foreign all right thank you I'm going to call this meeting to order this is the land use planning and zoning committee of the city council all counselors are present um counselors Benton and Jones are in attendance via Zoom this is a hybrid meeting where all participants will be in person our video our audio conference members of the public have the opportunity to address the committee if they have signed up for public comment for the rules published on the agenda and on our website from Friday I've been informed that no speakers have signed up tonight is that still true all right we will go to agenda item a um councilman Lewis uh I'm sure I moved uh OC 25. second all right and I believe we have a short presentation from the Schultz so we'll turn it over to her real quick Madam chair counselors thank you OC 25 is the appointment of Mr Giovanni Coppola who is uh here with us in the audience this evening if the counselors have questions for him um this is for an appointment to the environmental Planning Commission for the EPC as we call it the EPC is a nine-member board each counselor appoints a member to the sport from their District the EPC considers various planning and land use applications as required by the integrated development ordinance in some instances the EPC is a final decision-making Authority but in other instances they are just a recommending body to the city council Mr Coppola would be the District Five representative for a first term of three years so his term his first term would expire on January 1st of 2026. I'll read a little bit from his biography that was submitted to the city but he can also speaker himself at the Council of desires uh he's a small business owner born and raised in New Mexico and does own commercial property within the city limits to run his small business um with that I would be happy to stand for any questions um and again Mr Google is here as well thank you for being here Mr Bill below any questions from the committee I don't know hey hearing none we have a um oh Madam sure couple I would like to just speak briefly about you know his interest in in the position and and you know just like to hear from him would be great Mr Cooper if you wouldn't mind having a seat at the center table absolutely and then feel free to tell us a little bit about yourself and the interest in the committee thank you so much thank you guys for having me I appreciate the opportunity uh as mentioned before I've lived in New Mexico my whole life I've been a small business owner here in Albuquerque now for 10 years uh and we presented the opportunity to serve on this commission I really was excited for the opportunity as I've seen the city change in a lot of ways and in a lot of really good ways and I'm excited in the direction that we're heading and I'd really like to be able to be a part of that uh future growth and future you know movement forward for our the city we all live and do business in so I really appreciate the consideration it means the world to me and I'm happy to hopefully get the chance to serve D I missed a couple has been in this community a long time this family has and and uh you know this is probably one of the most important you know uh committees that we have in our in our city you know I think they everybody works hard in our committees but certainly the the time commitment of the EPC uh requires a lot and so when you have somebody who's willing to do that willing to serve in that way and understands the uh um you know the the commitment that it involves and you know willing to help us make good decisions on behalf of on behalf of the city and and you know good growth and um and really um uh you know the side and on issues uh according to our our Ido and um and that's a lot I mean it takes a lot to understand it and to uh to be able to make decisions based on the laws and rules of our our city when it pertains to zoning and so I appreciate Mr croppolis uh willing to serve and his expertise and his knowledge it's great great to have people that are you know business owners and that serve on this committee and so I think he's going to bring a lot to it thank you thank you are there any other questions or comments um counselor Betty yes thanks I just wanted to Echo uh counselor Lewis's appreciation statement of appreciation because yeah as he said this is one of our more active uh commissions and and one that is is right there in terms of advising that City Council on where we need to be going on certain issues and then on others just on its own dealing with uh with questions that come up of existing policy and that's kind of what it's all about it's like making sure that everybody's in line with the existing land use policies and then of course sometimes we come up with issues both at DPC and at the council where we realize well there's some things that might over time need to be addressed with the greater City policy so thank you very much Mr coupler for for your willingness to serve thank you sir counselor Jones thank you madam chair and and I would like to uh second everything councilor Benton said this is a very very important committee and it does take quite a bit of time I Hope they've explained that to you yeah but uh it is a it is a great committee and we appreciate the willingness for for citizens to participate uh it helps everyone it helps the the developers know what they should be doing it helps us know what we should be doing and uh we thank you for being willing to give of your time and your knowledge thank you sir thank you appreciate it and um counselor girl Madam chair thank you I wanted to just thank you as well um the time that we will be putting in will be much appreciated of course many years ago my husband was served on an UTC he enjoyed it took a