Quality of Life Committee Wed, Sep 17, 2025 ยท Quality of Life Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/814 == Executive Summary == The Quality of Life Committee discussed several key initiatives, including security enhancements at City Hall, affordable housing, and various economic development and community health programs. A significant decision was made to approve a donation agreement with Homewise for affordable housing development on Losas Tract 6A, which passed with a 2-1 vote. The committee also recognized successful community events and upcoming initiatives, such as the Canyon Road Summer Walks and the hiring of a new Downtown Business Coordinator. Staff were tasked with continuing to implement new City Hall security measures and investigating the City of Austin's decision regarding Urban Alchemy contracts. == Key Decisions == - Approved a donation agreement with Homewise to donate Losas Tract 6A for affordable housing development. - Approved the agenda. - Approved the consent agenda as amended, with Item 6E pulled for separate discussion. == Motions & Votes == - Approval of Agenda โ€” Passed unanimously. - Approval of Consent Agenda (as amended) โ€” Passed unanimously. - Approval of Item 6E (Homewise Donation Agreement) โ€” Passed 2-1 (Councilor Castro voted no, Councilor Faulkner and Madam Chair voted yes). == Public Comment == Councilor Castro expressed reservations about donating city land for affordable housing without a comprehensive plan, while still supporting affordable housing and Homewise. Councilor Faulkner thanked Director Hammond Paul for the new City Hall security measures, recognized Battalion Chief Aiden Lopez for an award, and announced an upcoming La Posada event. The Madam Chair thanked directors for their work on safety and supporting the Posada. == Topics == - Affordable Housing - City Hall Security - Economic Development Initiatives - Community Events & Awards - Senior Services - La Posada Southside - Occupancy Tax Grants - Guadalupe Street Businesses - Human Services Leadership == Full Transcript == Madame Chair, Councilor Chavez, we are live. Thank you so much. I call to order the Quality of Life Committee meeting. It's Wednesday, September 17th, and it is 5:03. Could I get a roll call, please? Councilor Castro. Councilor Faulkner. Here. Madame Chair. Here. Thank you. Next is approval of the agenda. Are there any changes from staff? No changes. Could I get a motion? Motion to approve. Second. I have a motion and I have a second. Since we do have a committee member online, could I get a roll call vote, please? Councilor Castro. Yes. Councilor Faulkner. Yes. Madame Chair. Yes. Motion passes. Next is approval of the consent agenda. We did not have anything pulled. Has that changed since then? If so, there will not be staff here. If not, could I have a motion? Chair, I did want to pull item E just for a vote. I don't need staff. We had quite a discussion on Monday. All right, great. So, we have item E pulled off of consent. Could I get a motion as amended? Motion as amended. Second. I have a motion and I have a second. Could I get a roll call vote? Councilor Castro? Yes. Councilor Faulkner? Yes. Madam Chair? Yes. Motion passes. We have no presentations and we will move to that item that was pulled, which was, if you could remind me. I'm sorry, item 6E. Request of approval of a donation agreement with Homewise to donate Losas Tract 6A for development as affordable housing. Terry Lease is the staff on this, but we do not need staff. Councilor Castro communicated that. I'm going to just turn the floor over to you, Councilor Castro. Thank you so much. I just want to say that I support Homewise and we need affordable housing. I'm a little hesitant on donating any city land at this time. I think that we need a more holistic plan. With that, move to approve. Second. I have a motion and I have a second. Could I get a roll call vote? Councilor Castro. No. Councilor Faulkner. Yes. Councilor Chavez. Sorry, Madam Chair. So, you motioned to approve it. Councilor Castro, did you mean to motion to deny? No, I motioned to, I was hoping to move to approve and vote no. I didn't think I would have a second, but I can change that motion if you'd like. I don't know how that works, but we will go ahead and just count the vote and we'll see what happens. We've already counted the vote. You're the last. Yeah, I vote yes. I don't know if we have two. Yeah. So, motion passes. Sorry, that threw me off a little bit. I apologize. Moving on, we do not have any discussion items, no executive session. So, we will turn to matters from staff. So, I will turn it over to you, staff. Thank you, Madam Chair and councilors. We have two initiatives being honored at the Governor's Economic Development Conference next week. This is the Canyon Road Summer Walks and our Native Business Program. The SCORE Women's Conference is tomorrow. We are proud sponsors and the Mayor is speaking. We also recently hired a Downtown Business Coordinator who will focus on working with our downtown businesses with