fe County's first public private partnership. We sure hope they do more of these projects, right? Because we we need all of us doing this work. Um I think Alexi already spoke to um the connectivity that will happen in this part of town. And then Santa Fe County Housing Authority uh provided vouchers, which is a really important resource to make this a viable project long term and to really serve the lowest income residents in in this community. Here's the best part. We're really there. We need development plan approval and we will close in August. And this has been a two and a half year uh grueling process for the team, but we have 50 million committed. So, we're pretty excited. Uh this last slide really gives you the history, right? So, the major milestones 2024 um selecting the developer, we started applying for funds right when they were selected. I think there's nine sources on the right side of this, but again, you know, we've got the selection of the developer. We applied for significant funding. You'll see the very top line there, that equity

line, that's half the the funds for the project. That was a very competitive process in 2025 and again, the first ever award of those two credits combined. Um so nine sources um complex. What we're trying to solve for is um the Federal Home Loan Bank that 3,855,000 that was awarded um almost two years ago and that has a deadline. And so if we don't close in August, we lose that. And once you lose one source, it's just sort of unravels. So again, we're so grateful for your help in getting to the finish line today. Um you'll also see at the bottom our path forward. We close in August. Uh groundbreings, construction, complete construction in 2028, lease up uh September 2028, end of the year, kind of wrapping up the financials. So very exciting timeline. And I'm here to answer any additional questions. I'm going to hand it back to Lexi. Thank you so much. I'll uh get a little bit more into the design and try and address some of the questions that we heard prior to to me coming on. Um so as Claudia mentioned in her presentation, I've rotated these plans 90 degrees just so they fit better on our screen. So north is now to the left here. Um as a way of orienting us, uh this is the intersection of Serrios and airport. This is the Sanro Shopping Center where the southside plaza is. Uh Sanang Nasio Road goes behind Lowe's and there's a bunch of other uh affordable and market rate apartments projects along Sanro Road. Our site is located in this gap tooth between the existing self-s storage units um the extra space self- storage units to the south, the Jacob D. Martinez housing project uh that is administered by Santa Fe County to the north. Um and then the Stbridge in Suites is currently under construction. Um and as was mentioned earlier, part of this development plan and and construction project is to extend Signagnasio Drive right to the corner of our site here and then uh construct a comp a portion rather of Kamino San Alberto. And both of these

roads will be dedicated to the city. Both of these roads are designed to city standards. Um and so and and what we're proposing to do on our project is in addition to building the apartments that I'll get into in a minute, we're also proposing to extend Sagnasio Road to connect over to Commamino Dehakobo and uh extend a portion of of Commamino San Alberto that's in an access easement on this property uh so that we've got good connectivity and circulation around our property there. So we're doing a lot more than a standard affordable housing project and that we're also building some infrastructure and roadways to go along with it. And why is that important? Um, connectivity is important right now. If you're a resident that lives in the Jacob D. Martinez um, uh, site here and you want to go to have dinner at the Southside Plaza or you need to go to Lowe's for some material or you need to go over to the urgent care um, center that's just over here on Zafrano, you need to go through a windy road which is the kind of extension of Hakobo up to Rufina Street, go all the way around to Zafrano, come back down and then turn into the center. That ends up putting about a mile. It's about a mile drive when it's only a little bit over a quarter mile just to get over to the center if you're able to walk or drive right there. So, by the construction of this road by the adjacent developer and then the connections that we're providing to it, we're providing easy access for ve for vehicles to get over to Zafrron to drive into the street network. Um, that's more appropriate than what Commamino Dakobo has to offer right now. And we're also offering pedestrian and and bicycle connections directly over there. But, so I encourage people to get out of their cars and walk a little bit more. In addition to that, um the MO has identified in their long range uh bicycle plan and and trail network plan a bicycle path that goes from the intersection of Srios Road all the way up to Rafina Street here. We're we are going to be constructing a portion of that kind of a middle portion of that that path as part of our project. It's a combined 10- foot wide pedestrian and bicycle path that's going to be fronting Mino San Alberto um which could then