lot of time at that time they brought in a stack of papers this big now it's on an iPad but it was a very rewarding work and and I appreciate your commitment to our community and and thank you for your service well thank you all for the very kind words like I said I'm very excited to get started and hopefully get the chance to do this so appreciate it thank you councilman your hand is up did you have more to add Madam chair no I just forgot to take it down okay all right just wanted to make sure all right seeing no more comments or questions let's move to a move counselor Batman yes yeah counselor Jones yes sir Lewis yes councilor vehicle Court yes that passes on a 5-0 vote congratulations Mr Coppola thank you for your willingness to serve of course thank you appreciate it thank you all right we're going to move on to agenda Item B and um I believe counselor Davis is here so we're gonna turn it over to him yeah I am okay as a non-participating member of the committee it would be best if you introduce you okay all right for counselor Davis I will introduce r98 which is amending the level a community master plan for Mesa Del Sol that designated approximately 500 Acre Site as a portion of the employment center um will you move into past first Madam chair yes I'll move a due pass second okay so this r2398 is a quasi-judicial request which requires special procedures to follow the applicant staff and the public to provide the applicant staff and the public the opportunity to speak this agenda item will proceed as follows first we'll have Council planning staff make a presentation and they'll have five minutes to do so then we'll have the applicants presentation and they have 10 minutes and then testimony by public speakers they would have two minutes each but I don't believe we have anyone signed up tonight then we'll have rebuttal by the applicant limited to five minutes then cross-examination by anyone who spoke during public comment would be two minutes each but again no one signed up then comments by planning department if any that would be five minutes and then Council planning staff will close with five minutes um City staff and the applicant must be sworn in so anyone that's going to be speaking on this issue if you will please raise your right hand and tell me do you affirm under penalty of perjury that your testimony today will be true I do thank you okay we're good we'll turn it over to Ms Schultz to begin with the Council planning staff presentation thank you madam chair my presentation will be brief I know our applicants have a more elaborate presentation so I'll keep it quick on my portion um to give you a little bit of context of where the site is that we're discussing this is this is Mesa Del Sol if you're not familiar this is located within the southern portion of Albuquerque within city council District Six I have provided a large red circle on the map here to show you where that where that is um there are a series of plans that govern Mesa Del Sol a series of Master plans there's level a level B and level C that all get into a various level of detail the lower you get in this kind of upside down pyramid I'm created the more detail those plans get I want to make it clear for the committee tonight that you are only considering amendments to the level a plan you think it's important to understand how the hierarchy works but we will not be discussing the level B plan or the level C plan today um the the specific request within the the level a master plan for Mesa Del Sol um is in regards to this area within the red circle uh which is about 500 Acres today this land depicted in yellow has a land use designation of residential which means only residential uses can be developed there and the requests from the applicants I'm sorry it's under the zoom window here is to change that designation uh to employment center which would allow both commercial industrial and residential land uses and I think our applicant will talk a little bit more in detail about why why that request is being made for context I've provided a table here that outlines the Ido Zone districts and their foreign land uses that are allowed under each designation the First Column shows the ideas of districts the second column shows the rest residential designation that exists today and which zoning districts are allowed within that designation and then the third column shows the employment center designation um and I do see that I'm missing a check mark here I'm so sorry on the nrvp nr-bp line there should be a check mark in the employment center column but not the residential column as a way for you to gauge kind of what uses are going to go away which ones will be allowed and which ones might stay the same um the review and approval process for this request is as follows the city council is the final review and decision-making body in this matter this is technically under the Ido considered as a site plan EPC and when you go to amend a site plan EPC you have to go back to the original review and approval body to seek amendments to that plan when this plan was adopted many years ago the council was the the final decision-making body at this time which is why it is coming back here uh today typically the EPC would have final say on-site plans that are before them but this one does have special procedures because of how it was improved in the past um the review and decision criteria are outlined in the integrated development ordinance in section 6-6 j3 I believe there are seven review and decision criteria that the applicant for required to justify to both the EPC into this body uh the EPC had one hearing on the matter last November where the applicant presented their justification the EPC to accept the public testimony and ultimately did