Village of Los Lunas Planning & Zoning Agendas

MINUTES PLANNING & ZONING MEETING January 20, 2016 The Village of Los Lunas Planning & Zoning Commission met in their regular session on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 6:00 pm in the Village Council Chambers. Members present were as follows: Commissioners David Crawford, Terry Ulibarri, Stephanie Williams, Frank Vigil & Walter Baca. Staff members present were Christina Ainsworth, Community Development Director, Erin Callahan, Special Project Planner & Marie Marquez, Recording Secretary. Members of the public present were as follows: Alberta Lewis, Deborah Rehfeld, James Lewis, Louis Huning, Nancy Huning, Steve Hemandez, Robert Kalita, Sharon Kalita, Terry Santi, Lynn Santi, Mr. & Mrs. Clifford Garley, Sheldon Greer & French L. Clevenger. The Meeting was called to order by: Chairman Stephanie Williams APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chairman S. Williams called for a motion to approve the agenda. Commissioner Frank Vigil made a motion to approve the agenda, Commissioner Walter Baca seconded the motion. Everyone voted yes, motion carried. SWEARING OF PARTICIPANTS AGENDA ITEMS: PRELIMINARY PLAT — Steve Hernandez ITEM I—PRELIMINARY PLAT—Steve Hernandez Chairman S. Williams introduced Item I-The purpose of this commission is to have a public hearing and to approve or disapprove of this Preliminary Plat submitted by Steve Hernandez, Development Management Consultant for Sivage Community Development, LLC. Erin Callahan was called up to present the item. Erin said, Mr. Steve Hernandez of Development Management Consultants, agent for Sivage Community Development, LLC has requested preliminary plat approval to subdivide tracts IA-IA-2A and IA-IA-IB, Los Cerritos de Los Lunas Subdivision ,Neighborhood “A”, Phase V, also referred to as Lots I thru 118, Las Terrazas at Fiesta Subdivision. Erin showed the map on the screen and pointed out the area. She said, the developer owns the parcel that they’re submitted for the preliminary plat but they do have approval from the Hunings to include a small parcel that they will need to purchase in order to achieve this round- a- bout. Notice of public hearing letters were mailed to all property owners adjacent to the property. Staff has received no letters however, staff did receive phone calls expressing concerns from the property owners regarding their views of the Manzano Mountains being obstructed by the building of these homes. Erin told the commissioners that the applicant is requesting a preliminary plat for the purpose of creating a residential subdivision that would be in character with the existing uses, and therefore, recommend approval of this request. Erin Callahan was open for questions from staff, but there were no further questions. Mr. Steve Hernandez, Consultant/Agent for Sivage Community Development, LLC and Sheldon Greer, Engineer approached the podium and gave a brief summary of the proposed subdivision. He said, the area that they will be purchasing from the Hunings was definitely planned to create a parcel that would slow down the traffic between Highline and Los Cerritos. Mr. Sheldon Greer pointed out on the screen map the area where the homes would be built. He said, this subdivision will consist of 118 lots, not likely to build that many homes right away. It will probably be done into two phases, possibly three. When the first homes were built there with a lot more variety, more momentum. They have since gotten away from those types of homes. The current market demands more conventional lots, 50 ft. lot rates in this area. The streets are more narrow they felt, it would make children safer with no street parking etc. But the fire dept and staff recommend that streets go back to the standard width to accommodate emergency vehicles in case of emergencies. He went on to point out the whole area and told the commissioners and the public that he would be open for any questions after his presentation. Mr. Greer also said, at the time of the final plat, they will only do a phase at a time. They will not do the whole thing at once, they will begin with the southern portion first and will have ample time to sort out the northern portion. Chairman S. Williams asked Mr. Greer that the main concern of the people here tonight was the view. She asked Mr. Greer if they would keep in mind the concerns regarding the view. She also asked Mr. Greer to explain how much or how little it would the current residents living next to area where the homes will be built below the slope. Mr. Greer pointed out on the drawing shown on the screen which are two access points. As he pointed out on the map all the lots adjacent will be about 10 feet below the elevation of the homes above. Those homes generally have a wall in their backyard about 5-6 feet. Mr. Greer said, they at this point we don’t know who the builder will be, likely there will be some two-story homes. He said, we cannot afford to build a 10 ft retaining wall to make that vertical drop, but what we will or can do, is cut down so it is 10 ft below the adjacent homes and then we can accommodate that with some slope, which will provide a much larger drop as opposed to having those houses back right up to the property line. This will also provide 30 or 40 feet of additional horizontal buffer. Commissioner D. Crawford told Mr. Greer, that the lots would be very small compared to the ones already there. Mr. Greer responded that because of the economy they could not be compared to the homes that had been built in the 70s which were about 2800 sq. ft. or so. The new homes that will be built will average about 2000 sq. feet. Mr. Greer told the