Planning Commission Meeting Thu, Feb 5, 2026 · Planning Commission https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/1295 == Executive Summary == The Planning Commission meeting covered several key items, including the approval of agenda changes and past meeting minutes. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to a presentation on the city's Affordable Housing Department, detailing the Santa Fe Homes Program, the fee-in-lieu option for developers, and the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This presentation highlighted the city's efforts to increase affordable housing and the financial mechanisms in place to support these initiatives. Two major development plans were also discussed in detail. The first was a proposed four-story AC Marriott Hotel on Cerrillos Road, which generated considerable public and commissioner concern regarding traffic impact, building height, and the protection of a prairie dog colony. The second was the redevelopment of 214 Camino de los Marquez into 83 multi-family units for Santa Fe Opera apprentices, which was largely supported for its contribution to affordable housing and urban revitalization. After extensive discussion and public comment, the AC Marriott Hotel plan was narrowly approved with conditions, while the Camino de los Marquez project received unanimous approval. == Key Decisions == - Approved changes to the meeting agenda, moving staff communications and swapping the order of two development cases (Passed 7-0). - Approved a time extension for a development plan at 7261 Airport Road (Consent Decree Case 2026-111-807) (Passed 7-0). - Approved the minutes from the December 18, 2025 meeting with minor corrections (Passed 6-0, Commissioner McGee abstained). - Approved the Development Plan for the AC Marriott Hotel at 1101 and 1103 Cerrillos Road (Case 2025-11380) with technical corrections and staff comments, including provisions to soften the building's corner and make a good faith effort to relocate prairie dogs (Passed 3-3, Chair broke tie with a Yes vote). - Approved the Development Plan for 214 Camino de los Marquez (Case 2025-111386) for 83 multi-family units, subject to conditions of approval and technical corrections (Passed unanimously). == Motions & Votes == - Motion to amend agenda — Passed 7-0 - Motion to approve consent decree (case 2026-111-807) — Passed 7-0 - Motion to approve December 18, 2025 minutes — Passed 6-0 (Commissioner McGee abstained) - Motion to approve Development Plan for AC Marriott Hotel (Case 2025-11380) with technical corrections and staff comments, with added provisions to soften the corner and make a good faith effort to relocate prairie dogs — Passed 4-3 (Chair broke tie with a Yes vote) - Motion to approve Development Plan for 214 Camino de los Marquez (Case 2025-111386) subject to conditions of approval and technical corrections in Attachment A — Passed unanimously == Public Comment == The public comment period was primarily focused on the proposed AC Marriott Hotel. Residents expressed significant concerns about existing severe traffic congestion on Cerrillos Road, particularly at the St. Francis intersection, and predicted the hotel would worsen these issues. Many opposed the four-story height, calling it an "eyesore" and out of character for Cerrillos Road, and raised fears about shadows causing ice on the road and train tracks. Questions were also raised about parking sufficiency, service entrances, and the lack of "story poles" to visualize the building's impact. One former County Commissioner submitted a letter opposing the hotel. For the Camino de los Marquez project, one neighbor, Sarah Birmingham, acknowledged developer responsiveness but raised concerns about traffic safety, waste management noise and practices, increased light and noise from balconies, and drainage. She also requested the Opera manage resident behavior. Several Opera board members and staff spoke in strong support of the project, highlighting its importance for apprentice housing and the Opera's economic impact. == Topics == - Affordable Housing Program - Axton Apartment Project - Tree Preservation - Meeting Agenda Approval - Consent Decree Approval - December 2025 Minutes Approval - Axton Apartment Management - Axton Apartment Design - Axton Apartment Waste Management - HUD Fair Market Rent - Affordable Housing Funding Allocation - Pledge of Allegiance - Staff Swearing-In == Full Transcript == I got my computer on. I can't see them. Can't see them. Oh, I already, I just mean that. So, yes, it looks like cool. Madam Chair, good evening. I will call the February 5th, 2026 regular meeting of the Planning Commission into session. The first matter of business is the Pledge of Allegiance. Commissioner McGee, can you lead us? United States of America. Commissioner Morando, present. Commissioner Reland, present. Commissioner Embry, Commissioner Capen, Commissioner McReynolds, present. Commissioner Barber, here. We have quorum. Thank you. The next matter is the approval of the agenda. Do we have any changes to the agenda? Yes, Madam Chair. I think what we want to do is move the matters from the staff up before we hear any cases so that we can get a presentation done and then you may wish to pull the audience. Yes. So we're looking at possibly moving the cases so that we would hear the Camino de los Marcos case second and the Serios Road case first because Commissioner McGee and I will be recusing ourselves. But I don't want to do that if it's going to inconvenience people in the audience. So, are there people here in the audience that want to participate and comment in the Camino? One person. And what about online? Do we have Zoom? If there is anybody who wishes to participate in the Camino de los Marcos apartment complex, please raise your hand. Madam Chair, I see no hands raised. So there's one person. So is it all right if we move them around? Okay. So we'll, I recommend that we do that if someone will make a motion. So, just to make sure, we're moving the communication from staff up before new business and we're swapping the arrangement. We're going to hear the Marriott Hotel first. Yes. Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to move matters from staff first on the agenda and then flip cases 11386 and 11380. So having 11380 come first, the 1101 and 1103 Serios development plan. Okay. A roll call please. Commissioner Smith. Yes. Commissioner Morando. Yes. Commissioner McGee. Yes. Commissioner Reland. Yes. Commissioner Barber. Yes. Commissioner McReynolds. Yes. Madam Chair, the motion's passed. Thank you. The next matter is the approval of the consent decree. Comment on that or is there a motion to approve? Madam Chair, in case 2026-111-807 at 7261 Airport Road Development Plan, a time extension. I'd like to make a motion to approve. Is there a second? Commissioner McGee. Second. Roll call, please. Vice Chair Smith. Commissioner Morando. Yes. Commissioner McGee. Yes. Commissioner Reland. Yes. Commissioner Barber. Yes. Commissioner McReynolds. Yes. Madam Chair, the motion is passed. Thank you. And then next we will move to the approval of the December 18th, 2025 minutes. I have three changes. There's three matters that were voted on and it shows that I voted on those matters and I did not. So that needs to be taken out. Any other changes? Not. Move it. I move the minutes. Second. Roll call, please. Vice Chair Smith. Commissioner Morando. Yes. Commissioner McGee. Abstain. Commissioner Reland. Yes. Commissioner Barber. Yes. Commissioner McReynolds. Yes. Madam Chair, the motion is passed. Thank you. And next we'll have the Assistant City Clerk, Xavier, swear in city staff. Daniel Esel, 200 Lincoln Avenue. These items. Yes. Thank you. Heather Lamboy, 200 Lincoln Avenue. Thank you very much. Okay. Now, we will move to staff communications, presentation by the Affordable Housing Department, Fabiola Chavez. Thank you, Madam Chair Clow, members of the Commission. My name is Fabiola Chavez. I am the Director of Affordable Housing. Today I will be sharing with you our fee-in-lieu program and how it works with the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. So, the Santa Fe Homes program. Can you, it's not showing. Something. I'm going to email it to you again. Okay, you're good. It's safe. Get one more. While we get set up, I just want to say Happy New Year to everybody. This is our first meeting for the year 2026. I have a question. Are we having a second meeting this month? I don't think so. Okay. Okay, thank you for your patience. I'm so sorry, Commissioners and Chair Clow. I apologize for that. So again, my name is Fabiola Chavez. I'm the Director of Affordable Housing and we're going to be discussing the fee-in-lieu program and how those funds go circulating into our Affordable Housing Trust Fund and how we redeploy those into the community. So, the first slide, slide number two, is our Santa Fe Homes program. And the Santa Fe Homes program requires developers to include affordable housing units in their development. So if a developer comes into the City of Santa Fe and they want to incorporate track homes into the city, we require that at least 20% of those homes be set aside for affordable housing. Our rental multifamily housing developers are also required to fulfill the requirement of set aside for affordable housing and we require 15% of those units be set aside for affordable housing. Next slide. Slide number three. So, the Santa Fe Homes program home ownership projects, projects that are 10 units or less, have the option to pay a fee-in-lieu or 20% of those units are set aside for affordable housing developments. And then projects that are 11 units or more. So if you're developing track homes 11 units or more, we require that you commit 20% of your development to affordable housing and you are not eligible as a developer for the fee-in-lieu program. Slide number four. So there are many ways for rental housing development projects to incorporate the fee-in-lieu and then the 15% set aside. And so we ultimately do require that you come in and fill out an agreement and then that agreement goes to the Planning Division and then they will see that your project is set aside for affordable and then that leads you to other pathways to include some fee waivers for the Water Department. So home ownership sales, we do also require that if you're a single family developer, you don't excessively charge for home ownership. So in this example on slide five, we do require that let's say for instance, you are purchasing a five-bedroom or a four-bedroom home. These prices do not go over $350,000 depending on the area median income level. So what ultimately means, what that means is that developers eat the remainder of that cost. So they're not allowed to sell homes that are higher than $350,000. The next slide. So what is the Santa Fe Homes fee-in-lieu program? So the Santa Fe fee-in-lieu, the Santa Fe Homes program requires developers to include affordable units within their development. A fee-in-lieu option is offered for the following eligible projects. Home ownership projects again 10 units or less. Rental housing projects. The fee is calculated through a fee-in-lieu process and used to fund the city's affordable housing development. I will add that last year in 2025 we received approximately $900,000 from the fee-in-lieu program that went back into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. So it is helping to deploy additional resources. So the next slide, slide number seven, there are many benefits for the fee-in-lieu program. It streamlines the approval process. There's a simplified source of financing and it leverages funding for affordable housing projects which is very important for our community. It funds a variety of activities. So how is the fee? Next slide. Slide number eight. How is the fee-in-lieu calculated? It's not as complicated as it seems. Again, it's the 15% set aside for multifamily housing developments. And we base this on HUD's fair market rents that are published on an annual basis. And so our developments are required to incorporate 15% of their development as affordable. The established base fee by unit, it starts again with the fair market rate. And then we subtract the average rents across the affordable housing tier to identify the rental gap. We multiply that by two for the base fee. And then to calculate the monthly cost, we will take the, we'll multiply the number of affordable units by the base fee and the unit type. And then we determine the total fee by multiplying that by 24 months. And on the next slide you'll see that calculation and how it, how it affects the project. So in this particular case there's a 90 unit development and they have one-bedrooms and all the way up until three bedrooms. You'll see that the 15% comes out to a total of 13.5. The fee, the monthly fee is calculated and then we have to multiply that by 24 which gives us the $425,000. Ultimately, what this means is that we are collecting about one year's worth of cash flow upfront from the development to inject into our Affordable Housing Trust Fund. So the next slide represents how the funds are deployed. So the Santa Fe fee-in-lieu program will come in and then we'll appropriate that to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and then we'll award projects. The next slide will demonstrate our impact that we had in 2025. So the Affordable Housing Trust Fund funded approximately $3,675,000 in projects. Our CDBG program, which is the Community Development Block Grant, which is an award from HUD, we deployed approximately $480,000 to support affordable housing initiatives. Next slide demonstrates the developer benefit. Developers get a density bonus. Developers may permit to, may be permitted to build a higher density of units on the site than typically allowed. Enables, this enables more affordable units per acre. The exchange for creating afford, and is an exchange for creating affordable housing. The fee, the fee waiver allows for eligible Santa Fe Homes programs and affordable housing units being developed in our community. The reduction, the reduced water fees reduces the utility rates for our Santa Fe Homes affordable housing units. And with that, I'll end and answer any questions that you may have. Any questions? Commissioner McGee. Hi, thank you. I'm curious, do you know how long homes are required to be affordable in Santa Fe? So the affordable housing set aside restriction is five years if it is a single family dwelling. And then the other set aside for multifamily is 20. 20 years. 20 years. Okay. And then do you know if a family has to be a certain size for each level of AMI? No. It's all based on the area median income requirements and if the units can support their family size. Gotcha. And then last question. Do you know how often the HUD fair market rent is updated? Yes, it's updated on an annual basis. Okay, thank you. Oh, and actually. So, I would assume that that fair market rent is based on the City of Santa Fe. Yes. Okay. So, that's a HUD issued determination and they do it throughout the United States. They, they do the calculation on what they determine is the fair market rent. Thank you. No further questions. Thank you. Commissioner Smith. Yes. You may, I mean, not know the history of this, but I'm interested in why rental housing was excluded and is not under a fee-in-lieu mandate the way constructed housing is. So multifamily housing development projects are definitely subject to the fee-in-lieu. So it's a 15% set aside that they're required to have. I, okay, good. I didn't, I don't think your slide said that. At least I didn't get it. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner McReynolds. Thank you for your presentation. I had a question on how, once the funds are in the affordable trust fund, how are they allocated to different organizations for down payment assistance? Because I saw a number of organizations mentioned in that one slide. How is that determined? Just some insight on that. That's a great question. Thank you, Commissioner. So, we are required to do a formal solicitation every year for our allocation of funding. This is either the CDBG program and also the affordable housing trust fund. So, it is a competitive process, and each either nonprofit or for-profit developer is eligible to apply for the RFP, and those come out usually in March or April of every year. Okay, got it. And is there, so obviously there's a number of organizations in Santa Fe that do affordable housing and that specialize in down payment assistance. Is the amount that they qualify for based on their capacity, or is it based on what they request? Is it just a full transparent request? So, what happens, we have funding that we allocate to organizations like Homewise and Housing Trust. Some of those fundings come through the general fund, and what they do is they, with those dollars, they income-eligible, they do income eligibility for homeowners and people seeking rental assistance. So, what happens is that once they do the determination, then they have an allocation of homes that are readily available from these developers. It could be PY, it could be whoever in our community that's developing. These developers have to work with these two organizations to get their income-qualified folks into housing. Got it. So there's, and you may not be a part, I don't think you are a part of this conversation, but for instance, the Housing Trust is a smaller organization staff-wise versus Homewise. So it's not like a set amount that's given to Homewise. It's really more like what their capacity is and what they're requesting throughout a given year, basically. Right, in terms of development. So whatever their capacity can handle for development concepts and development infrastructure, that's what they, that's how they apply. And then on an annual basis through the general fund, we fund their entities to qualify people for income eligibility requirements. And then I have one more follow-up if that's all right. Sure. What, and this may not be, obviously it's a shifting number, but typically what is the percentage of developers that is choosing to pay the fee in lieu versus just building affordable housing? Yeah. So, for the majority of our developers, they do like that fee option. So many of them do choose to do that, and it is also beneficial for us. We are a very small but mighty department. We only receive two sources of revenue into our department right now, and that's through affordable housing trust fund and also CDBG. So, we do have the mansion tax, but because of the circumstances, we're not able to use those dollars yet. However, these money that come in from our developers are really impacting our community at the end of the day because we put those funds into the affordable housing trust fund and redeploy it for affordable housing projects. Sorry, one last question. Go ahead. Could you give me the full of that acronym, the Community Development Block Grant? No further questions. Thank you, Commissioner Morando. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, just a couple of questions. I think following up on maybe where Commissioner Smith was going. So what I have always wondered was, you know, definitely it seems like fee in lieu of is, let's say, lighter on rental units, right? Or more available, I should say. I should say affordable housing because of fee in lieu of is much lighter on rental, right? Yes. So is there a thought process of why in lieu of is always made available to rental units versus affordable housing ownership? Madam Chair, Madam Chair and Commissioners, yes, indeed, there are mechanisms for track housing developers to incorporate 20% of their development to affordable housing. So single-family developers, whether you're KB Homes or PY or somebody like that, you are required to do the 20%. Paying the fee in lieu is not an option for you as a large track home developer. One of the things that we've considered in the housing department, just know that I've only been here since September, so it's very, very new, but we are thinking about increasing our affordable housing percentage from 15 to maybe 18 and getting a little bit more impact. But that would have to be an ordinance change, and we would have to have that changed at the ordinance level. Yes, Heather. Thank you, Chuck. I'd like to point out to Commissioner Mirando that we went through a lot of things when it came to the Phase One update of the Land Development Code. Part of Phase One is a small change into the in-lieu program, which means that developers can opt to pay a fee, but they will not get the density. So that hopefully will inspire more developers to develop affordable units on site. And the percentage, just with a broad brush of numbers in the past year in terms of approvals, is probably about 10% actually do provide partial or affordable units, you know, partial number because not before with the development on a Korea or affordable units on site. So trying to inspire them because multifamily housing is a need for affordability in addition to single-family housing. So, but that change in the code, I think, will be telling to us and inspiring developers to provide it on or multi. Just one follow-up question. Is the time difference the reason that for rent there's so much access to the fee in lieu instead of single-family? Or I've just always been curious why for rental there's almost full access to it, whereas for ownership it's capped. Madam Chair, Commissioner, I'm sorry, I don't have my glasses, so I can't see everyone's name, so I apologize. But in terms of the cap, are you talking about the 15% or are you talking about the 20%? Yeah. I believe Commissioner Morando is asking why single-family home developments that are over 10 units require 20% affordable housing, whereas we allow rental units, like multifamily developments, regardless of the number, to access that fee in lieu of. And I have been told, and maybe correct me if I'm wrong, that historically, many years prior, when this, when we came up with the percentage of affordable housing requirement, we saw a major decline in multifamily home developments. And so the city made the decision to implement fee in lieu of in order to still provide some funds for affordable housing and give developers an opportunity to pay into it. Either way, Madam Chair, Commissioner McGee, thank you for that clarification. As a multifamily housing developer, you would never want to put a burden on a multifamily housing development because then they won't cash flow, and the project won't succeed. So, the cash flow is a little tighter with multifamily housing development, especially when you incorporate low-income housing tax credits. So, the low-income housing tax credit requirements require that a development have a, it's called a debt service coverage ratio. And that debt service coverage ratio cannot exceed usually like 1.24. And so, when you require more of the units to be affordable, it begins to really impact the project's ability to cash flow because lower AMIs and lower rents will inhibit the ability for a project to cash flow. And so when you're doing track home development, you have a little bit more leeway on the development percentages and what you're able to do for the set aside. But again, this is based on the ordinance. The ordinance was created before my tenure. So I, you know, I just have to follow what it currently states, and unfortunately, that's what we have in front of us today. Thank you, Commissioner Smith. Yeah, as I remembered, I think there was no multifamily housing being built from probably about 2008 until the last three years. I mean, it was the economy for a while, and then it just became, it was not, I mean, people couldn't make it work financially. And so that's why the city passed on multifamily because nothing was being built, and that's why all of a sudden there's a lot being built shockingly. Yes, Commissioner Barber. Just want to check my understanding. So, for single-family housing, the developer has to allocate 20% of those houses being built for low-income housing or affordable income housing, right? Yes, afford. Okay. But they're not eligible at all for the fee in lieu. That's correct. My other question is, does this apply only to brand new housing? Yes. Okay. Yes. So, let's say, for example, we have a single family. They move into a brand new development. They're there for two years, and then they move out. Can someone else come in and, you know, apply and still be able to buy that house at an affordable price? It's a great question. Thank you for asking it, Madam Chair, members of the commission. You are required to have your home for five years. And then if you want to sell that home, you are required to at least try to sell it to an income-eligible resident. You have to try for at least 60 days. And then if you are not able to, then we will allow you to sell it in the open market. And we do get paid back for the down payment assistance if that's if we injected down payment assistance to it. Any other questions? Commissioner Wheeland. Madam Chair, so you mentioned the excise tax. At this point, what is the city holding, and is there any future on that of when you'll be able to allocate those funds? Well, we're keeping our, thank you for asking that question, Commissioner. Madam Chair, we are really hoping that we can utilize those funds. My department is very understaffed, and so we are really hoping that we can use those funding sources. The reason why we're not allowed to use them right now is that we are on, there's some ongoing litigation. We don't want to have, we don't want to use it and then have to pay it back. So, we're holding it as a set aside in one of the accounts. And what is that that you're holding exactly, the amount? The last I heard it was pretty substantial. So, I believe it's somewhere in the range of $2 million, but please don't quote me on that. I'm not really keeping track of the balance because I haven't been awarded or it hasn't been allocated to my department as of yet, but it is very impactful. Thank you, Heather. I just want to draw the attention of the commission to the fact that we have some tools for tracking affordable housing, and on our digital platform, it's called the Residential Pipeline. I'm going to share my screen really quickly. You can access it via the SantaFeforward.org website, and it's, you know, it's our digital platform in the Residential Pipeline map. It's called the City Smart. It illustrates on GIS what the developments are that have been approved and then what portion is affordable and what portion is not affordable. So, for instance, for Ross's Peak, which there was a photograph of one of the units that's over in Laseris, there are 182 units that were approved. 36 of them are affordable, and those are ones that actually are built on site. So, inclusion is what that means. So, I just wanted to let you all the public know about this tool. So if they would like to take a look at that, they could. Thank you. Anything else? Not. Thank you very much. That's helpful. We'll now move to case number 2025-11380, case number U11380, 1101 and 1103 Cerrillos Road Development. Apologies for the delay. You're all about, I understand it's going to take about seven minutes for this to kick in. So, we'll go ahead and have a seven-minute break, probably, unless you have something different. It's my explanation. I took the one that was the latest timestamp on it. Still dead in the air. Madam Chair, I think we're ready to go. Good evening, Commissioner. Madam Chair, Commissioners, this is case... We have to start the meeting. Come back. 11380. About lunch. 1101. Break. You have to come back out of the break so that... Yes, so we are now back in session. And do you want to swear in Claudia? I'm still rebooting, but let's see. Do you solemnly, please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear and affirm that the testimony you're about to receive is the truth and nothing but the truth under the penalty of perjury? I do. Thank you. Okay. This is case 2025-11380, which is 1101 and 1103 Cerrillos Road. The applicant is Titan Development. The agent is Jacens Gavin, and I am Claudia Cath, the case planner. So, the applicant requests approval of a development plan for a 79,000 square foot, four-story, 150-room AC Marriott hotel. The properties comprise 3.40 acres and are located within the Suburban Archaeological Review District, the Cerrillos Highway Corridor, Zone 1, and is our Zone C2 General Commercial. So this is the location and vicinity map. On there, you can see the site in the white triangle, which fronts primarily on Cerrillos, and the major cross street is St. Francis. And you can see the School for the Deaf is directly across from the site, and surrounding are government buildings, and to the north-ish is the Santa Fe Railway Park. Next slide. The two lower properties, 1101 and 1103, have a legal lot of record by plat that was pre-1962. The upper lot, we were able to provide a certificate of compliance for legal lot by exclusion because of Cerrillos Road to the northeast, the railway to the southeast, and the legal lot of the other two lots to the southwest, I guess. And these are some site photos looking north and south at the property. And then the next slide is some photos from the railway side. So the backside of the property. And next slide. So this is the site plan. As mentioned before, the building will be four stories with a maximum height of 45 feet, no below-grade construction. Some of the features include a meeting room, lounge, coffee bar, market, fitness room, and a rooftop terrace. There will be a total of 150 parking spaces. So, one per room, that's required, and the plan provides for 151. There are eight accessible spaces, including two van accessible spaces. Both are, they are, that's what is required and provided. The parking spaces will meet the standards parking style dimensions of the city with 9 feet wide and 18 feet long. So, as mentioned previously, all three lots combined create a 3.4-acre parcel at the intersection of Cerrillos Road and St. Francis. And Cerrillos borders to the northwest, the railway to the southeast, and the two commercial businesses to the south. The proposed development plan complies with C2 zoning standards and the Cerrillos Road Overlay District. So next slide. So that's the existing C2 zoning, and you can see the red, there's the C2 around it, and these are standards. So the height required is 45, proposed 45. Setbacks required is from the street is 15, 67 is proposed. From the side yard, 0 feet is required, but 51 and a half feet are proposed. From the rear, 10 feet is required, but 10.6 is proposed. The open space requirement is 20%, but 27% is proposed. And the required maximum lot coverage is 60%, but 13.4 is proposed. And if you go to the next slide, sorry, next slide, this is the future zoning map. So you can see basically what is red in the current zoning, it will become community commercial in the future land use map, and then the blue will become public institutional. So next slide. For the traffic impact analysis, the site currently has nine curb cuts along Cerrillos. And the proposal is to reduce those to two. So the one furthest to the upper left-hand part of the screen, that would be a right-in, right-out, or left-in curb cut. The one that's mid-block would be all access. Next slide. Also, I wanted to mention that there's no sidewalk currently abutting the site. And right now, there's just a volunteer path, a very narrow that goes through the dirt. And so, as part of the new plan, a 6-foot wide pedestrian sidewalk would be constructed. And this is the train management plan. Oh, sorry, this is the landscape plan. So you can see there will be proposed trees along Cerrillos and in the site. And if you go back one slide to the train management plan, you can see there are no trees, and the subject parcel is gently slopes from east to west with no drainage ways or axi areas exceeding 3% slope. And if there are steeper slopes, they're man-made, not naturally occurring. Okay, slide. And so, as mentioned previously, the landscape calls for new trees and shrubs, including parking lot medians bordering the building and adjacent to the drainage pond. And then the next slide is the lighting plan, which in the diagram, this complies with city standards and includes overhead downcast pole-mounted fixtures. And staff is adding a condition that the applicant revise the lighting plan to show all exterior fixtures and address nuisance glare with downlighting or shields on the fixtures. So next slide, this is the architecture. And according to these renderings from the applicant, the architectural design follows the Santa Fe style, featuring exterior stucco walls in a two-tone earth color. As mentioned previously, the building is four stories tall and includes more than 20,000 square feet of gross floor area. The publicly visible facades incorporate setbacks or wall projections. And while these do not meet the architectural standards, the building still meets all the points required for the C2 district. And so the exterior color scheme reflects the Santa Fe earth tones achieved through colored masonry. The structure includes a flat roof with concealed roof surfaces and screened mechanical equipment. So next slide. Next slide. So this is the fire one plan. And two 26-foot aerial apparatus access drives are provided along the west and north sides of the building, each with the required 28-foot turning radius as required by the IFC. The building will have an automatic fire suppression system. The two existing fire hydrants are located on the west side of Cerrillos directly across from the site, and a 6-inch fire line will connect to the water main and to the building through a backflow preventer and hot box. Next slide. So, for water resources, I'd like to invite Alan Hook from the Water Resources Department to go over this portion of the report. Good evening, everyone. Madam Chair. Mr. Hook. Oh, you raise your right hand. You can stay at the podium. State your name. Raise your right hand. State your name and address for the record. My name is Alan Hook. My address is 3188 Live Anita, San Marcos. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth and do so in the penalties of perjury? I do. Please proceed. Again, Madam Chair, good evening. I just wanted to sort of clarify a few things related to this project and how they are utilizing the city code for what's called an alternative water budget, if you're not familiar with it, and some of our technical comments related to this project. So first, this is kind of our offset fee chart. It's basically a calculation for every development, every type of development, how much their water usage or water demand would be based on the category. So this is a hotel, and you'll see in there in the middle, we have a standardized rate. This table is built out way back 2010. So based on the code, Chapter 14, 8.13 B2B, Section B2B, a development can choose not to use this calculation for a hotel. So it's water usage per room, the hotel, and instead choose their own rate, basically, compared to reliable data to other comparable hotels in this instance. So they chose that for their development water budget. So, if you want to go to the next slide, it's on there. As you can see, they're using 0.08 acre feet per hotel unit. And we're fine with alternative development water budgets, but one of the comments, technical comments, we said they were using the El Rey Hotel that was traditionally a motor lodge hotel in, there was Spring Hill Suites, which we don't have a Spring Hill Suites in Santa Fe. I did mention they could use, there's a Marriott that's in Santa Fe for comparable comparison. And then there's also a Residence Inn that could be used. The other factor in this development water budget that wasn't finalized is any development, especially if it's prior usage, you'll see in the yellow line there, they can go back 10 years for the previous landowner and look at their water usage. So the highest 24 months, so two years of water usage, then 10 years back of the previous property owner, and they deduct that their total water budget. So they haven't finished that yet. It says to be determined. So as of right now, we don't have a finalized water budget for this project. And right now, given it's a commercial project, anything over 5 acre feet requires the transfer of water rights into the city. So that is a process that has to be completed before they can get a construction permit. And you'll see that on page, it's page 10. It addresses the transfer process for this development project. And with that, I stand for any questions that you might have. Oh, okay. Sorry. Specific to the water bill. Thanks, Alan. So, next slide. We're almost done, I promise. This is the utility map. And you can see the in the dashed pink is gas, and the proposed, the solid is proposed gas. The existing sewers, the dashed green, and the proposed sewers, the solid green. And then the solid blue and solid red are a new 4-inch domestic water line. And for fire, it's a new 6-inch fire line. Next slide. And for signage, we are working with the applicant. They're proposing three signs: a monument sign, a wall sign, and a portico sign, which appear to be compliant with city code, but we will need a more detailed sign permit or, you know, submission from them. And next slide. So the applicant properly noticed for the early neighborhood notification meeting, and that was held on September 30th of 2025. Approximately 31 community members attended. Discussion centered around concerns regarding traffic, building design, building height, environmental impacts, use, safety, and the need for a new hotel. Next slide. The Land Use Department recommends approval of case 2025-11380, subject to the conditions of approval and technical corrections outlined in Attachment A. And next slide. One motion is required in this case to approve or deny case 2025-11380 for 1101 and 1103 Cerrillos Road, subject to the conditions of approval and technical corrections in Attachment A. Next slide. Next slide. And that is it. I stand for questions. Any clarifying questions from the commissioners? Commissioner Wyland: So, in reading the traffic study that was provided to us in the documents, the DOT made it very clear that they did not want a left-in, right-out on the side of the project. But I saw in your presentation you still had it as a left-in, right-out. So, we have Leroy Pacheco here from Public Works who may be able to address that better, but the idea is that it would be right-in, right-out at the entrance closest to Burrito Stop, but then you could also make a left into that driveway as well. Okay. No, and I saw that it said left-in or left, yeah, left-in, right-out. The DOT clearly stated in their documents that they did not agree with that in the analysis of the traffic study and also mentioned that the upcoming work that's to be completed on Cerrillos Road would actually complicate the left-hand turn onto Cordova Road. So yeah, if Leroy could talk to us and give us some clarity on this. Please state your name and address for the record. Leroy Pacheco: 313 Lumina. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, to do so under the penalties of perjury? Leroy Pacheco: I do. Please proceed. Madam Chair, Commissioner Freeman, I think it should start with the DOT is currently the owner of Cerrillos Road in this section and we're included in the traffic scoping for the TIA that was done and had reviewed all traffic documents as well as the city's traffic engineering agents. You are correct. Kathleen Garcia did make a note and the developer agreed to all conditions set by the DOT. So, this hotel will incorporate the road reconstruction plans as part of its development plan and there will be no changes to the DOT's plans as this makes its way. So we don't know where the road will be rebuilt first or the hotel will come first, but that communication will be carried through so that it's current and the DOT's designs will determine that hotel's access. This at the moment is the most current that we know and the, I guess it's the westernmost or southernmost driveway, will be right-in, right-out only. Right-in, right-out only. Oh, no. Well, you can take a, you can't take a right-in. Okay. So, it's a right-in only. It's a little late and we've had so many breaks, but we're going to conform to what the DOT needs. So, if and maybe we'll save this for the applicant, but so then you're telling us there is truly only one ingress to this property. Then at that point for 150 hotel units, that's a right-out. The traffic has been analyzed, the operation, and I believe there's also a deceleration lane into the hotel so that traffic turning into the hotel will have its own access lane to slow down, stop, and turn into the traffic moving through Cerrillos Road continue on with that. One access point would have a deceleration. Any other questions? If not, we'll move on to the applicant. Let's go ahead and get sworn in. Good evening, Madam Chair, Commissioners. I'm Jennifer Jenkins with Jenkins Gavin and I'm joined by Josh Rogers and Ian Robertson with Titan Development Group and we're prepared to be sworn in. Please raise your right hands and speak clearly into the mic your addresses. Jennifer Jenkins: Jennifer Jenkins, 130 Grant Avenue. Josh Rogers: Josh Rogers, 6300 Riverside, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ian Robertson: Robertson, 6300 Riverside. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth, nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? Jennifer Jenkins: I do. Please proceed. Oh, that was pretty painless. Thank you for your patience. Nice to see you all. So, I have a fairly brief presentation and I'll try to touch on some of the questions from Commissioner Wyland as we go through it and then I'll be happy to stand for. So, I'm going to move through because Claudia's presentation was obviously very thorough. So, I'm not going to waste a lot of time on some of the particulars, but I think we all know where the site is located. And we are in an area of mixed zoning but surrounded by C2 zoning. And looking at the standard requirements which you talked about, of course a hotel is a permissible use in the C2 district. We are compliant with the maximum height. We're compliant with setbacks. And while the lot coverage is permissible at 16%, a 60% lot coverage and lot coverage refers to the amount of roofed area you can have on a property. So in C2 you can go up to 60% of the parcel with roofed area. We're at like 13.4% of roofed area. Second, I just have to some things. Excellent. So, this is the, there we go. This is the proposed site plan. And so, we do have two access points proposed that this is our central main access, which is a full access that is aligned with the access, the one of the access points to the New Mexico School for the Deaf across the street. And then our southern or southwestern access is limited to an exit only, a right-out only. And that was in accordance with the requirements of the New Mexico Department of Transportation. So with respect to open space, the code does require 20% of the site be dedicated as open space and landscaped areas. We are providing over 25% open space. One thing I think is worth pointing out with respect to our Cerrillos frontage, we are in the Cerrillos Highway corridor overlay which has some unique requirements. So between the kind of what we call the back of curb on Cerrillos, we're going to have a 5-foot planter strip which is going to have street trees. We're going to have a 6-foot brand new sidewalk because the pedestrian connectivity in this area is, we call it absent. So, we're really excited about providing that and improving that connectivity. And then behind the sidewalk, we have another 10-foot landscape buffer that is required per the Cerrillos Road overlay. So we have a total of 15 feet of landscaping that within that area is a 6-foot sidewalk. So the experience of this stretch of Cerrillos Road visually and for pedestrians is going to improve tenfold. So these are just some of the specifics on the hotel program. We, it's a four-story building. There's approximately 20,000 square feet per floor and there also is an exterior roof terrace at the. So we did conduct a traffic impact analysis and as Mr. Pacheco pointed out, we met with the City Public Works Department as well as the Department of Transportation to determine the scope of the analysis and this is the, this is the first thing that has to happen. We just don't get to decide which intersections we study. We are told, it is mandated to us by the applicable jurisdictions which intersections we are going to study. So we studied a series of five intersections. So we analyzed Cerrillos Road at St. Francis. We analyzed this access to the School for the Deaf. It's number three. Fortunately, these aren't in order as you go down the street. And then number four is the other access point into the School for the Deaf. And that is the, that is the access that we, our access will align with. Number five is a southernmost access into the School for the Deaf and number two is Cerrillos and Cordova Road. So I know a lot of you have heard my little spiel about traffic studies but do indulge me a little bit. So when we do traffic studies the first thing we do is we go out and we literally count cars. We need to understand the existing conditions and we count cars at intersections. Traffic studies are based on how do intersections perform because those are the choke points of any roadway network. Right? If you're just on a road and there's no stop signs, no signals, and you're just free flowing, you're going to cruise right along. That's why freeways have great levels of service, right? So intersections are where we can experience delay, vehicular delay in a roadway network. So we analyze the traffic moving through the intersections. We do it at the what we call the AM peak hour or the morning rush hour and we do it in the PM peak hour or the afternoon evening rush hour. So we're counting cars at the busiest times of the day. So then we have a baseline. We know how many cars are on the road right now. And then the Institute of Transportation Engineers, which is a national organization, they have data for every type of land use you could possibly imagine, and they look at how much traffic those various land uses nationwide, how much traffic do they generate? We don't get to decide and cherry-pick how many cars are going to be generated by this project. It's not up to us. We have to follow the regulations as established by the ITE. So then we take that what we call trip generation. We add it on top of the existing traffic. So we assume in two years when the hotel is operational, this is what the traffic on the road is going to look like at these intersections. Then we establish what is called a level of service. So it's like a grading system like when you were in school. Level of service A means minimal delay. You come to a stop sign, you look both ways, you're off, off you go. Not a lot of traffic at the intersection. And there are different standards for signalized intersections and unsignalized intersections. So as the delay increases slightly, then your grade level goes down. And so acceptable levels of service are typically anything A through E. And then you get to F, that means you have a, you either have a failing intersection or you can have a failing turning movement. You can have an intersection that works great 99% of the time and then in 15 minutes at 5:00 your left turn fails because there's excessive delay. So, we don't just analyze what's happening at the intersection. We analyze every single turning movement, the through traffic, the left turns, the right turns. So, it's very, very granular. So, these are the results of the traffic study and starting with the Cerrillos St. Francis intersection. Today, that intersection operates at a level of service of C. For the busiest intersection in the city of Santa Fe in an urban area, that is fantastic. Utterly spectacular level of service in the build condition. We have a slight degrade in the PM to a level of service D. Still acceptable. But here's what's interesting. When we project forward to when this hotel is potentially built, not only do we add the hotel traffic, we also add a background growth rate. We don't assume that the background existing traffic stays static. We assume population increases even though Santa Fe does not experience significant population increase and hasn't for a lot of years. We, we're conservative. So we assume a 1% annual growth rate. So in 2027 towards the end of '27 is when we would anticipate that the hotel could potentially be complete. That intersection is going to degrade to a level of service D even if this project doesn't happen. It's just the nature of how that the traffic impacts in that intersection are going to evolve. So then Cerrillos and Cordova, I mean really great operate level service B in the build and the no build and then we look at the NMSD driveways and again B's and C's across the board still really great levels of service and then and then of course our southernmost driveway which is that right-out operates at a level of service B in the build condition. So, our traffic study was reviewed by the City of Santa Fe Public Works Department, was reviewed by the Department of Transportation. We made some adjustments to the geometry in order to accommodate some of the comments that we received. So, this is the Cerrillos frontage here. So we are, as I mentioned, we are limited to a right-out only southern end. As you head north on Cerrillos, we have a 120-foot right-turn lane, so cars turning right into the project can get out of the travel lane. So that is for safety purposes. We have a dedicated left-turn lane that Mr. PCO referenced for southbound traffic heading into the project. Also, one of the things we were able to do really nicely is that this left-turn lane, there's an existing left-turn lane here serving the School for the Deaf. This is how you get into the James A. Little Theater. Sometimes this could back up, especially if there was an event. So what we were able to do is we were able to lengthen their turn lane. It doesn't do anything for us, but we're out here on Cerrillos Road. We're doing these improvements, and so we were able to lengthen their turn lanes. So that is going to function much better for the School for the Deaf. We're really happy we were able to do that. The length of these turn lanes, again, we don't get to decide. These are established by the traffic engineer who looks at the quantity of cars that are moving into the project and establishes what those minimum turn lane lengths are. Our engineering team from Terracon West is online, and so if there are any particular questions for them, they would be happy to answer. With that, I'm going to have Mr. Robertson come up and just walk you through the design of the building. Ian Robertson: Madam Chair, commissioners, and planning staff, first, thank you for your time. Thanks for letting us talk about the project and for all the work that's been done. We really appreciate it. My name is Ian Robertson. I'm a Director of Development for Titan Development. Prior to my work in the development field, I was an architect, and Josh was too. Partner in charge of this project, we're both really committed to creating beautiful spaces, walkable spaces, and respecting the urban environment. We're excited about this project because it's an opportunity to address a site that's basically infill. Although the site isn't currently vacant, as we'll talk about a little bit more, we do think we've made some improvements to the site. Looking at the elevations, I think the previous planning staff presentation was very thorough, and I appreciated that. What I will say about this is that we did have a previous design that was shown to neighbors and planning staff. We heard comments about that contemporary design, and it was very modern in the AC Hotel style, which some of you may be familiar with from other cities. In the spirit of the city different, we decided to address those concerns by completely redesigning the project in a way that we felt was honoring the Santa Fe history and heritage. This final design is the result of those choices that we made, and we did appreciate the neighbor comments about that. We always think that that makes a better project, not a worse one. Some of the comments we received were also regarding views, specifically views to the north of the mountains or northeast to some of the mountains that exist in that direction. We created this overland rendering to show, first off, that the existing building is to some degree blocking views from the street and pedestrian view. Also, to show just a little bit of where the Capital Flats project is. That's another project of similar height. In fact, just due to finished floor elevations, it does sit higher in elevation, although not in height from the ground. Then we also just showed that the predominant views are to the north, especially of the mountains. We also wanted to show a little bit about the before and after, what we have planned versus what's there now. The current use of the site has a lot of RVs, abandoned cars, there's no sidewalk, there's chain-link fence, there are weeds. Essentially, we feel that the urban design components of this, as Jennifer mentioned, are just a vast improvement in terms of walkability, also providing shade, and then just creating a generally better experience for any pedestrians or people driving by the site. In this conceptual rendering, some of our previous renderings sent to staff and shown in the staff presentation weren't fully realized with regards to landscape. So, we just sort of updated our conceptual rendering to show the level of landscaping. Although some of these trees are not the right species, it does show the density of the plantings that we plan on doing on the site and how we'll hopefully improve the streetscape significantly from where we started. I believe that's the last thing that we wanted to touch base on. Thank you. Thank you very much. That completes our presentation, and we'd be happy to stand for any questions. Thank you. Any questions? Commissioner Barber: In the traffic study, did you account for the railroad stop? Chair Clow: Commissioner Barber, it gets accounted for automatically in terms of when they're out there counting cars and looking at how long it takes cars to move through the intersection. Definitely, the through, we count cars for two to three hours. So the train definitely comes through there during that time period, and so it is, it's definitely in the mix. So all