City Council Meeting February 18, 2025 MINUTES City Council Tuesday, February 18, 2025 @ 1:00 PM City Council Chambers, City Hall PRESENT: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores ABSENT: 1. OPENING CEREMONIES 1.1 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - COUNCILOR CORRAN. 1.2 PRESENTATION OF CERTIFICATES OF APPRECIATION/PROCLAMATIONS - COUNCILOR CORRAN. Councilor Corran presented Pat Acosta, Kayleigh Martinez, Kiana Sandoval, and Michael Chavez with a proclamation for Teen Dating Violence Month. Councilor Corran presented El Paso Electric with a proclamation for National Engineers Week. Councilor Corran recognized Casa de Peregrinos Board of Directors, Public Works, Management and Staff, and Housing and Neighborhood Services Team for receiving the 2025 Audrey Nelson Community Development Achievement Award. Mayor Enriquez recognized the 356th Transportation Company led by Lt. George Solozano and Sgt. Marshall for their return from a yearlong military deployment. 1.3 JOBS OF THE WEEK. Sarah Raney, New Mexico Workforce Connections presented Jobs of the Week. 1.4 PETS OF THE WEEK. Carol Nielson, Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley presented Pets of the Week. 2. CONFLICT OF INTEREST INQUIRY BY MAYOR AS REQUIRED BY LCMC SECTION 2-27 (E)(2) 2.1 None. 3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 3.1 Dolores Lucero, Member of the Public said I requested information two weeks ago for an investigation on the Amador restaurant at 300 South Main. The restaurant is now closed effective January. My review with the help of an accountant is clear that there was no way that business could succeed under that agreement and of course like many others in our city the additional burden of 2020 only made it worse. My reason for comments is to bring up this property which has another similar property on Main Street that the city built and owns. First of all, the city owned property does not collect property tax. Secondly, the city has no business leasing restaurants or other types of this business, that is for the private sector. Third the location of the building will be a huge target based on those who do not respect other people’s property so there will be damage. In my review I can definitely see that the City Manager did not handle on the lease and timing of the closing and was probably just as much surprised as the public was. I was told although I cannot verify that the city is putting a committee together to review what to do with the property. Let me make it simple, prime location, put it up for sale immediately. Using local realtors who are experts at this career and pay back the budget which is really the people’s money and get out of owning more property and lease agreements that you have no reason to be involved in and stick to what a city’s priority is and let me refresh what that is. Number one is to provide public safety, number two is to provide quality and affordable utilities, and third efficient roads and infrastructure. Do not delay as this won’t be long before this property deteriorates, which will only deviate from the selling price and reduce its value. Jennifer Dahlgren, Member of the Public said via her interpreter, I am with the New Mexico Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and I am here to thank you so much for providing access for me and providing a sign language interpreter. I do want to give a little bit of a recommendation. Something you all can think about. Maybe planning on using picture in picture for your live stream services online that way people don’t have to come in person to the meeting, but they can still be included in our community and with our local government. Also, at any time if you give any announcements like when the Mayor gives a proclamation or the Fire Department or the Police Department it would be really wonderful to have a sign language interpreter available so that way we can have access to the deaf community. Thank you again so much for your time. LaVaughn Hart, Member of the Public said I am the Director of the Spay and Neuter Action Program, SNAP as we commonly call it. Last month I came and thanked the board for their support in the contract between the City of Las Cruces and SNAP to provide free spay and neuter surgeries for companion dogs and cats of low income Las Cruces residents. Today I wanted to give you a brief overview of what is happening with the program. We announced the program on December 31, 2024. In the first six weeks of 2025 we have issued over 200 vouchers for spay and neuter surgeries. How does that compare to last year you might ask? Well, it is a 48% increase in the number of vouchers issued in just those first six weeks and that is without any real advertising. We have put out some social media but that is about it, people are hearing. I would like to look at something joint between the city and SNAP to get the word out to a wider audience. Clients receive vouchers to have their animals micro chipped and given their rabies vaccine at the same time when they receive their vouchers for spay neuter and guess what, it has been a banner month for spays, neuters, microchips, and rabies vaccines. Clearly this program is meeting the need in our community. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the city and hopefully seeing it grow. The veterinarians in our community are stepping up to meet the increased need for these surgeries. In addition to the daily efforts of our vets we are also planning two special programs for Las Cruces dogs and cats to get spayed and neutered. February 25th is World Spay and Neuter Day. Thank you for your continued support of spay and neuter in Las Cruces. Jim Hoerst, Member of the Public said I have a copy of the agenda today. What is missing is that it doesn’t have the Mayor’s moment of silence. No agenda that I can find has the opening moment of silence on it. If it is the appropriate activity for this commission to have a moment of silence put it on the agenda. If there is an authorizing resolution that authorizes a moment of silence, make that known to us. If it is a good thing to do, say so. If you have the appropriate authority to do it, say so. Put it on the record. Lynn Moorer, Member of the Public said we recognize the actions the City Manager is taking to allow the majority of councilors to avoid attending a briefing by experts with public participation regarding EPA’s new Lead and Copper Rule. This is despite the citizens’ repeated request that it be at a city council meeting that a briefing by experts occurs. A city council meeting has an agenda and is properly noticed and has minutes prepared. All councilors are obligated to attend the city council meeting. By contrast a majority of councils may not be present at a so called townhall that discussing public business or it would constitute a quorum and violate New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act. Take a careful look at sections 10-15-1(B) of the act. This City Manager is planning a so called townhall rather than a city council meeting which will allow at most only three councilors out of the seven of you to attend to participate. Each councilor and the Mayor needs to be educated about and consider this very consequential rule that affects the public health of every citizen of Las Cruces and everyone who drinks its water. All seven of you need to gather enough facts and impressions to form a least a preliminary idea as to whether the actions being taken by city Utilities personnel are adequately protective of public health and compliant with the new rule and very importantly whether additional funding is needed. A special city council meeting could be held that allowed two or three hours for presentation and discussion regarding one subject, the Lead and Copper Rule. This could be similar to the special meeting that was held recently to try to cure your Open Meetings Act violations pertaining to the selection of this City Manager. We ask you to rethink this and insist that a city council meeting be the framework for a briefing on the rule, not a so called townhall. Please stand firm against allowing this City Manager to usher you into yet another violation of the Open Meetings Act. Envia la carta en Español. Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said almost four months ago the Las Cruces Utility office sent out a letter announcing the new Lead and Copper Rule in English only. Two months later it became necessary to make request that the letter be sent out in Spanish so that Spanish speakers could have the same opportunity as English speakers to learn about the Lead and Copper Rule which could have implications on their health. The request was made again at a city council on February 4th. On February 6th the city councilor said in an email there was a mistake, referring to not sending the letter out in Spanish. However, it has been almost two weeks since that email and the letter in Spanish still has not been sent out. False claims that the new rule was sprung on water systems with little warning and no funding. The reality is that the Lead and Copper Rule has been very publicly in the works for about a decade. It has been in the public eye since at least 2014 when the problems with the lead in water in Flint, Michigan were widely publicized. Another example of funding is EPA’s announcement that more than $26 billion over five years is available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support lead pipe replacement projects. Yet another spurious claim by a councilor is that little guidance was provided to help water systems implement the rule. The truth is that EPA published various kinds of guidelines, for example in 2022, EPA published this 164 guidance document that anticipated that the Lead and Copper Rule, and here it is. This thorough guidance explains how water systems should comply with the predecessor to the Lead and Copper Rule issued in 21 as well as the October 24 rule. Lindley Hornsby, Member of Public said I am taking time out of my day as a Master of Social Work intern to represent my constituency here to the council. I am President of Graduate Workers United, UE Local 1498. We are a labor union of research assistants, teaching assistants, and graduate assistants at NMSU. We performed duties that are essential to the university’s research and service mission. There is about 900 of us. The majority of us are a conglomerate of international students and domestic out of state student workers. We come to the city of Las Cruces not only to attend NMSU but for the opportunity and potential that this city provides. I wanted to speak up on behalf of my constituency in support of Realize Las Cruces because affordable housing is an essential issue to graduate workers at NMSU. Scores of workers tell me they want to work, live, and raise a family here in Las Cruces after graduation. So why do they leave? They leave because they can’t find affordable housing and these are workers that are invested in the community yet we are lacking the infrastructure to meet their needs. Realize puts us on a path toward achieving affordable housing for working families. Mayor Enriquez said you can’t discuss an item that is going to be on the agenda. You can talk about certain things, but you can’t speak specifically to Realize until it comes up on the agenda. Lindley Hornsby said okay, unfortunately I have to go back to work so I won’t be able to. I just wanted to acquaint myself. I am not sure if the city council has been acquainted with our labor union. We unionized is 2022. We are a rank-and-file union that believes