hook up to the connections uh and and fully realize that path in the future. Uh in addition to that um we are providing an accessible route and good pedestrian access to a tra to a transit stop on airport road. So, we're really trying to to knit together multimodal transit with what is ostensibly an affordable housing project, but taking a look at the bigger picture and trying to think about not only our residents but also our neighbors here too. Um, as was also mentioned, we have some complex property boundaries though that are it's a very weirdly shaped site. Um, Claudia mentioned this. There's this is the the one narrow I think it's called lot one that is one of the three parcels that is owned by the county. There's another parcel that I think it's called lot two that goes up to almost Rafina Street that's not part of our project boundary per se, but it is a county owned parcel. Um, and then the main uh uh property is this kind of dog legshaped site that includes Commino Deakobo. So right now, Commino de Aobo, it functions as a city street, but it is on county property with an easement that is along that boundary. Um, so that's kind of the a very interesting situation here that it's a county owned land within the city maintained by the county. Um, not ideal from a kind of a public uh interest standpoint. So on a concurrent um application, we've got a lot split and consolidation application that will simplify all this stuff. So number one, as required by our founder by our funders rather, we do need to have a dedicated lot that is just for the buildings and the apartments. The taxpayer investors don't want to own roadways. they don't want to be involved with bicycle paths and things like that. They want to have just this dedicated lot right here. So, we're proposing a dedicated lot for our project. Um these then smaller lots are separated out for potential future dedication for that bike path. Uh we then have an L-shaped lot that will be that will become a dedicated right of way which includes the extension of San Ignasio and uh the existing communo all

the way down to Airport Road. Um, and then we're doing some improvements in an access easement that is on that adjacent property to have good connectivity on our site. Zooming into our specific site here now. Um, again, north is up. You're kind of familiar with the context around there. We've got a U-shaped parking lot that wraps around the um the project. Um, and one of the things we wanted to do with this parking lot was realizing that these are fairly tall buildings. Um, and we want to be create a buffer between our project and some of the lower uh scale construction in the in the adjacent neighborhoods and push it closer to where there's some higher scale construction in terms of stability and suites and the existing big boxes and apartments that are over at San Aign Ignasio and um San Dra. Um we have three access points, one off of San Agnosio Road, one off of Camino um de Hakoba rather, and then a third one off of Camino San Alberto. We've got good circulation for residents. We've got good circulation for fire. And we've got adequate access for solid waste, too. As you see, the project is designed kind of with a a Santa Fe um motif in terms of organized around a courtyard. So, we've got stepped building massing that steps up around a common courtyard. In that courtyard are series of amenities for various ages. We've got activity zones and amenities from tots all the way to seniors sharing this courtyard space. So, we have a 106 unit family building that kind of forms the U of that that courtyard. We've got a 53 unit um uh senior building that forms the southern edge of that courtyard. And then we've allocated an end of that U-shaped building for that future daycare facility that's going in there. Um as was discussed earlier, we have 165 spaces on site. Did not meet the previous code. It actually does meet the current code because there's a 25% reduction allowed for affordable housing and senior housing projects. And as our parking demand study actually played out, that was exactly the 25% reduction from code that we were requesting. It it

it just kind of worked out that way. So I think that good benefit of this is that parking demand study helps to validate some of the things that have been put into the new code. Um we however that being said, we are concerned about overflow parking. What if there's a resident that's got, you know, two cars and you have a few of those? So, we're also proposing some street parking to be built along Camino San Alberto and along Camino deacobo to be able to provide for those overflow needs. Okay. Now, um I do want to I'll talk about it in a little bit more detail in a bit, but there are I know questions about about community aobo brought up the city standards and and and all those things. When we first submitted the development plan, we had only proposed some street furnage um improvements along community for that parallel parking and for street trees and things like that. Um however, in in conversations with county staff, with city staff, we've realized that really community is a public road. It should really be improved to public standards. Um and that's something that our team is committed to doing. And we'll talk in a little bit further in the presentation about how we'll be able to get that done for you. Um, not much to show here other than the line drawing that's already in your in your document. Um, but if there's any specific questions, we can come back to this slide. And now I'll just show you some images of what the project will look like. So, um, as discussed earlier, um, we have a courtyard shaped scheme here, but understanding that four-story buildings are considered high in Santa Fe. While we are within the height limit here, we're trying to step down the massing wherever we can. So, corners of the U's, corners, ends of the buildings, stepping them down. Take a unit off here to have a little bit lower mass there. Um, and set that down. And then we also developed a um we'll actually talk about that on a future slide, but um but this is a view that's hovering above community looking back towards Sandy Cedra Center. This is the Southside Plaza. That's Lowe's there. These are some of the other apartment buildings. Um and this is the future or under construction saber in Suites. So, it