we have to do is say it took this, so it is accounted for in the delay with respect to that intersection. Absolutely. Any other questions? Commissioner Morando. Commissioner Morando: Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple in terms of the median. So is the median work entirely within your development plan, or is it just it's coordinated later with? Chair Clow: Thank you, Chair Clow, commissioners, Commissioner Morando. That's a great question. So yes, the improvements, the median work we're showing on Cerrillos Road is incorporated into our development plan, and we are coordinating also very closely with the DOT around the timing of their project. So what we're proposing here aligns with what the DOT is already proposing, and so we're just going to be again communicating very closely in terms of timing. So there are certain improvements if we're out of the gate first, we're going to do the improvements that we need to do to serve our project. If they're out of the gate first, then there'll be certain things that they will implement. So that's really, that's kind of where we are right now in terms of the schedule. Commissioner Morando: I guess I thought of it specifically. You know, in the rendering, we're showing a very nice median with landscaping on either side of it, and I wasn't sure if— Chair Clow: There is our frontage. We're responsible for that sidewalk and the landscaping along our frontage. That is definitely part of our construction plans. I didn't see a streetscape. Is there a streetscape that you might be able to just in terms of the section? Chair Clow: Had this that kind of shows you head northbound on Cerrillos, gives you a sense of— Chair Clow: So I made notes, and I'd like to make sure that they're right. So you have— Chair Clow: You have a planting strip in the front. Correct. Chair Clow: On the back of the curb adjacent to Cerrillos, we have a 5-foot planting strip. We have a 6-foot sidewalk. Chair Clow: And 10 feet. Is that what you said? Chair Clow: Then a 6-foot sidewalk and then another 10-foot landscape strip. So as in the rendering, I see it's particularly at the back of the site close to St. Francis. We have a really intense planting, right? But I couldn't, is that in, where is that? Is that in the median or that's in— Chair Clow: That's along our frontage. This is, yeah, this is right here. This is a driveway here that runs along the front of the building. This is Cerrillos Road out here. I'm sorry, my little hand. Yeah, maybe. See? Chair Clow: Yeah. So what that rendering you were seeing is as if someone was standing about here and looking down towards the project. So it is not this median area that I'm trying to show with my mouse. I hope you can see that. It's this area here that showed those additional plantings and trees. Chair Clow: So the plantings are in the 10-foot. Chair Clow: And there are plantings in the 5-foot, 6-foot sidewalk, and then another 10 feet of plantings. I do really like because it's Cerrillos that you have the five and then the 10, because there's just a huge safety component over the top of that. Chair Clow: Yeah, absolutely. Chair Clow: I do. It really does seem like that planting is really key for this project to not be a, yeah, yeah, not a big deal. Chair Clow: Okay, I appreciate it. Chair Clow: Great, thank you. Commissioner McGee: I just have a question about your proximity to the New Mexico School for the Deaf on the other side. Were there any considerations, like accessibility-wise, to accommodate? I don't even know if that's like required as part of code, but I'm wondering if it was like part of the traffic study if you had to make any considerations for students entering and exiting. I think I saw a mention that no schools, like there weren't, I'm just curious if there was any consideration for that. Did I miss it? Chair Clow: We definitely counted the vehicles. All three driveways into the School for the Deaf were part of our traffic study. So we absolutely are accounting for all of the traffic moving in and out of the campus. Absolutely. And one of the things we were able to work really closely with the School for the Deaf on our program, and one of the things that we are implementing with them because they have students who love to walk in the area. They want to go over to a and they want to go get a burrito, and all that kind of stuff. And so we're going to be doing training with our security staff in terms of how to engage with the deaf community, because they're going to, and they want our security staff to be kind of eyes and ears on the ground because these kids want to have some freedom, and the teenagers want to be able to go out and walk around and do their thing. So there's going to be a lot better pedestrian amenities there to serve that. And we also have our staff know that, you know what, there are kids in the neighborhood that are walking around, so let's be aware. And with that sensitivity training, if a kid is out walking and there's something sketchy going on and they need some support, they know they can come into the hotel and they can get what they need. Commissioner McGee: Got it. So I think what you're saying is there is some thought to the fact that you're placed across the street from students that are deaf. Chair Clow: Absolutely. Absolutely. Commissioner McGee: The primary mitigation is to train staff. Chair Clow: That is one of them. Yes, absolutely. Commissioner Morando: Madam Chair, just one more. So you had mentioned that there was a more contemporary design that, well, you, I believe, but— Chair Clow: Yes. Commissioner Morando: Development group there, sorry, I forgot your names. Chair Clow: Okay. Commissioner Morando: Do you have a representation of that at all? I know it's not relevant, but I'm interested. Chair Clow: I do. I could pull it up maybe, and then maybe after any public testimony, I'd be happy to share that. I just don't know if we, it would take me a minute to just dig it up, but I can absolutely share that. Commissioner Morando: Thank you. Any other questions? If not, we'll open it up to public comment. Okay, Commissioner Wyland. Commissioner Wyland: Thank you, Madam Chair. So, and I was trying to find this, but as I was reviewing all the documents, and it's extensive on this one, there was a mention of the waterline for the city that had to be either repaired or replaced. Is that due to the construction of this hotel, or is that just necessary maintenance? Chair Clow: That's actually just part of the Cerrillos Road reconstruction. Whenever they do this, they look at opportunities to do utility upgrades because you're out in the street anyway. So, it's just part of that project. Thank you. Okay, we'll now open this matter up for public comment. So, if anyone is here from the public who would like to make a comment on this project, please come forward. State your name and address for the record. Edward Archeletta, PO Box 2952, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this case shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? I do. Please proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair, Planning Commissioners. Good evening again. My name is Edward Archeletta, and I'm a co-director with the Old Santa Fe Association, which was founded 100 years ago this year to help preserve and protect the architectural cultural heritage of Santa Fe. We all know that the architecture in Santa Fe is unique in all the world and is one of the reasons people visit and move here. It's something natives like myself are very proud of. We are slowly losing that uniqueness to frankly poor design and planning like this project tonight. We really need another multi-story hotel in Santa Fe. The Old Santa Fe Association is united in opposing this development based mainly on its location and the traffic issues. The intersection of Cerrillos Road and St. Francis Drive is already overly congested. Traffic, especially at rush hour, backs up for blocks. I know this fact because I worked a block from this intersection for 15 years, and I worked right across from Los Chosa restaurant on Ellery Street. I lived down on the southside and I used this intersection constantly, and I would sit there forever just trying to cross that intersection, especially when the Rail Runner was coming through. I'd like to read to you something verbatim from the traffic impact analysis submitted by the applicant for this project. It can be found in the report, "Traffic Impact Analysis Report," on the ninth page, and it's marked as Roman numeral four, and I quote: "During turning movement counts at Cerrillos Road St. Francis, it was observed that eastbound traffic on Cerrillos Road backed up to the proposed main driveway of the Marriott, also serving the School for the Deaf, coinciding with the passage of the railroad through the signalized intersection. As traffic volumes continue to grow over time, this issue is expected to worsen." That's from their own traffic study. "During these periods, westbound traffic on Cerrillos Road may be unable to turn left into the main driveway, potentially resulting in complaints to the city and/or the New Mexico Department of Transportation." I'd also like to read an excerpt from a letter to the editor of today's New Mexican by former County Commissioner Anna Hansen, who couldn't be here tonight and asked me to read it. She states, "Building a hotel at this location is such a bad idea. St. Francis Cerrillos already is a compelled intersection that needs to be widened so traffic does not back up to Cordova. Instead, the Department of Transportation of the City of Santa Fe needs to buy or lease the land and widen the road. A hotel casting shadows also would create ice on the road in the early morning when residents are trying to get to work. We do not need a four-story building or any other building in this area. So, please, I hope that you seriously consider this application tonight. Thank you." Please state your name and address for the record. Unit 725 is here. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under penalties of perjury? I do. Please proceed. Here's a good question for all of you guys. Where's the closest four-story building that blesses Cerrillos Road on the whole stretch, all the way from Zephrano all the way down to El Dorado? There's not one. There's not one single four-story building at all. What we're doing to this corridor is we're changing this whole landscape all the way down. I could see if there were a four-story building somewhere. The state transportation is only a two-story. You have the lofts, the Cap Lofts, are on the other side of Early Street. They're set way back there. The Capital Flats are set way in the back, so we don't really notice them. This is going to be an eyesore as we go down Cerrillos Road. It's something that we haven't seen before, and changing this landscape that we come into our city is really a bad design. I mean, when I spoke at the ENN, I had suggested a two-story, but most of your hotels inside are all two-story buildings. So, there's nothing wrong with going down lower. You don't have to have that four-story building. If that's all you are is looking for money, then you're in the wrong game. I had spoke too about the icing on Cerrillos Road and the casting of the shadows. I was hoping to see story poles. I don't know if you guys know what story poles are, but poles that go up and they show the cast, the shadow. The courtesy of the developer and staff could have showed us story poles ahead of time, and we wouldn't have to have this conversation. But I really, really believe that's going to set a cast on Cerrillos for the longest time, especially come December, January, even February, because the sun is further down south. So, those are the times the ice sits up the longest. So, we're putting a lot of people in danger. That road just stays icy because we don't see those trucks. And then if the traffic's backed up so long, that ice is going to sit there for a long, long time. And I think that traffic with the Rail Runner, which was mentioned a lot more, it really backs up, and even when those gates don't even work, it backs up further. So, I really just think that this is really a bad idea to have a four-story building on this corridor at this point. I think if there was more that we could do that, but you look at the only four-story there is is El Dorado, and I think there's maybe one way up on Cerrillos by Zephyr. Other than that, there's not one at all. That's really a shame that the people want to come in and destroy the city. That is the way they want to do it now. This is not doing us any good for all the hotels we have in town. Go to a two-story building. Let's make us happy. They can still make their money. Don't need the four-story building. I thank you. Please state your name and address for the record. Hello, my name is Marsha Emerton, 2826 Vera Oriente. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do this under the penalties of perjury? Yes. Please proceed. First of all, I guess I could just say ditto to the last two people. I'm very much against this. We don't need it. Doesn't fit in any way, shape, or form into anything around there. To me, it just seems like a money-maker marriage. These presentations are always so good. They think of every detail, helping the kids across the street, doing things. The only thing I like about this are the trees and the sidewalk. It'd be nice to have a sidewalk. The rest of it seems like a debacle. And we keep building these things that aren't good for traffic. I don't know how long Cerrillos will be closed to do this, but that's going to be fun. But the new thing out on Zia and St. Francis, trying to get in and out of there, is going to be a mess. Everything always looks good until they start to build it, and then you go, "Well, how do you get out of here? There's no way to do it." So, just say no. Thank you. Please state your name and address for the record. Mary Shubin, 2119 Rancho Seringo Road. You solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? Yes. Please proceed. I have a lot of questions for the developer and the proposal to answer that I'd like the commission to be sure get addressed. What are exactly the plans that DOT has for the expansion of Cerrillos Road, especially the long-promised right turn lane going north onto St. Francis? There are 150 parking spaces for 150 rooms. There are no parking spaces for the staff, guests, or anybody else. And there's no description in the pictures that we were shown of where the service entrance is, nor where the laundry room and the hot air vent is located. And I think that those things need to be considered. I've been staying at Marriott hotels all my life, and I've seen places for those, and I've seen plenty of hotels that have none, and it's not fun. I'd like to know more details about the train traffic, the amount of time that either any of the streets, Cordova, St. Francis, or Cerrillos Road are blocked and no traffic is moving. I think that's an important factor, a number for you to know. They're not on, I could not see them on the chart. I'm very concerned about the left turn lane off of the southbound Cerrillos Road onto the middle or center opening, because that is, from my experience, I'm also always sitting there waiting for the second or third light to get up and get out of that space. So, I don't see that a left turn lane is going to be possible there, especially if it's not signaled. The next one, between the Capital Flats, I believe I have that right, hotel, I mean apartment buildings, and the hotel, the train tracks will be completely frozen during three or four months of the year. And that to me presents an extreme rail problem. And I don't believe that there is now any defrosting equipment there, and I don't know whether it will need to be provided by the Rail Runner outfit. I don't know what's going to happen, but that is for that length of line between St. Francis and Cordova. That is a very dangerous position for both the hotel and the Rail Yard Flats. In none of the photographs, drawings that we were shown, are any of the rail stop and go bars down, bars up, none of that equipment is shown. And I think that to be honest, that needs to be drawn in on all of the drawings and where it is and what it looks like from any perspective. As to the School for the Deaf, the promise of some kind of safety training for guards that will be inside the hotel is absolutely insufficient and not acceptable. And I'd like to see some pictures of the school buses entering and exiting on their side of the street of Cerrillos Road. And what new equipment will be required by the fire department if there is a serious rail accident and traffic accident when the one call truck ladder truck that we have is already occupied at another building? And how much is that going to cost, and which firehouse will be responsible for that? And one, two more. The closing of Cordova Road by the train will be compounded by the ice on the track. And the delays of that will, the delays on that traffic absolutely prevent Cordova from being used as an alternate road for traffic to avoid the entire intersection when it's going to be destroyed or incapacitated for any more time than five minutes. And those are my questions. Thanks very much. I'd like you to include the answers to those in your deliberations. Thanks. Please state your name and address for the record. Marsh. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? Please proceed. Thank you, Commissioners. I was not planning on speaking today, so pardon me if I ramble a bit, but I'll try to be short. I just want to be one more person in person to say no to this project. I moved here from Colorado six years ago. I've been coming here for 40 years because I have a lot of family who live here. I love this place. The reason I left Colorado is if you've driven up to Denver lately, I don't know where I am anymore. I was in Fountain, Colorado, and I was lost. My grandparents used to live there. It was a tiny little place. We are the city different. Let's keep it that way, not the city same. I really believe in supporting community. I don't go to meetings like this often, but I go to a lot of community meetings. If the Marriott wants to come here, I would like them to be a good community partner, and right now they're not. I live very close to La Posada, and their POS system was down for eight months. Eight months! People literally either had to pay cash or go to the front desk in order to pay for their dinner. Why did Marriott not care? I know that's a small thing, but if you want to come to this town, fix what you already have and do that really well before you build another hotel that we don't need. Thank you. Is there anyone else in chambers that wants to come forward and comment on this project? If not, is there anyone on Zoom? If there's anybody in the Zoom room that would like to speak, please raise your hand. Madam Chair, I don't see any hands raised. Thank you. So, we'll close the public comment portion. Madam Chair, I'd just like to advise you that we do have the fire department here if you have any questions. Okay. Thank you. Questions, comments by commissioners? Commissioner Smith. Yes. I would like to ask Ken or Heather or Dan, just what is the latitude? How is the code working, and what are the options in terms of heights of building and numbers of stories? What are the rules? I'm sorry, Commissioner, Madam Chair, could you please repeat that question? I understand that there's a four-story limit, and I read through everything. What I don't understand is what kind of flexibility we have determined for second, third, and fourth stories. Heather, go ahead. Commissioner Smith, it is always under the purview of the Planning Commission to consider the context as well as compatibility with the surroundings. Even though the maximum height is 45 feet, I believe it certainly is within the power of the commission to consider a condition of approval that it be lower. Whatever is decided, and I guess the purpose of that question is that we're treating traffic as one thing, another hotel as another thing, and the number of stories as yet another issue, but they all involve numbers of people and cars and congestion, as well as each having its own characteristic. I'm trying to understand that we do have latitude around compatibility if each of us, or however it works, deem that to be appropriate. Chair, Commissioner Smith, yes, that is all part of the approval criteria, and that compatibility piece is certainly a criterion that the commission... Commissioner Mirando. Thank you, Madam Chair. I suppose I have a couple questions for the applicant. Did you show all the renderings that you have today? Yes. So there isn't a rendering that's, let's say, further back to the intersection of Cerrillos or at the end of the development? No, I don't think so. No. Do you have your presentation at your shared situation? I guess I wanted to look at two things again. I looked at it in the packet here, but I thought it might be good to see it on the big screen. I take the public's comments seriously. One, the shadow lines, I thought, was interesting. It's not something I thought of looking through the packet. And then shadow lines in the train tracks is a whole another thing, right? So, okay. So, this is further up. I'll say, from somebody who's occasionally an applicant, I would not have shown this. I mean, this is what you see for about... you see this in a car or if you're on the sidewalk. The primary view of the back of this, or most people for any length of time, is much further back, and that's actually where you have a lot of trees planted. So, Okay. I think that might be helpful. But if you go to the, not the landscape plan, but the traffic plan, because I believe that's the one that has the north arrow. I'm trying to get a sense of this issue that I didn't so much consider. Can you zoom out so we can see the north arrow? I believe this is the one that has the north. It's not this one. It is. Oh, you know what? I'm looking at the one in the right packet. So, we have oriented this, you know, just for the ease of display. Yeah. Landscape orientation, but Cerrillos moves in essentially a northeasterly direction. So, north, due north, is kind of off this direction. Like right here. So, you have a plan that shows the whole building then, because this one's not useful. May I put you in the wrong direction? There we go. I mean, that one works. Yeah. Okay. So now we're north pretty much straight up, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So to me, I mean, I looked on my phone after I heard it, but to me, the shadow line issue is in very good shape, and that is because of the length of the parking lot. On a four-story building, you're going to run... I mean, it's a little bit embarrassing, but I know about what that's going to be. I mean, this building is about 55 feet at least away from Cerrillos Road. Yeah. So, that's about 15 feet out. So, we're good there. But the other one that was even more interesting was the tracks. Now, we are predominantly north, I'm sorry, predominantly south. So, our solar orientation is actually quite good. Yeah, there's great southern exposure there. And we don't have any trees there. So, from my perspective, from at least this plan, Commissioner, I take the comment seriously, but I do not... I think we're in good shape. The belief wasn't a question. Yes. I did have something else, but it's lost somewhere. So, someone else. Commissioner Wyland. Thank you, Madam Chair. In your presentation, you mentioned the necessity for the city. Do you have in your docket the hotel occupancy rates at peak season for the city of Santa Fe? I am going to defer to... I think I know, but I don't want to guess. My clients, of course, have done a thorough market analysis, and so I'm going to let them speak to that. Madam Chair, Commissioner Wyland, obviously we did a financial analysis to determine whether or not this hotel is going to be financially viable. With that is occupancy rates, et cetera, et cetera. Santa Fe's been doing very well since coming out of COVID with occupancies in the high 70s to low 80s, depending on the submarket. What's interesting about Santa Fe's hotel market is the South Cerrillos, where a lot of hotels have been built in the last 20 years. I even call it a lot, some of those hotels are the ones that are struggling. Downtown area is doing really well. The Residence Inn that's over off of St. Mike's and St. Francis sold last year. It had 82% occupancy for the year 2024. So the hotel market in Santa Fe is very strong right now. Obviously, there was the Travel and Leisure article about tourism, which has been a huge boom for Santa Fe. So it's, you know, tourism in Santa Fe is strong, and there is demand for more hotels and more hotel nights. So in your analysis, though, you never saw that we were at 100% occupancy at any time during our peak season? Oh, for sure. On certain days, I mean, you know, whether it's the Zozobra or, you know, whatever event is going on in Santa Fe, you'll have 100% occupancy in hotel nights, but that's infrequent. But that's not how you measure hotel occupancies. A demand study will say anything above 75% is a healthy market, and Santa Fe is way above that. Thank you. Any other questions? Commissioner Smith. Yes. Can you point out on this picture? One of the folks testifying for the public talked about a right-hand turn off Cerrillos onto St. Francis that was going to be a new turning lane that had not been discussed before. Is there some way to show us how that is proposed to work? I believe, Chair Clow and Commissioner Smith, they're referring to a northbound Cerrillos that there could be, and I can't speak with authority about this, but there, with part of the Cerrillos Road reconstruction, that as you head north and you approach St. Francis, they would create a dedicated right turn lane. So, you could basically kind of do that 180 and head south on St. Francis Drive. But I can't speak authoritatively at the moment of whether or not that is incorporated in the DOT's plans, because that is, you know, just the, as you can see, the geometry there is challenging. Like I said, you're essentially doing essentially a U-turn. But I can't speak to that, but I believe that's what was referenced. Commissioner McReynolds. I had a question, I guess, going back to the discussion of the right-in, right-out, left-in, right-out. So I saw in the notes that DOT said we'd be fine with a right-in and right-out, but it sounds like in your response that you, the developer or the applicant, is choosing to do just a right-in. No right or right-out only. Excuse me. No, right. And then you discussed or mentioned that, you know, you're working in coordination with DOT. So is that like a commitment, like for coordination with them throughout the project, like if something comes up, you know, in this development? Chair Clow, Commissioner McReynolds, absolutely. We will be coordinating with them very closely because, you know, there can be construction, there's going to be likely some construction happening in parallel. So we have a very good working relationship with the team at the DOT, and that coordination will continue throughout the life of the construction of the project. And speaking to our south entrance here, part of the issues with the right-in is this is our property line right here. We can't get a right turn lane. There's no space within the right-of-way. And due to the proximity to Cordova, because you see we have a really nice generous right turn lane here going into the main entrance, we could not accomplish that there. So we felt, and so basically DOT is like, we're good with a right-in, but you got to figure out a lane. Like, well, that's not possible. So that's why we abandoned the right-in. So we feel like this is the safest geometry site. Thank you for that clarification. Any other questions? Commissioner Wyland. So, two questions for you. One, nowhere in the packet did I see you mentioned a rooftop terrace. Do you have an idea of where that's going to be located within this project? It's right there. Okay. So it'll be... Basically, it's on the board. On top. Taking advantage of the views of our congregate. Absolutely. Absolutely. Good choice. Second question being is next at the north end of your development proposal here. There has been a long-standing Gunnison prairie dog population that's been there. I'm just going to ask it because you're going to get asked it by the public. So what's the plan with that? Yeah. So, let me just go back to zoom in. So, as everybody knows, in this kind of area here around the tracks, there is a beloved prairie dog colony. Currently on our site, there is a chain-link fence about right there that's existing today. So the amount of real estate from our property that abuts that DOT right-of-way where the colony is, is very small. The rest of our site is essentially paved in the existing condition. I had a chance to visit with our local prairie dog wrangler and biologist, Trent Bodkin, and he's very familiar with this property. He said, "I've never seen any prairie dogs on this site." Of course, we will do a prairie dog survey prior to any earthmoving activities as required by code. If there are any dogs present, they will be removed. The other thing that we're going to do, because we know that prairie dogs are mobile, right? They move around. So, one of the requirements for stormwater pollution prevention is what we call a silt fence. If you drive by a construction site, there's this black, almost looks like tarp or mesh. It's a little fence, about two feet tall, and it kind of runs around the perimeter of the site. They have a version of that silt fence that's embedded with wire, so it makes it much more structurally stable. What we're going to do at the north end of the site is bury that into a trench. Trent expressed to me that that is a great preventative measure from keeping the dogs from coming back onto the site while we're under construction. First, the visual barrier alone is enough for them because they can't see if there are predators on the other side of that. So, the visual barrier is very effective, but then we bury that material into the ground, which also prevents burrowing into the site. So, we are very aware, and we are taking extra precautions that are not required by code in order to ensure that that colony is protected. Any other questions? Mayor: Madam Chair, I believe that Mr. PCO would like to— Oh, sorry. Some information. Sorry, Leroy. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it's important to really understand the context of this DOT design project. I believe it's 100% complete design pending funding, and so they're looking for funding to build what they've designed. This project came in after that, and so that coordination is critical. They've been involved in understanding what they're doing. One of the comments or questions raised was about ADA accessibility with the roadway itself. I know we know, as going through the Cerrillos Street/St. Francis intersection, we see deaf signs, signage by the highway, and I believe the buttons or vibration or whatnot to deal with blind or deaf or whatever. So, a lot of those accommodations with respect to the street infrastructure are built into the roadways, the federal standards. I would like to read the DOT's statements and review comments that came from this design because, for the record, I think there was a lot of miscommunication, even in my notes, and I finally woke up. So, this came from Kathleen Garcia. She's the DOT District 5 Traffic Engineer, and her statement is: "After review, NMDOT does not approve the proposed secondary west driveway as a right-out, left-in only access. We can only support the driveway as a right-in, right-out only configuration." But she's saying right-in, right-out at that western driveway. "Allowing left-in movements at that location raises safety and operational concerns, especially given how close it is to the westbound left-turn lane at Cordova Road. Introducing additional left-turn movements in that area could negatively impact traffic flow and safety on Cerrillos Road. In terms of the reconstruction project on Cerrillos Road, the plan to extend the westbound left-turn lane at Cordova Road to 175 feet plus transition is necessary. This design accommodates both deceleration and queuing needs and will move forward as planned." I hope that helps. I think there was a little bit of saying different things. So, it's right-in, right-out for the DOT. Whatever it is, it will be reflected in their design. And I believe at the end of the whole TIA, we're requiring them to get a DOT access permit in addition to a City of Santa Fe access to make— Thank you for that clarification. It's helpful. Any other questions, comments? Commissioner Mirando: Thank you, Madam Chair. Jennifer, if you would, did you happen to find the— Yeah. It might not be relevant, per se, but I'd like to see it. You're clearly curious about it. So let's— I think that's a significantly better design. This one. I think the new project is really nice, but that's a really well-done facade. I'm not saying it works or doesn't work. I'm just complimenting it. Okay, cool. Could we go back to your rendering from about the same place? I guess I'll say, while you're teeing it up, for me, the traffic is interesting, and it kind of was something when I reviewed it, I felt like I needed to spend a lot of time with it. It carries a lot of weight for me that without this, it's at the same grade in the future. That's— Okay. Right. So, what I'm interested in is your rooftop patio. So, we have this pilaster sort of facade element that goes out to Cerrillos, and I think that motif is cool, and it looks nice, but I think it's an opportunity to soften the corner of the building and create a terrace more that I think might be a better reception to the— we're getting here. You can actually see three windows there that are aligned with different solstice dates. So, they will create a perfect line in line with the sun at those dates. So, we could soften the corner, but the decision to do something there was supposed to be something interesting and architectural, but also have some significance to the passage of time. You don't know how much it pains me to say this because it sounds like something I do, too. I think take it as a suggestion. We'll definitely look at it. I do think it really affects the view of the stories to this corner, and I can't say more how I really think this does not do the application justice. Yeah. To pull it back further, show the actual end. I think it actually has less of an impact on the overall facade than it looks like. Well, happy to revisit that corner. Absolutely. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? If not, is there a motion? Madam Chair, I would like to make a motion in case 2025-11380 for 10,000, 111, and 113 Cerrillos Road development plan. I'd like to make a motion for approval provided with accepting technical corrections and staff's comments. It's close enough. Thank you. I would like to add as a provision of the approval that the applicant work with staff to soften the corner and also that the applicant make an effort to, if it's possible, help the landlocked prairie dog community in the application. I understand that that would take actual coordination with the property owner. It's my motion. Yes. Dan, can you repeat that last section about the prairie dog again? That the owner make a good faith effort to relocate the prairie dog safely if the property owner agrees. Dan, are we okay to second? Yes. Okay, I'll second. Roll call. Vice Chair Smith: No. And I just would like to explain that I think this is 10 pounds of sausage in a five-pound bag. I think they've done a great job. I think the staff has done a great job. It's just 10 pounds of sausage in a five-pound bag. All Vermont say. Commissioner Morando: Yes. Commissioner McGee: Yes. Commissioner Relent: No. And I'd like to actually explain my answer as Commissioner Smith did. I do not have a problem with your project. I get the occupancy. I understand what you guys are trying to do here. My issue is that I don't think we've fully addressed your ingress and egress in and out of this structure with 150 units, and you have one access point, and you're going to expect people to go left-hand turn onto Cerrillos Road. It's a tough pill to swallow here, and I get going over the railroad tracks. You're going to deal with federal, state, and local. So, it's not really a viable option. So, just with the fact of how that traffic is, and in your traffic analysis, not seeing it incorporated with the DOT and the timelines in the grading scale of what their improvements are supposed to do, just makes it to where I kind of want to pump. Thank you for the presentation. Commissioner Barber: No. And I don't want to repeat what my colleagues have already said, but for the same reasons. Commissioner McReynolds: Yes. Madam Chair, we have a tie. I vote yes. Madam Chair, the motion is passed. So, Commissioner Smith will be taking over chairing the meeting, and Commissioner McGee and I will be leaving. Thank you. We have a five-minute break. Yes, we're going to take a five-minute break. For the turning this over. I did enjoy it. The fun like, "Oh, wow." Yeah, man. I don't know. We'll still be— Yeah. Oh, really? No, I think— If we could, if we could begin to call the meeting back to order. There you go. If we could be confused as to who I was, call the meeting back to order, and we now have before us under new business case 2025-111386, 214 Camino de los Marquez. Staff would like to proceed. Oh. All right. Have you been sworn in? Nathan Legwis, 703 Alto Street, Santa Fe. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? I do. Please proceed. Thank you, Dan. Good evening, Chair and Planning Commission members. I'm Nathan Linquist, Senior Planner, and I'm here to present staff's findings on case 2025-11386, 214 Camino Dos Marquez Development Plan. The agent on this project is Jenkins Gavin. The applicant is Santa Fe Opera, and I'm the case planner, Nathan Linquist. Next slide. Just for a project overview, the applicant is requesting approval of a development plan to construct 83 multi-family units in two buildings. The property is zoned R29. It's about a 2.5-acre lot, and the proposal is to provide units for seasonal technical apprentices for the opera as well as other renters in the off-season. As you look at this site plan, you can see that the buildings are generally tried to be pulled closer to the Camino de los Marquez street. There are two driveway accesses. The driveway wraps around the property, and the parking spaces are oriented off the driveway. There's a courtyard in between the two buildings that provides open space and usage for the tenants. Next slide. So, you can compare that to the existing conditions of the property where there's 50 units of multi-family for Santa Fe Opera technical apprentices, and there are five different buildings. They're pulled a little bit further back from Camino Marquez towards the rear of the property, closer to the neighboring properties. There are three access points to be reduced to two. If you look at the surroundings in the neighborhood, there are several other condominium complexes. There are some single-family homes around the property. Looking at that image on the picture, you can see that there are two-story buildings. The sidewalk is narrower than city standards, and that'll be improved to get up to five feet wide of a sidewalk. There are street trees that will be preserved, and so overall, there are some differences to the project, but it's kind of an extension of what is already on the site. Next slide. The zoning of the project is R29. As we stated, that was a rezoning approved by the city in May 2025. The surrounding zoning of the property includes R5 zoning, R21 zoning, both residential zones there, and then C1 and C2 zoning, which are commercial zones. If you go to the west of the project, there's that Cordova Road commercial area, including Trader Joe's and other shopping centers. The future land use map shows it as being high-density residential, 12 to 29 dwellings per acre. The surrounding properties are either the same designation or some of them are low residential, 3 to 7 dwellings per acre. Next slide. Looking at the summary of the zoning, you can see that the project meets the zoning standard of the R29 zoning as far as height, which will be 36 feet, lot coverage, which is less than the required 40%, open space square footage, building setbacks, which we'll talk about a little bit more in a couple slides, and then the density of the project, which with a 15% density bonus, meets Santa Fe Home Program requirements and gets them to the 83 units allowed on the property. Next slide. Looking at the architecture, the new structures will be three stories, 36 feet, with stepbacks to two stories at the corners of the building. So you can see the northwest corner, the northeast corner, and the southeast corner all have stepbacks down to two stories, and the corners closest to surrounding properties. If you look at those elevations, the third one down, the north elevation, is what it would look like from the street. You can see the grade slopes quite a bit, and so that east side of the property would be a good bit shorter than the west side from how it would appear from the street. Next slide. So the setback issue, the standard street setback in an R29 zoning district is 7 feet. However, the code does allow lesser setbacks to be approved via a development plan, and the Planning Commission may approve that if the shorter setback helps benefit the relationship of the building with the neighborhood and with the project itself. So, looking at this, there's an average setback of 8 feet 10 inches across the whole frontage, but in a few places, the request is to go down to 3 feet, and that is really to accommodate some of the building massing and breaking up of the project, as well as some porches and balconies. So overall, staff's finding is that this meets the allowance in code for a shorter setback, given that it improves the streetscape by pulling the buildings forward away from the other properties and breaking up the massing. So we would recommend in support of the 3-foot setback. Next slide. The landscaping plan. The applicants are seeking to preserve as many of the existing trees as possible, and I'm sure they can talk more about that. But you can see there's quite a bit of landscaping included in the courtyard around the perimeter of the building, and staff has added one condition of approval to require that the subject provide substantial landscaping to screen neighboring properties on the west, east, and south sides of the project. Next slide. As far as utilities, parking, traffic, and archaeology utilities, the major aspect here is just that there's a new wastewater main required to be installed by the project, and that was a condition of approval at the rezoning last year. The project meets the parking requirements of the code and has received approval from the Architectural Review Committee. As far as traffic and access, there were no additional traffic requirements coming out of the TIA other than items that were already required by code, such as 5-foot sight, 5-foot sidewalks, and making sure the driveway accesses where it hits the street meet all the city's driveway standards. Next slide. There was an early neighborhood notification meeting September 29th, 2025. There was discussion from attendees at that meeting about the height and the balconies and porches of the building. The applicant has also complied with 14-3.1 notice requirements for public hearing. Next slide. I'll just show the different criteria involved with this project. On the whole, staff has found that the applicant has met this criteria, but these are the criteria for development plan approval, which you see on just about every project. On the next slide then is the criteria for density approval, given that there's a requirement for that to be approved and consider these factors to reach the full density allowed in an R29 zoning district. And then same thing for the height on the next slide. So if you have any questions on any of these, we're happy to answer them as they're discussed further in the staff report. Next slide. So the staff's recommendation is that the Planning Commission approve this case, subject to the conditions of approval and technical corrections outlined in the staff report. And then we provided the motion language should the Planning Commission choose to approve or deny the project. So with that, I'll stand for questions. Thank you. Commissioners: Commissioners, have any questions? Mr. Lqua. So on the density bonus, and maybe I'm overthinking this, because they're paying the fee in lieu. So the presentation that we heard earlier today is that if they pay the fee in lieu, they do not get the density bonus, or is that the future land, the update of the code? I: You want to go ahead? No, I believe, so they're, this project came in under the old code. Commissioners: Yeah. Okay. I: So they're subject to the old code. Am I getting that right? Okay, here I see head nods. Commissioners: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You'll have the next presentation, please. Everybody raise their right hand, and when you get to the podium, go ahead and state your name and address for the record. Jennifer Jenkins: Jennifer Jenkins, 130 Grant Avenue. Colleen Gavin: Colleen Gavin, 130 Grant Avenue. Robert Mayo: Robert Mayo, 301 Opera Drive, Santa Fe. I: Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? Please proceed. Jennifer Jenkins: Hello again. I'm Jennifer Jenkins with Jenkins Gavin. Also joined by Colleen Gavin with Jenkins Gavin, and Robert Mayo, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Opera. Before we have a fairly brief presentation, but before we jump in, I'm going to have Mr. Mayo come up and share a few words. Robert Mayo: Thank you. Good evening. I'm Robert Mayer, General Director of the Santa Fe Opera, and I'm here to speak a little bit about the importance of this project to the Santa Fe Opera. The Santa Fe Opera is much more than an opera company. It's also an educational organization, and it has been since our founding in 1957. We created the very first apprentice program for singers in that year, and a few years later, we created the program for technical apprentices. These are the single most important programs in the opera industry, training young people, not only as performers on stage, but also in all of the theater arts. So each year we have about 125 apprentices, and they receive career-advancing instruction in their fields. They're also paid, and they're provided housing, which is critical for several reasons. They simply would not be able to afford living in Santa Fe and working at the Santa Fe Opera were it not for the housing that we provide. They also work very late hours, and sometimes six or seven days a week. 27 years ago, I myself was an intern at the Santa Fe Opera and was a beneficiary of the housing program. In fact, it was because of the housing that I accepted the opportunity to work here. In 2001, the Santa Fe Opera had the foresight to acquire the property, which represents an asset that is critical to the Opera's current operations, and more importantly, critical to its future and to its ability to attract the best talent in the industry. Currently, the 50-unit complex, which was constructed in 1983, is nearing the end of its lifespan. Buildings are poorly constructed and poorly insulated. Roofs and stucco are in constant need of repair, and the electrical capacity does not support the added load to provide air conditioning, which makes it difficult for our apprentices to get a good night's sleep during the increasingly hot summer nights. We also believe that this project aligns very nicely with the city's objectives for enhanced density in central locations with access to public transportation and easy access by foot to commercial centers. This evening, we respectfully request your support for the development plan, which will allow us to redevelop the site with newly constructed, environmentally responsible apartments, while doubling our capacity and providing housing for all of our apprentices, both the singing apprentices and the technical apprentices. Thank you very much. Jennifer Jenkins: So just, we've already made a few introductions. You met Mr. Mayo with the Santa Fe Opera, who's the applicant on the project, and Colleen and I with Jenkins Gavin are the planning consultants and owner's representatives. Architecture services provided by SNPC Architects, civil and traffic engineering by Tierra West, and landscape architecture by Planned Collab. So you already heard a lot of background from Mr. Mayo that they, you know, they acquired what is called the Axton Apartments. It was acquired back in 2001. It was built in the early 80s, and they were able to house their technical apprentices at the facility, but they did not have enough space for the singing, and housing the singers has become increasingly challenging in this rental market and the cost and the availability of rental space. So this is a really critical opportunity for them to be self-sufficient in housing their apprentices and house all of them in this one location. And as Nathan mentioned, back in May of 2025, just a bit earlier last year, the City of Santa Fe approved a rezone of the property, which also came before this body, from R21 to R29. So the property is located on Camino de los Marquez. You can see here we're just off of Cordova Road, a little to the north. And what is really great about this location in terms of, you know, a moderate increase in density, is this is an incredibly diverse and walkable neighborhood. We have access to all kinds of commercial services, shopping, restaurants, and access to parks, access to public transit. So this is the definition really of a great walkable neighborhood. So this is the future land use map, which reflects the property as high-density residential. Then the zoning map, we are R29. We have R21 directly across the street. There's a condominium project there. There is a condominium project directly to our west. That's actually zoned C1, but you can develop housing in C1, but it's kind of based on R21 standards. And then you see as you move further west, you get into all the commercial C2 office and shopping center zoning. And then to the north and south, you have residential zoning R5. So these are the existing conditions. As mentioned, there are a series of five buildings around a central courtyard. On the east, there is a carport structure here. Then there's a small maintenance building in the southeast corner. So the site is 2 and a half acres. We're proposing 83 units. The required open space is 20,750 square feet. We're actually providing over 26,000 square feet of open space, or 24% of the site, and we are compliant with providing 106 parking spaces on site. So this is the site plan kind of zoomed out a little bit so you can see our surrounding context. You can see the condos across the street and the condos to our west, and then you see the single-family development to the south and the east. So, just zooming in on the site plan a little bit here, we are proposing two access points. Then we have a driveway that wraps around the building, which of course provides great connectivity, and it's also great for emergency access, so we don't have any dead ends that need to be navigated. There are currently three curb cuts on Camino de los Marquez. So, we'll be closing one of them, consolidating those access points is always a benefit in terms of how the roadway networks. So, we have two L-shaped buildings around a densely landscaped interior courtyard. So, this is providing seating and landscaping and just kind of outdoor chill space and gathering space for the residents. And then we've concentrated the parking around the perimeter, and we also have another kind of small office maintenance building in the southwest corner. So, this is just a rendering of our landscaping. So, we have a very robust landscape plan. We have some, we're, like I said, preserving as many trees as we can. We actually did a health assessment. We hired an arborist to assess all the existing trees and determine their health. And so, we have existing trees along Camino de los Marquez. Existing street trees will be retained, and we'll be augmenting that a little bit as well. And then along the south, there's kind of a drainage area, and we have a lot of existing mature trees that will be retaining. As mentioned, when we went through the rezone process, as you might recall, it was determined that there was a segment of sewer line that was basically built in like the 30s. Believe it or not, we still have sewer lines in the city of Santa Fe built in the 1930s. It was determined that that segment of sewer line and an associated manhole needed to be replaced in order for the city of Santa Fe to provide service to the project. So, a financial guarantee was put in place. So, that money is sitting at the city in order to implement this work. We actually, the plans are done, and we're going to be submitting for permit, and we're going to be doing that work this spring. So, that'll be a separate permit. So, we'll kind of be doing it in advance of the rest of the construction. So, this is an interesting little overlay that we did. This is the aerial underneath. That is the existing apartment project, and the blue outlines are the new proposed buildings. So, a couple of things to note here is that we intentionally pushed the building closer to Camino de los Marquez, and Nathan touched on that in terms of our setbacks. And we did that for a couple of reasons. One is it's really about having that kind of building having a relationship to the street. We think it's much better to have a building on the street than to have parking on the street or have a driveway adjacent to the street. It creates a much more dynamic kind of urban walkable environment. And so, that was a very intentional design choice, and it also moves the buildings further away from our neighbors to the south. So, again, that was very intentional. And so, just looking at the setbacks, on the west, right up here, we are 77 and a half feet away from our neighbors to the west. And just looking at my cheat sheet here, oh no, actually up here we're a little closer. This one is, we're 64 feet here. Down here, we're 92 feet away. And then as you look at the south elevation, we range around 50, 52 feet away at this end of the building. And then when you go to the east end of the building, we