end up recommending approval to this body that signals that at least the EPC determined that the request was adequately Justified for the criteria in the Ido um that's my quick and dirty presentation I'm going to take a moment to switch over the slides here and I will turn it over to Mr Campbell and Mr Complete Senate community Madam chair members of the committee thank you very much for this opportunity to present tonight I'm David Campbell I'm the chief counsel for Mesa Del Sol and I have with me hi good evening Madam chair counselors uh will Gleason principal and urban planner at Decker Parish 17. um Mesa Del Sol is the largest master plan community in New Mexico and the uh at the level that we're discussing tonight level a is it sort of the the largest sort of 35 000 foot level that we are talking about and to give you some context one thing that I think is important to recognize is that when this whole master plan Community was designed in 2007 2008 time frame so you know years and years ago um it was designed by a by an architect who was known in the new urbanist community uh very well in the in the country and Peter calthorpe is still with us he works out of San Francisco he is one of the Premier uh new urbanist uh Architects and his focus in developing this is to create housing diversity so that unlike other places that we have in the country that we don't have just just one income level or one type of housing we have a multiplicity of different kinds of housing that varies by age by income and so on apartments townhouses single-family dwellings rental and owned we also have it based on the human scale that in Mesa Del Sol you can live work play create recreate all in the same general vicinity and walk to work bike to work is is kind of expected uh because you almost don't need a car in most of these places sustainability was written into the plan even before sustainability was part of our um our Zeitgeist in uh in the U.S and also as I said it's meant to be live workplace Shop create recreate as uh important things have changed in 15 years not a whole lot a lot of those things are still the way we want to develop new communities but but this site that uh was shown earlier that we're talking about tonight actually on the level B plan said active adult 500 Acres or potential active adult 500 Acres so not only residential but also residential for senior senior citizens and in 15 years ago 15 years ago housing developers said let's put the elderly out there on the Edge by themselves and now that housing developers like myself are elderly ourselves and have four grandkids that's not such a good idea and the whole thought about how we develop our communities is more to have people uh of all ages mixed in with all ages I want to live closer to my grandkids not out on the edge so and the people who are getting older would like to be close to Community Services restaurants gyms brew pubs and so on so part of our reason is that the thought about residential has evolved and so we would like to change this designation from residential to Res yes continue to have certain kinds of residential but also to put it in the employment center and it's important that we be in the employment center because oh here's my site I'll just have to push the button um so uh the proposed active adult was in level B um where we would like to move this is into the designation called employment center there is a huge demand for large a single owner properties that can be used to create jobs and employment in our community this as 500 Acres would be one of the largest if not the largest uh contiguous units where we can have employment uh in the in the entire metropolitan area so this provides an opportunity for us to do that it's also adjacent to a large UNM site and also adjacent to the existing employment center where we have Netflix uh is growing has has grown into a 330 acre complex uh right there in the heart of the mesaville solarium if you went out there today you'd see that we've got cranes up building those Studios for Netflix and that's it's a tremendous opportunity for jobs in Albuquerque and this uh changing this into the employment center uh only helps us do that uh a little bit more Netflix itself has told us that they need um they need contractors who come there they need warehouses where they can have costumes they need services for pre and post-production kinds of filmmaking and uh that they may not do on their campus but they would like to have in proximity to their campus so for a whole lot of reasons it makes good sense for this amendment to uh to create a an abundance of opportunities that we can have employment um and as I said earlier that there are larger trends that say that you don't put all of your senior citizens out on the edge of development you want them integrated into the uh the area of the the rest of the community um some of you may Wonder well are you going to have enough area for residential yes we are the the plan is still at the level a that we would have in Mesa Del Sol 37 500 dwelling units let me just pull this back a little bit we are currently developing in the yellow area there we're developing uh residential and we've got 400 single-family homes under construction along with 318 Apartments currently under under construction right now so again I encourage you to go out there and see that residential and employment opportunities are coexisting in the same area so we believe that this is well situated for employment because the infrastructure the roadways the pipeline the water pipes and and uh dry utilities and so on are in place or are planned to be in place that would serve this uh this existing site it's also separated from the planned residential area by uh land uses but also a major