On Zia Station, a broader issue to consider first

Two hearings this week have the potential to affect Santa Fe for generations to come. At issue is a proposal to build a mixed-use development on 21 acres around Zia Station by St. Francis Drive. It’s an ambitious project, with some 384 dwelling units, as well as 84,000 square feet of office space and 36,000 square feet of retail. It is filling in empty space, and infill is important in avoiding sprawl. Some 10 percent of the units would be set aside for a decade as affordable housing, with the developer, SF Brown, paying roughly $150,000 to the city’s affordable housing fund to meet the city’s affordable housing ordinance requirements.

Before making any decision on the development, though, the City Council first must approve a number of other changes.

These include rezoning two parcels of the land to high-density residential, zoning the northern parcel of the property to planned unit development and most consequential of all, removing the property from the South Central Highway Corridor District. Should these changes be approved, the council then would consider the developer’s preliminary plan — the building footprints, parking, open space, allowed uses and housing density.

The first hearing — at which members of the public will be allowed to comment — begins 6 p.m. Tuesday. Written comments will be accepted until 1 p.m. the day of the hearing. The second hearing will be a series of presentations starting 6 p.m. Thursday before the council votes. (Information about how to provide public or written comment can be found at santafe.primegov.com/public/portal.)

Santa Fe being Santa Fe, the neighbors are in an uproar.

Here are some of the claims: The development is too dense. It will make traffic at an already-dangerous intersection much worse. The request for three-story buildings is out of whack for the area and undermines highway corridor designation, protection first approved in 1986. Development opponents point out that corridor protection was included in the city’s general plan in 2017, showing a continued — and recent — commitment to the concept.

Why was it put in place? The ordinance states the need to “protect the openness and continuity of the existing landscape.”

What the City Council needs to decide is whether that value remains important in Santa Fe. Forget this development proposal. Forget the complaints of neighbors worried about impacts of growth on their properties. Before considering those concerns, decide if highway corridor protection remains something Santa Fe desires in this location.

Planning Commissioners Janet Clow and Dominic Sategna — both of whom voted against removing the parcel from corridor protection — are right about problems with the current approach. It’s piecemeal.

The city needs to decide whether highway corridor protections still matter. Don’t start pulling this parcel or that one out before deciding the broader approach. Affordable housing advocate Daniel Werwath, in comments on The New Mexican website, points out, “there are the mountains of city policy and planning work since 1986 that say we have higher priorities (like affordability) than roadway views.”

If so, the council needs to remove corridor protection rather than pulling out parcels based on individual proposals.

Plan, rather than react.