Placitas Letters of Map Revisions (LOMR’s)

Many of you have seen and wondered about  the legal notices in the Albuquerque Journal regarding changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) floodplain mapping in certain Placitas areas.  While the use of taxpayer monies for flood control being used for this activity has been questioned, the purpose of this article is not to debate the merits of such expenditures, but to explain briefly what is going on.

One of the first activities that was undertaken by the Eastern Sandoval County Flood Control Authority (ESCAFCA) was to better identify floodplain limits along several arroyos in Placitas using updated surveys and analyses.  The purpose was to either remove properties from the floodplains and eliminate the need for mandatory flood insurance or to reduce current flood insurance rates.  Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM’s) produced by FEMA show properties that are subject to a 1% annual chance (100-year storm) or greater chance of flooding in any given year.

Once the analysis for an area has been reviewed by FEMA, a public comment period of 90 days is required.  The revised maps were made available for review at the Sandoval County Floodplain Administrator’s Office (155 Idalia Road, Suite D, Bernalillo) and at the Placitas Community Library.  Property owners affected by the changes were notified by mail.  The comment period for the first revised floodplain maps expired in January and FEMA has issued the LOMR’s.

This process has taken over two years to complete.  The revised maps may be viewed by following this link: https://www.onlinefilefolder.com/3fkokEsL5uDSqp, and using the password escafca.

Rev. Panel 1909 of 2225 includes portions of Placitas Trails, Anasazi Meadows, Anasazi Trails, and Sky Mountain.  Be warned-this is a very large file and will take a few minutes to download.

Rev. Panel 1917 of 2225 includes portions of Desert Mountain and Placitas West.

Rev. Panel 1950 of 2225 includes areas in Anasazi Trails and Tierra Madre.

A second set of maps are currently available for review at the Sandoval County Floodplain Administrator’s office and the Placitas Library until April 27, 2012.  These maps affect areas in Cedar Creek, Tres Amigos and The Overlook.  The maps can also be viewed at https://www.rampp-team.com/lomrs.htm#regionVI.

The actual number of residences taken out of the floodplains through this effort has not been quantified by ESCAFCA.  The number of structures (including outbuildings, barns, sheds, etc.)  that have been taken out range from 290 to 400, depending on who you talk to.  The total amount expended to date for the Placitas LOMR’s is $193,360.18.  An additional $175,046.65 has been spent on the Las Huertas Arroyo LOMR and Prudent Line Study.

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Latest Fisher Property Photo 2-26-2012

Here is the latest photo of the Fisher property, as of 2-26-12.  The County’s notice of violation had given Fisher until this date to remove the equipment and the mined material.  As this photo shows, much of that still remains on the site.

Posted in Zoning and Land Use | 4 Comments

Forest Lane and Freeform Way Paving proceeds despite Residents Concerns by Warren Seehuus

On October 7th of last year, a resident of Forest Lane engaged in a conversation with a gentleman working along the road, asking him what he was doing. The man replied that he was doing surveying work, to support the engineering for the paving of Forest and Freeform!

Since then, numerous concerned citizens of the area have been in contact with the County to find out what is going on.

So what IS going on?

The County has determined that, due to the “continuous issues with having to grade this road”, that it would better serve the county to pave it. When queried last October, when we first became aware of this, the County Manager, Mr. Rios stated: “The funding for this road is in place and will pave (sic) what is currently maintained by the County”.

The scope of the project has, apparently, never changed: The paving of Forest Lane from Placitas West Rd. to its intersection with Freeform Road, then paving all of Freeform Road to the north. Various iterations of this were floated, with the scope of the project finalized as: Paving of Forest from the junction of Placitas West to Freeform, and the paving of ALL of Freeform, down to the turn-around on the north end of the road. There would be no pavement west of Freeform on Forest. Erosion control would be achieved by using a new type of grading: Instead of crowning the road, the surface would have a slight “v” shape, funneling the runoff into the middle of the road, which would then be diverted at intervals into existing run off areas, which would be “improved” with rocks etc. to provide some erosion control. Driveways and other roads (public and private) intersecting Forest and Freeform would, as needed, be paved for approximately 5 ft. to allow access to the new pavement. Note that this is per conversations with County Staff, the actual project will be presented to the residents of Placitas in the public meeting below.

The County Manager has consistently stated, since we found out about this last October, that this is a financial decision: The County has been spending too much money on blading the road, (including, apparently, Freeform!) and he has decided that the County’s money is best spent on paving, not maintaining. As of late last week, the County was still pulling together the maintenance logs for these two roads, and the Financial Analysis was scheduled to be performed.

Numerous calls by local residents to the County Manager’s office has not swayed the County’s determination to pave these roads. The only rationale given is that it has “cost to much” to maintain these roads due to the number of requests for maintenance. Note that as of Friday the 17th, NO Financial Analysis, and NO Analysis of Alternatives had been performed! (Per a telecon with the County Manager on 2/17). Additionally, I am not aware that a Staff Recommendation was ever solicited from the Road Department. The financial analysis will be provided at the Public Meeting!

