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SANTA FE REPORTER March 22, 2000
Field of Dreams Santa Fe developer Don Wiviott believes his good idea has gotten a bad rap. In 1997, Wiviott transformed a gravel pit off Cerrillos Road into The Lofts: a four-building, mixed-use compound that houses artists, website designers and other work-at-home types in an affordable, aesthetic setting. He's now proposing a similar development of 40 mixed-use units in four buildings - some up to two-and-half stories high - in a 2.6-acre field between Don Canuto and Marquez streets - a field that has long buffered the residential neighbors of Don Diego from the commercial area along Cordova Road. Nine people, including state Rep. Max Coll, D-Santa Fe, urged city councilors to oppose the development during the council's March 15 petitions-from-the-floor segment.	Objections ranged from the area's historical and archaeological integrity to the usual worries of increased traffic and parking. But Wiviott says the development would be perfect for the field on Marquez - which, he points out, is zoned for the same kind of slapdash commercial development (tire stores, glass companies) that exists just south of it. Instead of the 60 percent coverage allowed by zoning, he would only take up 26 percent. To give his neighbors a better line of sight, he plans to sink the buildings three feet and give them staggered heights that are lowest on the neighbors' side. He also wants the units to be affordable - about $150,000 each. And he says he's spending $20,000 conducting archaeological and other studies. "Basically, people like what we're doing; they just don't want it in their backyard," he said. "I don't blame them. There's been a field in their backyard for 30 years." (Maya Sinha)

 

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THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN April 12, 2000
Old Cemetery could block new development
Residents group says proposed Lofts site could be on unconsecrated portion of Guadalupe Cemetery By JONATHAN McDONALD The New Mexican The bodies of convicts, unbaptized babies, suicide victims and even divorced people were buried beyond the consecrated ground of the Guadalupe Cemetery because they weren't considered fit to rest alongside the other members of Santa Fe's turn-of-the-century community. But those souls might be the ones who help the current residents of the Don Canuto area stop a proposed development slated for their neighborhood. Residents of the newly formed Don Canuto Neighborhood Association oppose a plan to develop 2.6 acres of open space near their homes because they believe the land was used to inter people ineligible for burial in the Roman Catholic cemetery. "We're very concerned it was part of the cemetery," said Maria Baca, a Don Canuto area resident who opposes the proposed development. "With all the history here and the possibility of human remains, this area isn't suited for development." At the request of residents, the project developer, Don Wiviott, has agreed to perform an archaeological survey of the land even though the city doesn't require it. Wiviott, who developed The Lofts project on Cerrillos Road, wants to put in a smaller version of The Lofts on the 2.6-acre tract so long as the property wasn't a burial ground. "If it's a cemetery," he said, "I don't want to build on it." Wiviott has already scaled down his plans for the development and added parking spaces to make the proposal more palatable to the neighborhood. But Baca and other residents say it's not The Lofts they oppose in fact, Baca- said she thinks it's a good project but development of the land at all. An' 1882 map of Santa Fe shows most of the present-day Don Diego neighborhood was all part of land deeded to Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy by the estate of Juan Jose Lujan in 1873 and by Jesus Romero and his wife Martina Lujan de Romero in 1882. Part of the land, according to records Baca uncovered at the state archives, was consecrated in 1886 and remains today as the 1.9 acre Guadalupe Cemetery. Our lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church has records of 1,213 people being buried in the cemetery between 1886 and 1947, although 10 years of records are missing, so the number is likely higher, Baca said. But outside the consecrated ground, New Mexico's old territorial penitentiary used to bury convicts who died in prison. Baca said the state no longer has records of who they were or how many convicts were buried outside the Guadalupe Cemetery's boundaries. Because there are no records, Baca said it's hard to guess where the convicts might have been buried, but another resident of the Don Canuto area, Mariano Romero, said he remembers seeing the prisoners' graves near the propos'ed development site when he was growing up in the 1940s.	The land also was used to bury babies who died before baptism, people who killed themselves and divorced people. And there are bodies buried in the area. In 1983, a tire store on Cordova Place was installing a hydraulic car lift when a backhoe operator dug up wood, bone fragments and solid silver handles that used to be attached to a coffin. The tire store is several hundred feet from the consecrated Guadalupe Cemetery. Baca said other businesses in her area also have discovered corpses over the years. "This just isn't the place" for development, Baca said. "As a neighborhood, we have come up with a solution. We'd like it to remain open space." Baca said the neighborhood wants to raise money to buy the 2.6-acre property and create a community park memorializing all the people who were buried outside the Guadalupe Cemetery and forgotten by time. The land is owned by the Amalia Sena Sanchez trust, which was created 50 19 heirs of the 107-year-old local figure would share in the proceeds of the sale. A letter sent by the trust's manager, Jose Sanchez, to Baca says they would consider the neighborhood association's offer to purchase the property if Wiviott, who holds an option to purchase, chooses not to. The letter says earlier offers to purchase the property were turned down because of the "purely commercial" natures of the projects that would have gone in. Wiviott's projects, The I Lofts, combine both residential and business spaces that cater to high-tech industries such as Web site design. "You've got retirees living next to Internet geeks," Wiviott said of the Cerrillos Road development, which is on an 8-acre former gravel pit that he said "no one else wanted." Wiviott used to do environmental research and demonstrate against nuclear power plants and insists he is not insensitive to the neighborhood. "That's not what we're about," he said. "We could make more money building million-dollar homes in las Campanas, but that's just not our gig." He said the plans for Marquez Place site have been modified. The buildings near existing homes have been moved farther away and. dropped to one story. The two-story buildings that remain are no taller than the existing two-story homes on Don Diego Avenue. He also said he plans to "drop the site itself" by about three feet in some places to further lower the height of the buildings for the neighbors. Still, Baca and other residents plan to oppose any development there, citing historical concerns. "I. feel bad about it; Don (Wiviott) has such a good project," Baca said. "It's just what Santa Fe needs. I mean, if we had to pick (a developer), he'd be the one." Baca is asking anyone in Santa Fe with more information about the bodies at the cemetery or with relatives who might be buried there or anyone interested in the graveyard to write to the Don Canuto Neighborhood Association at 520 Don Canuto, 87501.

