County, tribes make progress toward roadway settlements

All routes in question to remain accessible, public with rights of way in place until 2216

Santa Fe County this week revealed the scope of proposed settlements to resolve longstanding roadway disputes with four pueblos after months of closed-door negotiations.

The individual agreements between the county and pueblos — Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso and Tesuque — would establish rights of way for county roads within the tribal boundaries for two consecutive 99-year terms, or until 2216.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2013 said county roads trespass on tribal property; in the interim, non-Pueblo residents of the Pojoaque Basin have said the disputed easements clouded the titles to their homes and drove down property values.

Under the principles contained in the proposed settlements, the county would be granted rights of way for county-maintained roads within the boundaries of Pojoaque and Tesuque. The rights of way for county roadways within the boundaries of Nambe and San Ildefonso, meanwhile, would be granted to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would make the roads part of the federal Tribal Transportation Program.

All the roads in question would remain public and accessible. The difference between the rights of way belonging to either the county or the BIA is a “mostly technical” question of who obtains the easement, said County Manager Katherine Miller.

Financial considerations are still being discussed privately between the county and pueblos and will be disclosed after the final individual settlements have been reached.

The county would be responsible for the maintenance of the roughly 38 miles of roads within tribal boundaries. The pueblos would reserve the right to temporarily close the roads “for cultural purposes.” The county-maintained roads within San Ildefonso eventually would be renamed by the tribe.

The controversial “gaps” of pueblo land that separate a private property owner from the public road will be addressed through a process to be devised by each individual pueblo, said Deputy County Manager Tony Flores.

John Fox, president of Southwestern Title & Escrow, said he believes the tentative agreements would bring relief to residents who have said they’ve been unable to obtain home loans because of the questions over legal access to their properties.

The county will host small, town hall-style meetings in the Pojoaque area over the next month before the settlements are scheduled to be formally approved by county commissioners in January.

“We’re not there,” Flores said. “We’re close.”

Said Gov. James Mountain of San Ildefonso Pueblo, “It dates back centuries — trespass matters, land and water matters — and our inability to have discussions that can result in a path forward for the Pojoaque Valley and all parties involved. But we are at that point now. It’s a major accomplishment. It’s very refreshing. It’s very exciting.”

“It’s not about winning and losing,” Mountain added. “It’s about the give and take.”

Messages left for Nambe Gov. Phillip Perez, Pojoaque Gov. Joe Talachy and Tesuque Gov. Mark Mitchell were not immediately returned.

The roadway disputes were a matter of some urgency for parties with a stake in the regional water system planned as part of the decades-in-the-making Aamodt water rights settlement. County commissioners had voted not to appropriate the county’s estimated $29 million to $36 million share of the estimated $253 million system until the roadway issues were resolved.

The Bureau of Reclamation plans to begin construction on the system next summer. The federal government is on the hook for most of the projected costs of the system.

County, pueblo and federal officials began to meet semiregularly behind closed doors at the Roundhouse in July with the stated purpose of hashing out the rights of way.

The county claimed that an exception under the state’s open meetings act — one about pending or threatened litigation — allowed the exclusion of the public.

At least nine of these private negotiating sessions were held, the most recent in late November. Open government advocates as well as a top state legislator said they ought to have been open, and a state representative was at one point removed from one of the meetings for lack of an invitation.

At an August town hall in Pojoaque, Alan Mikkelsen, the Bureau of Reclamation’s deputy commissioner, told hundreds of angry attendees the private meetings were intended to reach an agreement without going to court.

“Obviously negotiations on rights of way and land and settlement agreements is not something that can be done in a public setting if you hope to come to some resolve,” County Manager Miller said Tuesday.

Miller said litigation would have been “lengthy, costly and divisive and would not have brought us to this point today.”