commission after the public would speak, he would make note of all questions and would try to answer them as best as he could. Chairman S Williams called on anyone wishing to speak for or against this Preliminary Plat proposal. She told the public that they would have 5 minutes to speak in order to allow everyone to present their comments and concerns. Ms. Deborah Rehfeld approached the podium and presented her concerns. She said, she has a single story home, lives on Bosque Loop. Her concern was that if the homes being built will have a 40 ft. easement and drop off another 30 however, if a two story home is built there it’s going to obstruct the view of the beautiful Manzano Mountains, which I have from my back yard and I paid a lot of money for. We are all very worried about our investment, its precious money, we all worked very hard to have that view from our home. We paid high dollar to live that way in those homes. We have beautiful yards and a beautiful view of the Manzano Mountains. She said, you people should have had handouts with all the information to promote what you’re doing and for all of us to look at and study before this hearing. We have nothing just the map on the screen. Ms. Rehfeld asked if the homes were going to be quality homes, she said, we’re the best in the business. She asked if they were going to place tinder boxes right next to where they live and drop their property value? is there going to be noise, dogs, 6 children, etc? She stated that they didn’t pay high dollar to live like that. Mr. Ray Shadier approached the podium resident of Mesa Loop was concerned about the quality of life there, , privacy the value of their homes and the open space that’s there. We were aware that at some point in time that some of it would be lost. He had a letter he wrote to Tomas Sivage outlining their concerns about the development there. He said, he tried to be diplomatic as possible, but never got a response from Mr. Sivage, however, he did talk to Jim Winiman from the Sivage office and he assured Mr. Shadier in a conversation that if the homes would be built behind the plat up there, that they would be single flat homes, not two story. Other issues discussed were an easement there, level of double size lots, perhaps reducing the number of homes. We invite you to come to meet with us, visit us. Perhaps after hearing our concerns, you can go back to the drawing board and take some of our concerns. Terry Santi, resident of Bosque Loop area. He was concerned about the sizes and the view if two-story homes are built there. He lives on the southside and it will obstruct the view of the mountains, that is the reason we purchased our home there. He said, he was very happy and enjoyed the neighborhood, but he said, this was very risky business for all the residents living in the Los Cerritos and surrounding areas because of the dropping down of the economy. He asked if there was really a market to build these homes, he said, it should really be investigated. We need to know exactly what you plan to do after you clear that land. Are you going to clear the land, build some walls and then let them be covered with sand? He said, he was also worried about all the homes that will be built and then if the economy drops more, those homes will be there with foreclosures, bankruptacy and the company owning that subdivision will walk away and those homes will just become vacant and that will devaluate our property. He said, to him it is high risk economy. Eileen Boyer resident of Los Cerritos since 1986. She said, she has watched the transition of this entire neighborhood and like the people here, I too have concerns about views and she said, she would one of the first that would be affected. She brought some pottery shards she has picked up in that area behind her home. She said, behind her home that is a potential for a Kiva. Sometime back they discovered there was a chamber in that area. She wanted to know what kind of research had been done because of the shards that have been found. Commissioner D. Crawford asked her if she had contacted UNM. Her reply was yes. Clifford Garley, resident of Bosque Vista Loop. He said, residents of Belen & also lived Santa Fe and they could not decide where they wanted to live. When they found out homes were being built in Los Lunas. They finally both agreed to live in Los Lunas. He said, it’s a beautiful view of the Manzanos, the Valley, and other events going on in the Village of Los Lunas. He said, it would have been nice if we would have had some information to look at. We were well aware that someday something would happen down there. Mr. Garley mentioned that perhaps one of the options could be if all the neighborhood got together and purchase the land and add it to their property. That would be one option, or perhaps the Village would be interested in buying it and having it for open space. This would be a guarantee that no one is going to build there. Bob Kalita resident of Bosque de Salud coming from back East he finds it amazing since back East there is not a lot of land, and property sizes are huge, you come here where there is land everywhere and the houses are so close together. That doesn’t make sense. He works in Belen and we could of moved anywhere, but what drew us to Los Lunas was the quality of life, the atmosphere, the housing development that is really nice. This is a very attractive community, if we wanted to develop some land, we would want to make this community very attractive. We wouldn’t want to make people come here on purpose, but with small match box homes it would bring down the value. His concern was the view for one and how it would impact their