are approximately, yeah, 50 feet, 50 feet away as well. And you can see here, currently the existing building goes all the way to this point, and we have pulled this back. So, we're creating much greater separation and distance for our neighbors right here with this location. So, this is kind of a streetscape view. This is not really a view anybody could really see, but so it's just a graphic representation that if you were across the street really far, you were looking straight on to the building, looking at the north elevation. What you see here on the left is we have a single-family residence on the corner of Camino de los Marquez and Galisteo Street. That is directly east of us. And then to the west of us is the two-story condominiums. And we have a 12-foot grade change across our site to the west. And so, what this reflects, so the residents to our east is perched up quite a bit higher than we are. So, what you can see is what this dashed line is reflecting is comparing where our roofline is to our neighbors. And then the same thing on the west side, our roofline compared to our neighbors' roofline. So, this provides a sense of context in terms of how this building takes advantage of that grade change across the site in order to settle the building into the site and provide a proper context with our neighbors. So, this is the northwest view. So, if you are traveling east on Camino de los Marquez, so you're coming from Maria's and you're heading towards Galisteo, this is that elevation. So, this is Camino de los Marquez right here. And you can see that we have a two-story element here at the corner. So, we intentionally created some strategic two-story elements just to minimize the mass. And then this is the northeast view. So, if you're leaving Galisteo and you're heading to Maria's, this is the view. And you can also see that two-story mass there. And then on the southeast corner, down where, you know, kind of across from where that maintenance building is, that's our southeast corner. This is the view there. And you can see again, we have another two-story mass most adjacent to our single family. So, we did conduct a traffic study. I won't bore you with my little narrative regarding that. But one thing that is really important to speak to, we currently have 50 units in the associated traffic associated with those units on the site. We're proposing 83. So, the delta is 33 units. One could argue that the traffic study should have studied the impact of those additional 33 units because when we count the cars on the street, we're counting the 50 units that are the cars that those 50 units are generating. But we didn't do that. We did a traffic study based upon assuming we had a brand new 83-unit project. So, we took an incredibly conservative approach to the traffic study. But what is important here, this is the trip generation. So, as I mentioned, the ITE, or the Institute of Transportation Engineers, establishes trip generation for multifamily projects. And you can see the top line is how many cars are generated by an 83-unit project. The next line is how many cars are generated by a 50-unit project. And then what you see below is the delta. So, we are creating with this project three additional, a total of 13 additional cars in the morning and a total of 18 additional cars in the afternoon/evening. So, we studied seven intersections for this project, and starting with Camino de los Marquez and Galisteo Street, direct to our east. Levels of service B in the existing condition as well as in the build condition. Same is true of Cordova and Galisteo, which is a signalized intersection. Level of service B is maintained. Cordova at Don Diego, which is a four-way stop. Same level of service. It's an A and a B now, and it remains an A and a B in the build condition. Marquez, I'm sorry, Camino de los Marquez and Don Diego was signalized. My apologies. Camino de los Marquez and Don Diego is a four-way stop. It is an A and a C, and it remains an A and a C. Marquez and Don Cubo, A. And then both of our access drives function as a level of service A. So, that concludes my presentation, and we'd be happy to stand for any questions. Thank you. Are there any questions from the commission? Yes. Question. The existing building there is a two-story. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Thank you for the presentation. So, we touched on this last time with the rezoning that you guys had five long-term tenants that were in the residences. Understandably, Opera is in for a season. I know you guys can't predict outcomes of construction, demolition, and so forth, but is the concept for your project to minimize your impact to the rest of the housing of Santa Fe because in the time of your construction, you will affect our housing situation because you're displacing many of your apprentices? So, thank you, Chair Smith and Commissioner Relan. So, our, we have a very aggressive construction schedule because we can manage housing our apprentices elsewhere for one summer. We get one summer to do that. And so, our plan is in September of this year, when the season is over and the apprentices go home, we immediately proceed with demo and construction. So, the summer of '27, we will be working on that. There's an, they have an entire staff at the Santa Fe Opera dedicated to housing apprentices as well as, you know, visiting staff or other, you know, people who are here for the season. And so, they will house the apprentices for the summer of '27. And then the plan is for this building to be complete in April of '28, and then the apprentices move in for the '28 season. Thank you for taking that into consideration. Of course, the rest of the community. And I do actually appreciate you guys pushing your project towards Camino de los Marquez and giving the neighbors that extra space. A little breathing room. Yeah, absolutely. It was mentioned in the packet that during the off-season, they typically provide like workforce, like temporary workforce housing for like, Absolutely. Like traveling nurses, like that. Absolutely. Is that correct? Yes. So, in the off-season, we can provide six-month leases, and six-month leases really serve a really important need in the housing market. They're hard to come by because landlords, they want a year at a minimum, right? But you have a traveling nurse or some other traveling professional or somebody doing a gig at St. John's, they just need six months, or somebody's moving to Santa Fe and they're hunting for their home, they need a place to land. So, a six-month lease really, really serves, I think, a really important need in the housing market. And have you all been providing that? Has that been what's been happening since development? It has been available, but just because of the age of the facility and the lack of air conditioning, it's not like they're beating down the door. Got it. Thank you. That's exciting. I have one, flipping the coin. You're done. Just, but assure me that it won't be short-term rentals. Oh, absolutely. I 100% assure you. Thank you, Vice Chair. Hi. So, I, I guess I had two. I guess could we go back to your renderings? Yeah, here you go. Yeah. And the, the, right, the average setback is like 8 feet something or other, and there's a couple of them that need to be three. And so, the three-foot ones, that's really, where are the three-foot setbacks? I'm not, I'm not sure I understand the question, Commissioner Miranda. There. Well, I thought there was a three-foot setback somewhere. Oh, yeah. Vice Chair Smith, Commissioner Mirando, fellow board members. So, where the three-foot setback occurs is actually on Camino de los Marquez on the north elevation. So, as you can see from here, sorry, I take my glasses so I can see here. You can see in this rendered site plan right here, that patio balcony element projects out. And so, at that, at that condition is where we get pinched for that three-foot setback. But other than that, we actually have more generous setbacks. But that is our worst-case scenario with our average of 8 foot 10. And so, by code, we are required seven. So, by average, we're complying, but we do have that pinch because we are providing outdoor space for all of the units. We feel it's really important that these, the apprentices in particular, because they work so hard, that they have a space to themselves to be outside and enjoy our beautiful scenery, our beautiful air. And then, of course, when these are leased to the open market, obviously, we want them to be attractive, accommodating. Thank you. Yeah, it's a cool site plan how it basically hides the parking, I think, in an elegant way. I, so if you could go back to the rendering, I guess what I want, I wasn't clear where that happened, but it looks, doesn't look like a big deal at all. I just couldn't tell. So, do those parapets consistently step along the elevation? Do we have an elevation where that? This, it's this area here where the three-foot setback occurs. Well, no. Well, what I more mean, if you go back, you had a streetscape, like an overall streetscape, but I wasn't quite sure how the parapets were stepping all in a line. Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean, it comes across in the three-dimensional views, like I thought they might be the same at points there. Is that on the, yeah, those higher, those higher parapets are the same. So, we have, can we zoom in? I guess I feel like the, like I, I mean, I like the images in general, but I'm not getting a good sense of the elevations as a whole. Right. You want me to walk you through the elevation, the stepping? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Certainly. Okay. So, if you go from basically from east to west, you can see here. So, this is, this is what we call the east building. We'll get better names as we move forward, but the east building here. You can see that this is actually a two-story element here. So, that parapet height is at 28 plus or minus. It's definitely a minus, not a plus. So, we've got 28 top of parapet there, obviously. And then you can see here that is our three-story element that's beyond it. Right. So, we've, we've carved off that section of the building there. Oh, I apologize. And then as we move to the west, you can see that this is a three-story element here. So, you can see here that this is a three-story element here that continues here. We have a little bump up here that's, I believe, 18 in the center to break up the longevity of that plane. And then it continues west here. We have another little bump up here. And then again, in that northwest corner, we have a two-story element again. So, we have, you know, a 20, probably 27-foot top of parapet height there. And then as you go along the facade of what we call the west building, you can see we've provided these patio balcony elements that actually project out. And so, it's a massing element that provides not only the horizontal staggering, but also a vertical staggering of our mass. So, you can see here that the top of the parapet of that balcony element is below our three-story parapet height. So, and in the analysis that Nathan did and in the staff report, he, I thought he very clearly and succinctly kind of summarized that. But we really were trying to break this up and again, not just on the north facade, which is the most publicly visible, but all the way around the building because we want to enjoy our building too. And in fact, we did it on the interior. So, the elevations of the courtyard incorporate these architectural elements as well. I guess I had a little bit of a concern of how much the dominant mass is basically two heights in parapet. Well, three, because of the orchards, but I mean, it's so nicely cut into the ground, it just, I guess, I guess I had hoped that the parapets would enjoy not be so regular. Yeah, I mean, we, we did have to, as you can see in this northeast corner here, actually our finished floor is 48 inches below grade right there. Okay. So, we did try to depress that again to have a relative height that is, that is complimentary to our residential neighbors to the east. Right. And then to your question about, you know, maybe varying those parapet heights even further. So, we're restricted by the height restrictions of 36 feet at our roof line, basically top of roof, right? And as you know from doing multifamily housing, the efficiencies of systems, mechanical systems in particular, as they run through the building horizontally, it's always best to keep our ceiling plenum consistent at each floor. And so, the only floor where we actually have a variation is the first floor where we've utilized ramps to basically help with the grading so that again, we can step down our site east to west as much as possible and depress this building as much as possible. Okay, that answer your question. Thank you. Thank you very much for your presentation. Do we have any members of the public want to? State your name and address for the record. My name is Sarah Birmingham. My address is 300 Camino de los Marquez. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth and do so under penalties of perjury? Yes. Please proceed. Thank you. First of all, I want to really recognize that our, my neighbors and we are directly west of the Axton Apartments right now, totally recognize the influence and impact that the Santa Fe Opera has on our economy. We are not at all anti-Santa Fe Opera. In fact, many of us are ticket holders to the opera. And for any of you, you're not my neighbors, but you should know that living next door to the Santa Fe apprentices during the summer is an absolutely delightful way to spend the summer. Watching the young people or older people come in with all those different license plates. My window looks right out onto that parking lot. So, it's really wonderful there. We do have some concerns with this larger building in our neighborhood. And I have to admit that Jennifer has been so reactive to the large amount of people that came out during the zoning meetings and we really appreciate that she listened to us, responded to us, and reacted to many of the things that people were worried about. We continue to worry about Camino de los Marquez. It's a wide street. It has no center divide. There's lots of cars that come down that street. So, there must be some plan for modifying that or even turning left into the opera housing on that street. There's no center divide. There's not even a line down the street. And we have had many cars come down right down the middle of the street and run into the signs there. So, that's something I'm sure that they're going to consider. I don't think there's any plans for street parking. I don't think there could be. So, I don't know if they plan on it, but I don't think there can be street parking on that. We do have concerns of the waste management that's going to go on there. We have a lot more residents there. There are large unmanaged open bins that are not managed very well. The tops are always out. Often people come in and dump off their garbage in those areas because there's no, nobody modifying it or watching it very well. So, that would be a big concern. The waste management now is collected often twice a week sometimes and often at 3:30 in the morning, 4:00 in the morning. So, you have a lot more people with balconies. They're going to hear that. And I would assume they'll have to go around the entire property to pick up the bins on the other side because I don't think two big bins is going to cover those extra people in there. I don't know anything about recycling. I'm not sure they do. We're a little bit concerned about the lights and the noise level with new balconies facing it. It's a pretty quiet little community there. There's condos on the other side. We've never been used to balconies or lots of light. The apprentices are wonderful. They're sometimes practicing their music in the parking lot as they come and go. We're hoping that that's not the case at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning now that they have balconies that face our area. I think that's part of the plans, but and most importantly, will the opera manage the, the population there? So, if there are issues with extra lights or noise or laundry being hung out on the balconies that we would be able to contact. And finally, we have a, we do have, as Jennifer said, this drainage situation that it's much higher up there near Galasto than it is down by us. And we have had a number of times that the water has come through and taken out a lot of our landscaping. We're just assuming that that's also going to be handled. We're just nine little condos. We're right on the edge. We love living there. We know we don't have much influence or importance to the opera, but we want to be good neighbors for them, and we think that they'll be good neighbors for us. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next, please raise your right hand. State your name and address for the record. Konquas, 730 Camino Pñana, Santa Fe 750. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth and do so under the penalties of perjury? I do. Please proceed. Vice Chair Smith, commissioners, I live in Santa Fe City Council District 2, not too far from the Axen Apartments at 214 Camino de los Marquez. First attended the Santa Fe Opera in 1988. I've done so regularly since then, and I have been a director since 2021. The Axton apartments are very tired. They need to be redeveloped to enable the Santa Fe Opera to house both the technical and the singing apprentices. As Robert may have stated, these people are crucial to the mission of the Santa Fe Opera. But the Axen apartments also need to be replaced to enhance the ambiance of the neighborhood. As you have heard from the individual who spoke ahead of me, we have tried to be very receptive, listen to the concerns of the neighbors. And it does seem to me on the plan that we saw this evening, especially with the overlay, the new building, that the single-family dwellings to the south of the apartments will benefit from this. But the neighborhood as a whole will, since it is such a very tired building, will allow us to provide six-month rentals during the off-season that will help in a very modest way alleviate pressure on the rental market. So, the plans for which staff has recommended approval, I believe, have been sensitive to and are in keeping with the area. The proposed building will be an enormous improvement for the community. Urge you to accept the recommendation of staff, whom we thank for their work, and recommend this for approval to the governing body. