City needs to decide on downtown building
Jim Kirkpatrick and his family probably have a good idea of what a ping-pong ball feels
like.
It was almost 23 years ago when he first submitted a plan for development at the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and Water Street, which he owned at the time, along with the neighboring Loretto Chapel, south of which he built the Inn of Loretto in 1975.
But his plan for the remaining open land has been batted back and forth between city agencies, courtrooms and public hearings, and, most recently, the City Council and the Historic Districts Review Board.
Just this week, when City Council was hearing Kirkpatrick’s appeal on the H-Board’s September denial of his fourstory design, councilors sent the plan back to the H-Board, suggesting the developer work out an agreement with that body without offering any guidance on what would be acceptable. Enough already. We sympathize with people who are reluctant to accept another multi-story structure in downtown Santa Fe, especially one that will add bulk and shadow to the street with La Fonda’s multiple stories just across Water Street, and could also swamp the historic and charming Loretto Chapel on the other side. Heck, we enjoy the current open space, which gives an open, spacious feeling to that corner and offers a nice spot for people to sit and relax.
But unless someone is willing to cough up the dough to buy the land at a fair price from the owners and preserve it forever as open space, that’s not going to happen. It’s prime Santa Fe real estate and something is going to go there eventually.
It’s time for the agencies and public officials involved to stop tossing it back and forth like a hot potato, sit down with the land owner, and work out once and for all what would be acceptable on that site. If what the city will accept doesn’t work out for Mr. Kirkpatrick, then he can decide to sell, or go back to court.
To all appearances, though, it seems he and his family have made a good faith effort to come up with something that would work. The 25,536-square-foot building, with an underground parking garage, retail shops on the first floor and residential spaces on the remaining floors, imposes a pretty large footprint, but it also promises renewed downtown vitality, with more people living in the historic district.
Is it too tall? The tiered, wedding-cake design helps scale down the impact of the planned 49-foot height at its tallest point. Reducing the mass or height of the building just a bit might assuage concerns that the building would crowd the chapel too much.
Perhaps something can yet be worked out to make the project feasible for the developer, as well as acceptable to the municipal powers that be. We hope that will be the case. Whatever the determination, we hope it comes soon and Mr. Kirkpatrick can make his own decision on selling or building, rather than being strung along yet again.