gives you an idea of the context that it's going to be adjacent to our site. Um, here's some views just kind of rotating around the building. This is the senior building in in phase one. Um, yes, it does um it does have some some uh balconies in it. I will discuss that. I guess I'll take this opportunity right now to discuss that. So, um as Jen mentioned, these projects are very tight on their funding, right? So, we initially had balconies on all the units on both buildings to be to be honest and to be fair. However, as we got into detailed cost estimates and we got into our tax credit um applications, we were able to afford to include the balconies in the senior project in building two. Okay, building one um despite our best efforts, that just added several million to the project and we we just could not absorb it within this project. All of that being said, the fact that we have common open space in this shared courtyard is something that we're really all very excited about because it provides that amenity to to to seniors and families alike, including playgrounds and and amenities in that courtyard. Uh this is the view from San Alberto um with community in the distance. Again, that's the senior and the family housing project with the uh the future childcare in the center there. Um here's some views of the of uh eye level views of the building. So there was a question about colors on the building. One of the things that we're very cognizant of is that these are large buildings, right? We don't want them to be monolithic. We don't want them to feel uh uh you know very large and very monolithic in their character. So we've taken great paints and not only step down the massing but also differentiate the colors in them to really help to break them up. So we've got um painted Hardy panel siding on some of these corners. So that's a kind of a brown color. These are the the the actual colors we're proposing. We've got a base color on the main buildings of a of a of a a tan, kind of a neutral tan, and then a lighter tan on these stepped elements here. We we really worked hard to develop some architectural detailing to differentiate and break up the massing of these larger four-story blocks here. So, we've created the stepping pattern, which has a little bit of pushing and pulling, a little bit of

in and out there to provide some texture to the building. Yes, it's a different color to help break up the mass of that four-story building. And the stepping the stepping pattern is really meant to evoke the kind of PBLO form or maybe an abstraction of the of the mountains and the landscape here in Santa Fe. Something that yes, it's a contemporary building, but to tie it back into some of those um traditional and historical patterns in our town. This is the view of the senior housing from the um uh from the front door and then some of the views of the courtyard which we're very very excited about. Uh we have pops of color in there, a lighter stucco inside there. um very lushly vegetated. We have again playgrounds facilities, picnic facilities, other other areas for both the seniors and families alike. Um the name really came about from this really innovative water catchment feature that we proposed in the project which is taking our roof water off of these buildings. Finally through subsurface um aia features. They're they're gravel trenches with perforated pipes will allow that water to come and and and percolate into to water the the actual landscape in the in the in the courtyard and elsewhere on site. And then the overflow does go to a subterranean storage facility that's on the southern property boundary of our site. Another view of that courtyard. Actually have a little grass area there. There's a senior building in the distance with a big porch that faces that courtyard. Uh some views along Camino San Alberto of the senior building in the foreground, the daycare in the center and the family building in the distance. Uh the street view from Camino de Hakobo. So we have street trees. We got the parking lot buffer and then the buildings beyond. Again, see the and note the the difference in in scale and stepping on the the building elements. Then the view from Commamino San Alberto looking at the project with the family facility on the right, the daycare in the center and the senior senior housing on the left. Now when it comes to the road dedication, um I will admit this kind of

came through a little bit late in the game. Um initially we were thinking this would remain county ownership. Um and then again as we discussed earlier, this really should be and needs to be a public road. So to that end, in January, um the board of county commissioners passed resolution 2026-11, which number one authorizes that lot split that we had discussed earlier, but also um authorizes the county manager and staff to work closely with with the city with our team um to make sure that we could improve these roadways to city standards. And this is actually going to be a county funded project to do this roadway construction. So, all that being said, um we've now gone through the conditions of approval. A majority of them are all acceptable. We do have a few um um we're seeing proposed alternate language to them, a few concerns on them, and I'll go over those now. Uh the one is the financial guarantee on the improvements for community at Cobell. Um I'm not an expert in kind of governmental finance, but as I understand it, the county who is who is who is funding this project is not able to post the financial guarantee. So in lie of that, we've proposed alternate language that says Santa Fe County shall provide adequate assurances acceptable to the city. Uh that adequate resources have been budgeted and are currently available to fund the cost estimate that's required by condition 17, which may be the form of an intergovernmental agreement or any other agreement that is mutually acceptable between the two governments. The next one we want to discuss is the requirement for a bike lane on Kamo Dakobo. I think we made it clear we're we're we're all committed to multimmodal uh transit and connections in town, but because we have not done a detailed design yet for communic um we want a little bit of flexibility in fleshing out that design. And I say this because I know we have some encroachments on our property from a few uh adjacent property owners. There's a wall that hangs over about a foot. There's some existing parking spaces further down that hang over a foot or

