Planning Commission Meeting
Thu, Dec 18, 2025 · Planning Commission
https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/645

== Executive Summary ==
The Planning Commission held a meeting that included approving previous minutes and a subdivision plat. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to updates on the Land Development Code (LDC) implementation, with a target effective date of January 1, 2026, and the launch of Phase Two of the LDC update. Commissioners were asked to consider the structure of a policy subcommittee for this next phase and a volunteer was requested for a Development Review Manual stakeholder group.

The bulk of the meeting was a study session on scenario planning for the General Plan update, known as "Santa Fe Forward." Consultants presented three frameworks: Connections, Resilience, and Places, which are intended to guide future development, transportation, and economic diversification. Public feedback was actively solicited on these frameworks, particularly regarding transit improvements, housing diversity, and the preservation of natural lands. The session also introduced a new digital platform, City Smart, for public access to planning data.

== Key Decisions ==
- Agenda approved by roll call vote (7-0).
- Minutes from the December 4th meeting approved by roll call vote (7-0).
- Findings and conclusions for case 2025 111526 Terra Content of Final Subdivision Plat approved by roll call vote (7-0).

== Motions & Votes ==
- Approval of the agenda — Passed 7-0
- Approval of minutes from the December 4th meeting — Passed 7-0
- Approval of findings and conclusions for case 2025 111526 Terra Content of Final Subdivision Plat — Passed 7-0

== Public Comment ==
A staff member announced their departure from the city, with the Assistant City Attorney taking over in the interim. During the General Plan study session, public comments highlighted a desire for more transportation choices beyond cars, emphasizing safety, and a need for more amenities in the southern part of the city. There was strong support for improved and reliable public transit, with suggestions for smaller buses on less-traveled routes and integration with ride-sharing services. Concerns were raised about the clarity of pedestrian/bike connections to transit and the need for dignified waiting areas. Participants stressed the importance of using authentic Santa Fe imagery in planning visuals and showcasing diverse housing types. The Cerrillos Corridor was identified as needing significant improvement. Concerns were also voiced about the city's capacity to implement the ambitious plan and the need for a clear implementation strategy. Several attendees requested advance materials for future meetings and larger visuals for presentations.

== Topics ==
- General Plan Update
- Land Development Code
- Policy Subcommittee
- City Smart Platform
- Staff Communications
- Meeting Adjournment
- Approval of Agenda
- Approval of Minutes
- Terra Content Plat Approval
- Consultant Team Feedback
- Staff Departure
- Public Engagement
- New Administration

== Full Transcript ==
We are live on YouTube. Now that my mic's on, I'll speak more. Okay. Somewhat belatedly, we're going to convene the meeting. We have Chair Claw on the Zoom. Hope you're feeling better, Madame. And I'll call the meeting to order. And if I could ask Matt to do the pledge for you. Could we have a roll call?

**Matt:** There we go. All right. Roll call. Barber.

**Barber:** Here.

**Matt:** McReynolds.

**McReynolds:** Here.

**Matt:** Reeland.

**Reeland:** Here.

**Matt:** Smith.

**Smith:** Here.

**Matt:** Cloud.

**Cloud:** Present on Zoom.

**Matt:** Mirando. McKe. Capen. Embry.

**Embry:** Here.

**Matt:** And can I hear a motion to approve the agenda? And the way I'm used to doing it, make the motion and then somebody has an amendment, you make the amendment. I can hear a motion to approve the agenda.

**Commissioner:** Move to approve the agenda.

**Commissioner:** Second.

**Commissioner:** Second.

**Matt:** Are there any additions or amendments to the agenda? That sounds simple. All in favor say aye.

**Commissioner:** We have to call a roll.

**Matt:** Barber.

**Barber:** Yes.

**Matt:** Reynolds.

**Reynolds:** Yes.

**Matt:** Reeland.

**Reeland:** Yes.

**Matt:** Smith.

**Smith:** Yes.

**Matt:** Cloud.

**Cloud:** Yes.

**Matt:** Capen.

**Capen:** Yes.

**Matt:** Embry.

**Embry:** Yes.

**Matt:** Motion passes. And is there a motion for the approval of the consent agenda? But there isn't one. I don't think we don't need that. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of December 4th. Motion, please.

**Commissioner:** Motion to approve.

**Commissioner:** Second.

**Commissioner:** Second.

**Matt:** Let's call the roll. Barber.

**Barber:** Yes.

**Matt:** McReynolds.

**McReynolds:** Yes.

**Matt:** Reeland.

**Reeland:** Yes.

**Matt:** Smith.

**Smith:** Yes.

**Matt:** Plow.

**Plow:** Yes.

**Matt:** Capen.

**Capen:** Yes.

**Matt:** Limbry.

**Limbry:** Yes.

**Matt:** Okay, now we're down to approval of findings and conclusions. And it's case 2025 111526 Terra Content of Final Subdivision Plat.

**Commissioner:** Move to approve.

**Commissioner:** Second comments.

**Matt:** And please call a roll.

**Matt:** Barber.

**Barber:** Yes.

**Matt:** McReynolds.

**McReynolds:** Yes.

**Matt:** Yes.

**Matt:** Smith.

**Smith:** Yes.

**Matt:** Plow.

**Plow:** Yes.

**Matt:** Capen.

**Capen:** Yes.

**Matt:** Yes. Motion passes. And with that, I think we move to staff communications. Am I getting this right? And I understand you wanted us to come down to these chairs in front. And are the staff communications part of the formal meeting or do they come after the meeting? Should we during the meeting?

**Staff:** Chair Smith, the staff communications usually is the first thing before the meeting and gives us the opportunity to highlight certain things that are happening with the land development code and its effective date, which would be one of them. Sorry, I'll just go right into it. So, the land development code, we're hoping to be effective January 1st, 2026. The city attorney is doing the finishing touches on the document itself. It has to be transmitted to the city clerk, and then the city clerk publishes the ordinance and five days later it is effective. So we feel like January 1st is a good date to start the new code. So we will be using that. We're going to be also working with our staff to train them on the different aspects of the code. We had our first kickoff meeting for the development review manual. Then we are really trying to improve processes within planning and land use and part of that is educating the public about the different ways that you can do either build a deck in your backyard for the folks that do the honeydew projects or the more complicated large-scale development projects like you see here at the Planning Commission office. So, we're really excited about that and we'll be embarking on that and we'll be looking for a planning commissioner to maybe be a stakeholder representative to review that development manual as we proceed through the process. The first thing will be an assessment of the planning and land use processes and sort of, for lack of a better term, Lean Six Sigma analysis of how we can remove redundancies and maybe do things better. So a member of the Planning Commission would be great. And then the last thing is that we'll be launching into phase two of the land development code update. We at the Planning Commission have a policy subcommittee. In the past, we've had different volunteers. Previously there were different topics. So there may have been two subcommittees based on the topic. So I would suggest at this time maybe for you to think about whether you want to have one subcommittee take care or deal with all of phase two or if you want it topic-based. So the first items that we're looking to address are the wildland urban interface, which we had recent public engagement with the fire department. There's legislation regarding massage parlors. We're trying to do enforcement there because public safety issues relative to illicit massage parlors and also the street design guide, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the MPO, together with Public Works and Planning, we have been working on getting the guide together so that we can have context-sensitive streetscapes and complete streets that really account for bicycles, pedestrians, transit, and vehicles. So that's all in terms of the communications and certainly we do want the commission to be part of all the dialogue. So we'll be requesting that you come down to the floor once we're done with business portion of this meeting.

**Chair Smith:** Is it your thought, I'm interested in thoughts from the commission as well in terms of the policy committee, one or more? I think it would be appropriate for us to wait till the next meeting and I'd like to have a chance to talk with Chair Claw and just sort out whether we need one committee or more or one for code and one for policy and one for quasi-judicial or however we want to do this as opposed to thinking about it anew and freshly right here right now.

**Staff:** It's not a right here right now, but it's something a seed that I'm trying to plant because we have a lot of work that we're going to be doing in 2026 and so certainly everybody is their own expert in their special field and have a lot to contribute. So we can also provide the assessment report to you once it's complete for phase two and we can determine then based on the topics that we're going to handle as to what you feel is most appropriate in terms of a policy subcommittee.

