Residents question Montoya's role in Branch development opposition.
A lot of people are voicing opposition to the latest land proposal by Santa Fe developer Jeff Branch. Among them, Richard Gonzalez, John Rodriguez, Robert Gonzalez and, um, Richard Gere.
Problem is, all four-none of whom has likely spent any quality rub-a-dub-dub time with Julia Roberts in a bubble bath-appear to be the same person. Moreover, that person may have a substantial reason to want Branch's proposed "Colores del Sol/Plaza de
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Colores" development to crumble into the desert north of Airport Road.
At least two residents and one Santa Fe City Council member received phone calls from Messrs. Gonzalez, Rodriguez, Gonzalez and Gere last week. The calls urged them to oppose the Colores project before and after Branch and his partners submitted a proposal to the City Planning Commission on April 7. The proposal came just days after Branch's 92-acre San Isidro Village project was approved.
"The person [who identified himself as Robert Gonzalez] purported to be from the Agua Fria Neighborhood Association," says Councilor Karen Heldmeyer. "They said [Branch's proposed development] was the death of the Neighborhood Network. I thought that was kind of strange. But I don't have Caller ID, so I don't know who it was."
Well, Brenda Green and Fred Flatt do have Caller ID.
And when Green-a resident who lives next to the proposed Colores development-received a call from "Richard Gonzalez," a little after 5 pm on April 5, the listing was for Great Western Investors, a company operated by Richard "Dickie" Montoya, Sr., who is involved in at least one other development in the expanding southside.
"We're actually opposed to it," Green says of the Colores project. "We're trying to keep Airport Road from becoming another Cerrillos Road…the problem was that [the caller] was misrepresenting himself as a concerned neighbor."
Not long after Green received that call, Flatt-a community activist and resident of the Las Acequias subdivision-returned home from a Santa Fe Public School Board meeting to find a muffled message from a man identifying himself as Richard (or Mister) Gere. The man's message-which Flatt played for SFR-says, in part:
"[Branch] has got a big project approved and now he's coming for a second project. I just think that you've always been a fighter for the neighborhood…I hope…that you won't allow Mr. Branch to just keep bringing in all these…big properties…"
The call originated from a pay phone. Two days later-the day of the Planning Commission meeting-Flatt received another call from the same number, this time from a man identifying himself as John Rodgriguez, who also urged Flatt to oppose Branch's Colores project.
Suspicion sufficiently aroused, Flatt tracked the call to a phone booth at 216 W. San Francisco St., a location less than two blocks from the Old Santa Fe Realty office of one Richard Montoya Jr.
Man, that Caller ID is a bitch.
Furthermore, Flatt-who plans to play his voice message from "Richard Gere" at the April 13 City Council meeting-played the message for Green, who identified the voice as the same belonging to "Richard Gonzalez."
Councilor Heldmeyer says she called members of the Agua Fria Neighborhood Association after "Robert Gonzalez" left his voice message, only to discover that the members knew nobody by that name in their organization.
And then Mr. Gonzalez called back.
"The person called back and got me on the phone and reiterated what he said in the voice message," Heldmeyer says. "I was on the other line so he gave me a phone number where I could reach him and when I called back nobody knew anyone by that name."
The number Heldmeyer was given belongs to the Camel Rock Casino. When asked if she has heard the speculation that the Montoyas are behind the calls to urge residents to oppose the Branch proposal, Heldmeyer says: "I have heard that. But I don't have Caller ID so I can't speculate."
But there is speculation that the approval of Branch's 74-acre Colores project hinges, in part, on being able to hydrate the development, which requires annexation to include the commercial space and single-family homes proposed for the site within the city limits. Branch could not be reached for comment on this story.
Another development nearby could hamper either deal. And, according to Heldmeyer, the Montoyas have already postponed a City Council water request for a proposed development off of Highway 599 several times.
But water availability isn't the only issue involving the Colores project. Some residents living near the proposed development are concerned about traffic congestion and a space crunch on already overcrowded neighborhood schools. But Flatt, for one, is tentatively in support of the development.
"If they get water, more power to them," Flatt says. "The reasons against it are sprawl and the reasons for it are annexation. It makes sense to start close-in and annex out. So it probably makes sense to do this one."
Unless, perhaps, you're the Montoyas (neither of whom could be reached for comment prior to presstime). The family already has substantial enough real-estate dealings and political clout to forge their way into the southside development scramble. And even if they are responsible for the phone calls, Heldmeyer says they aren't doing anything illegal.
"People are allowed to get whatever support they want by whatever means they want," Heldmeyer says. "As long as they tell the truth under oath before the Planning Commission."