two into community. Um, and we're providing street parking and there's also a a stormwater kind of detention swell along a portion of community at Kobo. So, it's not that we don't want to provide a bike lane. We just want to be able to work through these kind of complicated issues with staff to find something that meets city standards that meets the public good um but enables us to to kind of work through that uh as we continue to to develop that design. So we propose some alternate language that says the the applicant shall coordinate with city staff on the establishment of the design criteria for the improvement of community aobo allowing for flexibility in the design to accommodate existing conditions and available right ofway with the improvement of community aobo in conjunction with the other elements of the development plan shall safely meet the transportation needs of all users including pedestrians of all ability levels bicyclists and motorists. Uh lastly, I I don't want to dwell on this too much, but as Leroy mentioned, there were a few things in the conditions of approval that were really more comments and review comments from staff. Um and and they're not really things that are actionable on our on our side andor are outside of the the mitigation scope of the project. And we're requesting that items 21 to 23 and 25 and 26 are removed from that list of of missions for approval. Um, with that, I'll leave you with this image of our of our shared pedestrian and um, bicycle pathway on on Commino San Alberto with that uh, daycare shown in the center there. We're available to answer any questions that you may have.

If I could, uh, chair and, uh, members um, of the planning commission, again, Greg Schaefer, Santa Fe County manager. I just wanted to, uh, correct, uh, one, uh, statement made. It's not necessarily that the county couldn't legally provide a financial guarantee. It's simply that that's not typically how we do business. We're funding projects with other governmental entities. Um, you know, we just entered into an agreement uh relative to improvements to Henry Lynch uh where we provided a match with that. The fact that we had the budgeted uh monies available again were adequate there. I could go on with other examples. Um, and any sort of true financial guarantee in the sense that you're used to seeing it like a bond, what have you, it's just going to be more cost to the taxpayer. And we believe that we can work adequately with the city to make sure that um they're comfortable uh that the funds are available, that the improvements are going to be made, and that we can work that um out in ways that are more fitting uh with the fact that that would be a taxpayer government funded project um being collaborated on between two governmental entities. But I didn't want to leave you with the impression that we were suggesting that it couldn't be done. Again, we're just suggesting that it would be an unnecessary expense and an expense that would be um out of step uh with our um regular um projects that we do in collaboration with the city where both governmental entities ultimately commit funds uh but don't provide each other with financial guarantees. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, can can the city respond to the issue with the financial guarantee, the bike lane, and then the removal of 21 to 23 and 25 to 26?

Madam Chair, we have multiple ways for an applicant to accommodate infrastructure requirements. Um financial guarantee allows developers uh in the case of a subdivision or development to actually start start selling those items and and and collecting that information where construction of the infrastructure can occur without a financial guarantee. Unfortunately, we're kind of stuck with the ordinance that was adopted by by the governing body and no variances were requested as part of this application. And what we could do is amend the last condition and I can work on it work on it while additional information is being presented to the planning commission so that we can uh allow for the land use director to accommodate more flexibility in achieving that final development plan approval and the recordreditdation um so that we can work with the county that is amanable to both organizations without violating the law. Sounds good. And the bike lane, are we okay keeping that open until um

I think I think what we'd have to do is allow for the land use director to meet with the county and identify how we can work those areas out without again having it come back to the planning commission for variance. And as long as you provide the uh approve that condition of approval with full authority with the language direct director so it doesn't have to come back then she will have the authority to to augment any of the issues needed in order to mitigate impacts. And what about the removal of 21 and 23 and 25 and 26 as the county um or the applicant states that it is just um comments as opposed to conditions. Is that correct?