**Chair Smith:** When will that report, when will you be able to do that?

**Staff:** So we did a lot of the work at the beginning of phase one in getting an assessment report for phase one and a lot of that included comments about the bigger picture. What do we want to see happen in the land development code? We took sort of some of the simple stuff and did it already with the affordable housing incentives, but we really haven't tackled those bigger issues like architectural design and density and the like. So we will be doing that. The assessment report will be sort of picking up from where we are now and what we've heard to this point and really give us direction on the things that need to be addressed going forward.

**Chair Smith:** Is there, I mean, but is there a date by which you think we need to have this committee subcommittee structure in place?

**Staff:** Chair Smith, my hope is that would be by February.

**Chair Smith:** Well, that'll give us a chance to talk about it as individuals and I really think Cloud needs to take the lead on it because she's the boss. Great. Yes. Thank you. Are there, so those are the business communications before we go to the study session, which would be after we, as I understand it, after the meeting. You're saying we will go down and listen. Are there other comments or ideas that members of the commission? And I hear a motion to adjourn and we will relocate to hear the.

**Staff:** No, that's right. I get that wrong every time. Actually, Vice Chair Smith, if I could just address the commission just really briefly. Thank you.

**Chair Smith:** Sorry.

**Staff:** No, no, no problem. Sorry. I was jumping at the end. I was just going to mention this is going to be my last meeting in front of the Planning Commission. My last day with the city is going to be at the end of this month. I just wanted to say it was an honor to work with all of you and I really appreciate the opportunity to be in front of you and to work with you and to communicate with all of you over the last couple years. I think that my understanding is that Frank, Assistant City Attorney Frank Arubil, is probably going to be taking over from me at least in the interim until somebody else gets hired to formally fill my position. So, but he, so he'll be available starting I think January 5th if any questions or anything come up from any of the commissioners while I'm not here. So thank you again and I hope you all have a happy holiday.

**Chair Smith:** Thank you and thank you for your service. Cory, it's a pleasure. Do we wait until the end of the study session to adjourn? Because we have a quorum here.

**Staff:** I think that would be my recommendation. Yeah, I think that that would make sense unless there was, since we do have a quorum. So I think we're still part of a meeting, my understanding.

**Chair Smith:** Okay. So we will adjourn after the study session. Thank you.

**Janice Bletnikoff:** Good evening, Planning Commissioners. This evening we're going to be having a study session on the scenario planning step of our general plan update. In a moment here, I'll invite our technical working group to join you at these seats. But to kick us off, I would just like to reintroduce myself to you. My name is Janice Bletnikoff and I am the project manager for Santa Fe Forward, our general plan update. We also have other city staff here. We have Maggie Moore, our Assistant Director at Land Use, Lamboy, the Director of Land Use. We also have Nathan Linquist here in the back as support staff as well, our Senior Planner. And we have our consultants here, Mr. Man Ranu with WSP or with Z Design Workshop and Mr. Nick Fasio with WSP here to support this effort. So this evening's study session, as I mentioned, is to get your feedback on the draft plan frameworks and you may remember from previous updates we explained that after the visioning phase, the next phase is scenario planning and in order to have the proper lens on the different scenarios that will be offered to you for your feedback, these frameworks have been developed. Mr. Ranu will go into a presentation so that you fully understand the frameworks as different ways to see the scenarios that ultimately will be presented to you in the future. So with that, I would like to invite our technical working group members to join our Planning Commission up here at the table and I will give the floor to Mr. Ranu. Thank you very much.

**Mjet Ranu:** All right, good evening everybody. Thanks for getting comfortable at the tables in front of the dais here again. And I'm Mjet Ranu and I'm part of the consultant team supporting Santa Fe Forward and this is an exciting night as we're well underway with the exploratory phase of this effort looking at creative ideas based on so much of what we learned through the assessment report and the public engagement. So our focus today will be to talk about these frameworks as part of the scenario planning process. And one of the things that we found is there's a remarkable alignment across the city with the input that we've heard from y'all and from the public and the community partners that what the issues are, what the opportunities are, what the needs and wants are. It's not perfect alignment, but there's remarkable alignment there. And so we took an approach as opposed to developing very different scenarios and working to choose between those, a set of frameworks and you can think of them as building blocks that you assemble together into what will be a refined preferred plan. So what you're going to see today are diagrammatic frameworks. They're not very precise down to the parcel level. They're intended to show ideas and concepts and they're broken out into these three framework pieces to help it be digestible and to focus your understanding of it and the input that we're looking forward to getting from you today.

The format for those of you who were here last month when we went over the mission, vision, and strategies is very similar to that. We're going to walk through the presentation, and then we're going to have those whole everywhere questions via your phone or your laptop to get feedback, and then we'll have some quick discussions around those. So that's essentially the format, and that's what we're talking about with frameworks.

So here's our agenda today. Again, our purpose is to introduce these frameworks and to get feedback from everybody as to what you think and are they heading in the right direction? Are there some refinements? So when we went over the mission, vision, and strategies last time, you were generally in the right direction, but you had a lot of refinements that you suggested for us, which we did incorporate as part of developing this framework.

I'll talk about the process in a moment, and then we'll provide some context for what led to the frameworks and those development and the overview and get your feedback at the end. We'll put together a quick synopsis of what that feedback was based on our understanding of it and go over next steps, and then a new toy that you can look at right now, but not until after the session, on SantaFeforward.org or the City Smart, a new digital spatial intelligence tool that's available that also shows a lot of good information about what's happening right now with the Department of Planning and Land Use.

So the process for developing these frameworks began with two things. One is the assessment report. That's that very detailed, involved report that's on the Santa Fe Forward website that's about 600 pages long, but it's distilled into these key findings. So that was very key to us understanding what the opportunities are, the needs and the gaps, and the engagement. So all the public engagement that we're getting, and it is extensive. The team has done a great job, and in fact, you all have done a great job as leaders in this effort to get the word out. Over 8,000 individual pieces of input have been received through the visioning process. For a city of this size, that's remarkable from our experience as we work around the country. So it's been very, very helpful.

And then, as for those of you here a little over a month ago, the mission, vision, and strategies were key to helping to inform these as well. And then, so what we did is we curated ideas, and we worked on those internally and with staff and put them out there to react. And so we're doing that with you tonight to get your reactions to what these frameworks are. And then after that, we'll refine and focus those.

So to give a little bit more about the context, you might recall from last time for those who were here about the mission statement and the vision statement as revised and the strategy categories. There have been revisions to those, and we're not going to dive into those today because we did that a little over a month ago, but just wanted to refresh some of the context that helped to inform the development of these frameworks there.

So we have these eight strategy categories that are slightly different, as I said, from about a month ago, and the mission and the vision for Santa Fe Forward, all based on everything that we've learned to date. And then what we did as a team, we put together six scenario thematic concepts, very high level. So you can think of it as 60,000 feet, and today we're going to be down at 30,000 feet, and then when we get to the preferred plan, we're going to come down to 7,000 feet because we're here in Santa Fe. And so these represent about the 60,000-foot level. And we had different pieces here like mobility and resilience and nature, things like that. And so we got together with staff, and we did a half-day charrette and worked through these, and that helped to inform us where we should narrow these frameworks.

And we also spent a little bit of time on place types. So a general plan or comprehensive plan has a map, the physical form of the city, and it lays out land use designations. That's the standard way of doing it. But Santa Fe is the city different, and it is complex, and it is a fantastic place. So it deserves something more than business as usual. And with that complexity, the place types fit nicely because they bring in all aspects of Santa Fe Forward's pieces and kit of parts together to show what is meant about how the city's form will be and its function and how investment will occur in the city.

So the five categories of place types you see up there in the big bold: neighborhoods, corridors, districts, engines, and landscapes, and the 12 place types that we've identified underneath those to apply across the city. So once we get down to that 7,000-foot level with the preferred plan for Santa Fe, we're going to apply these in a much more exacting way across that map and then further develop those as well. So that's what the map is going to look like, is applying those 12 within those five categories.

