Earlier this year the Las Cruces City Council approved a series of zoning and building ordinances, known as Realize Las Cruces, that overhauls the City’s development code, marking a significant change for the city, as the last significant update to the land use code occurred in 2001.
George Pearson is the vice president of Velo Cruces, a local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization. Pearson was part of the city’s Technical Advisory Committee during public discussion of changing the city’s code. Along with engineers, business owners, developers, and other stakeholders, Pearson went through the new code line by line and offered suggestions.
“It offers more flexibility than what the current code offers. So, if you wanted to add a little casita in the back of your property, you would have more ability to do that rather than a flat out no from the current zoning code,” he said.
And that’s a word you’ll hear often with folks in favor of the new code – flexibility. Among other provisions, the new zoning code aims to increase housing density and create more options for developers within Las Cruces’s neighborhoods.
As a cycling advocate, Pearson said he appreciates having the option to live in a denser neighborhood as opposed to strictly single-family zoning.
“It’s good to offer choice of where people can live in other places, where they can choose to ride to work on a bicycle or even walk to work, and maybe have a neighborhood coffee shop where they can gather together instead of having to get into their car. There’s so many times I see development plans where you have all these cul de sacs and in order to get from your backyard to your neighbor, you have to get in the car and drive three miles.”
But not all residents see it the same way. The zoning update, passed by a council of vote 6-1 in February, has sparked opposition. Sarah Smith is a resident who began a signature drive aiming to bring the plan to voters in a referendum, and said she’s worried about how commercial development in neighborhoods and denser housing options could negatively affect the city’s single-family neighborhoods.
“My house is small, 1200 square feet, and they’re now saying my street is going to be zoned where they can put a 50-unit apartment complex directly across the street from me. And I don’t think that’s fair to the homeowners who have chosen their neighborhood for a specific reason. They want certain characteristics, they want a certain way of life.”
Smith said she feels that such a drastic change to the city code should be put to a vote in November, and said she had wide support from residents, although declined to state how many signatures the petition has.
“There was a public meeting here at the city and they acknowledged they’ve never actually done a comprehensive cost analysis to see if the new requirements are going to increase housing costs,” she said. “This is the type of thing that the city council should not be deciding. They should be putting this on the ballot from the start because it’s going to affect everybody in the city.”
But some city officials, including the city’s development director Chris Faivre, say that the city did its due diligence in bringing in stakeholders during the process of adopting the new zoning code, which is not only simpler, but is also designed to help the city deal with its current housing shortage of an estimated 5,000 units.
“A lot of these changes will make it easier for developers to add what’s called the missing middle. Maybe it’s a duplex, maybe it’s a quad-plex, maybe it is a small apartment complex. Right now, a lot of that has to be done with special use permits, which is time and money to any developer. The quicker you can help a developer bring a new house to market, the more affordable that can make that home.”
Additionally, Faivre said that while the building codes are being overhauled for the whole city, the biggest impact will be on new developments.
“It doesn’t impact a lot of current developed neighborhoods. A lot of this was intended to help flexibility for future development. But there are some opportunities to enhance and provide some amenities that residents are looking for in their neighborhoods.”
In terms of the petition to overturn the new code, it was recently submitted by Sarah Smith to Las Cruces City Clerk Christine Rivera. Rivera explained that to be successful, the petition must have 3,240 signatures, which equals 15% of the total number of ballots cast at the two most recent city elections as outlined by the City Charter. Rivera said the petition has roughly 2,500 signatures.
“I did go through [the signatures] and did submit a letter of insufficiency to [Smith]. So the next steps are she has 15 days from the day I mailed the letter to amend her petition process. What that means is that she’ll collect more signatures, and then she’ll get an additional 15 days to collect signatures on a supplementary petition and then submit those to me. At that point, I have five business days to go through those and determine if the entire petition itself is sufficient or not,” she said. “My role is to be neutral and follow the rules and regulations per state statute and city charter, and make sure those are followed correctly.”
As it stands, Sarah Smith said that she’ll continue collecting signatures through the end of April to be submitted to the city clerk, with the hopes of bringing the zoning change to citizen’s ballots in November. If the number of signatures is less than 3,250, then the new zoning code will stay in effect.
