Rabbit Road plan wins approval
S.F. County Commission gives OK to project despite residents’ objections
Over the objections of some area residents, Santa Fe County commissioners on Tuesday evening gave a greenlight to the initial phases of a mixed-use development of almost 70 acres southwest of the Interstate 25 interchange at St. Francis Drive.
Approval of plats for the first two stages of the St. Francis South project will allow developers to begin marketing a dozen of 22 planned lots, installing utility lines and making roadway improvements, said Jennifer Jenkins, whose land-use management company represents the developer, Vegas Verdes LLC, owned by David Gurule and Ernest Romero.
The commission’s approval, with no dissenting votes, came after more than a dozen community members, all of whom live in the vicinity of the parcel, reiterated their resistance to a project they said would exacerbate already unwieldy traffic growth on Rabbit Road, which parallels I-25 at the end of St. Francis Drive and would provide access to the planned subdivision.
Commissioner Anna Hansen, who asked a series of pointed questions of Jenkins and at one point admonished
the development group for not appearing to have listened to nearby residents’ concerns, extracted a concession: She added an amendment that construction of a traffic roundabout where St. Francis Drive ends at Rabbit Road be moved up in the project’s time line. The developer acquiesced.
Other roadway improvements to be made as part of the first phases include the addition of bike lanes and a trail on one side of Rabbit Road.
Jenkins said any construction on the site is still a ways off. Infrastructure setup would require “at least a year,” she said. “And that’s before anybody can go vertical.”
The county on Tuesday also granted the developer water and wastewater utility line extensions.
At the outset of Tuesday’s public hearing, Commissioner Anna Hamilton, whose district includes the project site, announced she would recuse herself from the matter, citing an unspecified email exchange with a resident, Kathleen Lee, who lives near the St. Francis South parcel.
In brief remarks, Hamilton said she would recuse herself “out of an abundance of caution.”
She did not return a message late Tuesday seeking further comment.
The development is expected to include both commercial and residential uses. Jenkins told commissioners Tuesday she wished she could be more specific about what sorts of projects would take root, but said the developer could not market to potential buyers until final commission approval of the plats had been granted.
She said there have been discussions with an assisted living facility and a few other possible occupants and she would not rule out single-family homes or other types of residential development.
Roughly 30 community members attended the public hearing. Those who spoke were all to some degree against the proposal.
“I understand change is going to happen, but I really think we should take a closer look at how it’s going to happen, because someone’s going to get killed out there,” said long-time resident John Tapia, referring to Rabbit Road vehicle traffic.
A county commission meeting in June also drew strident opposition to the plan, mostly centered around traffic on Rabbit Road, which increased after the road was extended westward in 2008.
Jenkins said traffic analysis has shown that three-quarters of vehicles would access the proposed St. Francis South subdivision from St. Francis Drive via Rabbit Road and that as many would exit that way, too.
At one point, Jenkins told commissioners that the intersection at St. Francis Drive and Rabbit Road, a point of concern for many community members, already “functions incredibly well.” This drew a round of exaggerated laughter and jeers from the attendees. One man yelled, “It’s a death trap!”
Jenkins defended the traffic data compiled for the proposal, saying the developer has conducted three traffic impact analyses of the area, all of which were approved by the state Department of Transportation.
The developers’ engineer later corrected Jenkins, saying four traffic analyses had been conducted.
Citing the turnout for both meetings on the development, Hansen told Jenkins, “If you really want to be a good neighbor, and really want to be a part of this community, I would think you would want to do something that would make [residents] feel like you’re listening to them. At the moment, I don’t think they think you’re listening to them.” Her remarks drew a round of applause.
Sam Hitt, president of Old Galisteo Way Road Association and an objector to the proposed development, said he was disappointed after the commission’s vote but was glad for Hansen’s push for the roundabout amendment.
“All the effort produced some results,” Hitt said. “Maybe it’ll save a life.”