6 hours Ago
The opening sentence of last week’s column was incorrect. I wrote, “Homewise recently purchased all undeveloped lands in Tierra Contenta.” Yes, it bought 216 acres of undeveloped land in Phase 3, but there are another 100 undeveloped acres in Phase 3 owned by the New Mexico School for the Deaf that Homewise didn’t buy, because it’s not for sale.
But it is in the original Phase 3 master plan and designated as 3B. The Homewise property is 3A. Since A comes before B, the presumption is 3A gets built first, which will be true.
Except nothing gets built without finishing the loop road and spine infrastructure of Paseo del Sol. The first third of that loop passes through New Mexico School for the Deaf’s 3B property. Homewise is expected to pay for that 3B section.
It is unfair and stymies progress on development of 1,500 new dwelling units, 40% guaranteed affordable and the overwhelming majority single-family homes for first-time homebuyers. Homewise CEO Mike Loftin was quoted saying, “The numbers don’t work if it’s all debt and has to be repaid with interest.” That means gift money from public entities that benefit public good with public infrastructure must come forward.
Some guardians of city purse strings say constitutional provisions of the state’s anti-donation clause prohibits such gifts. That’s nonsense and untrue. Public infrastructure is not a gift to adjacent property owners.
Upgrades underway on North Guadalupe Street are not deemed gifts to adjacent businesses, but upgrades are partially financed by impact fees collected from developers and earmarked for projects considered necessary to accommodate growth, like the extension of Paseo del Sol. Because the city’s current administration is so opaque, it is virtually impossible to see how much is in the impact fees road fund. The last available data from October 2020 showed a balance of $5 million.
No data is shown since then. The expected costs of the Paseo del Sol extension and infrastructure are now over $25 million. Homewise can finance much of that, but at least half needs to come as gifts from the city and the state.
The state, because it funds School for the Deaf activities, and a new road and infrastructure running through its property increases the value of its land assets, even if never used. The city can beg the state to pony up a share, but the city needs to pony up the rest. It has unknown money collected for roads in an impact fee account.
It just received $2 million from the Homewise sale that it should gift back. It will own the sewer and water pipes installed in the road that ultimately get connected to customers paying water and sewer bills. The city has the money.
It needs to use it to get Paseo del Sol completed. The city could even leverage its funds to push Homewise and other for-profit developers to go beyond city building codes for water and energy efficiency. Homewise has always been a leader in beyond-code construction, but it can do more and so can whoever buys tracts from Homewise.
The city is about to lower the threshold for water and energy efficiency for new dwelling units, including, finally, multifamily apartments. With energy and water efficiency rating scores, which are code requirements, lower is better. Make them even lower for Tierra Contenta builders.
Promote net-zero energy homes with solar panels like Santa Fe Habitat for Humanity builds. Encourage roof-captured rainwater harvesting to be treated and used to flush toilets. Use city money for affordable housing that checks all sustainability boxes and get it done now.
It’s way overdue..