Street University Boulevard um we believe as did the EPC that this is uh consistent with the comp plan I won't go through all of this but to say that um we want to encourage more intense growths in these designated centers and also encourage the opportunity for people to live and work in the same proximity uh and that's in the Ido that's in the um in the comprehensive plan as well um and this amendment will enhance the vision of the level A and B plans for a sustainable mixed-use development uh we have to meet the requirements of the uh the master plan and none of that changes with this uh with this amendment that we're seeking tonight um finally um this is consistent it mitigates any significant adverse impacts on the project site and surrounding area to the maximum extent possible as I said University Boulevard is a natural buffer between the residential and non-residential uses and we can use this as a as an employment center we can use this for a wide range of different kinds of employment and attracting jobs and and let me just say as someone who has been involved in this area for many years and I currently sit on the economic development area executive committee um developer economic developers are constantly looking for this situation where you have a contiguous set of of land with single ownership that is probably appropriately zoned and is not interfering uh with residential uses but yet is close to where their workers can live and work during this process the Decker parrot sabatini Mr Gleason have done considerable community outreach we had a meeting more than a year ago with the Mesa Del Sol neighborhood association they have no significant concerns we've also coordinated and met with Isleta Pueblo and addressed concerns we're in the process of working on an mou where we're constantly talking with them and Consulting about the uses that we have on our property and the uses that they have on their property it's sort of a good neighbor agreement oh my um and uh with that I'm I'm glad to answer any questions that you may have thank you madam chair thank you um so the next would be testimony from public speakers we do not have any um signed up so we're going to skip that and then of course rebuttal and then the cross-examination so the next thing on the agenda is comments by the planning department if there are any I don't know if there's anybody from the planning department I'm not sure she's uh she's online yeah okay I hope they let her in hello hi I'm Catalina laner I'm principal planner with the city's Urban Design Development Division um and the team lead for the EPC um the planning department really has nothing further with respect to this the EPC did hear this request last November and voted to forward a recommendation of approval of the level a amendments to the city council and also approve the same Amendment at the level B because the um this site is appears both in the level B and the level a plans and EPC is a final improving body for the level B of course with the level a we forwarded a recommendation of approval and transmitted the record to council for council's consideration and the plan department has nothing further thank you so much and then we have Council planning staff me closing comments Madam chair Council staff has no further comments but but is available for questions if there are any okay first questions were from councilor Lewis uh let's scramble the uh the the current uh residential units and may still sell right now do you have a count on that or can process of being built we do there are approximately 400 families living in uh a combination of town homes and single-family residents is probably approximately 400 families live there now uh and we have about that same number in process of development uh in sort of single-family dwellings as uh as well and then there is a at the corner of Bobby Foster and University Boulevard there is a an apartment complex being built for 314 units there and we are about to uh sign on additional Apartments moments including senior housing in the residential area so within a year's time we should we should be over a thousand residents there and I might say you didn't ask this but the employment we've got over 2500 jobs uh in Mesa del Sol in the projected units in the you said around 37 thousands a thousand thirty seven thousand five hundred projected dwelling units residential units um and how much would this reduce that bond is that is that the is that after or would this reduce that that projected residential yes we don't believe that it will reduce the uh the number of units we uh will be coming through the process to ask for a little bit more density on uh some of the tracks that we have so that we can build higher and have more of a city Center kind of look to this so by and large it shouldn't reduce the number of available dwelling units depending on how you configure everything else but um uh just uh I mean we're going from from residential and a specific piece of land to commercial use so I mean you're reducing some land land area that would normally be that would have been used by resolution yeah there is a reduction there is some type of reason and let me point out and this was a slide that I think Ms Schultz had in her presentation and that is it's not exclusively employment there are certain kinds of residential that are still allowed in this uh in this area that would be more dense and higher developed did you want to say anything about that will sure uh counselor just as way of background when the original plan was done it was a pretty General gross calculation um of the number of allowable dwelling units of three per acre so you could do sort of symbol math of it would be about 1500 units but like David's saying those would shift