Commissioners, it is correct. And I think we should give you for the record and for the public record the new memo that we issued today for from traffic because it eliminates those as conditions. Those are listed and what was shown on the screen during my presentation. Um, we've spoken to the developer and you know the I'll repeat them really quickly. It kind of doesn't even need to be stated. The county property remains until it's approve improved. Yeah.

And then there was a request within our comments to include a table in the basically the TIA is going to be need to be updated and and revised for our technical corrections that that will be communicated. So can we make that letter the um part of the record?

Madam Chair, yes. Um I need to inform you that traffic division is working from a maintenance perspective and the land use department is working for a design perspective. So, anything that affects the road design, um, we need to make sure that we don't we don't disregard that because again, no variances were were applied for or were they even uh on the agenda nor were they advertised. So, we

So, what are you proposed doing with 21 through 23 and 25 and 26? If you'll give me 10 minutes while you hear the rest, I will try and work up a very unique condition that allows the landage director to to work with the county in order to meet whatever they need to do without compromising our regulation. So, we're talking about the financial guarantee, the bike lane, and then um conditions 21 and 23 and 25 and 26. Correct, Madam Chair? Yes. Okay. Go ahead. So we can open this up for questions and then public comment while you quickly do that.

And madam chair, I'd like to state that would be in collaboration with the entire team of folks. So it wouldn't just be me. But I also would like to point out that our affordable housing director, Fabiola Chavez, is here for any questions. We also have online with us um D. Bangensner, our city um civil engineer, as well as Clinton P Pet Peterson with public utilities and Alan Hook with public utilities. So, and Toronto McGregor, of course, our fire marshall if you have any questions.

And I also noticed in um on the slides, but also in the materials that we read that the city Santa Fe City Housing Authority is putting up 1.5 million on this project, too. Is that correct? Yes, I believe so. Yes, Commissioner Capen.

I have series of questions, but I think one of them might speak to the bike uh question that you just brought up. First of all, I just want to say congratulations. I think um it's really exciting to see like a multigenerational project and it's affordable and um I really the architectural detail. I was like, what is a four-story unit? We just don't see it so much here. But the way that you designed it, um, I just want to commend you on that because, uh, I think it's a really great version of this. Um the question I had about the bike lane and how it pertains to the um the road we're talking about doing in the future is am I correct that on San Alberto and on San Agnosio going out to Zaffrono both of those roads are currently going to be designed with pedestrian connectivity to airport road and then to Zaffrono.

Um so uh see if I understood that correctly. So on Sasio, this goes out to Zaffrono Drive. Um, correct. So it goes northeast. I know. Again, got to rotate our perspective on and that's got sidewalk sidewalks and bicycle. And then is it San Alberto that runs on the San Alberta? Then turns and I I believe I believe there's a bike lane on the northbound side, which is on the opposite side of our our project, the opposite side of the roadway on the Sabbridge and Suites. Again, we're providing a combined pedestrian and bicycle lane or or walk, I should say, on our property. And is that road gonna go all the way is that will that pedestrian connectivity go all the way to Airport Road where I'm imagining there are like um bus stops and transportation?

There will it will not because right now um there's number one a gas substation that's down here and I'm not sure who owns this little parcel here, but there won't be a road that actually comes in to add a kind of a fifth road into this intersection. Can you pull that up and put it on? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm looking on my screen. Yeah. Do we know how we get this pulled back onto this? Please share the screen on the podium.

It's not. Oh, I see. It's a It's a dotted. So that's going to be a bike path. Okay, there we go. Yep.

Yeah, I was also informed of my although I was pointing all kinds of things during my presentation of course either I found the laser pointer tool on here. So at any rate all right thank you I apologize for that. Um so uh again just to reiterate um on Sanasio Road which is the extension that is being constructed as part of the SA bridge in suites there are bicycle lanes and sidewalks on on either side of that road. There there is a uh I think it's a northbound bicycle lane on the opposite side of San Alberto that's being constructed as part of that project there. And then the solid yellow line is that combined pedestrian and bicycle walk or pathway that's going to be constructed on our side of San Alberto. Um, I don't think that San Alberto itself will go all the way to this intersection here because of the well, it's already a very busy and challenging intersection. Okay, that being said, there is future plans for a bike path that would be a pedestrian connection that would get you to uh to the intersection of Srios and uh Airport Road.

