Courtesy Homewise
This rendering, laid over a Google map, shows the Homewise proposal for a development off South Meadows road on land that was formerly publicly owned as a Santa Fe County open space. The dotted line on the left side of the map delineates the city-owned trail corridor from Homewise's property.
After months of delays, the Santa Fe City Planning Commission again intends to take up a proposal to allow Homewise, a local nonprofit homebuilder, to construct 161 housing units and a park on South Meadows Road.
The commission will consider rezoning and general plan requests from Homewise at its scheduled Nov. 3 meeting, according to a published agenda, after punting the matter several times. And while Homewise hopes for a quick recommendation for approval, many who live near the proposed site want officials to pump the brakes and seriously consider their concerns.
Tensions remain high as the popular housing nonprofit has labeled neighbors as opponents to development “not in my back yard.” But residents near the land that until recently was designated as public open space say they aren’t giving up in the face of proposed condos, townhouses and a 6-acre park on the land wedged between Airport Road and Agua Fría Street.
Homewise CEO Mike Loftin says he’s trying to help solve the city’s vexing affordable housing crisis, and the pushback indicates a pervasive sentiment in Santa Fe.
“It’s a huge problem in Santa Fe,” Loftin tells SFR. “It’s a huge problem in lots of the country. It’s the NIMBY problem.”
Marlow Morrison, president of the Tiempos Lindos Homeowners Association, a neighborhood that abuts the South Meadows land to the west, bristles at the suggestion, saying the label is neither fair, nor accurate.
“We just don’t fit the definition of NIMBYs,” she tells SFR. “We have Section 8 renters in our neighborhood, we have Homewise clients in our neighborhood. There is already civic housing that lines the corner” of the proposed site.
Neighbors have previously raised concers that they believed the fate of the land was settled back in 2001, when Santa Fe County used taxpayer money to buy the tract as part of its Open Space and Trails Program. Last summer, however, the county sold the parcel to Homewise. Many residents at the time accused the county of disobeying its own rules by quietly closing the deal. But county officials dismissed the accusations and argued that a review by the County Open Lands, Trails and Parks Advisory Committee was not required to decide whether the parcel must be public.
Morrison says she and other residents are dissatisfied with all the entities involved in the current situation—particularly the county.
“It kind of brought up this feeling of betrayal that I think our community has felt from the county selling this property without really any public notice,” she says.
In February, the State Auditor’s office received a complaint regarding the sale, and a spokeswoman for the office tells SFR “an examination” was still pending as of last week.
Morrison says she’s OK with the delayed city Planning Commission vote because it has given residents more time to be heard. Helen Wunnicke, a former resident of the area, says in an email to SFR that the slow progress is “just fine and dandy” and that she believes the panel would likely recommend to deny Homewise’s request, “given enough information.”
Loftin says he respects and encourages the democratic process, but that he “would like to get this resolved,” citing the ongoing housing shortage. According to a report from the Santa Fe Housing Action Coalition, of which Homewise is listed as a partner, about 65% of Santa Fe residents can’t afford to buy a home in the city.
Homewise also acted on what Loftin says was the advice of its lawyers in recent weeks to lock gates to the property, cutting off access to neighbors who have walked there for decades. Morrison speculates that many nearby homeowners chose the area, at least partially, because of the undeveloped land.
Loftin argues the combo of a park, 42 townhouses, 64 condos and 55 single-family homes is a better outcome. Half the units would fall within the city’s guidelines for affordable housing.
“I think it would be a tragedy if at the end of all this, all we’re left with is 22 acres of vacant land that hardly anybody uses,” Loftin says. “We really should do something that could benefit the surrounding community and all of Santa Fe.”
Morrison says the surrounding community is “really reasonable” and open to conversations about planning. But Homewise, she says, has a different perspective “than what a community actually needs to discuss on a whole.”
“They have an agenda that is, rightfully, so narrow and it doesn’t really allow for genuine community engagement because the conversation with the applicant has always been based on their mission statement and their agenda, and it really is dictating our community needs, through their eyes, through their perspective,” Morrison concludes.
The commission’s recommendation on the rezoning and development proposal would next be heard by the City Council.