to other parts of the development I mean as you can see you know less than a thousand units out of the 37 000 have been developed so far so there's a lot of room to run there is there a ratio goal of uh jobs to housing what's it was the goal ratio to be yeah I guess one of the next fully built out um I I don't know that there is such a such a ratio um I've I'm unaware of it I'm not aware of one either but I think this would increase the jobs to housing ratio which is which I think is a good thing it it is one of the things and and this goes back to my recollection of when this began uh 15 20 years ago and that was the City of Albuquerque said build the jobs first and then the houses later and the the emphasis was on we don't want this to just be a not to disparage residential subdivisions but we don't want this to be a sprawl subdivision we want it to have jobs and to follow a master plan that has this multitude of uses in the same area you know Are there specific plans for development on this property that that are in place are there anybody that's looking at it for a specific company of purpose or uh as as yet we've been we've been awaiting this meeting so that we can change the the color on the map and the use designation and at that point we'll be able to put it out to the world that Albuquerque has a 500 acre tract that is available for uh you name it and as everybody knows 500 acres is a lot and so we we hope that this will then uh create some some interest in the area that heretofore we haven't had thank you um councilor Benton yes thank you madam chair and uh you thank you uh tagging along with the councilor Lewis's question um the residential capacity of Mesa Del Sol I think we can all agree and conclude that the correct approach was to do jobs first because we got a lot of jobs coming in and and there's actually an imbalance the other way now so uh when I look at the the the plan which is a beautiful plan by Mr calter a few years ago it's pretty low density for the most part you know there is an acknowledgment in the immediate Center areas of their planned to have more density but um you know it kind of really opens my eyes after a long time supporter of Mesa Del Sol and I think it was still a wonderful decision and we get a lot of great Partners to make that decision and Counting the state and everyone but but um uh looking at the plan now I see well of course we would want to make a higher use of this site but I think the question that that counselor Lewis raises is interesting because what what that makes me think is like what about that scene you talked about University Boulevard being a divider or a buffer or however we want to see it a boundary between this this development and other areas of Minnesota what about that scene you know maybe there's a question from Mr Gleason but but uh outside of what existing zoning is for these areas um how do you address that scene and what does that really look like and and what is the other side of University Boulevard look like from this development these are questions that that come to my mind but uh but yeah I think it's exciting of course we want to see this happen but uh it's an indicator that the jello start may start having to be moved around I'll makes it all solid and figure out uh you know how it would look in the future will do you want to Sure respond uh Madam chair Council Benton I you know I it's a really interesting question about University Boulevard um I think my first thought is that we need to make sure that University Boulevard has the the bike infrastructure on it so that it's not something that's just a another arterial in the city um and I think it also you know it there's also the question of the East West Road there Mesa Del Sol Parkway that would connect to uh the future interchange on I-25 and both those roadways will start to be you know the backbone of Mesa Del Sol and having that kind of that multimodal built into it which is from the original plan is still something that I think holds through from when it was first adopted so I think that's an important part of it as well as all the open space corridors that connect and crisscross across there and are the kind of the those are the drainage borders and also the the open space corridors that may still solve and those really help connect the whole all of the property if if I might uh in in response this Council has been a a huge proponent of the complete streets concept of Notions that these are for not just single fan or privately owned vehicles but pedestrians and bikes and so on and that's written into our level a master plan that we have these streetscapes that include a whole bunch including uh University Boulevard right now which is parts of it are under active construction right now and if you go out there you'll see that on one side of University Boulevard on the west side there are town homes and single-family dwellings and on the on the east side of University Boulevard is the large Netflix studio uh which is under under rapid uh construction right now so we're we're seeing the future actually in place uh on the site there and the role of that complete street called University Boulevard Jones yeah Madam chair I appreciate that Mr gamble almost two leasing I I um as I said early supporter of this from even before my time on the council just as a professional supporter of the project and and um but it does it comes to mind that yeah there's been a lot of water into the bridge since then including the complete streets policy which has you know been amended and improved and probably needs to be improved again but but it's been successful and so uh it's uh yeah I think what that or what that boundary looks like which it is seemingly from the map a boundary between a lower