Oh, what version of future plan? I mean, how far out where are they at on the I'm just, you know, just thinking about like this is such a great location and it's near a lot of transportation hubs and access to Zaffirono is awesome. Just in conversation about this uh other road that is you guys are negotiating. I'm just wondering, you know, how are we going to get these folks to the, you know, do this intersection safely move as pedestrians to airport?

So, I will have to give the diplomatic answer, which is that pathway is not part of our project. It is identified on the NOS's uh trail master plan and the city or sorry, the county has uh uh has the ability to to to dedicate those two additional lots to actually make those two additional lots to actually make that happen. Um, that is all I can say on it because it's not been something we've been super involved with as designers of specific. Any other questions? Commissioner Mcrenolds.

Thank you, Chair Plow. I just wanted to say um as somebody that does affordable works with the federal home loan bank funding um on I do mortgage residential mortgage lending. Uh, I know how hard you guys have worked to get this under the deadline and so I really just want to put on the record like I hope that this gets approved with urgency because the worst thing especially given current climates that funding does may not come back and so I think it's a really exciting project. Um, I also I love the multigenerational aspect and I think it's going to be really great for that part of town. So I just wanted to say that for the record. Thank you. Commissioner McGee,

I'll echo other commissioners to say that this is a really amazing project on a like a side of town that really needs it. Um I think in the presentation you walked through the timeline for phase one uh which is the housing but it didn't it seems like uh the child care center is part of phase two and I don't think I saw any indication of when you plan to do that. Are there any um constraints outside of just the completion of phase one? Do you already have a thought on when that will occur?

I do not have any details on that schedule. I do know that we're trying to identify funds for that project that right now is out for budget. Um, but we've allocated location for it and we've had initial conversations with providers to be able to to work there, but we're still chasing some funds. So, at the moment, it is essentially 0% funded and we're not sure when it's going to occur. That is correct, but we want to make sure to include it in the development plan so that we can do it without having to come back and amend a development plan in a year or two. Any other questions here? Yes. Yes. Thank you. I have a question for the applicant. Uh, as you have Jane's Corp involved, uh, do you have a proposed construction budget, building per square foot?

We we do. Um, don't know if I know that number off the top of my head to be honest with you. We've we've only been finalizing that in the last few weeks based upon our more updated construction drawings. Um, so I don't think I could share that right now. Sorry. Like plus or minus $50 a square foot. Could you? uh plus or minus $50 from I think around $250 a square foot. That's somewhere in that range. Um plus or minus $50. So um that's is very uh that's not a lot of money to work with. Um and it's a really great looking project. Did a great job. Any other questions?

No. We're going to open this up for public comment. I always forget about that. Um, okay. So, now we're moving to public comment. So, if there's anyone in the uh chambers that would like to come forward and make a comment on this project, please do so. And Heather, is there anyone on Zoom? Oh, no. Hands are raised. Okay. Seeing as there's a ra a hand just went up. Oh, it's Mr. Daniel Warwth. Mr. Warwath, if you can state your name and address for the record and be sworn.

You bet. I am Daniel Warwth. I live at 1611 Camino Port Veneer, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505. Um, just speaking in favor of this project, I got to where Daniel, you need to be sworn in. Need to be sworn in. Sorry. Um, please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth and do so under the penalties of perjury?

I do. Please proceed. Thanks. Yeah, I got to work on some very early stages of this project. I just want to commend the team. Uh, what a accomplishment it is. It's a big lift. The having developed on public land, I can tell you how challenging it is. I just really want to call out we really look to these affordable housing projects to build out public infrastructure that is frankly untenable for the finances of affordable housing. And if you look at this, we're talking about having to improve this county-owned roadway, adding uh bike lanes where you'll probably have to buy adjacent property and make it work. We just need to change how we think about these affordable projects. if they're really priorities, they are not cash cows to pay for public infrastructure. That really needs to come from other places. You have city funds in there. A lot of those city trust funds are going to turn around and pay for city demanded infrastructure here. So, we have sort of this culture of expecting developers to pay for this. Affordable housing under the current terms can't do it. So, you really got to find some other ways to do this and stop, you know, demanding that we do so much with these. Um, we're subsidizing, we're using our affordable housing funds to pay for public infrastructure that we're making these projects build. So, I just really want you to think about that as you look at the conditions on this project. Thanks.

