From the Don Canuto Neighborhood Association, February 2001:

As most of you know, we were successful in our appeal to the City Council last August. The City Council denied the Lofts’ petition to build its project at 1010 Marquez Place. Unfortunately, the Lofts and the Sellers have appealed this decision by filing a lawsuit against the City of Santa Fe in the First Judicial District Court. Judge James A. Hall will decide whether or not the City Council decision will stand.

We hope that the City Council’s decision will not be overturned, and that we may enter into negotiations with the Sellers to purchase the property for the neighborhood and for our entire community. Our goal is to develop the field into a memorial park, a place for many to commemorate their loved ones. We plan to divide the park into many mini-memorial gardens to be sponsored by individuals and businesses.

We have contacted the Sellers. In the event the lawsuit is not successful, they have indicated a willingness to negotiate with our association. We have submitted a backup purchase offer. If the Sellers approve it, we will need to raise approximately $1,000,000.00. We hope to raise the funds through a combination of private donations, memorial garden sponsorship, and from funding available for open space through the City, County and State.

We have already received many donations of money and garage sale items. We would like to thank all who donated. Our October 2000 yard sale was very successful, and we plan another yard sale this April. A date will be announced soon. Please keep us in mind during your spring cleaning!

However, we still have continuing debt incurred by attorney’s fees in particular, as well as copying charges, postage, etc. We would appreciate any financial donations. They can be mailed to our main office at 520 Don Canuto Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501. Please make your check payable to the Don Canuto Neighborhood Association. All donations are tax-deductible under a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation status.

To further beautify the neighborhood, Andres Romero of Don Cubero Avenue has expressed interest in organizing a Christmas Eve farolito walk on his street. Is anyone interested in expanding the walk to include Don Diego Avenue? We think it would be beautiful, and this could work with enough interest from each street. We have plenty of time to plan this event, so if you would like to help, please contact Andres Romero (982-3094) or Maria Baca (988-3827).

If anyone is interested in getting more involved with our association, or receiving more information about our quest to develop the field at 1010 Marquez Place into a memorial park, please contact Maria Baca at (505) 988-3827 or doncanuto@yahoo.com. We especially need volunteers to assist with a variety of fundraising tasks. Thank you again for your continued support.

Sincerely, Maria G. Baca President The Don Canuto Neighborhood Association

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The following is the history of the case regarding The Lofts proposal to build at 1010 Marquez Place, which was initially approved by Planning, but this decision was overturned by City Council.

• Here is the letter we received in March 2000. This proposal has of course stirred up some reaction in the neighborhood.

  Currently the lot is open space. There is not much of this in the neighborhood. Last year (1999), when the General Plan was coming up for approval, and detailed land-use maps were circulated to the neighborhoods for comment and correction, we wrote a letter requesting that several parcels be designated 'open space'. These were the space between the north end of Don Cubero and Gomez Place, the empty lot next to Alfalfa's, the lot in question here, and the dirt triangle on the top of Don Diego ( Entrada Park). However, since all but the last was not owned by the city, they could not be designated 'open space'.

• The Don Canuto Neighborhood Association vehemently opposed the project, in favor of keeping it open space. The Association appealed the Santa Fe Planning Commission's decision to allow the project. The Association won the Appeal by a vote of 6-2 by the City Council in the early morning hours of August 24, 2000, after 3 hours of debate that began the night of August 23. The Association is vigorously pursuing raising $1 million to purchase this property and create a public park for the community. Click here for the Don Canuto Neighborhood Association's editorial statement and a history of this case. Included is some of the history of the Guadalupe Cemetery.
  click here for their editorial statement. Included is some of the history of the Guadelupe Cemetery.

• Historical context: some of the adjacent properties have been occupied by the same families for almost a century, and in general, the boundary of the 'historical district', now to the east of the propery, but not far away, are ripe for review, and likely to move closer to the Lofts property. The land itself was part of the Guadelupe Cemetery. More history on this page

• If the lot cannot be preserved as open space, the general sentiment that the proposed development is not a bad one: small scale, live/work, all this fits reasonably with the character of the area. This is especially so in light of the fact that the lot was considered for much more unpleasant development by other parties. One concern here is how to ensure that not all the space will convert to commercial, thereby eliminating the residential part.

• The developer modified the original design in response to comments and concerns from the neighborhood, in particular with respect to the building heights and setbacks. Here is the current design.

• The Santa Fe Planning Commission approved the Lofts Development at 1010 Marquez Place on June 1, 2000. The vote was 5 to 1 (six of the seven commissioners were sitting). There were conditions attached to the approval. The decision was appealed to the Santa Fe City Council on June 30 by the Don Canuto Neighborhood Association, and was heard on August 23. City Council overturned Planning's decision 6-2.

• What's next? The ball is now in the court of those who want to keep this open space. The land must be purchased for that purpose, for an estimated $1M. If that fails, we may be back to square one.

• The local press has taken note of the project. The New Mexican article from September 2000 is an excellent background piece. Here are some of the articles:
  1. New Mexican, March 1 2000.
  2. New Mexican, March 7 2000.
  3. Reporter, March 22 2000.
  4. New Mexican, April 12, 2000.
  5. SF Business, May 6 2000.
  6. New Mexican, 18?? September 2000.
  7. Reporter, September 20 2000.

In the meantime, inquiries, letters of support or opposition etcetera should be addressed to the Don Canuto Neighborhood Association, at doncanuto@yahoo.com.

Comments about the 'Lofts' web pages should be sent to hubert@hubwest.com (for technical matters), or to doncanuto@yahoo.com (about content).