a focus at this time on Guadalupe Street. The Occupancy Tax Advisory Board grant applications will close for submission on September 18th, which is this Friday. Information and applications are available on the tourism portion of the city website. We have a Guadalupe Street Merchants Meetup this Friday, September 19th. On Saturday, September 20th, at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, the Santa Fe Hispanic Chamber will have their 40 Under 40 Awards that evening. You can still go to their website and buy tickets. Our very own Lizzy Portillo in the Office of Economic Development is being honored. So that is exciting. This Sunday, we have the International Half Marathon, and again, the City of Santa Fe is proud sponsors. Then we have an art show called Queer Magnetism. It's a group show featuring new work from 40 New Mexico-connected queer and trans artists. It opened last Thursday with a crowd of over 400 people and it's open to the public until November 1st. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much, Doctor. Madame Chair, councilors, from the Community Health and Safety Department, a handful of updates. I'll start with the considerable changes that many folks have felt and seen at City Hall in terms of egress and exiting the building. We now have a single point of entry for staff and the public to come in through the main doors on Lincoln Avenue. This is in response to a handful of public safety incidents across the country as well as here in Santa Fe and New Mexico more broadly. We are excited to be now on par with all of the other government entities in the capital city. The state, the county, public schools all have equally high levels of security. So, this was long overdue in many regards, and we're excited that it also will be leading to a better constituent experience of City Hall, moving towards having greeters and folks who can help orient the public to the various offices that they're visiting. So, that's a felt change that people will feel and continue to experience over the coming weeks as we continue to build out that effort. With regard to the Community Services Department and the respective divisions, Director Sanchez Tucker will be speaking at the New Mexico Conference on Aging hosted in Glorieta on September 24th. She's been spearheading, alongside Councilor Chavez, the Age-Friendly Action Plan for the city. With regard to seniors, we had the Baile de Oro, which had over 300 attendees, and over the past three years, since this event started, we've grown nearly three times in size, starting with 125 attendees and now having over 300. I will also just quickly state two things from the Human Services Division. One, we have a new director who started Monday, Director Leah Salivary, who's coming to us having both experience in working with elected officials. She was a district director for the City Council President in the City of Oakland. Most recently, she was a staff person at the company Pallet Shelter LLC, which designs emergency housing for unhoused people as well as those folks experiencing displacement due to natural disasters. One last thing, which is that my team and I are working to investigate and understand more of the context around the City of Austin's decisions to end their contracts with Urban Alchemy. So, look forward to briefing you all on that as that becomes more clear to us. Thank you. Thank you, directors. Next is matters from committee. Are there any matters from committee this evening? Two things. Yes, Councilor Faulkner. One, I would like to thank Director Hammond Paul for the new way we're doing things at City Hall. I think it's well overdue and I'm very happy about it. The other one is that I'd like to recognize that our Battalion Chief Aiden Lopez has also been, is also a 40 Under 40 winner. So, we have two people from the city. Aiden is 38 years old and he's a Battalion Chief and he is an amazing strategist and cares very much about his subordinates and about the city in general. Then I had three, Chair, sorry. The third one is that we are starting to work on the La Posada for the south side of Santa Fe. It's going to be December 18th from 4 to 9. So, there'll be toys given away, there's going to be food, there's going to be entertainment, there's going to be all the usual things that we do on the south side for the La Posada. So, I just wanted to do a shout out to that, that that's coming and there will be more as that unfolds. Thank you, Councilor Faulkner. Councilor Castro, she took the words right out of my mouth. I wanted to thank you both for supporting the Posada again this year. Our community is having a hard time and they really appreciate our support. So, thank you. Thank you. So, matters from Chair, I also want to thank you, Director, for just the efforts and safety and getting to a place that a lot of other government agencies are at in regards to security. With that, I will say that our next Quality of Life meeting is going to be next Wednesday, not next Wednesday, Wednesday, October 1st, 2025. Thank you.