Thank you. Their hands are raised. Okay. So, we'll close the uh public uh comment portion of uh this meeting and move on to new language. Yeah, give me one more minute here. Sure. Um, Commissioner McGee, as long as you don't confusion confuse anything. Okay, go ahead. You have a question?

Oh, you're kidding. Okay, we'll just It's a good question that won't confuse anything. No, go ahead. Um, I guess for the applicant, this is really just a a space filler, but you mentioned amenities for seniors in the courtyard, which I haven't really seen before. What are amenities for seniors in a project like

So, we uh we're going to be providing space for things like cornhole and and um other activities like that in the space there. We have a porch that faces the the courtyard. So, there's going to be outdoor covered outdoor area with picnic benches and areas for people to socialize and work out there. And then just other landscape uh amenities, benches and and lawns and things like that are really to be shared by all all of the residents here. You love that.

Yes, Commissioner Barber. Thank you, Chair. Um question for the applicant. Um it was mentioned in the presentation that uh you would collect rainwater off the roof and then divert it into an area in the courthouse and that water would go into an underground reservoir. Can you say more about that? What happens to that? Does it just get recycled?

Uh so uh we are actually not going to be recycling it back for irrigation purposes, but we're going to detain it for 24 hours and then allow it to to to overflow and and uh infiltrate from there. So, it will infiltrate into the site from uh from this retention feature, but it will not be necessarily recycled back in for irrigation uses. That being said, we're trying to get a lot of passive irrigation in the way that that water routes from the roof all the way down to that that storage tank. Okay, that is kind of long- winded and it's built on the fly, so please forgive me. um to we were going to modify that last condition that uh Claudia presented at the podium and it'll read I've got this covered so you don't have to worry about it. Uh final approval of the development plan will occur at the time of recordation of the development plan at the county clerk's office with signatures of the planning commissioner, city engineer, planning land use director, planning manager, water engineer, and affordable housing. A the planning and landings director shall be allowed to continue working with the county to mitigate impacts and coordinate development review and approval allowing for alternative means of compliance for the roadway, bike lane, and traffic impacts and the implementation modifications of conditions without returning to the planning commission for approval. And B, removal of conditions 17 and 18.

And what about also adding um financial guarantee? Those are condition 17 and 18. Oh, okay. Is that acceptable to the applicant, Madam Chair? Yes, it is. Great. Okay, with that, do we have any other questions or do we have a motion? Make a motion. Okay, go ahead. Um, Commissioner Capen,

let me get it up here. Move to approve case uh 2025 11625 1335 Camino de Jakobo Jacobo sorry development plan uh with conditions as um written read into the record into the record and agreed upon by the applicant and staff and county. Second. Roll call, please. Commissioner McGee, yes. Commissioner Capen, yes.

Commissioner Barber, yes. Commissioner Rland, yes. Commissioner Miranda, yes. Commissioner Smith, yes. Commissioner, did I miss anybody? I'm sorry. Wheel Mc Reynolds, I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. The motion uh chair, the motion has passed. Thank you. Um good luck and good luck with permitting. Thank you. We appreciate it. Good project.

Thank you very much. We've all worked very hard on it. We appreciate your consideration tonight. That was a surprise. No one I didn't know this was happening at all, this project. Really good. It's nice to be able to do something um worthwhile. Yes. comments.

Um, as as people are filing out, I think um this isn't the first time that we've had this conversation about affordable housing that, you know, what is put on them as far as uh infrastructure and that it's really being treated as like uh any kind of developer when it's a really different situation. And I would just encourage us as we're looking at the code and the general plan to really try to help out um clarify that and figure out you know not to take away the infrastructure development but when it is a fully affordable project like this um how they you know we don't have to have that conversation with them as much.

Well I know the countyy's paying for the road but I guess the other infrastructure is the bike lane and stuff like that. Yeah. And I think there was something about like who was going to guarantee the money for this when the county was saying they weren't. Correct me if I'm wrong. And that was an issue of sometimes the developer has to put that up. Is that right? And that's where they can't like that's however much money out of their very budget that doesn't make Yeah. It's the purchasing of a bond, but it's sort of dangerous not to have that. I I get that. Yeah, I think it's creative.