Additionally, numerous residents of the area have been in contact with Mr. Olando Lucero, our County Commissioner, to see if there would be any opportunity to impact the scope of this project, as many residents feel the expenditure of County funds would be better spent on other related transportation projects. Mr. Lucero has been receptive to our input, but to date nothing has swayed the determination of the County to have these two roads paved. It appears to some of us affected that the County has made up its mind that the paving will take place, despite the numerous calls and emails from concerned Citizens.

Please attend a Public Meeting currently scheduled for Monday, 27 February at 6:30 PM. It will be held at the Transportation Center at the Hwy 550 Railrunner station. The County will present the proposed Scope and Schedule for the Project. Please note that County Manager has stated to me that this meeting is NOT SOLICITING PUBLIC INPUT, and that HE WILL GRANT THE AUTHORIZATION TO PROCEED with the project to be completed within approximately 2 weeks! Please come and get your opinion into the record with either your concerns or support of this proposed paving project. It is important that our public officials consider our opinions before expending our tax dollars or proceeding with “improvements” that might actually negatively affect us. So even if you have no opinion on the paving, please attend the meeting and support our desire for a public vetting of this proposed public project.

Please contact Commissioner Lucero at 934-3392 and Mr. Rios, County Manager at 867-7538 and ask that this project be stopped until the Taxpayer’s voice can be heard.

If you know of other paving or other public projects under consideration in Placitas that you have concerns, please let me know: Warren Seehuus at 417-2960, or you can leave your comment as a reply to this ES-CA Forum article.

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New Aerial Photo of Fisher Property

Here is an areal photo of the Fisher property, taken Feb. 16, 2012:

Here is a previous photo from late January, 2012:

Posted in Zoning and Land Use | 1 Comment

Email from VP of Fisher Sand & Gravel

This is an email sent by David Olson with Fisher Sand & Gravel to Lynn Koch and Steve Gudelj, with La Puerta Real Estate, regarding the property they own south of Hwy 165, on which the asphalt equipment recently appeared.

——————————————————————————————————————

Steve

Just wanted to send you a quick email addressing you concerns about the Fisher property south of Hwy 165. I have lived in Placitas and have  been a manager at Fisher Sand and Gravel New Mexico for 8 of those years. And would hope to be considered part of the community. Fisher bought the land as an investment and intends to grade the property into a useable parcel and develop it. We have never intended to set a permanent hot plant on the site. We have only requested to set a temporary plant on that location for an Interstate improvement project that was directly adjacent to the property. However, because of the concerns of the residents we withdrew our request for a permit and have not reapplied for one.  In the future, if there are any concerns please feel free to contact me directly and I will make sure and address them to the best of my ability.

Thanks,

Dave

David Olson

 

Vice President of Operations ~ Fisher Sand & Gravel – New Mexico, Inc.

30A Frontage Road East~Placitas,NM 87043

 

Posted in Zoning and Land Use | 2 Comments

Cashwell Zoning Application Withdrawn

Mikita Hill, with the County Development Department, informed me that Mr. Cashwell has withdrawn his application for rezoning for cluster housing on the property near the Fire House and Overlook subdivision.

The Cashwell item is on the agenda for the Feb. 23 Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting, but Mr. Hill tells me that this is just for form’s sake, and that the staff will announce receiving the letter of withdrawal.  Mr. Hill told me that the withdrawal letter should appear on the County web site later today, or tomorrow.

 

Posted in Zoning and Land Use | 1 Comment

Fisher Asphalt Plant – Continued

ES-CA will be holding a meeting on Sunday, February 12, at 2 PM at the Placitas Community Library, to discuss the Asphalt Plant issue.  All residents of Bernalillo and Placitas are invited to attend.

At the Feb. 2 County Commission meeting, Bob Gorrell, ES-CA President, made a presentation to the Commission regarding County actions on the Asphalt Plant equipment presently on the Fisher Sand & Gravel Property, and the gravel mining operation that has been going on there for a long time, in violation of zoning.  Bob widened the criticism to other areas where the County Development Department has been negligent in enforcing ordinances.  The paper presented to the Commission and officials of the County is here: Negligent-Enforcement-of-Ordinances

The Commission listened respectfully to members of the community who expressed concern about this issue, during Public Comments, but the Commission members were advised not to discuss the community comments at that meeting, as these matters could come before the Commission at later hearings.  County Manager Phil Rios reported to the Commission that the County had sent a January 27 letter to Fisher informing them of the zoning violations, and ordering them to remove the violating equipment and material within 30 days.