way of living, his other concern was the water pressure If you put more homes the pressure will be worse. . James Lewis resident of Montera Ct. said he enjoys the view, but one of the questions to Sivage was they had , property in that subdivision and they didn’t even finish building. They turned it over to Pulte, so what’s this coming up with 118 lots. David Garver resident of Bosque Vista Loop. We have really enjoyed the view but when we purchased the house they didn’t guarantee us that it would be preserved. Traffic is not too bad there but with 118 homes it will impact the traffic issue. Alberta Lewis resident of Montara Court. Her husband wanted to move from Albuquerque to a rural area. She agreed as long as they could have a north and east view which I refer to everybody a million dollar view. It is a very nice neighborhood, high quality and we invested a tremendous amount of money on this brick home. She also very concerned about homes being built there, the traffic and the depreciation of their property. She has breathing problems and with all this sand it will cause health issues. Something else is with these walls being built, that would deprive them of their privacy, someone could very well look over or jump over, it would be a safety issue. She said, we feel there needed to be more clarification of what is going to take place. Eileen Boyer, came up again just to share some information about the compacting of the soil, which has been an issue in the Huning Ranch Area. She said, her house was built on extensive clay soil and wanted to make the commissioners aware. She said, we were involved in a law suit and won but wanted to make everyone aware of the importance of it. Their house suffered extensive structural damage. So the compacting of the soil is extremely important. Sheldon Greer came back up to try to answer all the questions for all these people. He addressed the couple living to the north on Montara Ct. He said, it would not affect them at all. With respect to water. He said, pressure is derived by gravity. The homes at the top of the hill have less pressure and the homes at the lower level have more pressure. Your pressure is based on the elevation of your home. The phasing will begin on the southern portion. Secondly, with respect to views, he said, was sympathic The cost is not cheap with the type of homes that will be . built. The developer is also responsible for the purchasing of the water rights for all homes, which are not cheap. The water rights for each home will be about $4500 dollars. Sheldon said, as for the builder they do not have a builder at the moment. If you want to preserve it you may consider the option of buying it. As far as the traffic is concerned, the school always adds some traffic. And as far the pottery shards you might pass that on to the property owner. He said, they are not required to develop private , land, however they did have archeologists do an assessment of the sight and they did find some pottery pieces but they checked to make sure there wasn’t any buried structures. He also said, there is no required sq. footage, the cost of ratio on the land is also prohibited. This price range will be equivalent to what’s there on Los Cerritos $250,000 to $200,000 per house. Sheldon said, Mr. Sivage has been contracted to develop the rest of Los Cerritos Subdivision and he most certainly doesn’t want to hurt his future values either. He said, I can assure you he isn’t going to come in and put in manufactured homes, etc. There is some very nice areas of open space. He said, they would like to meet with the Los Cerritos neighborhood association to figure out what they are going to do for example in the 44 ft. trailway corridor. Christina Ainsworth intervened by letting everyone know if they had comments they wanted to make they must be recognized by the chair and come to the podium. Chairman S. Williams asked Christina to reiterate to the public the process of the preliminary plat and what takes place after. Christina said, the preliminary plat is an approval of how the plat is going to be layed out, lot sizes, the roads & whether there’s going to be infrastructure. What is reviewed by staff is conformity with our existing municipal code which includes zoning the conformance with the comprehensive and master plan. In this case the proposed subdivision does need those conditions. It is compatible with all other documents. What the planning & zoning commission does is insure that those conditions are met and that there are no other issues that might occur with infrastructure that would not meet the criteria for our existing policies. Once that plat is approved by the planning & zoning, the developer basically has the go ahead to prepare the final plat which will go before Council for approval. During this process of review we also have comments from our engineer which have been provided to our developer as well as comments that have been made. Sheldon Greer added that once this gets approved it’s ready for construction, which will be done between the preliminary plat and final plat. He said, he didn’t want for anyone to expect any changes at the final approval. He said, this is it everything has been submitted for the construction to begin. There is no guarantee or requirement to maintain that view. But we have tried to comprise some by dropping down some of that slope. Christina also mentioned, the process of planning is lengthy and it begins with the development of a comprehensive plan which projects general land use to the village. We recently went through the process of comprehensive planning and it was a process that took 2 years. She said, public notices were