West Santa Fe River Corridor Plan needs you

The hearing of the West Santa Fe River Corridor Plan as an amendment to the city’s General Plan at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 13, at City Hall, should be of interest to all residents of the city because it is a work of participatory democracy.

It also recognizes that there are areas and neighborhoods in Santa Fe that have their own character and scale that residents, and those nearby, would like to see preserved as pertaining to their particular neighborhoods as a whole, without bleed-in of characteristics of other nearby neighborhoods and their development features. More specifically, what seems to be going on with some success in the Rufina Street and Siler Road area could be ruinous to the feel of an area making efforts to preserve a semi-rural feel despite some commercial zoning.

Many residents around the West Santa Fe River from La Joya Road to Siler Road and Agua Fría Street to West Alameda Street and surrounding neighborhoods appreciate and cherish that semi-rural character of the area, derived from its historic agricultural past. Some residents in the area, in fact, are part of that historic past through their families who owned property and/or farmed there for generations.

In view of potential development of the area, residents concerned about preserving that semi-rural character of the corridor formed a working group with area business owners and with the help of the city’s Long Range Planning Division to create a plan to preserve and enhance the area and protect the river.

Parameters were set for scale, including building heights, density, setbacks and other considerations through 23 meetings held at about three hours each. The earnest efforts and hard work, collaboration and careful attention to detail resulting from these meetings are readily apparent in the beautiful Corridor Plan document, which is easily Googled by name — the West Santa Fe River Corridor Plan. In November, the Planning Commission gave unanimous approval for the plan to be heard by the City Council.

I hope there will be plenty of support shown by residents by turning up at Wednesday’s council meeting, and that others who see a relevance to this plan in their own appreciation of the unique character of each of the city’s neighborhoods also will participate.

Susan Shellar is a 1981 newcomer from a big Midwestern city who still finds the many kind and gracious people of our cultures here to be a big draw.