  SF Business, May 6 2000.

 

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THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN September 18??, 2000

Infill: Neighbors, planners must work together

Neighborhood, community needs must be considered by planners to manage both infill and sprawl. The range of comment about recent mfill decisions from City Hall stimulates the need to understand where these problems come from and explore possible solutions. SARA MELTON Commentary When conscientious developers suffer the fate that the less well-intentioned should suffer, it all gets blamed on those NIMBY neighbors who won't tolerate any change. The battle lines are drawn. City staff is obliged to stand by infill policy as formulated in the approved general plan. Definition of appropriate infill seems elusive. Across the country, sprawl is laying waste to vast areas in leap-frog development. Encouragement of compact urban form makes much more efficient use of infrastructure and avoids stretching community resources beyond its means. This is reasonable theory but it assumes infill prevents sprawl. Can you have both infill and sprawl? Many towns have decayed and at least partially abandoned inner cores where redevelopment and infill can be welcomed. In Santa Fe, our existing older core neighborhoods have developed particular characteristics and meaning to their inhabitants who don't want them to be summarily supplanted. Notice has been made of the population density of Santa Fe in 1940 as being so much more than it is now, and how we have been spreading out in much less dense patterns and gobbling up more land. Of course, that is true. But the trend did not really hit Santa Fe until after World War II. By the 1950s, Santa Fe was into a big building boom to satisfy the pent-up needs of the previous decade. It began to become an automobile city, not a pedestrian one. The suburban movement gained impetus. Santa Fe adopted building codes based on those in the rest of the country which were not sensitive to the basic differences between Santa Fe's historic development characteristics and those elsewhere. In 1963, Santa Fe adopted a zoning code that was inconsistent with existing density patterns and did not allow for the fine grain of mixes then in existence. Single family housing densities could be no more than five dwelling units per acre, so newly-developing areas could not develop at the seven or eight units per acre of existing traditional neighborhoods. And single family housing now could only be found in detached units. Commercial usage could no longer be mixed with residential; the small neighborhood grocer was grandfathered in, but could never be reproduced - and so is now almost gone. There were no residential densities allowed between five dwelling units per acre and the multifamily RM-l category which allows 21 dwelling units per acre. From a design perspective, that mandated attached units in big buildings, a concept out of scale with Santa Fe's perception of itself. These basic foreign zoning concepts laid down in 1963 are still alive and well in Santa Fe's current Chapter 14 Land Use Code and zoning map; they have been changed over the last 40 years by developers who brought in formal proposals - and once by a neighborhood who successfully downzoned under threat of inappropriate change. The future land use map is a combination of existing and recommended zoning. But zoning is a broad-brush tool, not a site-sensitive one. In order to benefit the broader community goals, we need to carefully knit together the values of individual neighborhoods with the needs of the entire community. For instance, if mixed use, infill and open space are community goals, they have to be integrated into different neighborhoods in different ways. Some older areas have no vacant space for either open space or an infill project. But some of the infill goals might be reached by encouraging granny flats without adverse impact on the character of the area. For years, neighborhood plans have been laboriously put together by optimistic neighbors. Many have been approved by the city council, but none have been implemented. If a developer submits a development plan which gains approval, he is required to build according to the site plan and zoning use. By contrast, if a neighborhood plan is approved it has no such weight. Any proposed zoning changes are not implemented. So the neighborhoods have had very few options except to respond on a case-by-case basis. Another major factor which exacerbates this situation is that many times a property has been given an arbitrary and inappropriate zoning category that automatically overvalues the use of the land, and the neighborhood must respond to this artificially-created land value. If, for instance, the Lofts land had not been not zoned commercial (since 1963), but some denser residential category, the developer would not be put in a position of having to overdevelop in order to cover acquisition price. Planning staff, I believe, would like to see progress in neighborhood planning. Residents would like to enjoy some security about the future of their neighborhoods. Developers would appreciate some degree of certainty. And I'm sure the planning commission and city council would rather not have midnight sessions. It's time we all put our energy into taking responsibility for our own future land use map rather than dissipating our energies in case-by-case battles. A good start in this direction, I believe, is under way with the deliberations of the Old Pecos Trail Corridor standards. If this corridor plan - which reflects the important value the entire community puts oh this historic route - is in sync with the ACSyL neighborhood plan and the general plan is amended accordingly, we will have started of the path to workable process. Simultaneously, the Southwest Area Planning Project is beginning to address neighborhood concerns and city/county planning relationships in this fast-changing area. It's not all easy. Neighbors need to be educated as to options and alternatives. Planners need to be sensitive to the necessity of a bottoms-up process rather than a top-down one, where specific sites are identified for both infill and open space and where neighborhoods' traffic and circulation and other concerns are addressed. If each understands and respects the opposing values, the way to common ground can be found to work together. Santa Fe Realtor Sara Melton is a close and constant observer of City Hall machinations.

