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South-side residents brace for development impact on rural lifestyle.
Brenda Green can see it now:
An endless flow of cars passing by her front yard on Jemez Road, huffing and puffing down the narrow thoroughfare as if it were a clogged Los Angeles freeway.
Her nightmares of urban traffic on the south side of Santa Fe make Green, a mild-mannered, soft-spoken woman, noticeably upset. She's lived in this rural pocket of Santa Fe County, just off the intersection of Airport and Jemez Roads, for 40 years.
"We used to see bunnies and rabbits and quail," she says wistfully.
Now, Green fears the area's wildlife will be replaced by cars-lots of cars, thanks to a
mixed-use development being built behind her house.
The Colores del Sol/Colores Plaza project includes up to 300 homes and 85,500 square feet of commercial development. It is slated for 74 acres of land south of Agua Fria Street and west of South Meadows Road.
Last year, the City Planning Commission approved the residential component to the project and the land for Colores was annexed by the City Council. Now the Planning Commission is
set to discuss the commercial part of Colores on June 1 and will make a final decision, which could be appealed to the City Council.
It's the commercial aspect to the development that has Green and some other Jemez Road neighbors worried. They fear that a proposed access road connecting Jemez to Colores' commercial division will cause a deluge of traffic on what is only a small street. The traffic, residents worry, will be high as cars pour into Colores to visit the development's stores.
"Why people aren't in an uproar about this, I don't know," Janette Smith, another resident who lives on Jemez Road, says. "The street already gets backed up during the morning and the afternoon. Now, it's going to be worse."
Smith and Green say developer Jeff Branch did not adequately inform all neighbors of his plans. Instead, they say, Branch held several Early Neighborhood Notification (ENN) meetings
on the residential component to Colores in 2005 but never went into details regarding its commercial side. Both women say a blueprint of
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Colores they recently received from the city reveals a far more expansive project than they had expected.
"Jeff never told us about any of this," Green says. "He always just told us that he hadn't figured out the commercial part yet."
According to city code, a developer does not have to hold new ENN meetings unless there are substantial changes made to a project. Greg Smith, supervising planner for the city's Permit and Development Review Division says with Colores, that was not the case.
"Our staff conducted a review and saw no need for another ENN," Smith says.
Smith and Green are not the first residents to voice complaints about a Branch development in recent weeks. Residents who live near Branch's San Isidro project have complained about dust from the ongoing construction and also about being hemmed in by the development [Outtakes, May 10, 2006:
]. San Isidro, coincidentally, is being built near the intersection of Cerrillos Road and Zafarano Drive, not far from Colores.
The project was greeted initially with minimum objection, after Branch met with many residents in the area. [Cover Story, June 29, 2005:
].
As for the Jemez Road traffic concerns, Branch tells SFR that the main entry point into Colores' commercial component will come from South Meadows and that Jemez Road will only be a secondary access.
Branch also maintains that the commercial part of Colores was indeed discussed at ENN meetings and the project has not, in fact, changed.
"The meetings we've had included the people from Jemez and the people from Morning Drive," he says. "The plan we approved back then has always been part of the overall plan. We've never wanted to throw this project in people's faces."
As further evidence of his goodwill, Branch says he agreed to create a number of amenities for neighbors including a 25-foot setback between Colores and adjacent properties.
Finally, he notes that as part of his deal with the city, he agreed to extend South Meadows from Rufina Street to Airport Road, an endeavor he says will cost him approximately $800,000.
Robert Romero, director of the city's Public Works Department, says Branch's South Meadows extension will actually alleviate traffic on Jemez.
The Public Works Department, which oversees traffic issues, has thus far approved of the developer's plans.
"I can understand the neighborhood concerns, but just like any other big development, people don't use the back access road," Romero says.
Also of note, City Councilor Karen Heldmeyer says she was contacted earlier this month by Jemez Road residents, including Smith and Green, to find out if Branch violated the terms of Colores' annexation.
Heldmeyer tells SFR that some residents contend the annexation calls for Branch to build a 6-foot wall between the project and their homes but no wall has been built yet. Heldmeyer says she's looking into the issue; Branch says he has every intention of building the wall.
Meanwhile, Smith and Green expect the worst, at least in terms of traffic.
"We like the rural lives we live out here," Smith says. "That's why we moved here in the first place. But Colores could make everything a disaster."