We've also prepared a prioritization framework because the city, like all cities, the same thing isn't happening everywhere, and the potential for change isn't equal across the city, nor necessarily desirable everywhere. So there are really these three categories that we call the prioritization framework about how we're looking at applying planning in the short, medium, and long term.

In Santa Fe, there are these established areas. These areas are characterized mainly by treasured parts of the city that people really want to keep, and they're not bereft of investment. They will continue to have investment, but that investment needs to be in substantial conformance with the character that's on the ground there today. So that's what we mean by established areas.

And then enhancement areas. There are large parts of the city that are stable and thriving but maybe could use some things to fill in little holes here and there or to meet the needs and wants that we're hearing. So they're really about enhancing but not radically changing. And that's most of the city, right? So Santa Fe Forward isn't going to result in significant change across the city. There's not money to do that. There's not market to do that. And that's a lot of capacity that has to be done to realize that. So it's really about making focused investments in those areas.

Now the last one there, investment areas. These are places that are characterized by being underdeveloped, underutilized, deficient in some way, or they're opportunity areas that can accommodate or should accommodate significant public and private investment and have the opportunity in a more transformational way to meet the needs and wants of Santa Fe. So that's breaking those down into these established, enhancement, and investment areas.

So this is a preliminary map of what that looks like. Again, it's diagrammatic and not precise and based on the work that has occurred to date. And what you see is the vast amount of the city is within that category of enhancement areas, and the established areas largely conform to what is also the historic areas of the city, a lot of the city's heritage there, and the darker teal color there are places that are conducive to investment. So focusing the investment for public and private sector efforts, and if you recall from for those of you here last time, one of the important things we talked about is if everything's a priority, nothing is. So this helps to show how to prioritize what's happening in Santa Fe and inform the development of those of the diagrammatic frameworks that are coming up here in a second.

So here's the first of the three. Now to reiterate, these are not exclusive. These are actually all building on each other and overlapping. So think of it as assembling those building blocks and how with the feedback that we get today that these can be refined. So this first one is called the connections framework, and it is about making connections with transportation primarily and how we can connect people, places, and productivity. You have an economy here and social activities to broadly increase access to opportunity and also to make for more choices. So it's not all about the automobile. The automobile will continue to be the dominant form of transportation in Santa Fe, but we want to make sure that people have choices, and we've heard that out through this process about people a choice that's safe.

And so this exhibit here, the big idea shown on this exhibit, is a central backbone for high-capacity transit that goes cross-town through Santa Fe and then regionally goes up to Los Alamos because there is a lot of movement, of course, between Los Alamos and the laboratories up there and Santa Fe and the communities in between. So that's the big idea that's shown here, and you see the major transportation land use nodes that are diagrammatically shown there and then the community connectors that would bring people to and from these areas.

Now, high-capacity transit is most likely here would be a form of high-quality bus. You are fortunate to have the regional rail that's here, the Rail Runner. It's not especially frequent, but it's a good choice and option to have. Rail is very, very expensive. So I just want to be clear that this is most likely going to be rubber tire, a bus, rapid transit, and depending on where it is. In other places, it's maybe more of a running service rather than substantial capital improvements. So that's the big idea here is to have this high-capacity transit backbone going across the city and then bringing people to that and from that to make those connections and also the capital improvements that would come of that over time. So that's one there.

And this is a way to give a feel of the character in a handful of pictures here about what the form looks like and its function and the type of investment that would happen. And so this is a way that we're developing to help illustrate what that abstract diagram means in terms of people's everyday interactions and living here in Santa Fe. So that's connections.

Next is the places framework. The big idea here is that there would be three major and distinct places across Santa Fe. So the first one that you see just near downtown is what we're calling the Civic Center. There's a lot of government space there, mainly the state government, and a lot of opportunities to invest in that collaboratively with the state and also what's adjacent to that, of course, which is the historic downtown. So that's a major area that it retains what's there now and is an opportunity for some change in collaboration with the state of New Mexico.

In the middle, you see there Midtown, which you all are familiar with, which is underway as implementation. And then across Cerrillos is the Siler Rufina area where you have a lot of maker spaces and services and some cultural institutions. Meow Wolf is nearby there as well. So that would be in the center of the city, and then in the southern part of the city where there's a lot of new master plan development and hearing that people want more in that part of Santa Fe would be to create a distinct place that thematically related to the community that is there. So these would all three be distinct, and around them would be smaller, focused, distinct places and villages that link to these as well. And you see diagrammatically as we show those linkages between the established neighborhoods that are in those areas and then some of these additional places that would occur that are linked to these larger three places to anchor Santa Fe on that spine that you saw in the connections framework.

And then here's some pictures to show some precedent images here to give an idea of the form, function, and investment. So, more variety of housing in these places and connected to them and some of the activity. So, it's more walkable and you have more social interactions that come with that and see that as part of the function. It's intended to be very active and people-centered and then the investment, the type of investment that could be occurring in places.

All right. The third and last of the diagrammatic frameworks is what we call the resilience framework. And this is about building Santa Fe's ability to adapt to a changing climate, of course, but also to thrive through diversification of its economy and the types of houses that can be accommodated and developed here because it is predominantly a single-family home city and people need different types of housing than single-family homes. What's shown here in those shapes, those different color shapes, are bold moves through high-impact opportunity sites that could meet the needs for Santa Fe. There are gaps and there are opportunities and there are wants and needs. And so these are different places that could accommodate that as bold moves with high impact. What we're showing there are substantial areas for residential master planning. In that orange color, the very, very dark green color there on the screen is educational institution as well as an incubator to bring in some more opportunities to grow the arts and creative community here as well. I'm showing that around the DeVargas Mall, which has that proximity to downtown, but also has enough land through those underutilized parking lots to be accommodating of incubator and educational institutions. And again, the civic center that you see there, a lot of opportunity with state-owned lands in particular around the capital and the office buildings. And then at Airport Road and Cerrillos, an opportunity to really look at retail entertainment uses particularly geared toward families because there are a lot of families on the southern part of Santa Fe. And then logistics and industry, we've got to make sure that we're moving things, moving goods to and from Santa Fe and within Santa Fe. And industry, where can light industrial R&D be in Santa Fe to attract those primary jobs and have that synergy with Los Alamos National Laboratory and the opportunity shown there. The southern part of the city near the relief route 599 and I-25 and by the airport there. And of course, Midtown. And Midtown itself is intended to be transformational. So, this is about environmental, climatic, social, economic, and housing resilience in these areas where the last one there is wellness. We hear about the need and want for more medical and wellness services here and to take an intentional approach where you already have that with two hospitals that anchor those two areas, but doing more around them. Broadly speaking, what wellness does in those areas, that's the resilience framework.

