Low-income housing could land on city lot
Property now contains handball court; hearing set for today on proposal before City Council
A plan to donate an unused city-owned lot to a low-income housing developer could clear a crucial hurdle Wednesday.
A resolution sponsored by Councilor Peter Ives would direct city staff to survey the 5-acre lot at the corner of Zia Road and Yucca Street and prepare it for possible development under a federal low-income housing tax credit program.
Ives said the city must put the property to use to help ease an affordable housing crunch.
“We’re looking for places around the city where we can make this work,” said Ives, one of six candidates for mayor in the March municipal election.
City staff, under Ives’ resolution, would compile a traffic study and survey plats for the property as well as prepare applications to rezone the property and change its land use designation from parks to residential.
Staff would also be charged with identifying a potential grantee qualified under the New Mexico Affordable Housing Act to whom the city might donate the property.
An early neighborhood notification meeting would be conducted, and the application to amend the general plan and rezone the parcel would be presented to both the Planning Commission and City Council.
Matt O’Reilly, the city’s asset development director, identified the Yucca Street lot as the piece of undeveloped municipal-owned real estate within city limits that could support the most multifamily units.
O’Reilly compiled a list of city-owned parcels within city limits that are large enough to provide at least five dwelling units and are not already significantly developed. Of the 20 entries, most are not appropriate or prepared
for development, according to staff analysis, whether because an area is inaccessible, lacks utility connections or is subject to other sorts of restrictions.
In addition to being free from plat or deed restrictions, the Yucca Street lot, which the city acquired in 1968, has advantages over other city-owned parcels, namely its proximity to schools, a public park and public transportation.
The resolution has been revised to soften language about donating the property and clarify its intent is “to prepare the subject property for possible future donation, not to actually donate it at this time,” O’Reilly wrote.
At committee hearings last month, some councilors were skeptical the parcel could be properly assessed by staff before a potential grantee would be able to secure low-income housing tax credits in the next application cycle of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.
A developer that qualifies under the state statute for affordable housing would receive the property under a separate resolution once staff tasks are completed and the council approves rezoning.
This donation procedure follows suit with recent city donations for affordable housing projects in Las Soleras and on Siler Road, O’Reilly wrote in a memo.
The developer would then transform the weedy lot, currently home to only a pair of handball courts and part of a flood plain, into the multifamily complex.
The handball courts will likely move to Ragle Park, which sits across Zia Road. The area slated for housing units would be outside the flood plain.
Unclear as yet is how many units might populate the fiveacre space; the resolution states the lot could support as many as 20 per acre.
The parcel’s proximity to Ragle Park, Chaparral Elementary, Santa Fe High School and the Arroyo Chamiso contribute to its fitness for a housing development, O’Reilly has said.
The city’s 2016 housing needs analysis found a shortage of 2,400 housing units affordable to those earning below 80 percent of the area median income.
The resolution is scheduled for a public hearing Wednesday afternoon at the City Council.