At tonight’s (May 8th) Bernalillo Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting, the reconsideration of the approval of the “Santa Rosa” Master Plan, revised to include over 400 apartments, was on the agenda.
Before the item could be taken up, Town Attorney George Perez explained what the P&Z Commission was allowed to do. First, Mr. Perez said that he had consulted as to whether the P&Z Commission could make the final decision to approve or reject the revision of the Master Plan to include the apartments, or if instead the final determination has to be made by the Town Council. He found that it is in fact the Town Council that must ultimately approve or reject the revision, and that the P&Z Commission could only make a recommendation to the Town Council. (This is similar to how rezoning is done in the County, with the P&Z Commission only making recommendations to the County Commission, which has the final say.)
However, in order to legitimately make a recommendation, the P&Z Commission must have a quorum. Now, that Commission has 7 members, and for a quorum it needs 4 members. However, 3 of the present members are new, and weren’t involved in the original approval of the revised Master Plan, so in the April meeting they recused themselves from this agenda item. And at tonight’s meeting Commissioner Joseph Rinaldi was absent. Consequently there were only 3 Commissioners present who could vote, and that does not constitute a quorum. So Mr. Perez said that he had consulted with the applicants (Tierra West) and their attorney (who I believe is Tim Flynn-O’Brien), and they all felt that what the P&Z Commission should do is send this item up to the Town Council without a recommendation.
The P&Z Commission took this suggestion, and voted to send the item to the Town Council without recommendation. (I’m wondering why they were allowed to vote on this without a quorum, when they couldn’t vote to issue a specific recommendation without a quorum. Seems a bit “irregular” to me, but then I’m not an attorney.)
So we should expect the item to go before the Town Council at some point. Their meetings are typically on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month, and it would be fairly abrupt to put this on the agenda for the May 14 meeting, though that isn’t impossible. The next Council meeting would probably be May 28. Anyway, we’ll be monitoring this. Stay posted.
Thank you for the update. I agree: if there was no quorum, how could the commission vote to send to town council of they were not constitutionally able to vote on the matter in the first place?
Please let us all know about town council meetings so that we’re represented there and so that decisions are not made without us.
Why not call and ask?
It’s probably too early for the Bernalillo Town Council to have decided on when to put this on their agenda.
I can’t imagine why anyone would want to build apartment units, including senior units, in what is essentially a heavy industrial zone (although not deemed as such by the powers that be). The heavy truck traffic on the frontage road means that the odds are there for serious
auto-truck accidents.
While I do not know specifics on these apartments, I do know that many people find it impossible to stay in Placitas once they need to move to a smaller place where there is more care. It would be nice if there were an alternative to moving to Albuquerque. After nearly 40 years in Placitas, my perspective has changed as I’ve watched so many friends leave after 5 to 10 years here. And yes, it would be nice if it were not right by the freeway, on a busy frontage road.
This is a good point. I also support having places to move in or near the Placitas area for people to retire when they need to move to smaller residences, yet who wish to stay around Placitas. But there is no reason to believe that this particular apartment complex would be appropriate for the needs of such people, who as you suggest might need more care than would be provided in typical apartment complexes. When we did the Placitas Area Plan a few years ago, this area by the frontage road was designated appropriate for more dense housing, involving such structures as patio homes, in order to be suitable to the people you mention. But perhaps apartment housing is not the right solution for these people.
The idea that senior housing fits next to LaFarge has been promoted only by developers on paper, and let us pray the people who are in charge of such an approval will be really bright and put themselves in the place of people who live nearby and may one day live in those places! Anyone who has taken care of an aging parent here in Placitas can tell those developers this: in your dreams will there be people willing to come to Placitas (ah, $$$ Placitas!) to help out any seniors unless they are paid big premium wages none of us can afford at all. Think the developers are heading toward Section 8 housing? Just a thought about multi-family dwellings we have fought since Anasazi Trails went in and barely stopped them, but in exchange we have huge houses all custered together – the developer’s revenge! So, keyword:
Vigilant! And maybe, never think not being so will stop ’em.