And then here's some precedent images to give an idea of what that's meant in terms of its form, function, and investment. There you see in form, there's an R&D facility there. And investment, there's an industrial facility that has the character that could fit nicely. And then also environmental with the arroyos in Santa Fe and of course, the grand landscape, ultimate land of enchantment that is here, Santa Fe, with these great landscapes that are preserved that settlers here thousands of years ago. So, that is an overview of these diagrammatic frameworks. Here they are side by side just to show that real quick. And then the character images here. So, what we're going to do now is the Poll Everywhere interaction as many of us did last time. So, we're going to walk through those. So, that was just the broad overview from me just to introduce them. Put them up on, spend some time reacting to them on your phones and putting words up on the screen. Talk after she beats. So, make sure you're scanning either that QR code or texting 22333 to get. And we have a warm-up question just to make sure that everything's working well. And if you need to be a human zoom, feel free to walk up there, zoom into the QR code if that's not picking up the QR code. And Emily is here once again as tech support to help out. How's everybody doing? Getting connected to Poll Everywhere. Oh, this is better. Just having it raised up higher. Yeah, good idea. And the other thing, once we get to the speaking part of this session, there are microphones on the table. And because this is being broadcast, we have to speak into the microphones when we're talking so everybody can hear and it can be recorded so I can go back and listen to the conversation again with the team and then we can make our refinements resulting from your feedback today. I am doing my best to talk into this microphone, but it is sensitive. All right, looks like everybody's okay. Let's move to the warm-up question. Here's the warm-up question number one. How are you engaging others with Santa Fe Forward? So, I think I have to advance this to kick it off. So, yeah, people are already answering the question here. Talking with various constituents around town about the need for an update for the future of Santa Fe. Talking about it at work, with friends, and at parties. Oh, I like that. This is the time of year to talk about it at parties, everybody. We have stickers and pens. You can hang out, hand out party favors as well at the parties. I'm informing my neighbors. Maybe you're decorating with Christmas lights that say santafeforward.org. Sharing with friends. Excellent. I see more talking it up. All right. Anybody need collateral or support to help you with engaging with your networks? Yes. Well, it says I can't, yeah, I'm sorry. This is my, I can't make it scroll on the entire PowerPoint, but it does say "see more." We will capture that. We will have it. So, our communications and engagement group is going to look at this carefully. So, we, yeah, it might be profound. All right, thank you everybody for that. Everybody feel comfortable with Poll Everywhere and warmed up? All right, so let's get into the frameworks themselves. So, on to the next question. Using a few words, react to the connections framework, please. And I'll give you a few minutes to do that. And I'll just kind of watch how everybody's doing. And it looks like enough folks have made some. Oh, there we go. All right. Now, can I go back? Everybody see that? Okay. Or should I go back to the earlier slide that's bigger? Hope that doesn't, did that break? Didn't take everybody out of the question, did it? It lost it. All right. Sorry, I can't go back to the larger one. All right, it's back. Love transit. Okay. Sorry, folks. Put back. Still working for everybody. Good. No. I read some of the comments. Hopeful, it's fine. Include Española too. I need to see spheres of connections. What happens in concurrent circles as one moves away from the major high-use routes? Better and reliable transit. Are there plans for community connections at the end points of the corridors like bus rapid transit? Very thoughtful and thought-provoking. First glance, I see a lot of residential areas that are far from the community connection arrows. Appear simple, which is great and makes sense for easy navigating, hopefully for transit, but wonder about connections from St. Francis and Zia. There's a Rail Runner station down there. Can't read it. Need St. Mike's added. That's good. So, let's go back to the map here. All right. Feel free to keep typing in there, but open it up to discussion. So, those are good comments that we captured in Poll Everywhere. As we're talking, just remember to grab the microphone. We'll hand it off to you. Does anybody want to go first with comments expanding upon perhaps your comments that you typed into Poll Everywhere? Saw somebody likes bus rapid transit. Someone else said they like transit connections.

[Speaker turns on microphone]

Thank you. I said I couldn't read it. I can't tell the details of where your connecting links are. And I would just want to make sure that St. Michael's Drive is an important link given Midtown development because the only other east-west in proximity is Cerrillos Road, which you've already got Santa Fe High, you've got a junior high, you've got an elementary school. And once Zia and St. Francis develop, that's what's going to happen to Zia. That's what's going to happen to Cerrillos. We don't do something more significant with St. Mike's. Good point. Sometimes it's delayed.

[Speaker turns on microphone]

Hello. There it is. Okay. I was the one that said it seems like big swaths apart with the community connection arrows, like the ends of the arrows and what neighborhoods and how they go on this. Those are pretty far distances for people who are trying to access public transportation and most likely on foot or bike prior to getting to those. So, that was my concern.

That's a good comment. And one of the ideas that we have for these community connectors, which are really shown in the abstract here, not literally, of course, is that there would be safe, calm, and comfortable connections to these places. Looking at the more minor roads that make the connections in these areas and how they could be improved to allow for multiple modes. Is my imagination, is that blinking a second time I turn? Sorry about that. I don't know why that's happening. So, these, these connectors would be focused on moving people as opposed to high-capacity automobile roads like Cerrillos will always be high capacity for automobiles, but the others, the community connectors, would be for moving people in various modes. And then the land uses along them would be at the appropriate scale so you can make those connections. The other thing is a revisit of Santa Fe Trails, the bus system. Every so often there needs to be an update of its service plan. And Santa Fe Forward will undoubtedly have an action item that says, "Let's re-examine the service plan for Santa Fe Trails." And as some of you may recall, the area essentially to the northwest of Midtown where a lot of these acequias are and those really long lots because of the acequias, that was identified as an area as an equity community at high risk of displacement. And one of the things that could be done to reduce the cost burden is knowing that is an issue and an opportunity and having this across-town connection is how do you then provide regular bus service that's actually usable, that's frequent enough, that serves the people who most need it, who can reduce their transportation costs of $10,000-$12,000 a year per vehicle, and that transit becomes a viable option. So, that's also part of the thinking in what could be community connectors. So, they're very abstract in how they're shown.

Just one little comment I think I'd like to add here, since it's being recorded, is making sure that places where people are going to be waiting for all this public transportation are covered and safe and, you know, areas that are healing. I don't know. But certainly covered places to sit, you know, safe spots for them to wait for any of this transit we're moving towards.

Dignified. Yes.

Dignified is good. Hi. I'm not asking really about the map per se, but about hardware. Any thoughts on maybe smaller buses? I don't know if you've given any thoughts to how it's put together, but these big honkers that I see driving around.

Yeah.

Usually empty, you know, where I think it's an anachronism that we have these massive buses that seem to go out there. How about something smaller that people can fit in that much less money to run and might actually be more useful to people?

Great comments tonight. I can actually answer that. I'm a frequent bus rider myself, so I know the bus system really well. And I know right now that they are going to discontinue the big buses on the smaller routes. They're going to go to smaller buses and just keep the big buses for Route 2, which is Cerrillos Road. So, they are working on it.

I was just going to add on. So, I grew up at Zen St. Francis, and there used to be a couple of bus stops there, and now they are no longer there. But I rode the bus a lot when I was young, and I think one of the difficulties that we experience in Santa Fe for transit, especially, is people are moving at really varied times besides rush hour. We really don't have a lot of, there might be people moving around downtown, but nobody's moving around at Zen St. Francis until school's out or whatever. And so I think that'll be an interesting thing to keep an eye on is how you utilize those services and make them efficient, but realize that there's going to be some gaps where we're being underutilized. So how do you, I don't know. That's just a comment I don't know the answer to.

That's a great comment. The bus networks that are designed to focus on peak hour work commutes aren't serving the people they need to serve. And we learned that during COVID, the essential workers who couldn't work from home still needed that transit, and the routes that best served those communities were the ones that retained that ridership. So when agencies have done bus network redesigns to focus on those who need it, they have seen better ridership and aligned it to also different times of the day. So it's not just focused peak hour.

I want to take one more thing. How have you integrated ride-sharing services, Uber and Lyft? Obviously, since the days of transport, since public transportation started, obviously that's a whole different thing. There used to be a Santa Fe cab company, as you know, 984-0000. I remember that from the bar at, well, anyway. So yeah, I know certain people of a certain vintage of us who have...

Encouraging that you do remember after a night at the bar.

That it's right in front of me actually on that. But could that be integrated? How is that integrated, taken into consideration in transportation? Because obviously it's changed things dramatically.

Yeah, it could be. So for someone that lives, say, in a more distant area of Tierra Contenta, wants to get to one of the transit stations along this high-capacity transit route, they could then take that Uber and ideally have seamless payment, right? They make that payment through the Uber and they transfer to a high-capacity transit bus, and then they go downtown or they go to LA.

