A report on the June 25 Bernalillo Town Council Meeting on the Santa Rosa apartments proposal. After much discussion the Council voted to table the application for further discussion.
Bernalillo Town Council Meeting – 6/25/2012
Public Hearing on Santa Rosa Apartments
Issue: Developer Ron Bohannon has applied for approval of an amendment to the Master Plan for Santa Rosa, aka Sole Toscano. This amendment would allow for one or more 200-unit apartment complexes. The 157 acre property is on the I-25 frontage road, adjoining the Lafarge gravel mine.
Outcome: The Council voted to table the application for further discussion.
Council Members Present: Marian Jaramillo, Ronnie Sisneros, Dale Prairie – Presiding: Mayor Jack Torres
History: The property was annexed to the Town of Bernalillo around 2005. A Master Plan was approved for “Sole Toscano” by the Town Council in 2007. It was also zoned “Special Use”. There were amendments proposed in 2010, but as they were never approved by the Town Council they are not in effect.
The approved Master Plan was for a mixed “vertical” development (which allows business and residential in the same building), with single-family residential and commercial, with moderately high density and some open space.
New application: Has dropped “vertical” development. Requests addition of apartment complexes. Originally Bohannon had asked for approval for 2 such 200-unit complexes, on the south part of the property. At present he is seeking approval only for 1 such complex, with the possibility of an additional complex later. These are proposed to have 40% 1-bedroom, 40% 2-bedroom-2-bath, 20% 3-bedroom-2-bath units. Each building would have about 14 units, and would be 2 or 3 stories high. These would rent at market rates – that is, comparable to middle-range rents for apartments in Albuquerque.
Also Bohannon proposes that there be senior housing, about 100 units, only vaguely specified at present, estate lots (with $500,000 and up houses), and some commercial (12 acres). Residential housing would be from 1200 to 3200 square feet (with estate homes possibly bigger). According to Bohannon, some banks have expressed interest in locating there. There would be about 40 acres of open space. Bohannon also talked of parks, which he said that the homeowner association (HOA) would be responsible for maintaining. (But, as Mayor Torres and Councilor Jaramillo pointed out, what if the HOA was never formed, or reneged on that responsibility? Wouldn’t the town then be stuck with the bill to maintain the parks?)
Main points:
- Bohannon is part owner of the property, and has been active in Bernalillo in engineering and development. He admits that he and his partners are presently trying to sell the property to Shoshoni Properties, out of Dallas and Louisiana. His continuing role (if any) would be as engineer and consultant. This immediately raises a problem, as the Council was quick to see, in that Bohannon’s group would not be the one to fulfill any promises he might now make. Thus any zoning approval would presumably put strict conditions on the actual developers, whoever they may be, to comply with these promises.
- It is reasonable to suppose that this sale of the property is conditional on Bohannon getting approval for rezoning for the apartment complex(es), as that would be the major initial cash cow, and thus would be needed to recoup the infrastructure investment. Bohannon admitted that the first phase of development would be the apartments, and maybe also some senior housing units. He indicated that before the recession major builders such as D. R. Horton and Pulte had been interested in putting houses there, probably like those at the Santiago development near Walmart in Bernalillo. Bohannon said that Horton might still be interested, since all lots at the Santiago development are fairly much committed. But he did not stress this more typical residential development as a priority.
- Bohannon indicated that commercial enterprises, such as banks, had expressed interest before the recession, and might still be interested. But he said that getting commercial development there was a “chicken-and-egg” problem, since commercial companies would only commit once they saw zoning in place that would make their enterprises profitable. So if zoning approval was dependent on getting those commitments this would not happen.
- The water and sewage for this development would have to come from the town, and presumably require running pipes under the freeway. The developer would be required to pay all or part of the initial cost of the infrastructure. However as always happens, the town would eventually be required to maintain it. At one point Bohannon had proposed that this be a “Public Improvement District” (PID), which requires a tax assessment of the affected property owners to pay for infrastructure. Bohannon appeared to say that he is now backing off the PID proposal, but at another time during the meeting he appeared to want to discuss this at a workshop devoted to this rezoning request.
- Mayor Torres pointed out that property taxes only account for 5% of the town’s income. So if the town’s investment in services and infrastructure was to pay off, the new development would have to generate substantial gross receipts taxes (GRT). (Apartment rentals themselves do not generate GRT.) So either commercial enterprises on the property would have to generate this GRT, or it would have to come from people who lived there patronizing existing Bernalillo businesses. But as many who would live in housing east of the freeway would commute to work in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, they might very well do their main shopping there.
