Land Use Department withers, but vine may soon be ripe
It’s budget crafting time for the city of Santa Fe. Talk about a depressing exercise, especially for the Land Use Department.
The Land Use Department, an essential function of any community experiencing growth, even mild growth like Santa Fe, is always between a rock and a hard place.
On one hand, you’ve got residents who believe staff members never listen to their complaints about proposed new developments. On the other, there are land developers who bemoan Byzantine rules (in their eyes) that unnecessarily delay approvals.
So it has been and so it will always be.
Unfortunately, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, and it’s been bad for too long.
In a community like Santa Fe, which has always been skeptical about the benefits of even moderate growth — an attitude that often finds its way to members of the governing body — the Land Use Department has been the redheaded stepchild for decades.
Whether through malicious intent or simple neglect, the department has been underfunded, understaffed and left to make do with whatever largesse is forthcoming, which has never been enough.
After the collapse of the industry in 2008 and subsequent crash of building permits, it was understandable for the department to contract somewhat. By 2014, there was a recognition that things were picking up, and funding and staff levels should be brought back to pre-2008 levels. It was promised, but it never happened.
Instead, positions were left unfilled. By February 2020, pre-pandemic, there were as many as dozen. Since then, more vacancies have come from attrition and retirement.
The consequence is a department doing triage on the emergencies that come through the door.
The department’s main function is reviewing plans, issuing permits and doing inspections. That’s the triage. What’s suffering is longrange planning; stewardship of key
citizen committees; updating the 1999 General Plan; exploration of new overlay districts; and modernizing Chapter 14, the city’s development code, to green up multifamily and commercial buildings.
All those “extra” functions are on the back burner, and that burner is getting turned off.
In normal budget cycles, department and division heads submit wish lists for staffing and resources and then haggle among themselves to determine who gets what. In the current cycle, the process is turned on its head and directors are asked to submit reduction plans for staff and resources.
It’s understandable. We’re in a crisis with no end in sight, nor any certain relief from the federal government or the state. And yet, life goes on. Indeed, the affordable housing crisis that was on everyone’s front burner in February is still on a full boil and about to get worse with the end of unemployment checks and rent deferments.
The Land Use Department cannot be squeezed anymore. Key positions, like engineering and commercial plans examiner, must be filled. They haven’t been — not for lack of trying but because the city doesn’t pay enough to be competitive with other communities and industries chasing the same dwindling pool of professionals.
Eli Isaacson, who was made land use director in April after serving as the interim director when Carol Johnson departed last summer, is doing his best in a bad situation. But he’s the new guy and must step cautiously.
Santa Fe is poised to see development kick into a higher gear, with Tierra Contenta, Las Soleras, the midtown campus and myriad multifamily projects in the pipeline. Can the department manage to keep up? Maybe, but it will be at the expense of all the other critical functions the city expects from the department.
We get what we pay for, and we aren’t paying enough. Something has to give.
Kim Shanahan is a longtime Santa Fe builder and former executive o∞cer of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association. Contact him at shanafe@aol.com.