Yeah, absolutely. I would just say in integrating that, integrating private enterprise systems into public instead of just all having it, we all got to pay a lot of money to be able to do it for buses that are empty, to be able to use some another way of looking at it, less maintenance, less wear and tear, less money for the city, the county to and maintaining these, and you get better results. I really appreciate your commentary in the planning process so far regarding the need for a detailed comprehensive transit study for the city, because as we used to say in the industry, if you've seen one transit system, you've seen one transit system. They have to be unique. They have to be representative of current and future needs. Some of the comments here are excellent, with smaller buses are more appropriate in certain areas at certain times of the day. You've also got the need to look at some integration with the NCRTD blue buses. Santa Fe County is the largest supplier of gross receipts tax to the NCRTD, which matches their federal funds. I mean, personally, I don't know if you're getting your money's worth in Santa Fe County from NCRTD, given they're stretching long routes into Española and Taos at other points in time. Maybe you're getting it, maybe you're not. Also integrating with the DO's park and ride service that connects to Los Alamos, that connects to Española, that connects to Las Vegas. Also, in addition to fixed route bus services, there are vanpool opportunities. Major corporations across the country have found vanpools much more successful in getting their employees to work on time, especially if they're working alternative shifts. Great comments.

All right, let's go on to the next question, which is about the characterization. So the form, function, and investment rubric that we're using for Santa Fe Forward in organizing the approach here and these present images here. So let me activate the question. Just use a few words whether your reaction to those present images or what you want us to know about what the character form should be, its function, and investment for the connections framework, and whatever pops into your mind, just throw it down and pull everywhere. We won't actually know it came, that gets the stream of consciousness going. So talk a little bit about the connections form, what it looks like, how it functions, type of investment you'd like to see. Yes. So it's based on this...

I mean, based on those four pictures...

You can use those four pictures to help make those reactions.

I can go. Well, the problem is when I go back, palm trees. Are those palm trees? Yes. There's actually a great BRT line in Southern San Diego County, but no, we won't be doing palm trees there. You've been to St. George, Utah, they actually try to grow palm trees there. I don't know why. Nodes, density doesn't look like Santa Fe. So we want to make sure that we're using images that convey Santa Fe, and if there are things that aren't in Santa Fe, that at least images that we find are relatable to Santa Fe. Nodes of density have the connections circulating within each zone. Okay. Wish I could push it down. We'll see where it says "see more." This one is confusing to me. Well, we have two more of these confusing questions. So, this will be our practice, and I will try to do a better job explaining it. As we have two more of this one coming up, good, be part of the feedback that you give us at the end about this session. Update of current systems to accommodate citizens, more diverse types of bus stops and safe shelters. Multi-use investments around transportation nodes. Detailed photos, but good info on updating existing transits. You guys are doing all right. These are good. These are good words to put on in Poll Everywhere. I like it. All right. So, for conversation, anybody want to elaborate on their comments? So would these photos be like available on the website? Is that the idea, like we're commenting on how...

I guess that's where my confusion lies. Are we commenting on how this might be perceived if I were a citizen going to the website?

Yes, that's part.

Okay, got it.

That's a good way of looking at it too, because these will be posted on the website. The refined versions of these, based on the input that we're getting from y'all, will eventually get on the website as well as from the community partners and others as we move into the, as we progress this phase of Santa Fe Forward. Anything else anybody wants to discuss? Yes. This might not quite be an appropriate image, but I think for the general public, I'm wondering if there could be a hypothetical Google Maps map of like, I'm here, I'm trying to get there, and transit is the fastest and easiest way to get there, you know? So, you know, something like driving is 25 minutes, and taking mixed transit with one connection or two connections is 24 minutes or 20 minutes or something to hammer home to the public, like we are trying to make transit the most convenient, easiest, most comfortable option to disincentivize driving, because I think that's what all of these images are hinting at. But they, it's hard to connect the dots, I think, for members of the general public and myself potentially.

Well, that's really good feedback. And here's an encouraging thing to know. People will choose transit if it's easy, if it's only a little bit longer, it doesn't have to be faster at the same time because you have the convenience, right? You're not operating the motor vehicle. You're not spending money on it. So, it doesn't have to be a lot quicker. It can actually be just a little bit longer.

All right. Anything else on this one?

Can I just add to that a little bit? I think to some folks' earlier points, making sure that it's not just like I'm on the outside of this node and I'm getting to the middle of the node, but it's like I'm on the outskirts of the city and I'm trying to get to another area that's not directly connected or something, because I think a lot of folks, I hear a lot of complaints about if you're right on the line, it's fine, but you can't make efficient connections. And so I think communicating that through an image is important that it's for everyone to get everywhere in the city or as many places as possible.

All right, let's move on to the question on the next framework, places framework. Here, let me activate the question by flipping over. There it is. So in a few words, react to the places framework, and recall it's about having these three anchor major places across Santa Fe that are distinct and relating to the areas around them and also supporting a constellation of other smaller focused districts around those areas to diversify quality of life and recognizing differences in quality of life in Santa Fe. See what this is, a great concept. Simplistic but useful paradigm. Pretty accurate. Could there be more focused places? Yes, there are smaller ones that are not shown on there that are coming through the place types. I like the idea. Well distributed and diverse, distinctive from each other. Change Civic Center to Plaza. Would like to see the smaller places shown in between, but cool place types between. Good overview of the whole city and keep studying. Now Civic Center doesn't seem like the right call for all of downtown. It's downtown is more on the periphery of the opportunity on the state government campus. Yeah. Opportunity to do something there. But downtown relates to that. Of course, it's all walkable. Back. All right. So let's have a little discussion. So anybody want to talk about their comment or share your thoughts with the group here? Like this was received favorably as well. More to Santa Fe than the Plaza, which I still find remarkable to sit there with my laptop and do work. Hundreds of years this has been here and I'm hanging out in the same Plaza with my laptop. It's super cool. Yes, that's it. Now you'll have to listen to me. Okay. What about Santa Fe Place Mall? I see it's kind of sort of near Tierra Contenta, but this is an opportunity, I would think, the way malls are being reimagined for a huge change on that side of. You got Cerrillos as a corridor. It's almost like one of the hubs of transit. So if you were able to do something with the mall in that area around Zephran, which is a lot of wasted parking lots. Then you've got the press hospital and what's developing along the corridor there. I'd like to see how maybe that could be incorporated.

Yeah, good comment. In fact, I think when we dive a little deeper into resilience, which you just talked about, you're going to see on that one both the Vargas and Santa Fe Mall. Good. Good. Thank you. Can you say how that relates to the framework on a map? The other part you discussed earlier, the established areas and the enhanced areas and the investment areas.

Is that also part of your thinking here?

It is part of the thinking, is understanding, all right, based on technical assessment and engagement, areas of the city that have the propensity to be one of those three. And it's not an exact overlap, right? It's one data point that we look at in seeing what is feasible yet ambitious, that there's both that helps to explain sort of, so that the established area sort of needs less help from a government standpoint, which could be helpful and could not be helpful. And the enhancement area needs a lot more, and the investment needs, we're going to suggest putting a lot more resources toward that. Is that—

That's one way of looking at it. I would say it's not so much about what government does. Government is one of the partners in the vibrancy of a city. So in an established area, you want to keep that character in place. So the government is still going to have to serve it and make improvements. So it will have some investment, but that investment needs to be very much in conformance with the character that's there, as opposed to other places where you might want to see more targeted investments. Say a long-standing post-World War II suburban neighborhood, series of neighborhoods that don't have a place that they can walk to for a restaurant, for a bar, to grab that cab, and to go to the dentist and things like that.

Dragon Room.

Dragon Room. There you go.

Back in the day.

Oh my gosh.

Some people know some stuff. Well, I mentioned government because government sponsors this. Government is paying for this. So that's why I sort of bring it up.

Government is definitely one of the actors that—

Is the drive for that. Okay. Thanks. So I just think that that's interesting. The enhancement area is a big portion of that, but it's not, but not really a lot of it because that other area on the right-hand side is more like the state government complex that we're looking. So this is potential development.

That's sort of what you're going. So you think that has a potential element?

That's potential. Yes. There is a lot of underutilized land around the capital. A lot. There's a lot of state assets across Santa Fe that are underutilized.

Well, there's a lot of discussion about that, too. So—

And I say that very apolitically. I just come out of—

Yeah. Well, I'm not saying it apolitically.