- Mayor Torres asked the Police Chief and Fire Chief (both present) what the impacts would be on their departments if the property were developed as now proposed. Both chiefs said they could not be certain, as the plans were still vague. The Police Chief said it might require adding one more personnel. The Fire Chief said it might require a doubling of fulltime personnel. Then there would be the problem of where to house the responders who would service the Santa Rosa property, since there could be problems if the responders were located west of I-25 (as they are at present) and had to travel across I-25 during congested traffic. So there would be significant additional services required, at the town’s expense, for the proposed development. Bohannon said that his group had considered a $50,000 per year contribution to the town to help defray these costs. Torres said that the Police and Fire Chiefs would have to provide full reports before this could proceed further.
- Torres and Jaramillo pointed out that the property is presently zoned “Special Use” (SU), and that this has caused problems, as planning and zoning administrators have been able to make major development decisions without getting approval from the Town Council. Torres and Jaramillo proposed that if this request goes forward the SU zoning be revoked, and each section of the property be separately zoned using existing town zoning designations, both residential and commercial. These designations are already well defined, so this would prevent developers from gaming the system. Bohannon expressed willingness to consider this.
- Regarding the traffic impact, Bohannon said he had talked to the NM Department of Transportation (NMDOT), and that they had indicated that this would work. However he provided no details. Councilor Sisneros asked if NMDOT had done a specific traffic study of the impact of this property. Bohannon answered No, but said that NMDOT expected a doubling of population in next 30 years or so. Bohannon said that NMDOT expected population growth of 600,000 in the area over the next 30 years, so that such improvements as the I-25 interchange at Exit 242 was planned to accommodate that growth. But Ron Alfred later pointed out that the 600,000 increase figure is for the wide stretch of I-25 from about Algodones down to Belen, so was nonspecific for any particular growth in the Bernalillo/Placitas area, yet only that is relevant to the traffic impact of any new development here. Torres said they would need to see a response to this proposal from NMDOT before proceeding further.
- Regarding additional water, Bohannon says his group has already purchased 54 acre feet water rights, and would probably need 45 acre feet more. These would be transferred to the town if a development agreement were reached. He is willing to work with the town planners to show that Bernalillo does have the capacity for the additional water and sewage. Councilor Prairie asked if the present water tanks would be sufficient for this additional load. Maria Rinaldi, Director of the town Planning and Zoning Department, reported that the water tanks are presently being rehabilitated, but the present rehab project has not taken into account additional connections to this proposed development.
Some other points:
- Public comments came from Steve Amiot of Bernalillo, and Shane Mahoney, Lynn Smith and Ron Alfred of Placitas. None expressed support for the proposal, and all expressed concerns, such as about traffic congestion and construction disturbances. Amiot raised the problem of commercial at this property competing with existing enterprises in Bernalillo. Alfred pointed out that Lafarge will likely keep mining past 2015 (Bohannon had stated that they would be out by then). Mahoney contradicted a statement made by Bohannon that there were no other residences within miles of the proposed development. Mahoney himself lives less than a mile away. Alfred also pointed out that the Bernalillo population east of the freeway would increase significantly if this were fully developed as proposed.
- Part of the proposal includes communication towers. Bohannon said this could provide wi-fi, which could also benefit the town west of I-25.
- Bohannon said that there might be some “workforce” housing, with residences from 1200 to 1800 square feet.
- Torres stressed that they need more detailed maps, also details about building footprints, number of stories, etc.
- Bohannon had some “imaginative” ideas regarding the traffic impact. He said that there would be good traffic flow through the I-25 interchange, and up to Hwy. 313 (Bernalillo’s main street). Beyond that there would be a bottleneck, which would be the case anyway. Bohannon says he has ideas how to remedy these problems. (Doesn’t everybody!)
- Sisneros said that he doesn’t feel the real estate market is improving all that much. There are still many foreclosures in Rio Rancho. This concerns him as regards approving major new housing developments.
- Jaramillo said that the property is in a beautiful area. She doesn’t like the idea of putting high density development there. But she likes that Bohannon is willing to get rid of the SU zoning and replace it with individual zoning of the sections. That would put definite limits on size, height, etc.
- Prairie asked about impact on schools. Bohannon responded that he didn’t know.
The next step is probably a workshop. Torres asked Town Attorney George Perez if the next hearing on the matter would be subject to public notice. Perez said he wasn’t sure, and would check.