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next witness, please. Please raise your right hand. State your name and address for the record. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth and do so under the penalties of perjury? Please proceed. Good evening, Vice Chair, commissioners. My name is Michael Robbins. I live in Santa Fe, a short distance in the house where my great-grandparents lived. I've attended Santa Fe Opera regularly since I was in elementary school and have served on the board of directors since 2023. Santa Fe Opera was recognized as a festival of the year at the 2022 International Opera Awards. It's world-renowned for its quality of production and treasure and a treasure of our state. The Santa Fe Opera tracks visitors from across New Mexico, the United States, and countries around the world. All told, opera visitors inject an estimated $250 million into the state's economy, supporting indirect jobs and tourism and hospitality, and generating significant gross receipts tax for the city of Santa Fe. In short, the opera is a vital part of the infrastructure of Santa Fe today. For it to continue to produce celebrated summer festivals, the opera must address its seasonal housing needs. The Santa Fe Opera was the first American company to start an apprentice program, and this is the backbone of our organization. These individuals come to Santa Fe to learn key skills and to build their careers. Many go on to be leading lights in opera and also return to Santa Fe as stars because of their love for our company. Ensuring they have quality housing is essential for them and for the Santa Fe Opera's continued success. Santa Fe Opera and those who have developed these plans are deeply integrated into our community. The design is intended to fit into the neighborhood and reflect Santa Fe's unique architectural style. It's also designed in a manner that will make it attractive as a rental option out of season for those seeking housing during times of the year that the apprentices are not in residence, including those who may have recently moved to Santa Fe, healthcare professionals who might be here for a temporary position, and those working during the legislative session. I urge you to approve this request. Doing so will benefit the opera by allowing it to house technical and singing apprentices during the season, thus reducing competition for housing during that period. It will benefit the city itself by increasing and diversifying available housing units overall, protecting jobs and GRT revenues that flow directly and indirectly from the Santa Fe Opera. Thank you very much for your consideration. Thank you, sir. Do we have anybody on the Zoom that would like to make a comment? Yes, Commissioner Smith, there are several hands raised. The first one is Karen's iPhone. Sorry, it's just what I see here. Karen, if you can please state your name and address for the records and be sworn first, and then you may speak. You may unmute. You're not unmuted. Hi. Can you hear me now? Yes. Please raise your right hand. State your name and address for the record. Hi. Your name and address, please. Los Alamos County, 2000 Torion. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? May I speak? Yes or no? I'm not sure if you can still see me. I'll read it again. Yes. Do you solemnly declare... My name is Karen Henderson. I'm a resident of Los Alamos County, as I've been mentioned, and I have been a member of the Santa Fe Opera board for three years. Prior to being a board member for the opera, I've been active with the opera company for 15 years as a volunteer and in engagement in the organization. Santa Fe Opera is one of my favorite places on Earth. I'm a licensed professional engineer in the state of New Mexico, and currently my position in Los Alamos County is Senior Engineer for the Public Works Department. One of my roles is to review future developments for Los Alamos Planning Department. My tasks are specific to traffic, grading, and drainage impacts, ensuring that the proposed development shall not adversely impact structures on the lot or adjacent lots so as not to create a nuisance. I also inspect construction activities of developments, ensuring construction and infrastructure installed conforms to the approved engineer stamp drawings and is within design standards that will meet county, state, and federal codes. Additionally, my role is to verify infrastructure that has been designed and built correctly prior to Los Alamos County acceptance of projects. I've had the pleasure to review these plans at the Axton Department at 90%. I reviewed them just like I would any other plans that would come into Los Alamos County, which includes apartment complexes and fire stations and housing development. The Axton Apartment project is aligned with the city of Santa Fe's general plan with increased housing while considering the historic Santa Fe style and character. Santa Fe Opera has thoroughly considered its availability in the proposed site plan, especially environmental factors such as tree placement and building height, creating a condition where the existing community and the opera can thrive together. It was found by the city of Santa Fe that the application meets all requirements for approval of the site plan and land use. I would recommend this approval of this site plan and land use. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Thank you. The next speaker is Cheryl Peterman. Miss Peterman, if you can please unmute, state your name and address for the record, and be prepared to be sworn. If you're speaking, please unmute. Hi. My name is Cheryl Peterman. I live at 318 Delgado Street in Santa Fe. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? Please proceed. Like I said, my name is Cheryl Peterman. I'm a member of the Santa Fe Opera board, and I'm an architect and a former planning director. I'm here to support approval of the development plan for the Axton Apartments project. First of all, I would like to express my appreciation for the time that's been spent by the commission as well as the city staff in support of this application. The Santa Fe Opera is known around the world for its outstanding performances and for the architecture of its performance hall. What is not as well known outside the opera world is Santa Fe's apprentice program. The mission of the opera includes not just the world-class performances, but it also includes the education and training for the future of opera around the world. Hundreds of young people with dreams of having professional careers in the performing arts apply for the chance to participate in the opera's apprentice programs, and the lucky ones who win a spot need a place to live. The Axton Apartments has been a partial answer to this need, but with the approval of the application today, the opera will be able to provide housing for all the young apprentices in the future. The new Axton Apartment project has been thoughtfully designed to not only answer the needs of the opera, but is planned to be a positive addition to the neighborhood and echo the historic Santa Fe style. There have been ongoing communications with stakeholders in the neighborhood, and the proposed project has met all technical criteria for development. Thank you for your time, and I ask for your vote of approval on this application. Thank you very much. All right, Chair Smith, the next speaker is Jesse Gree. Jesse, if you can please unmute, state your name and address for the record, and be sworn. Jesse Gree, 205A West Cordova. Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, and do so under the penalties of perjury? I do. Please proceed. Thank you. I was going to just gush about the opera because we all love the opera, but I think everybody beat me to that. So I think maybe I'll talk about the development plan instead. I'm going to focus on trees and tree preservation. The tree preservation plan looks to be in discrepancy with some of what they're showing on the other plans. If we just focus on the southeast corner, there are two absolutely massive elm trees. It's true that they're elm trees, but they provide this beautiful canopy. One of them is a 12-foot circumference and the other is 11, and they're both being slated to be taken out. If you look on the agenda packet, it's page 12, which shows in the southeast corner in basin A, both of those trees being removed. Then if you look at the pictures provided tonight, they'll be replaced with a 4-inch caliper tree or something like that. It just doesn't seem right. So there's lots of talk of keeping these existing giant beautiful trees that are one of the best things about our neighborhood, but when you look at the tree removal plan, it seems as though most of them are actually being cut down except in the center of the property all the way to the south, specifically the ones that border the neighbors' property extremely closely. That doesn't seem right. It feels as though if they're going to take down these trees, they shouldn't just replace them with a skinny little sapling. They should have to replace them with something significant. Thank you very much. Thank you. Are there additional... Chair Smith, there are no other hands raised. Just in reference to one of the first public comments, she did mention management, and I was wondering if you could speak to how that works. Is there staff at the opera that is available if there is an issue? And then could you just speak to the waste management plan? Like, can you have dumpsters or individual... Absolutely. Thank you, Vice Chair Smith and Commissioner McReynolds and commissioners. So yes, as I mentioned, we have staff at the opera that is dedicated to managing this property. As I mentioned, there's a small office maintenance building there. So there's a presence on site. So one thing we can ensure is that all the surrounding neighbors have somebody to call, have contact information. If they run into an issue or something, we want to continue to be good neighbors. We think that having open lines of communication is key to that. So we will ensure that that contact information is communicated to our surrounding neighbors so they have that information. And yes, we are proposing dumpsters at basically the southwest and the southeast corners, which is not accurate. I don't have the slide. Just get to it. So, as Jennifer mentioned, there will be a dumpster enclosure as required by code with solid gates at the southwest corner. So, currently, yes, there are trash receptacles at various locations. We are consolidating that so that it can be managed better, right? So, yes, that's in that southeast corner. You can see where she... Oh, you beat me to it. Yeah. So, yes. So, you can see Jennifer will point that out. There you go. Right there. So, and of course, we have to conform with the solid waste management best practices and access requirements. So... Thank you. Other questions? Mr. Around. Can you touch on the most recent public comment on the large elm trees that will be removed in the southeast corner? Sure. Let me pull up that drawing real quick. We... I think... I think that might be a better choice. Yeah, it shows it on page 12 that you guys are removing those large elm trees in the southeast corner as he referenced his statement. Just share this real quick. The reason why I'm asking this is because you all did make such a great effort to give that barrier between yourselves and that neighbor. What's the purpose of removing them? So, Commissioner Ryland, Vice Chair Smith, and fellow commissioners. As you can see from the tree preservation program, as Jennifer mentioned, we did hire arborists who went out and assessed the health of the trees. The maintenance team of this facility currently has been aware that some of the trees are of concern. Some of them are very mature, and as we know, trees as they mature, their stability is compromised. So the trees in the area here, some of these are in very poor health. Per the public comment that we heard, you can see here that on this plan, any of the trees with the X on them, those are the trees to be removed. The trees I believe that the gentleman spoke of are these trees here, which are in poor health, and they are elm. So those are to be removed. But you can see this is the existing drainage swale here to the south, which abuts all of our southern residential neighbors. All of these trees that you see here are to remain. None of those trees are being removed. So that incredibly dense and lush green belt is remaining. And the gentleman was correct. Yes, these are being removed, but due to health. And as you can see, it is kind of right in our fire access lane as well. Would you be able to provide your documentation from the arborist that shows what the cause and the health conditions are? I believe, I believe actually that was, I thought that was submitted as part of our application, but yes, we do have the report from the arborist. Okay, great. That can be provided to the public. Yes, of course. Thank you. Yes, sir. Can someone speak to the potential for noise at night? Thank you, Commissioner Barber. So, yes, the apprentices, they do get home late. If you've ever been to the opera, you know what time you get home, and they're getting home after you are. And so, that is really part of the management and education of the residents as they all get here. They have kind of this onboarding in terms of what are the rules and regulations living with the free housing, right? And so the opera takes that very seriously and really educating them about, you know, you need to keep it down, you need to go to sleep. And so, yes, there is activity on site later than what you would normally see, but the opera takes it very seriously to manage that closely. And again, that kind of speaks to the idea of making sure that our surrounding neighbors have somebody to call if they do have concerns. Sure. Vice Chair Smith, my, I guess my questions would be for Colleen and potentially the architect. Is there building design questions? So whoever, yeah, both of you maybe. So I guess I, I might have, if we could maybe bring up the applicant materials, the elevations. So I either missed, I either saw something that is different here or I missed something in the elevations in the packet. I thought that the tops of the foremost porches were at the, the third floor of them was a lighter thing, did not have a stucco, was more like an exposed roofline. That's not, no, I thought it was a shed roof at the time. Shed roof. Vice Chair Smith, pardon me. Commissioner Morando, fellow commissioners. You're speaking about the top, basically the roof of the balcony element, right? Not obviously here. I just, that's how. Yeah. No, there. So, in some earlier renderings, we actually were exploring articulating the balconies a little bit differently, kind of more similar to La Soya de El Castillo, which is a project that we were very involved in. But we moved to more of a simplistic PBLO massing because it really, it just felt quieter and just tried to create more of a quieter space. I'm a true believer, as a licensed architect myself, when you design a space with an intention with quieter elements and vernacular, sometimes the occupants actually, you can kind of affect their behavior. And to that point, I'm kind of going off subject, but yet related. We took a lot of care in how we laid out that courtyard and making sure that yes, we have balconies on the perimeter of our building facing our neighbors to the north, southeast, and west, but we also have balconies on the interior of our courtyard. But the intent is that these spaces are quiet and they're a relief from the long hours and the non-stop pressure that these individuals endure during their work at the opera. So, you know, we're trying to create a quiet kind of place of relief and reprieve really from their normal. So, yeah, and again, we, we kind of, they're kind of like its own little kind of cave in a way. But also allowing, it's really important that we have a lot of openness to allow the light into the units themselves. Okay. I don't know. I know that Kihei, our architect from SNPC, hasn't been sworn in, but I don't know. Kihei, you want to, he'll be, he'll need to be sworn in. 4108 Court, please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly declare and affirm that the testimony you have in reference to this item shall be the truth and nothing but the truth and do so under penalty of perjury? Please proceed. But some of the earlier study, some of the earlier designs also had action for the. And so the feeling there was actually that it was adding too much height. So we dropped down. I think we also decided on some other things to mention is that we're using the street level. Very nice street safety. Stream. Sorry. I think what it is is when I reviewed it, which was more based on the elevations, I really felt like it was very repetitive and I had a lot of, but I, I, I do see that it presents much better here and I, I get that, you know, this is actually what you more experience, right? Flattened elevations aren't necessarily reality. So I, I, I, I did carry that concern into this meeting, which you've maybe heard, but I think I, I, I think I'm good. Thanks. Are there other questions? And could I hear a motion on case 2025-111386? Motion to approve case number 2025-11386, 214 Camino de los Marquez development plan, subject to the conditions of approval and technical corrections outlined in Attachment A. Is there a second? Second. And all in, please call the roll. Vice Chair Smith, I believe I'm acting as chair and there. Oh, you're correct. That's my apologies. Commissioner Morando, yes. Commissioner Relent, yes. Commissioner Barber, yes. Commissioner McReynolds, yes. Vice Chair, the motion is passed. Excellent. Are there any staff communications? We did that. Any others or any other matters from the commission? Everybody's ready to go home. Greetings.