In an article in the Albuquerque Journal, Fisher told the Journal reporter that the asphalt equipment is only being stored on the I-25 frontage road site in preparation to moving it to Tucamcari for a project there.  Some have criticized ES-CA for over-reacting to the placement of equipment there, claiming that there is no intention of using it for asphalt production at that site.  But there is no question that Fisher did apply for re-zoning to do just that in August of 2010.  Then later, after Fisher withdrew the zoning application from the County, they continued to apply with the NM Environment Dept. for permission to do asphalt production at that site, as shown in the following application documents from October, 2010:

Fisher 2010-10 Application – Text — Fisher 2010-10 Appl. – Picture 1 — Fisher 2010-10 Appl. – Picture 2 — Fisher 2010-10 Appl. – Picture 3 — Fisher 2010-10 Appl. – Picture 4 — Fisher 2010-10 Appl. – Picture 5

Many have asked: What project might Fisher be doing that would require asphalt production at this site near Bernalillo and Placitas?  This short “News in Brief” article in the Jan. 28, 2012, Albuquerque Journal may shed light on their plans:

N.M. 313 Section To Be Repaved

The state Department of Transportation plans to repave a section of N.M. 313 from about five miles north of the roundabout at Roy Road, north to the town of Bernalillo.

The $1.2 million project involves milling off the top layer of road and repaving it. Work will be done by Fisher Sand and Gravel and is expected to begin in the late spring, said Phil Gallegos, district spokesman for the state DOT.

 

 

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I-25/US550 Interchange Update

Construction plans are currently being prepared for the 65% complete submittal.  These plans are due in mid-March.  ES-CA will request permission to leave a set of plans for public review at the Placitas library when they are complete.

Posted in I-25/US 550 Interchange | Tagged | Leave a comment

County Instructs Fisher to Remove Equipment and Stock Piled Material

Due to the diligent efforts of ES-CA (Eastern Sandoval Citizens Association), we now have official word from Sandoval County of encouraging action on the Fisher asphalt operation.  The ES-CA Chairperson has just received an email from Sandoval County Manager Phil Rios (shown below), in response to the January 27 email quoted in the previous Forum article.  Mr. Rios attached a letter written by Michael Springfield, Director of County Development, to Fisher Sand & Gravel (click on link at end of article), instructing Fisher that they are in violation of zoning ordinances, and must remove all equipment from the site, along with all stock piles of material, including aggregate (gravel).

This is certainly progress.  However, whether this notification to Fisher prevents the asphalt and gravel mining operations depends entirely on enforcement.  To date, such enforcement has been lacking regarding this and similar properties.

This good outcome for the citizens of Bernalillo and Placitas is the result that members of ES-CA worked to achieve.  This is an important outcome for us, but we need to keep the pressure on.  An ES-CA director will speak to the County Commission at its Thursday, February 2 meeting, 6 PM, at the Administrative Center on Idalia Road in Bernalillo.  It’s important that you attend this meeting in order to let our commissioners know that proper enforcement of ordinances is crucial to protect our communities.

Here is the email from Mr. Rios:

 Mr. Gorrell

I will advise the Chairman about moving Public Comment to the front of the agenda and thank you for letting me know. Also, be aware that the Chairman will decide how much time to allow each citizen, it has always been 3 minutes but my recommendation is to have one spokes person to make the comments in regards to this issue instead of it being repetitive. It  has always been my belief that staff can work with all citizens in a professional manner instead of attacking each other. In the Citizen Public Comment there is no discussion by the Commission or staff. I have attached the letter being sent to Fisher Sand and Gravel that was provided to me by our Zoning Enforcement Officer. If you and any of the concerned citizens wish to meet with me and County staff to gather more information in regards to this issue I am willing to do that. I can assure you that once County staff is made aware of  County zoning violation we take them very seriously but we have to follow local, state and federal laws when it comes to dealing with any issues. On this issue we will proceed as legal advises staff.

Phillip Rios

County Manager

County Letter to Fisher Sand & Gravel

Posted in Zoning and Land Use | 1 Comment

Fisher Asphalt – Letter to County Manager

[The following letter and image were sent by ES-CA to County Manager Phil Rios on January 27, 2012 in regards to the February 2, 2012 County Commission Meeting]

County Manager Rios,

There are many citizens concerned about the continuing illegal utilization of Fisher property as a sand and gravel quarry, and now as storage for asphalt equipment just “parked” on the site.  There has been no communication from the county regarding the concerns.  I understood from a reporter today that the County is still analyzing the situation.  Please find attached an aerial photo, taken this week, that might assist in the analysis ─ 50 copies will be available at the February 2, 2012 County Commission Meeting.

As a courtesy to you, be advised that there will be a number of citizens who wish to speak during public comment at the February 2 meeting.  The commission can expect the comments, agitated by the Fisher issues, to be about three subjects: The apparent disdain of the Planning and Development Department leadership towards communities east of I-25, the lack of enforcement of county zoning ordinances, and the resulting threats and harm caused upon the general welfare of citizens.

It has been recommended to ES-CA that you suggest to the Chair that if public comment limited to the Fisher property (that includes the above three subjects) were heard at the beginning of the meeting, then a smaller audience is likely for the remainder of the meeting.

Sincerely,

Bob G.

Posted in Zoning and Land Use | 1 Comment