in political action, and we are watching this council to see that you all do the right thing for working people. So, thank you for listening. It is a privilege for me to be here but unfortunately because I have to work, I won’t be able to be here for the remainder of the meeting. Eddie Thomas, Member of the Public said first let me address the issue brought up by the young ladies having to do with the lead pipes. I Googled it and it is bad. Especially for developing children. It can cause stunted growth, slow brain development, learning disorders, permanent digestive issues like vomiting, diarrhea, cramps. Currently there is a renovation project going on in my neighborhood where the utility lines are being replaced. Casas Lindas Project between Avenida de Mesilla and Amador. I can’t think of a more perfect time to check what the water pipes are actually made of. You have got to start somewhere. Why not start in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Las Cruces? Just tell us the truth once you find out because right now the only person I trust on that dais is Chief Story. Last time I was here I pointed out the building across the street. Did any of you notice it as you walked out to the parking lot? Of course not, you all park in the back, right? At any rate it is still there for all to see. I am sure visitors notice it right in front of City Hall along with a myriad of other shuttered buildings on plywood plaza as I like to call it. I think that speaks to the actual state of the city’s financial and economic health. Businesses come to die here in Las Cruces, that is the truth. To summarize we have cannabis which I have nothing against because they pay taxes, and they take up residence in what would otherwise be a shuttered store front. We have homeless, we have plywood windows, high crime, high taxes, and abortion. What family wouldn’t want to live here and raise their kids in the lowest performing school system in the country, welcome to Las Cruces and the land of enchantment. William Beerman, Member of the Public said the last meeting I attended the ladies also spoke about lead in the water and I regretted that I didn’t stand up and support them then. I would like to concur with what they said and also regarding the subject of water. My tap water is 500 parts per million dissolved solids and in contrast the water that I buy at the water mill every few weeks I go, and I buy 30 gallons of water to drink. That is zero parts per million and it has been like this for at least 5 or 6 years when I used to be on the Capital Improvement Advisory Committee. I just wish that you public officials would focus a little more on traditional municipal responsibilities like the quality of our water instead of these tangent issues that you seem to be obsessed with. Juan Garcia, Member of the Public said elections have consequences in the New Mexico progressive oligarchy. New Mexico’s story is one of profound struggles and missed opportunities. For generations as a result of elections favoring the majority progressive policies have dominated the state’s political landscape yet the results are a heartbreaking picture of systemic failure. Look at our city when it hit a new high in crime after the 2020 council elections. The most telling is our dependence on government employment. New Mexico’s three largest employers, the State of New Mexico, the federal government, and Sandia Laboratories, all draw from public funds creating a cycle of reliance that deepens with each passing year which is why so many progressives oppose the eradication of waste, fraud, and abuse from our federal government. Malpractice laws strain our health care system while the removal of qualified immunity left our law enforcement officers vulnerable and hesitant. The recent trial of an LCPD officer stands as a grim testament to this reality. So yes, elections do have consequences both ways and New Mexico is a clear example and on the subject of hate speech against elected officials. I received a report of a well designed graffiti placed on Main Street and I will read, “be the change you want to see in the world, kill Donald Trump”. This is located on the streets of Main Street not too far from where we are at. There were other similar stenciled graffities that advocated for the killing of the sitting President. Nobody wants to hear about this type of threats. Let’s hope that some comments come from the dais. 4. ACCEPTANCE OF AGENDA Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to accept the agenda as presented and to listen to item 7.4 first. RESULT: Carried MOVER: Councilor Johana Bencomo SECONDER: Councilor Becky Corran AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor William Mattiace, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 5. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES 5.1 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JANUARY 21, 2025. 5.2 WORK SESSION OF JANUARY 27, 2025. 6. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR CONSENT AGENDA 7. RESOLUTION(S) AND/OR ORDINANCE(S) FOR DISCUSSION 7.1 RESOLUTION NO. 25-097: A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES TECHNICAL MANUAL THAT IS REFERENCED IN CHAPTERS 34-38 OF THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE. Sara Gonzales, Economic Development Project Manager gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Bencomo asked obviously there is that eight-month period for entirety of Realize, right? The technical manual isn’t really like that it would really be in perpetuity that you will be taking feedback and potentially making changes as the end users are really utilizing the pieces, correct? Sara Gonzales said that would be correct. Essentially this is going to actually be able to be amended quicker so that way we can actually start seeing those changes implemented right away. We do not have to wait for that transition period, but we can identify oh this practice isn’t working, we need to modify that, work with the developers and get on to our next agenda and that is why I say that this can be something that is on a biweekly basis so that way we are accomplishing the goal. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 25-097. MOVER: Councilor Becki Graham Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.2 RESOLUTION NO. 25-098: A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE ISSUANCE BY THE PUBLIC FINANCE AUTHORITY OF ITS REVENUE BONDS FOR THE BENEFIT OF EXPLORE ACADEMY – LAS CRUCES AND/OR A RELATED ENTITY IN AN AGGREGATE AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $33,000,000 FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINANCING AND REFINANCING THE COST OF ACQUISITION, CONSTRUCTION, INSTALLATION, RENOVATION, REHABILITATION, IMPROVEMENT, FURNISHING AND EQUIPPING OF CERTAIN EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES, PROVIDING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR SUCH BONDS AND OTHER MATTERS RELATING THERETO. Brad Douglas, City Attorney gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Corran said this is in my district and residents have actually asked about this school in this location and I would love to just hear a little snippet about what Explore Academy is about and so that I can talk to folks around the Park Hill area when they are asking about it because I think it is pretty exciting so I would love to hear a little bit. Reynaldo Gomez, Member of the Public said I am currently the Principal at Explore Academy at the Telshor site. We house a K5 Program there. Our program is really to provide choice opportunities, to provide that individualized educational program for our students that come to our campus. We currently house 221 students at the K5 and we have roughly 210 at the middle school and high school. We are looking obviously to expand. Our philosophy is still based under the guidelines of the New Mexico PED, however we do provide choice for teachers and for students. When I say that we are standards based, obviously that is our curriculum, how the curriculum was delivered structurally in the classrooms is not our typical within the four walls. We are dancing, we are moving, we are project-based learning so that enhances the creativity and critical mind of our students that come to Explore and that starts from the K all the way to the 5 and then obviously to we move on to the middle school and high school. As choices get more and more the opportunity for students to have choice becomes more at the middle school/high school but we do offer that opportunity for our K5 population as well. Again, that is a snippet of what Explore Academy is foundationally based on project-based learning, individualized instruction, choice from not only instruction from specials to electives as well. Councilor Flores asked I am just wondering why Las Cruces? Is there a certain target or a certain population? Do you target a certain population of children? Why from Wisconsin? Do you work closely with LCPS? Do you abide by the requirements of the State of New Mexico to provide the curriculum needed? Reynaldo Gomez said so we are under the New Mexico Public Education Department. We follow all guidelines and protocols of the standards that they set. We are not tied directly to Las Cruces Public Schools. We are a free public charter that is not in association with Las Cruces Public Schools and so Explore Academy has been in existence for 11 years. It originated in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has expanded to Peoria, Las Vegas, they have two sites in Albuquerque. This is going to be our fourth year in existence here in Las Cruces. It was a 5/9 and they expanded to 10 and then we finally took that leap of faith and opened the K4 and obviously we are at the K5 at the Telshor site but it originated in Albuquerque. Councilor Flores asked why does that type of an institution exist? Is it so different to what we have to offer public schools or even our private schools here? Reynaldo Gomez said we stand behind our project based learning where kids are moving and dancing and singing and doing, building that critical and creativity skill set. Every institution, even the private sector here or the other charters have their own philosophies in regards to how they deliver that instruction but we are a project based and we service any student or any parent that is wanting something different in the setting of a classroom and public education. Nothing wrong with public education, that is just our philosophy and that is what we believe in and that is what just in the efforts this year and our marketing and just in the number of people that have transitioned over to Explore. I am sorry that you guys are not aware of us. We need to do a better job of marketing that as well, our school, our campus. However, it is just a different opportunity for parents, for students. If you do talk to our community at the Explore Academy whether it is K5 or 6/12, I am sure you are going to hear the great stories and the great things that our staff and we are doing at both campuses. Councilor Flores asked how are the children selected? Is it basically just a draw of the names? Reynaldo Gomez said we do have a lottery system. This year we were able to retain or keep all of our students that are on campus out of the fifth grade obviously is moving on to the K12, at the K5 we are able to retain about 200 students so that opens up several spots within each grade level and the more students that we can bring into our facility that means more staff, more teachers, but we do have a lottery system and that currently is open for parents to