Will development in Santa Fe dry up?
Officials, builders say city has plenty of water to meet its need for new housing
For more than a decade, home construction in Santa Fe has lagged, leading to a constricted and expensive housing market and a chronic affordability crisis. Through much of that time, the culprit was the Great Recession.
But the specter of another issue — water — may someday create a new headache for home construction and development in general, forcing city officials to address another thorny factor in an already complicated calculus.
The challenges ahead for Santa Fe and other communities in the West are significant. But Mayor Alan Webber said he’s confident the city can balance its development and water needs.
“There is absolutely nobody taking
water and our water future for granted,” he said. “If you look at the data going back to 1995, our community has done an amazing job of not only conserving water but diversity in our water portfolio so that we can confidently say we can both have a sustainable water future and build the housing accommodations that our community wants and need so that they can afford to work and live in Santa Fe.”
Though Webber is convinced Santa Fe can contend with an ongoing drought, one that could last many years, other places in the West are rethinking growth.
Water worries have become so dire in some communities — including the Utah towns of Henefer and Oakley, about an hour from Salt Lake City — that officials have explored construction moratoriums on new homes that would connect to existing water systems, until drought conditions improve. According to the New York Times, other Western cities have asked developers to prove they have access to at least 100 years of water before receiving a green light to build.
Those kinds of measures are rare, but they signal a new reality for many Western cities — one that was unthinkable until only recently.
Santa Fe certainly is not immune to the concerns, but Water Division Director Jesse Roach doesn’t foresee something similar happening in Santa Fe — thanks to two factors that set the city apart from others in the region.
Roach, like Webber, said conservation efforts over the past 25 years have allowed certain natural water sources to recharge. He also pointed to the city’s use of four different water supplies — surface water from the the Santa Fe River and the Rio Grande, plus groundwater via city wells and the Buckman well field.
“Those two pieces together put us in a place where at the moment we continue to use less despite the fact we continue to grow,” he said.
Reasons for hope
Roach said Santa Fe started to make a concerted effort to address water conservation efforts in the mid-1990s and early 2000s as a way to get away from an overreliance on groundwater.
Since then, Roach said, the city has reduced its yearly water use from 13,000 acre-feet in 1995 to about 9,000 acre-feet per year from 2014-20 — while experiencing a population jump of about 12,000.
The city also was involved in the Buckman Direct Diversion and water treatment plant’s construction in 2011, allowing water to be diverted from the San Juan/Chama basin to the Rio Grande.
Roach said the diversion allows the city to naturally recharge its groundwater resources to insulate against drought.
According to a recent Water Division report, surface water has made up about 78 percent of water use since Buckman came online.
John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexico Water Resources Program, said Santa Fe’s water system is in “good shape,” calling the city a leader in diversifying its water portfolio.
“It’s a city decision,” Fleck said. “You have to get that right, or your city goes away.”
He pointed to communities like Las Vegas, Nev., which relies on Lake Mead to supply 95 percent of its water.
The federal government recently imposed restrictions on water coming out of the Colorado River — which flows into Lake Mead — as water levels reached historic lows.
Fleck said a community like Santa Fe can safely and respectfully address housing in drought conditions.
“I don’t think people in Santa Fe need to worry about [construction moratoriums],” Fleck said. “There is a way to do new developments with dramatically low water use.”
Webber said that’s why the city’s decision to pursue a $200,000 growth management study in the 2022 fiscal year budget was so important. The study, he said, potentially will lead to new zoning codes and land use strategies.
“I think we are doing our due diligence as a city government to analyze both our housing needs and our sustainability needs,” Webber said.
The housing factor
As Santa Fe looks ahead to its water future, its current housing needs — by almost any estimation — are significant.
A September 2020 report for the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness indicated 2,000 housing units are needed for people on various affordable housing waitlists in Santa Fe.
According to a report from the city’s Land Use Department, there are around 1,620 units that have been approved, with another 1,000 units pending, including Santa Fe’s first fully affordable development in more than a decade, Siler Yard. That project is scheduled to open in September.
The city also has pumped $6 million into its Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which can be used for rental support and is designed to act as an incentive for developers. Developers can pay a “fee in lieu” to the city, instead of making 15 percent of units affordable.
Against the backdrop of that kind of construction, Roach said he’s often asked how many new units Santa Fe’s water system can take on. He acknowledges he doesn’t have a definitive answer, in part because a collection of variables comes into play, including building designs and other factors.
Roach said the makeup of new developments will play a role. Generally, multifamily developments — such as apartment complexes — use less water than single-family homes due to features like lawns and landscaping.
“When we think about reducing our environmental footprint in our homes, the single-family home is a big water footprint,” Fleck said. “Apartments, not so much.”
Either way, Roach said the city is preparing for available water to drop by at least a third in the next 50 years due to climate change.
The San Juan-Chama Return Flow project, a 17-mile pipeline that will return treated e±uent to the Rio Grande in exchange for “return flow credits” that can then be used to pump more water out of the Rio Grande, is an important step in fortifying the city’s water sources if it wants to continue to develop new housing.
“That is our key piece for the next 20, 30, 40 years — figuring out how to use some of that e±uent,” Roach said. “That idea is not new. It’s one that as we expanded our portfolio and moved away from leaning on groundwater was the next step we considered.”
The project has received praise from hydrologists and city officials — and scorn from some environmentalists.
Another option is to continue to primarily rely on the city’s use of a “water bank” to offset new demands on the city’s water system caused by development.
Large developers must purchase water conserved by customers or buy up pre-1907 water rights from farmers along the middle Rio Grande and transfer them into a city water bank to receive a building permit. After the water rights are transferred, Santa Fe can pump more water out of its well fields.
Some have argued the system could place a strain on the city’s well fields.
The city’s push for a green building code for large multifamily developments, which include apartment complexes, also is seen as a needle-mover.
The city’s green building codes only apply to new single-family homes. The code sets stringent standards for new construction, including 30 percent reductions in energy and water use.
Webber said the city’s staff is working on a proposal. A change is expected to occur in 2022.
Miles Conway, executive director of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association, said builders should start to embrace efforts like green building codes and new conservation technologies as they become more affordable.
“The city isn’t even contemplating those moratoriums. I am, — we are; the builders are,” Conway said. “I know the city feels very good about its water budget for the next 50 years, but the thing that is happening right now with new technology is really exciting.”
Conway said support for more conservation efforts ensures association members will be able to continue to build in the future.
“What we are doing right now is good,” he said. “But we need to be great.”