Plan for Santa Fe truck stop clears latest hurdle

Hearing officer says conceptual project meets county criteria, should be approved

A hearing officer has greenlighted the three-phase conceptual plan for a 26-acre parcel south of the city limits that would include a truck stop.

In her recommendation, filed Wednesday, hearing officer Nancy Long wrote that the conceptual plan application conforms to Santa Fe County code criteria and should be approved.

County land use staff came to a similar conclusion and recommended approval last month.

The plan will continue its march through the land-use application process; the next stop is a hearing at the fivemember county Planning Commission scheduled for March 15.

The recommendation is the latest twist in developers’ hotly contested attempt to situate a Pilot Flying J truck stop and travel center on 10 acres off Interstate 25 and N.M. 14.

Nearby residents have vehemently opposed the prospective truck terminal at every stage, decrying its proximity to their homes and what they warn will be disastrous environmental, aesthetic and traffic-safety impacts.

Hundreds of opponents filled the Santa Fe County Commission chambers for Long’s hearing last month, a remarkable show of resistance against the project.

But Long wrote that their testimony “either did not address the conceptual plan criteria or when it did … it was not persuasive in the face of staff ’s review and approval as to compliance and the applicant’s expert submissions and testimony.”

“Most of all the public testimony addressed topics more appropriately relevant to a [conditional-use] application,”

Long wrote.

A conditional-use application, required by county code for some projects, would follow if the conceptual plan is approved. The developers would need to submit one, as a truck stop is not a permitted use as laid out in the county code. That also would go before a hearing officer and the Planning Commission.

Long did determine, echoing county staff, that the “proposed truck stop is a use for which a conditional-use permit may be applied for,” citing a national planning classification standards and the county land-use administrator’s determination. A truck stop does not explicitly appear in the county code’s “use matrix,” and some truck stop opponents argue that means it is implicitly disallowed.

Lisa Burns, who heads the Santa Fe Gateway Alliance, a group of neighbors and community members who have organized against the proposed truck terminal, said the dismissal of community opposition on the basis of a technicality reflected her view the different application processes are a “shell game for developers.”

Tennessee-based Pilot Flying J Co. calls itself the nation’s largest truck stop operator. The proposed Santa Fe travel center would include 75 parking spaces for trucks, 66 spaces for automobiles, showers and a convenience store with three fast-food restaurants, one with a drive-thru, according to the conceptual plan.

Patty Burks, another Gateway Alliance member, said the resistance to the proposal would grind on: “[Pilot Flying J] seems to have won this round, but the fight ain’t over yet.”