‘Limited visibility’ and shades of green part of council debate
City attorney says it’s common sense
What do the words “limited visibility” mean? Can brown be confused with green?
That kind of detail became part of the Santa Fe City Council’s long discussion in February before it voted against granting an exception to historic district rules to allow green stucco on a house on Santa Fe’s east side.
Here are a few excerpts from the discussion:
In a memo to the council and the mayor, Assistant City Attorney Theresa Gheen wrote that there was “limited visibility” of the home from public places, which led to an exchange with City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez over what she meant by “limited visibility.”
“If something is visible, whether or not it is fully visible,” she answered. “If something has limited visibility, it is visible.”
Dominguez responded: “And limited visibility could be, if I stand on my tiptoes, I can see. If I don’t stand on my tiptoes, I can’t see.” He added: “There’s a lot of factors that contribute to visibility and if we’re going to place a lot of emphasis on visibility ... then we need to make sure we have that clarified and clear.”
Visibility has been an issue in the case because, if the house wasn’t visible to the public, the owners could apply for a waiver from the historic district standard of “brown, tan or local earth tone” colors.
Arguing on behalf of the homeowners, attorney Karl Sommer made the point that one house within a city historic district on Garcia Street had been granted an exception for green stucco in 2011. “But that green was much lighter and grayer than this green (that was at issue before the council),” said city historic preservation official David Rasch said. The color under dispute has been described as forest green.
Rasch made a point to wear a light green coat jacket and dark green tie to the council meeting to illustrate the difference in shades of green. He said his tie was the color of the home in dispute.
The green that was approved for a non-brown exception “is like my jacket,” he said.
Councilor Dominguez asked, “Is there a color chart that is referred to or some definition that someone holds up and says, ‘This color is more gray than green, this color is more green than gray’? I mean, how do we determine?”
Attorney Gheen said it was a matter of common sense. “I have common sense and his jacket looks brown to me,” Dominguez joked. “To me, it seems like there is some subjectivity in some of the way this is being interpreted.”
“It’s intriguing to me how emotional these kinds of cases can get at times,” Dominguez said at another point. “It’s also intriguing how much time, energy and public resources we spend when we’ve got budget issues to deal with, but it’s important.”
That Feb. 24 City Council meeting was the last one for ex-councilor Patti Bushee, who decided not to run again in the March elections after 20 years on the council. “And honestly, did I want my last hearing to be two hours long about the color of stucco? Not necessarily,” she said.
But Bushee said the city has ordinances for a reason, and that the case was also about “supporting Santa Fe’s future and its past.”
“The thing about color may seem insignificant, but I will say that I really think it actually matters in this case,” she said.