It's definitely something to work on and there is incentives in terms of the water budget and because I know their water budget is they're only paying for the commercial part of the water and Yeah. So, but I think it's good. Yes, there's we can look at, but city has to be able to afford it, too. Absolutely. I think these developers are just not for-profit development that are, you know, it it is a it's a delicate situation, but I just feel like we've heard this now several times and it would be great for us to think about how we can support these kinds of 100% awesome designed things and you know just everyone's getting maybe with the mansion tax.

Yes. Can I can I could I say yeah go ahead Peter. Is there any way that we could when this is over just get a list of the things if it's give or take 50 bucks it's $250 a square foot that is a fraction of other square footage numbers I've been hearing I would love to know the things they did uh and uh to get to $300 or less a square What what are what are some of the ways they did that? The second thing is that

one way no balconies. All right. Well well that but wait but quite

but that's something that we need to look at in relationship to affordable housing because he was saying that if um they had to do balconies it would cost a couple of million dollars more and our code would require balconies in this project. The other thing uh in studying if credit unions and local banks were able to give uh supported loans um instead of bonding because when you bond you bond for the end value then you have to carry the bond throughout the construction project incredibly expensive. What they're doing in North Dakota is low interest loans all the way through and then you bond at the end to buy out the loan and they're saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. So there's there are some ways to do this if we had a public

this is just a conversation madam chair since from matters from the commission to staff um if you want to um bring up superman and then I do if you want to ask me about the second meeting in May I will definitely provide you some information yeah to give us some it sounds like it's going to be a good meeting. Um, let's hear more about it.

Well, it's a presentation and what I'd like to know is if we have a quorum for May 21st. Is that the date starting at 6:00? It is a It is a a study session. No, workshop. It's a workshop. I believe that's on the general plan. City code. Which one is it? City code. So, we'd like to know how many are going to be able to attend on that on the 21st. Let's see if we get a quorum. Yeah, that works. Yes, it will work. So, that will that means we do have a quorum. Uh, and if we want to bring up George, we can properly introduce.

Yes, let's meet George. And I'm really glad that you're raising the bar here in terms of dress. Yes, I'll introduce myself. Uh, George Terry. My full name is Adam George Terry, but my friends call me George. I've always gone by George, so please call me George going forward. I'm coming from the Pacific Northwest where I've been serving as a planner with a county jurisdiction. Uh, out on Puet Sound, Jefferson County, Washington. The seat there is Port Townsend. Some of you might be familiar. Often I get that. And um I'm delighted. Mom, the accent you hear is from Texas though. And I you knew that. You heard it.

I get that a lot. It's so hidden. And I'm fortunate. I've got both of my parents will turn 81 this year and both live in Texas. So this is a perfect opportunity for me to be in a place I love. I'm familiar with Santa Fe and New Mexico. I'm an avid skier and outdoor recreation enthusiast. So, this is a wonderful home for me and it gets me within a day's drive of family. So, with that, I'll just say how delighted I am to be here and be part of such an important team. We've got fantastic leadership. My colleagues are dynamos. I'm really impressed. So, and thank you for having me tonight. And it's an exciting time to be here, too, with all the code and general plan rewrites.

Well said, chair. Thank you. And I'm old enough to be your parent, it turns out. Well, yeah. And me, too. So that's why we really like that senior housing. I do too. Hey, thanks for having me. And sure, I'd like to introduce also Ben Feifer who um is a planner with this with our planning division. He previously worked with the parks and recreation department and actually goes as far back as having been a counselor to my children when they were Chavez. and we're very happy he's joined us and um has already made huge impression. You've done a great job tonight, too.

Thank you. No, this was a really great introduction and uh great to talk about interesting projects. So, both both of these two new employees have excelled in the office in terms of grasping what they need to do in order to achieve our goals and just jump right in and just I would say they're I wouldn't say they're drinking from a fire hose because I think I gave them the sea to drink from and they're work and they're drinking from the the ocean right now, but they're doing they're they're actually taking it and they're coming along perfectly. I can't be more happier with with with with what they're doing. They're absolutely fabulous employee employees.

Okay. Any matters from the commission? If not, we'll go ahead and adjourn. Thank you.