The City Council voted to deny a land use appeal from the developers of the Bungalows on Cerrillos housing project to be built at the intersection of Beckner and Cerrillos roads on the Southside of Santa Fe at a Jan. 9 Governing Body meeting.
The land use appeal, filed by project development company Orion-West and property owner Advanced Acquisitions, LLC, would have granted the 141-unit development variances to allow the developers to build at a 30% slope over an area of 4,800 square feet and to include a setback from Cerrillos Road of less than 45 feet, both of which are prohibited under city codes.
The City Planning Commission denied both variance requests on Dec. 5 last year, stating the applicant has not satisfied variance criterion required because it is still feasible to develop the property without a variance.
On behalf of Orion-West and Advanced Acquisitions, land use and zoning attorney Karl Sommer argued variances are granted based on special circumstances and not just compliance with codes, and also that while the property could technically be built in accordance with city codes by building vertically or building less units, the current plan for 141 single-family units of one- and two-story apartments would not be feasible.
“The history of this property is, no one’s developing it because this intersection cannot be used for these types of uses,” Sommer said. “This property has special circumstances around it, and it’s not created by this developer’s plan. In order to use this property, there are significant improvements that need to be made to improve that intersection.”
District 4 Councilor Amanda Chavez asked how many units of affordable housing the project would lose if the variances were not granted, and Sommer responded that the developers opted to pay a fee in lieu of offering any affordable housing. He said if the variances were not granted, the project would lose 24 of the project’s planned units.
“The development, with the need that we have in Santa Fe, may not meet the need,” Chavez said. “We have a lot of individuals and community members that would love to live in a house they could rent, and it be affordable, but that’s not going to be the case with this development.”
Sommer also compared this project to previous ones in the area that had received approval for variances, including a housing project across the road and a Toyota dealership that was never developed after approval.
Assistant City Attorney Rebecca Mnuk-Herrmann, however, argued the applicants did not give the Planning Commission enough information about the property to adequately evaluate its variance approval in relation to the Bungalows on Cerrillos project’s variance requests.
“It's always also possible that it was a mistake…and there's no obligation to repeat a mistake,” Mnuk-Herrmann said. “I would submit that if a mistake was made in the past, that it would be arbitrary and capricious to perpetuate a mistake, just for the sake of the appearance of fairness.”
She continued, “I think that the governing body's main focus should be on whether this project meets the variant criteria, and making a decision based on the facts and directly about this property.”
Mayor Alan Webber and seven of the city council members voted to uphold the Planning Commission’s decision and denied the land use appeals. District 1 Councilor Signe Lindell was the only governing body member to vote against the denial, and stated her vote “would have been different” if the council separated the votes for the slope and setback variances rather than grouping them together.