  SF Business, May 6 2000.
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SANTA FE REPORTER September 20-26, 2000 EDITORIAL

NOT IN HIS BACKYARD

Protecting views is not in the public interest. Don Wiviott's proposed development for Marquez Place is a test. The City's general plan calls for inflil development. The Lofts, an attractive construction plan that combines work and living space, fits the bill. The developer is a highly respected businessman whose first project on Cerrillos Road created a working environment conducive to Internet businesses-the type of low-impact, high-paying economic development the city supposedly wants. But instead of approving the plan, the council bowed to public pressure, and a state legislator plans to abuse his power to get taxpayer money to help preserve his neighborhood. The 38-unit compound was slated for a 2.6 acre field behind Don Canuto Street. Members of both the Don Canuto and Don Diego neighborhood associations hope to raise the approximately $1 million asking price for the property and preserve it as a park. State Rep. Max Coll, D-Santa Fe, is one of many neighborhood residents who oppose Wiviott's development. Like others, Coll cites the prospect of increased traffic on nearby Don Diego Street, where he lives, and the fact that the view from his home would be blocked if the field was developed. Like anyone else, Coll has the right to express his opinion on a project that will affect him. But as chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, the powerfull 28-year lawmaker's plan to sponsor legislation to help purchase the land and preserve it as a park is clearly a conflict of interest. In fact, it's downright unethical. Coll says he does not know how much of the $1 million he will seek. But during the last session, he sponsored a successfull bill that contributed $175,000 to purchase land along Old Pecos Trail slated for a convenience store - Pops. Coll expects county and private donations to round out the state's contribution for Marquez Place, as they did on Old Pecos Trail. Yet while one could argue that buying the Pops' site benefited all city residents, it's undeniable that buying a nondescript piece of land in his own neighborhood will benefit only a handfull of nearby residents - Coll included. And it's not like Coll doesn't know it. At the Sept. 13 city council meeting, several Lofts supporters criticized Coll for "protecting his views" at the expense of the city's expressed planning and housing goals. Coll's public testimony that his cat had recently been run over on Don Diego Street and therefore a project that would increase neighborhood traffic shouldn't be built, didn't help. Nor are his arguments that The Lofts would create dangerous levels of traffic, as well as change the historic character of the neighborhood, valid. Both city planning staff and the planning commission approved the project on the condition that Wiviott would pay for traffic mitigation measures. The compound's waiking distance from stores, restaurants and downtown would mean much less traffic than similar-sized projects. As far as changing the neighborhood's character, the lot is surrounded on two sides by slapdash commercial development. The state's governmental conduct act requires that public officials use the powers and resources of public office to advance only the public interest, not to obtain personal benefit. Coll may not think he has a conflict of interest, but anyone with common sense can see that buying this land personally benefits him. Further, it is impossible to make the argument that rejecting The Lofts is for the public benefit. The greatest benefit to the public would be courage and long-sightedness on the part of its elected officials. Infill development was never meant to be popular. Neither, for - that matter, is regional development. Until lawmakers commit to doing the right thing, as opposed to the popular thing, they might as well use the general plan for scratch paper. The council should reconsider The Lofts. And Coll should seriously reconsider using his power to benefit the few, rather than the many. Otherwise, this test of lawmakers' commitment to sustainable development is an unmitigated failure.