A rebellion is brewing in Santa Fe County over anti-agricultural rezoning in the Countys new Land Development Code... Rage and anger exploded from the audience of approximately 300 citizens of northern Santa Fe County at the Board of County Commission meeting held in Pojoaque last week. The crowd enthusiastically applauded speaker after speaker, protester after protester, who denounced the county’s Sustainable Land Development Code and its accompanying rezoning map. Almost all vehemently condemned the proposed smaller lot sizes and resulting higher population densities. “This [the Pojoaque Valley] is a rural area where people don’t own lawnmowers: They own tractors and horses,” said one protesting speaker. “Three-quarters of an acre, the minimum lot size now, is already too small for the valley’s rural character, which we want to preserve. We object to the SLDC and the rezoning map.” The commissioner chairman asked the assessor-elect, who was present at the meeting, to weigh in on whether parcels rezoned to higher densities would have a higher assessed value. He responded that they would not until the owner came forward with a development plan. The audience did not believe him and muttered their disbelief. Another citizen speaker pointed out the inadequacies of the new code with respect to cell towers, to which the code pays too little attention. Another citizen speaker followed up, citing statistics that a cell tower decreases neighboring property values by 10 percent to 20 percent. Another citizen speaker told the commissioners that they have not informed the public of what they are up to with the Sustainable Land Development Code and the rezoning map. He received a map of the county in the mail earlier in the year showing the proposed rezoning. Because of the large scale of the printed map, he could not discern changes near his property. A neighbor told him he had better investigate, and after making a special trip to the county offices and getting a detailed map, the speaker discovered that his neighbor was right. An adjacent parcel was slated for rezoning to five times the current density. The speaker noted that this made no sense, because a major arroyo runs through the middle of the parcel. Increasing density in an arroyo is crazy. Further, he pointed out, only half the adjacent parcel was slated to change densities. Why change the density on just half of a parcel? Again, this makes no sense. No explanations were offered. The speaker also told the commissioners that if the county were subject to the same rules that a private entity meets, had made a full disclosure to everyone to within 100 feet of the land to be rezoned, and scheduled a public hearing on that one parcel, then there would be 10 times the number of people protesting. He admonished the commissioners to properly inform the public. Tiny maps on single sheets of paper and public meetings that few can attend do not constitute informing the public. Tom Wehner is a former resident of the Pojoaque Valley who lives in Santa Fe. He and his wife own a solar and home energy business. santafenewmexican/opinion/my_view/reader-view-questions-remain-on-county-land-code/article_6c7fad06-2c70-54be-8ae1-30435bdf8bb5.html
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 03:28:54 +0000
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