density and higher density condition would really be an interesting design problem uh going forward and I realize that's not on the level of this plan but I'm just sort of amusing about that and uh all in all very pleased that this happened thank you madam chair thank you councilor girl Madam chair thank you questions um the 500 Acres that we're talking about um well let me back up sure where else is level a in the whole master plan can I get back into my um the the level a is the entire 13 000 Acres of the uh of the area Okay um and so when we talk about uh let me see here so everything that's colored in there is part of Level A it's among the 13 000 Acres the whole thing and um and so all of the yellow and it's hard to see but all of the yellow there um that has blue dots in it that is residents residential of some kind and as I said earlier it's not all single family it's Apartments it's Town Homes it's rent uh rental only homes and that sort of thing and then the blue spots are where we notionally have our schools where we have elementary schools mid schools high schools and so on are they planned or are they there now they are not planned that's all Mesa right now and we we're working with APS and charter schools to to cite those those uh locations um outcome 500 Acres great question it just happens to be uh bounded uh as a 500 acre tract in the um and it's it is actually all within the level B which we're not talking about tonight but it is all of that which is colored in is that which is available for development now as level B the next level of detail down and that one happens to be all to the east of University Boulevard and South of the UNM track that has 440 Acres on it so it is already a con contiguous site that is set apart from the rest of the residential area um has anybody expressed interest in developing there we have had a number of inquiries yes and more than that I can't say but as I said I I do sit on the Executive Board of area and the job of area is to try to recruit companies and their jobs to come to uh the metro area and this we think will be a very attractive site for them we had a couple questions um one is on the mou that you're currently negotiating with the um Isleta Pueblo can you talk a little bit about their concerns sure and how you're addressing those through this MLB sure yes I can and thank you madam chair for that that question um we met uh when was it in November yes uh we met in November prior to the EPC meeting with representatives and lawyers of the Isleta Pueblo and we have met with them in the past but in particular on this item we talked about their concern that there could be um a pollution or air and water pollution or large Industrial Development and so on that could take place on this track that would be not good for their Resort and golf course and so on south of there and what we have discussed is that at the present time those are not allowed uses Even in our employment Zone the the highest intensity that we go to in the employment center and would be on this as well is uh light industrial is that correct similar to M1 similar to M1 so not heavy industrial not M2 or M3 but M1 and also commercial sites that we have throughout the community and um they're not here tonight but we are with them working on an mou that talks about um sort of a Good Neighbor policy that we will will consult with them as we have to councilor grout's question as we have uh possible employers coming to us that we will visit with them about that and have meetings and talk about that so that we have a collaborative relationship uh with the the Pueblo was there anything else that we are but it we're in a we're in a negotiation process on this mou right now we sent it back to them a couple weeks ago and we're expecting to get their comments back okay um so the timeline for getting the mou signed is relatively soon I would expect so yes we've been at this uh for three months uh and I expect that yes we will but well as I said we're waiting for them to come back and say what it is that they may have as concerns and what the language is but it will be a written mou between uh the the private uh development that is Mesa Del Sol and The Sovereign which is uh Isleta Pueblo counselors any other questions or comments Madam president oh yes counselor Madam chair thank you uh thank you I'm I'm I've been watching this for quite some time now and and um and I go out and visit the property quite often because I want to see what's happening and how it's going to lay out and I must say Mr Campbell thank you for giving me a full overview a couple years ago with uh the maps and everything of what you were looking at doing I believe that this is a real Boon for the City of Albuquerque um it's one of those things that that only comes along occasionally and I think uh it sounds like and I'm going to trust that this is going to be a Class A development and we certainly need this in this part of the city in fact in all of Albuquerque so I um from what I'm seeing in hearing I am very much in support of um and thank you for giving us all the information whenever we ask for it thank you madam chair thank you all right seeing no more comments questions uh we have a motion and a second so we'll move to a vote yes counselor Jones yes counselor Lewis yes yes great and then I'm sure if I might um and thank you very much for your support on this we would ask that immediate action be given uh consideration tonight I was going to move for immediate action any second on that if not thank you councilor go and we'll move to a vote for a meeting action yes I'm very proud yes counselor Jones yes counselor Lewis yes yes congratulations thank you very much so there being no further business this what committee meeting is again