placed in many places, surveys were put out and comments were gathered from the public to determine how the community wants the Village to grow and develop over time. She said, subsequently as for making zoning decisions of those other concepts the commission and council make zoning decisions based on that comprehensive plan. It’s the zoning change that those other concepts and values come into place where the council and commission have discretion in making decisions where they can put conditions on a zoning. They can deny a zoning, they can recommend a different zoning in order to protect certain areas for example, one of the priorities that came up was the protection of open space on agricultural land and that’s a high priority. The zoning is already in place on this subdivision. At the subdivision level the discretion is very minimal. What the council and commission are looking for now is, does it meet the zoning requirements already in place? Does the infrastructure meet the minimum standards of the Village? Do the roadways meet the minimum standards? Those are the things we’re looking at, at this time, we are not looking at the technical issues. Cognitively insuring that there’s adequate egress that emergency vehicles can enter and exit if there’s a problem Other things that are more subjective and value oriented are not permissible to be looked at as . far as making a decision at the subdivision level. She also made a comment that the practice of excruciating zoning is illegal and we would not make a decision on keeping certain income level and not encourage excluding those from any neighbor. Commissioner T. Ulibarri asked Mr. Greer if they got any feedback from the archeologists that did that inspection? Sheldon Greer said, there were several sites identified within the entire Master Plan area as potential Archaeological Sites. One of those was located in this particular area. They did investigate that site as per the requirements, and did document the investigation. Mr. Greer did make it clear that this was private land and there is no requirement to do an archaeological investigation. However, knowing that this area had some history, there was some discussion and some general knowledge that there is some pottery in the area. Commissioner T. Ulibarri also cleared some individual’s comment, that they are the commissioners not the boss. He cleared that, he said, we go by the requirements of the municipal code, it governs what we approve. We must make sure that this plan is in conformity with the land use. We can’t tell them not to build a two-story home. Commissioner T. Ulibarri said, there were many good comments made and he sympathizes with everyone, but this commission cannot require you to preserve the view for these homes, as long as all requirements by the Village of Los Lunas are met as per their Master & Comprehensive Plan. Commissioner F. Vigil asked a few questions. He wanted to know how wide the streets were going to be. Mr. Greer replied they will be 50 ft wide right of way and 32 ft. face to face curve. It meets the Village Standards. Sheldon said, they would be installing the lights. He also said, Michael Sivage would be the contact person to talk to for coordinating a meeting regarding the trails. Commissioner also asked about the stucco walls and Sheldon said, they would certainly try to coordinate a similar transition on the wall that connects highline and Los Cerritos. The developer will be responsible for installing the landscaping There were no further questions. . Christina made a comment that if anyone had further questions regarding the water issue to make an appointment with the engineer. Chairman S. Williams called for a motion to approve this preliminary plat, however, she did say Commissioner F. Vigil has excused himself from this vote due to his involvement with the HOA. Commissioner W. Baca said, this subdivision was approved back in 2006, many meetings were held, Community Development staff has looked and reviewed this subdivision and they find that it is in keeping with the goals set forth in the Master Plan. With everything that has been discussed here tonite, I find that it is in conformance with the review criteria of the Village of Los Lunas Municipal Code as reflected in the staff report therefore, I make a motion to approve this preliminary plat including staff report. Commissioner T. Ulibarri seconded the motion. There was 4 to I votes in favor, motion carried. ITEM 2—APPROVAL OF MINUTES — Minutes of 1/6/2016 Chairman S. Williams called for a motion to approve the minutes for January 6, 2016. Commissioner T. Ulibarri made a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Everyone seconded the motion. Everyone voted yes, motion carried. ITEM 3- DISCUSSION Community Development Activity Report Christina gave an update on some of the activities that will be taking — place in the Village. She said, the Village will be purchasing the 2 properties where the Country Inn was. Also the art work at the Interchange will be taking place starting January 25 She also mentioned that Staples Store will be . closing February 12th and a clothing store will be coming in as well as the Planet Fitness business no information regarding the dates Code Enforcement There was some complaints regarding the Mechanic Shop on #314. Too many cars parked — outside the building, etc. ITEM 4- ADJOURNMENT Chairman S. Williams called for a motion to adjourn. Commissioner F. Vigil made a motion to adjourn. Commi ibner W: Bac seconded the motion. Everyone voted yes, motion carried. Step 4 i e Williams, Chairman Frank Vigil David Crawford, Cmmissioner Walter Baca, Commissioner TerryIarri, Commissioner