Any other comments, discussion on this one? All right, great. Let's move to your favorite second question then. In a few words, react to the places characterization. So, some present images to suggest how these places could look in terms of form, how they could function, and the type of investment that you might. Let me activate your question and you can break the rules and just give us any kind of feedback that you want on this as you're hearing from your fellow stakeholders here in the room. That might give you some inspiration for feedback. Toggle over here. Happy to see missing middle type images, meaning of the different types of housing. Again, doesn't look like Santa Fe. Focus on people and public realm. These photos are great. Really like the highlighting of missing middle housing. Rethink density and setbacks. Invest in reusing buildings. Toggle back here. See those pictures again. That's just great to get your first gut reactions to what you're seeing on the screen. I'll go back in. How do we plan for forming character for Midtown and Tierra Contenta that are unique but connected to the history of the city? Are you suggesting a more form-based code for Santa Fe, linked to the land development code effort in progress in parallel? All right. So, discussion on this one. Anybody want to discuss your input or hear from others with questions based on what you saw up there? Yes. I'm the one who asked about the form-based code. I see you have a lot of form up there. You're obviously showing forms. Is that part of a suggestion? Are you trying to lead it particularly that way, that certain forms in certain areas would make more sense? In other words, like a form-based code?

Trying to help understand when we're putting out these concepts, these policy concepts, how does that translate into something real? Form is real, right? How people perceive the function as real. So the Plaza, people think of the Plaza, they think about all this people activity there and the special events and things like that and investment since downtown and the improvement to Guadalupe that changed the character of that street in a way—

Very much.

Yeah. So just helping to make this relatable through these images and any feedback you might have is to making sure that it is relatable to not only the concept in the places framework and the other frameworks, but that one that could be relatable by the people of Santa Fe. Want to discuss this? I think one form— Oh, that was loud. Sorry. I think one form that might be helpful that I hear a lot of people talking about is the ability to have businesses and gathering spaces on the first story and livable spaces on second, third, et cetera, stories. But maybe some way to show that a little. I mean, the images are a little bit small, so I can't quite tell. But I think more like gathering images of people might be helpful to really communicate that placemaking that, you know, form forms enhance that on, you know, the policy and code side. But I think for a lot of members of the public, it's about the image of people gathering in different ways, whether that's dancing or gardening or getting a cup of coffee or something like that. So it might be helpful to have something more close up of people gathering.

Dan, I think using photos of places in Santa Fe throughout the entire city that exist that are characteristically Santa Fe. They may be in Airport Road. They may be a trailer park. They may even, they may be a little cul-de-sac. There are many good examples. So, we could show more examples of what more of the city could be as it redevelops or is reimagined, especially on smaller infill lots. Tom wrote an excellent op-ed in the New Mexican that was published last week. He speaks to this and there's just ample, there's an ample supply of examples that could be used in this section to bolster and present the places characterization. We don't need to show Portland, Oregon here. We don't even need to show other places, although sometimes those are helpful. You got, thanks, Dan.

Yes.

Just to piggy, just to piggyback on what you're saying a little bit. I think also, and it might be the last question, this fits more, but it just popped in my head. Examples in Santa Fe, I recently became, I guess, more aware of how many, we're talking about the missing middle stuff and how many duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes exist in a very different looking way in Santa Fe already. So if people start hearing, you know, this idea of form or these different ideas, it's like, "Oh, no, no, no. Look at the house right next to you. There's actually four units in it. It just looks this way in Santa Fe." And making sure that's included so that people's that story and that storytelling of what already, what we're already doing here pretty well in a lot of ways. And that that could be really helpful in areas that aren't these big hubs, but to fill in with starting to get people used to like seeing it in town, I think would be really helpful. Excellent.

Let's do Nathan. It seems to me the whole Cerrillos Corridor is a place and to me it's a, it's a dreadful place. I don't know if everybody else agrees, but you know, as an architect, I want to see that improved in some significant way as a whole arrival and approach to the city coming into the city. It's a terrible way to come into Santa Fe and how, I know that's all private development basically. How can we influence and affect significant landscaping, streetscaping improvement all along that whole corridor to make it something other than what it is?

A great point. And so back to the connections framework, right? So high-capacity transit is using Cerrillos in that framework that ultimately to work the best requires capital improvements infrastructure. It's an opportunity to leverage those transportation funds, much of which would come from the federal government if it's a competitive project, to then design it in a way that looks and feels Santa Fe and begins that beautification, right? I mean, Cerrillos, of course, economically is vibrant. I mean, it's, there's tons of activity happening there. It is a bit chaotic. It is not all that attractive, but its function is important to Santa Fe. Its form detracts from Santa Fe, right? So the investment, so there's that third one, right? So the investment, like how do we put investment on there to tighten up that form while keeping that, that function and use investment to bring it all together? That transit capital improvement could do that. All right. Any other discussion, Tom?

Something I would say that every town in America has a Cerrillos Road. Every town in America, in Charlotte, it's Independence Boulevard. Matter of fact, I got friends from town met me at the Plaza and said, "We came in on Independence Boulevard. What happened? How'd we do that?" You know, it's unfortunate. But going back to the other part about the column I wrote, you know, the other week was that all the form we have is already here. What is this? What is the thing that everybody loves about Santa Fe? What is it? The East Side, the downtown. That's what everybody loves. That's why everybody's here. That's why they come here. That's why. So, the form is already there. Your point is very well taken about the form that the, the duplexes and triplexes look different here than they do somewhere else. We've got that form. It's already there. So, show some pictures of that.

Yeah. Excellent. All right. One more. Maybe two more comments. This.

Hello. Okay. I think I just want to echo again. I mean, I said this, but I think really telling the story of Santa Fe, like that is so important to folks that are from here, have moved here, what you're saying, I kind of what I was saying, but just really packing that in here for the what we have and how to keep growing on it. Yes, ideas from outside are great. I would love to see little pitched roof houses like that, mispitched roof houses, frankly. But, you know, just making sure that the storytelling is there along with everything that we're doing. There actually is a movie called Christmas in Santa Fe. It's streaming somewhere. But when I was watching it, I noticed that almost every scene was in the Plaza and there's so much more to Santa Fe than just the Plaza. And so if we're going to be showing images of Santa Fe, it needs to really be Santa Fe, not just one specific location.

Yeah. Great way to explore a city is to figure out where the cool restaurants are at any price point. That's how I learned my way around Los Angeles when I lived there. Otherwise, it's overwhelming. The same concept applies. Where are the restaurants that people like? Because the locals know where they are. And with the internet tools, you can find them. All right, let's move on to the next and last framework, the resilience framework. So recall this is about building Santa Fe's ability to adapt to climate change and to become more resilient socioeconomically through diversification of its economy and providing a variety and just greater supply of housing to meet the needs at all price points there. And this is about the big moves that can meet the needs and fill the gaps that exist that were identified through the assessment report and engagement.

The other thing, I actually apologize, I don't think I mentioned this when I went over it the first time. What this also shows is retaining the areas that are protected natural lands. So no suggestion of touching the open spaces that create these fantastic landscape vistas around Santa Fe and the corridors within Santa Fe. How do you enhance those? And then those yellow areas in the unincorporated part of Santa Fe, not a suggestion to annex and to develop those, but that hacienda rural character would remain. Now, the County of Santa Fe has the authority there, but the City of Santa Fe would propose to leave that character because people who come to Santa Fe don't see the boundary, they just read this all Santa Fe. So collaborating with the county on land use matters surrounding the city as well, development, not greenfield development, staying within the boundaries. Good information. Resilience, top priority in order to continue life in Santa Fe as we know it and enjoy it. Let me flip back there so you can see this.

So the ideas in here include wellness, logistics and industry, retail entertainment. To Dan's comment about what could happen there at Cerrillos and Airport and Rodeo, how you can make that more of a family destination that has a variety of services there. And then up at DeVargas Mall, focusing education and incubation innovation there approximate to downtown. The higher education system is retrenching now as with declining enrollment. So it may be nice to bring a university to Santa Fe. The market isn't such, but you can encourage innovation and incubation. DeVargas Mall could be a great spot to do that because the space is there and it's proximate. That parking lot's not full and thriving.

