Development doesn’t have to lead to sprawl
Iwould like to make a short case for the encouragement of housing and commercial expansion within the boundaries of the existing city. Development and redevelopment inside the existing built landscape is smart and economical. It allows for the utilization of in-place infrastructure such as roads and services such as sewer, water, trash, electricity, policing, schools, gas lines and fire protection. It reduces the distances between work, entertainment, shopping, doctors, hospitals, etc. It can also increase the tax base by adding new, higher-value, possibly tighter occupancy of underutilized land.
The needs of our city include more affordable housing. Such housing can often be met by tighter sizing and multistory buildings. The efficiencies of denser land use are real and measurable. The reality of Santa Fe’s growth and sprawl needs to be acknowledged and met head on. If we are to avoid the mindless, endless, sterile, auto-dependent expansion that has occurred in such places as Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona and in Albuquerque, we much act responsibly now.
Much of the charm of our city is tied to the original, foot-friendly, dense cluster of homes and businesses in the city’s core. It is no accident that tourists and others from afar come here to enjoy an atmosphere not available to them in their hometowns. As part of the visioning proposal above is the urgent need to make certain the city-owned land previously occupied by the Santa Fe University of Art and Design is redeveloped as a multiuse, human and nature-friendly city within a city. My vision does not imply that every real estate developer’s proposal should be accepted. Instead, the need for thought, creativity and planning will be increased, and the opportunity for alternative and flexible proposals and land uses will necessarily become a part of the process.
Jim Rubow Santa Fe
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Melanie Dugan Santa Fe