Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Commercial or residential? Peralta works on zoning issue

Julia M. Dendinger News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdendinger@news-bulletin.com

Peralta Nearly three months of public hearings and workshops have been an exercise of local government in action for the new municipality of Peralta. A public hearing held at the end of November and a workshop last week have served to give citizens a place to voice their concerns about the town's proposed zoning map.

However, the council has yet to make a final decision on the zoning for the town. The matter of the proposed zoning ordinance and map is once again on the council's agenda for Wednesday's meeting.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Dec. 12, at Peralta Elementary School.

Meetings, meetings, meetings

The process began on Sept. 13 with a workshop to review both the proposed zoning ordinance and zone map. The matter was reviewed again during a public hearing at the council's regular meeting on Sept. 11.

At both the council's Oct. 9 and 23 meetings, the council convened a public hearing to discuss the proposed zoning ordinance and map. After the second October meeting, Town Councilor Joseph Romero expressed concern that the public had not had sufficient time to offer input on the matter.

It was at the Nov. 13 meeting that more than 20 citizens showed up to voice concerns and opinions about the proposed zoning map that would shrink the town's commercial zone. The council voted unanimously to table the ordinance.

With the exception of the first few meetings, the council meetings had been sparsely attended by the public.

Attendance numbers dropped again at the Nov. 27 meeting to six onlookers. Following nearly three hours of discussion of the ordinance, the council again tabled the matter.

The commercial zone would mostly be scaled back and turned into a residential zone on the southern end of Peralta. Currently, the commercial spreads east of N.M. 47 to the Peralta Main Canal and west to the Valencia Drain. The zone also runs east of the drain along Valencia Road to just east of Monica Road.

The proposed zone would pull the commercial zone east of N.M. 47 back to just west of the Valencia Drain. On the west side of the highway, the commercial zone would be reduced to about half of its current size.

The zone map for the town was established after the council compiled a land use map. That map shows every parcel of land in Peralta and indicates what it is currently used for, ranging from residential to agriculture, parks, schools and commercial.

So far, most of the public objection to the proposed zone map has been the impact on property owners and property values if the zone is changed from commercial to residential.

Concerns and questions

At the council's workshop last Tuesday, Romero led the discussion of the zoning ordinance with questions of how the town would deal with the impact of future development on its infrastructure.

"My main interest and concern is significant impact of development," he said. "What would the process be? Do we have any recourse?"

Mayor Edward Archuleta had concerns that by allowing commercial zones to remain on roads traveling east and west off of N.M. 47, the town would be overextending itself in its effort to build the infrastructure in the commercial zone.

Archuleta said it was his feeling that if Peralta wanted to develop a true commercial zone, the town should plan for it and not encourage non-conforming uses within that zone.

"If we are going to zone an area commercial, we should plan to do so. Do we even have the infrastructure along Algodones and Valencia that far in?" he questioned. "We didn't say no growth. We said controlled growth with input."

Joe Quintana, the regional planning manager for the Mid-Region Council of Governments, said that if the developer did not get a site development plan approved by the town, the development could not go forward.

"They have to prove things like good access, on-site water and sewer," he said. "They should be able to tell you what the traffic generation is going to be."

Peralta resident Bryan Olguin asked what if the community didn't care if the infrastructure was expanded. "What if the community doesn't want the infrastructure built up?" he asked. "We don't want to see the quality of life harmed through this process."

Olguin was one of the original members of the committee to incorporate the town and is the president of the Valencia-Peralta Historic Neighborhood Association.

Quintana said the site development plan review by the council does not require public review. "If there is a request for a zone change, then it goes before the public for input at that time," he said. "If it is already zoned commercial and the development is a permissible use under the ordinance, there is no public input."

He continued, stating that only zone change requests and requests for a variance of some type received public input.

Councilor Nancy "Pug" Burge said that right now, there are lots along the highway that are still available for development. "We need to develop that area to the fullest extent," she said.

Ivan Boyd, also a member of the committee to incorporate, said that was consistent with the planning and vision for the town. Burge said that a lot has been said that the reason for incorporation was so the area would stay the way it is.

"That keeps echoing in my head. People want to keep how things look and how the land is used," she said. "Most of the lots we are talking about are not used in any commercial way. I feel that we are being true to what we've talked about over the last two years."

Romero said he felt the proposed zone change from commercial to residential had brought about a public outcry. "Some people bought because it was commercial," he said. "By changing it to residential, in some ways, we are disenfranchising them."

One such citizen is Faatin Bizzari, a landowner and resident of Peralta. According to Bizzari, he was part of the incorporation movement when it was in its infancy.

"At the very beginning of the incorporation effort, it was wanted so as to not be affected adversely by other entities," he said in a phone call last Friday. "Now these Johnny-come-latelies are doing something no one asked them to do."

Bizzari said he purchased his land because it was zoned commercial and he has since made infrastructure improvements to the property that will facilitate the future development of a commercial enterprise.

"They are taking away my rights and my value," he said.

Value in

the eye of the owner

At the Nov. 13 meeting, several local mortgage experts and real estate appraisers were invited to address whether a commercial zone on a piece of property automatically increased its value.

The consensus reached was maybe. The value of the property depended on other variables such as location and access, the experts agreed. Real estate appraiser George Koch said that being zoned commercial does not automatically mean that the property is worth more on the market.

"It's not necessarily worth more, because commercial might not be the best use for that property," Koch said. "I've seen businesses fail on one side of a street when they would have succeeded on the other side of the road because of better traffic flow. There are a lot of things that enter into the success of a business other than the word commercial."

People also wanted to know what, if any, impact the proposed zone change would have on property taxes. Even though the town now has governance over land use, it does not determine property tax rates. That duty still falls to the county assessor.

According to the assessor's office, the type of improvements made determines property value. If a property has commercial improvements made such as a warehouse or office building, the property will be assessed at a commercial rate.

If the property has only residential improvements, such as a dwelling, it is assessed at a residential rate. The zone of the property has no bearing as to the assessed value for the purposes of property taxes.

There is currently a moratorium on zoning changes and land development within the municipality. The original 90-day moratorium was passed on July 25 to give the town time to adopt its own zoning ordinance.

It was due to expire on Oct. 25, but was extended for another 90 days at the council's Oct. 23 meeting after the council tabled the zoning ordinance. It will run through January.

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