If you're thinking about education, there is on the Midtown campus, on the edge of it, the Higher Education Center, which has Highlands University and Santa Fe Community College in it. And there are all sorts of online and blended things going on. So, I wouldn't get too place-based with this. And if you're going to be place-based, you absolutely should include the Midtown campus and the multifaceted educational things that are, as I understand, they're all talking to each other already. So, you probably ought to have it in there.

Great, great feedback.

Good place for a Santa Fe Forward open house, too.

Back to reading these high-level concepts with a lot going on in this map. Hard to understand all these variables in this diagram. An important concept though, identifying cultural heritage areas might also be meaningful. See the north wildland urban interface is an issue, watershed forest management. All right. Well, looks like the typing has stopped. Let's discuss the resilient framework. Yes, there is a lot happening here. Part of that's because a lot wanted and needs to happen. Yes, Nathan, or thanks for passing the mic, Nathan.

One thing they've done in some northern European cities is to have corridors that allow cool air and wildlife to thrive. And that would be a good thing to explore and connect the Santa Fe River to that idea as well.

Good comment there. Some landscape links.

Can you elaborate a little bit on, like, wellness village? Like, is that like a place, an opportunity for housing around, like, healthcare? I guess I'm not quite understanding the term.

It certainly could accommodate housing that could be geared toward a healthy living situation. And also more medical services, and not just physical health, but mental well-being as well. That's part of healthcare. Spiritual as well, whether or not you're religious. All right. Any other discussion on this one? To try to catch a lot of things on one map. And it's a good thing we at least broke it into three. Rainwater harvesting is something Tucson does a fantastic job. Pedestrian access to open spaces. More discussion on this one. Yeah, Dan.

I think my comment is up there somewhere, but I wasn't able to scroll to it. I said emphasizing the natural capital. I'm not talking about the Roundhouse. Natural capital of Santa Fe and surroundings, forest, river, arroyos, and views. All of this is essential if you're going to have a healthy environment, resilience, and sustainability. I just finished reading a book called Biophilia. Anybody else has seen it? About the importance of how to structure a city, not as a human body, but as representing something like trees and in nature. I highly recommend that somebody on staff get a hold of it, or you all get a hold of it and look at the underlying concepts which have to do with reforestation, infiltration. All of these things are necessary. None of the rest of this will work unless we've got, speaking as an environmental planner, these things are fundamental and the building blocks. So as far as if the frameworks have some fundamental concepts within them, recognizing and taking advantage of the natural capital, natural resources is very important in this comprehensive plan. And because the city has discrete boundaries, we have to work with the County of Santa Fe because the County of Santa Fe is immense and includes, of course, within that are the federal lands, which is where our forests are, and of course, this is all related to our water cycle and so on and so forth. So this all needs to be acknowledged and somehow integrated into the resilience framework points.

Very good points. One other thought is possibly identifying emergency resilience hubs. But I think to Dan's point, you know, part of climate resilience is being prepared for climate emergencies. And so I'm not sure whether these shapes, you know, that an education center is going to be also prioritized as a resilience hub, for example. And I know that that has to do with the emergency management plan, which is a little bit different, but I think making sure that there are places around the city for different kinds of emergencies baked into sort of our resilience framework, I think is really important that we can prevent to a certain degree climate emergencies or weather emergencies, but to a certain degree we can't prevent them, and so then we need to be able to respond to them.

Yeah. Readiness is about being also part of being resilient. All right, let's go on to characterization about resilience, form, function, and investment. There might just get that on for you everywhere. So you see some images there that are both natural and built as part of characterizing what is meant by the resilience framework there. See, this is no comments in yet. And we have three more questions after this one. What spaces are needed? Good photos to describe. And our commissioner on the Zoom, feel free to jump in at any time if you like. Still there. So this one, we have different types of housing. That is part of being resilient, having a variety of housing types, keeping Santa Fe's grand landscape, being good steward of the grand landscapes around Santa Fe and the corridors within Santa Fe, like the river and some of the major arroyos. Economic resilience that you see in the form there with the R&D facility and in terms of its function, like providing trails along some of these natural corridors, which Santa Fe does a good job of, but there's more gaps to fill and investment. So industrial facilities, clean jobs, green jobs that are compatible with Santa Fe and the resources that are available here for industrial development, and then restorative around some of these corridors. So you see in some of these pictures, don't let construction obstruct views of the surrounding mountains. Design with nature concepts would be illustrated. It's a famous book, comprehensive yet effective. All right, let's discuss this one. Anybody want to discuss their contributions on Poll Everywhere? That's some good written. Thank you for that. All right. There's not feeling the images convey resilience. Perhaps more images of preservation activities. That is one key part of resilience as well as socioeconomic too. Find pictures of local plants. So does stock photos. This one is also conf. All right, last call for discussion on this one before we move to the next question.

Let's go to this one. This one's going to take a little bit more time to think through. So this question is, how do the frameworks align with the strategies? So again, for those of you who were here a little over a month ago, we walked through those strategies. We've since made some refinements. We're just showing the high-level categories. The eight here: people and housing, history, culture, and arts, engagement, governance, education, social and economic opportunity, nature, sustainability and resiliency, community services and essential utilities, transportation, access to opportunity, and built city. So, in the Poll Everywhere question, not actually sure how this question is going to work to be honest with you, but if you want to, it's going to rank these in terms of how you see them matching up with the eight strategies here. This written as an open-ended question like the others, that's going to make it hard. Yeah, that'll be tedious for you to do. Just qualitatively then respond to this one working within the format limitations of Poll Everywhere, but qualitatively if you want to just talk in general or zero in on it. Helpful, I'd say you're getting close to alignment. Usually fours at this level of abstraction. Pretty good alignment overall. Four. See that? There, there. The eight. Doing a good job with these diagrammatic frameworks of advancing strategies here. These categories. We are intentionally preparing a holistic general plan that's more than just typical land use and physical development. It's about everything. Four, it's hard to make a diagram for governance. Seems like a good way to consolidate the street culture, arts, people, and housing are weaker. Nature, etc. More present. Good feedback. Thank you. Back like most folks have their heads up. So, anybody wants to talk through this slide here? Some good written feedback. So I appreciate that.

Do you think, just a quick question, is there any strategy that we may have missed? So looking at the list there, people in housing, history, cultural and arts, and so on, is there a component of what you would find in a general plan that you feel like is missing in those frameworks? Okay. There's a microphone there. I think it isn't what's missing, but, and I don't think it's really the job, the code and the general plan, maybe it is partly, but I don't think the city is, what the government is organized to get this stuff done. And so there's a capacity issue as to how will the new code and the general plan be managed and overseen? Because, you know, I'm sure I'm missing a lot of wonderful things, but I don't see the capacity. I mean, just the idea of fixing Cerrillos Road. Oh, great. How'd that go?

Well, that is a great observation about that, essentially, that there's, that's great. We're going to prepare this awesome plan and it will be awesome, but then how do you translate it into action? And we're writing it in a way that it can translate into action readily through an implementation action plan. It's very important to your planning and land use director since day one that this be an actionable plan and we're short, medium, and long term. So that implementation action plan will be there at the end of this and the directors of the departments will need to lead the ones they're most responsible for and support the others. And of course, they're going to need resources.

They're going to need help prioritizing this. So, this begins that process of activating the plan. And there are going to be some gaps, right? It is not perfect. It won't have the capacity to do everything, but we'll find that capacity over time.

I do think the frameworks align with the strategies, but I don't know that they align with all of them, but I don't know that they need to, if that makes sense. It's like they touch on history, arts, and culture, but the purpose of these frameworks, from my viewpoint, is not to elaborate on history, arts, and culture. It's more about these kind of crucial pieces that go into land use, right? I don't know, that seems a little like it's important to preserve the character and the arts and the history and culture, and you have some of that in the place, but I think the frameworks do a nice job of touching on these as efficiently as they need to. I don't know that you have to add a whole lot more because they're already pretty detailed. So, just...

