Residents hope to keep space a ‘park,’ but Homewise has different proposal

Is it a park? Is it vacant land? Is it a future new neighborhood with 96 homes and a charter school with a 2-acre park in between?

Neighbors of the 22.2-acre property at the southwest corner of South Meadows Road and Rufina Street believe it is a park, undeveloped though it may be — a large expanse of open space in an area of town with no nearby city parks. Even county and city general plan maps have green patches denoting future parks.

“This space is used on a daily basis by people,” nearby resident Ellen Stone said at a recent city Early Neighborhood Notification meeting at which an affordable housing and charter school project were publicly unveiled. “It is valued by people.”

Resident Alba Blondis said the undeveloped landscape benefits those in surrounding homes.

“I can see the green space being utilized by people in the community,” she said at the same neighborhood meeting. “It seems like natural park land that should be kept as such.”

Santa Fe County, however, abandoned its vision to develop a park there 15 years ago. The county bought the property in 2001 with the intention to build a park for $1.05 million through an open space and trails general obligation bond the county paid off in 2018.

“Initial construction cost estimates [to build a park] far exceeded the available budget and the project was placed on hold,” Santa Fe County Manager Katherine Miller wrote in the July 2020 agenda item to authorize the sale of the 22.2 acres at 3600 and 3740 South Meadows Road. “[Because the bond has been paid off], there are no restrictions on the sale of the property nor on the use of the anticipated proceeds.”

The city annexed the neighborhood in 2014. In 2018, the county did offer the property to the city to develop a park, but the city declined, according to county documents.

The county has been under contract since June to sell the property to local affordable housing builder and financer Homewise for $1.79 million. The county will use the sale funds to support other open space projects outside the Santa Fe city limits.

The county did add some stipulations in the purchase agreement, requiring Homewise to build a 2-acre park accessible to the public and provide affordable housing and a school.

“Staff recommended exploring the possibility of disposing of the vacant property in a manner that would be beneficial to the community,” county spokeswoman Carmelina Hart wrote in an email to explain adding stipulations rather than just an outright sale.

The sale is anticipated to close by April 30 — if Homewise wins approval from the city Planning Commission and City Council.

Homewise proposes building 96 homes, including 26 single-family homes, 30 townhomes and 40 condos. About 50 percent of the homes would meet affordable housing requirements with prices starting at about $130,000, said Daniel Slavin, Homewise’s senior director of real estate development

The project has not been submitted to the city but has faced public scrutiny through a

Sept. 22 Early Neighborhood Notification meeting required of certain construction projects. Homewise plans to submit the project in October for eventual city Planning Commission and City Council consideration, said Jennifer Jenkins, principal at the project management firm JenkinsGavin, which is representing Homewise.

In an uncommon pre-notification statement hours before the Sept. 22 meeting, the city stressed “objections to the development, or to the sale of the property in the first place, should be directed to the County, not the City” and “the City did not have a role in the decision to sell the property for housing.”

Homewise will ask the planning commission to rezone the property from R-1, residential with one home per acre, to C-1 commercial mixed-use, which allows homes. The R-1 was default zoning when the city annexed the area in 2014, and before that the county had never zoned the property.

Homewise also will seek a city general plan amendment from park to transitional/mixed use and a special-use permit to allow the Thrive Community School, a K-8 charter school.

“I don’t think they should put another charter school here,” nearby resident Carmella Gurule said at the Early Neighborhood Notification meeting on Zoom. “We have a school to the left and right. We don’t need another charter school.”

Sweeney and Ramirez Thomas elementary schools are nearby, as is El Camino Real Academy.

“Adding more schools and more housing seems impossible,” resident Krista Brening said.

“This area can hardly contain the traffic now,” resident Janette Smith said.

Homewise specializes in affordable housing but follows the theory that mixed-income neighborhoods are best. About half the homes will meet affordable housing guidelines, and the other half will be market rate in the $200,000s and $300,000s, Slavin said.

The single-family homes will be about 1,500 square feet, the condos roughly 750 square feet and the townhomes about 1,500 square feet, he said.

The two-acre park between the homes and school will not be a city park but will be maintained by a homeowners’ association with the stipulation that public access is allowed, Jenkins said.

Even if Homewise does not buy the property, Jenkins said the ultimate owner would develop something on the 22 acres – unless that owner chooses to keep it as open space.