Thank you. I would say that the framework is trying to distill, I guess, those eight categories into something a little more manageable. To me, when I would tell people, "Three things max," you know, one is the only thing better than three is two, the only thing better than two is one, you know. And so, trying to get it all is very difficult. I'm stunned by the scope of all this also, and I went back and read, not in detail, the 1999 plan, you know, which covers a lot of stuff. It's not had action. Props to those people who put that together. So, it's a real, it's very difficult to be able to do. It's a tremendous challenge, and how this integrates to Heather's work and the others' work with the land development code is crucial, and of course, we've asked that from day one. Having this kind of input, first, I guess, trying to be able to have that in mind before you're sitting there doing land development code, especially the analysis work, whatever you described, Heather, was the same thing you've done at phase one for phase two, to be able to have this in place and an idea of which way should go, what the input would be, I think is crucial to that. I liken this whole process to designing a building. There is this overarching concept, and the renderings are shown, and the glass and the steel and the roof and the driveways and the parking are all part of the whole thing. But I'll always think of how the architect sells that concept to the client. That is what makes the building happen. If you don't sell the concept, it doesn't happen. The client has to buy into the whole concept. The client is the city, the planning department, and everyone who's involved in this. And I think you've done a terrific job in painting the rendering of the building. This is a very broad brush watercolor, beautiful view, and now it has to be sold. Also, I state the obvious that in a few days, you will have a new administration. They may think this is all, you know, "Nice work, guys, but I don't really see it that way," you know. And so, it may all go another direction. So, God bless everybody for working at... I don't think that'll happen, but I don't know that. But that's, but that's important to be able to consider. I think, I think it's just very hard to be able to put all this together, but I think it's a, it's a great, not more than a start, it's a great document. It'll be a great planning tool.

You know what I'm talking about. I know you know. So...

Thanks, Tom.

Yep.

All right. Any other discussion? Otherwise, we'll move on to the next question. And by the way, you can't read this, of course, but we have actually taken a pass at relating the three frameworks to each of the strategies there. So, that's what's written on there.

Yep.

Okay. So, for a synopsis of today's feedback from my perspective, I hear that we're on the right track with these frameworks, that we've gotten great feedback to refine them, and we've gotten questions and uncertainty that we have to address to Nathan's point, to make sure that people understand it so they can buy into it and want to go forward with it as well. So, at a very high level, right direction, refinements, and make sure people can understand the things that were confusing to you all. To my colleagues, if there's anything else that anybody wants to add to the synopsis there, and we're certainly going to go do what I did last time. I'm going to go watch the video. I'm going to dig into this. I'm going to take notes and study this, and we're all going to do that. Nick, is there...

Yeah, you always do a good job on this. Well, I'll just, I'll just add, I think one of the things that you guys brought up, and you know, the consultant team, we sort of kind of knew to expect this, so it wasn't a huge surprise, but the assets that we use, the illustration of the concepts that we're trying to sell, right, they need to feel real, they need to feel place-based, they need to reflect everything that we all love about Santa Fe, you know, that message came through really clear, and it's, it's one that we already knew to expect. You know, we wanted to get something out here for you guys today that sort of illustrated at a high level the concept, but I think the message to, you know, really tie it to place, it's something that Heather and Maggie and Janice and everybody reinforces to us all the time, and something that we're paying attention to. So, thanks for that feedback, too.

Have pictures you think are good to us. info@SantaFeforward.org. That's our general mailbox. It's monitored. A real person might be in this room. Who might be in this room or... Yeah, it's on the website.org.

Yeah, if you go to SantaFeforward.org, the email link's on there, too. Yeah. That, well, I assure you, you were productive nonetheless.

Yeah, Tom, question. I noticed on the slides, I saw Design Workshop, Leland Consulting, and Continuum Strategies. I assume you are subcontracting to those people.

Yes, we're all one team.

See, so you're, you're contracting them. Yeah. All right. So, let's move to next steps. So, one of the things we're going to do is to check in with the city's executive team. So, department directors and their leadership team, do a progress check session just to brief them on where things are at with Santa Fe Forward and where we're heading with these frameworks and such. Similar to what was done with the assessment report as that was being developed. And we will put on SantaFeforward.org announcing availability for public input, the revised mission, vision, strategies, and these frameworks as well. And then we're going to come to governing body, hopefully at the end of January, if the docket allows, to do a progress check session on the mission, vision, and strategies and the frameworks. And I think by then, we'll have a feel of where a preferred plan might be heading, subject to their input. And that'll be a new administration in place and some new council, governing body counselors as well. And after that, we'll have direction on the preferred plan, and then we're going to close out this exploratory phase and begin the production phase and start really writing up the plan. So, all exciting stuff. We're right on track for this accelerated schedule of bringing this forward to the community for adoption later this year. So, those are our exciting next steps. Also exciting, and you can link to this on SantaFeforward.org, is the City Smart. It's a digital platform for spatial data and maps, and this is just a screenshot here, only a small piece of it, where you can get maps and data. You can understand what's happening in the planning and land use department. You can actually see the project discretionary applications that are under review right now. They're on there, and because this is a new thing, some of the data is still getting cleaned up, but nonetheless, they are on there, and they're mapped so you can get an idea of what's happening in the city. You can see the residential pipeline, which includes projects under review now that were previously approved, that were recently built. Lots of this kind of information and a lot of free information for people if they want to manipulate the data to understand something or to create something. So, again, just a little snippet here, there's so much more to see, and it brings Santa Fe from 1610 to 2025 in a click, and it's going, and it's just the beginning. You know, more and more is going to be added to this platform. And kudos to city staff under Heather's leadership to see the importance of having this and making it publicly accessible. So, now that you know, what might you do with the City Smart? One of two last questions here. So, let me activate it here. So, what would you do with the City Smart when, again, you can go click on it through SantaFeforward.org, and you'll see it on there, the button to click, and you can go explore and keep coming back as more data sets are added. So, what might you do with the City Smart? Personal interest that qualifies? Just while you're doing that, one of the reasons this sort of popped up as we were going along with this project, and it was an add-on, is because we get a lot of public records requests, a lot. And so, what in previous jurisdictions that I've worked at and others as well, it, you can have access to those documents at any time of the day through the website. So, you can click on a property and get all of the cases, all of the building permits, and historic districts, the historic cultural property inventory form, and all of that so that you can have that information at your fingertips, and also helps because you don't have to go through the whole public records request. I mean, obviously, there might be a need eventually for a public record request, but at least to have those case files and everything there. We have 250 boxes of paper files for planning commission and board of adjustment and all these different decisions. So, it's going to be a years-long process to get the information there, but at least starting now.

I keep track of permits and projects, see what's happening in my neighborhood, explore the city, use it to get a high-level view of everything happening within the city all at once. Excellent. All right. Well, now you know it's there. It was released November 17th. And again, it's going to keep growing. So, come back often. All right, last question. Please give us some feedback on today's session. Appreciate that as we come back again because we will be, we will be back. This helps us make sure that we're giving you the support that you need to make sure that you have the plan that you want for your community. It's your community. There's the question again. Please provide feedback on today's session. If you provide feedback on today's session, you will get a sticker and a pen. Excellent. Thanks to everyone. Good job. On track. Great. Let's think I'd do it again. Scenario planning was the premise. Well done session, like a collaboration. We provide topics and documents ahead of these meetings. Generative and thought-provoking, echoing Par's point that some advanced sharing of questions and documents, helpful material prior next time. It's hard to read. Need larger slides of maps or post or a lot bigger screen. Provide copies. A lot of comments want to see this stuff in advance. Understandable. Let's make sure your focus groups are more diverse, which is why through our engagement plan, there are other channels besides this one where we're getting, but as a good thing to keep remembering, right, this is just one group that's a part, reflect Santa Fe in part, but not in whole, and we have to go to those many parts to get the whole. Yes.

Yes, we'd be happy to send a copy of this presentation to you. I'm like you, I have to digest things. It took me a little while to go through all this stuff, too. So, yes, you can email us if you'd like, just with some of the additional thoughts.

Right. So, with that, thank you for your time tonight. It is very helpful. It does inform this. So, thank you. With that, Mr. Chair, your duty is to adjourn the meeting. The meeting is adjourned. Good night everybody and happy holidays.