apply and that is how the lottery I believe it closes in March and so we will start to reach out to those parents who were able to get in. We are hoping to take as many as we can. Councilor Flores asked how do you measure success for these students? For example, from there they go to regular high schools here in Las Cruces? Reynaldo Gomez said some of them might. Some of them continue with K12 Explore Academy and that one is located over there off Del Rey. Which is the old call center and so those opportunities, college bound, college based curriculum as well. We do terms and so when I stated earlier that students have choice, they have more choices at the middle school and high school in terms of being able to, our terms are 22 days at the middle school/high school and so students are able to get credits because the standards and benchmarks are cyclical in nature, they get taught and they get hit throughout the school year so every 22 days at the middle school/high school starting in the 8th grade they change classes and they build credits that way. Councilor Flores asked you haven’t had a graduating class from high school yet? Reynaldo Gomez said this coming year will be our first 12th grade class. Councilor Flores asked your students are they college bound? Reynaldo Gomez said that is the goal. Obviously, we know whether it is public school setting or charter school or private not all students are pegged to go to college. They are going to go to the trades. We still build on that challenging them to take those leaps to obviously achieve their goal whatever that may be. Councilor Flores said it was based in Albuquerque and the money is coming from Wisconsin. Has there been a graduating class from high school here in New Mexico? Reynaldo Gomez said I believe Albuquerque has had a graduating class go all the way through the program. Councilor Flores asked do you have any stats on that? Reynaldo Gomez said I would have to get testimonials from the head administrator over there. I can email you or provide you that information. Robert Butler, Member of the Public asked where are you from sir? Does your curriculum include teaching good to further their education? This is a lot of money going to the academy. My concern is with the level of education we are losing out of Las Cruces. Brad Douglas said I would reiterate bullet point number seven, if approved by this governing body the funds would be allocated by the Public Finance Authority of the State of Wisconsin. The city and the State of New Mexico for that matter would have no obligation to issue the bonds to address the tax exemption status of the bonds, to service the debt in any way or have any other obligation related up to $33 million funding mechanism. Jo Ruprecht, Member of the Public said I love Wisconsin. I grew up there spending some great time in Lake Geneva. My sister still lives near Lake Geneva. TJ Atkinson said years ago, “follow the money”. I want to ask you to follow not just where the money is going but where is it coming from? Why is Wisconsin underwriting this? Was there even an attempt to have it financed through New Mexico so that some New Mexico entities would make money off of this investment in what seems to be an honorable and reasonable school? Where is the New Mexico money? Where is the attempt to get it? Rather than putting that money in the pockets of people in Wisconsin? Jessica Shaham, Attorney for Explore Academy said I do a lot of financing for charter schools including in New Mexico. The PFA Wisconsin is a conduit issuer specializing in bringing conduit bonds to the market. The money for the project actually will not come from the state of Wisconsin it is just a conduit for the public market. Those will be sold to Wall Street investors who receive tax exemptions on the bonds. So that is a mechanism for charter school financing throughout the country really. Some states have set up their own issuance authority for these types of deals. New Mexico has not but Wisconsin and a few other states have a national footprint, and they can issue bonds anywhere in the country and that makes the process more streamlined and cheaper for the school. Councilor Flores asked how is New Mexico selected? Jessica Shaham said the schools apply to the authority of the issuance of bonds when they have a project that they want to fund. The school is the one who applies. The school will be ultimately responsible for the payment of these bonds, and they are the ones who apply. If the school wants to buy this property instead of leasing so they need to raise funds for that. So, the way schools access the capital markets is through these bonds and so they chose the issuer they want, and they chose PFA. They applied to PFA and there is writing criteria for the bonds you know. They have to be a certain amount. They have to be repaid within a certain amount of time. There is a maximum interest rate that they can apply for these kind of bonds. So the schools are going to live with your criteria and then after this process which is the public hearing process that we are doing now, after this process PFA will do its own approval of the bonds, the school itself would approve the issuance of the bonds and then the marketing would happen and then the interest rate would be determined much like if the city of Las Cruces would issue bonds to do some public improvements. That process is very similar except that when schools do it they have to go through a conduit issuer and go through the public hearing locally. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to Approve Resolution No. 25-098. MOVER: Councilor Becky Corran SECONDER: Councilor Becki Graham Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.3 RESOLUTION NO. 25-099: A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF LAS CRUCES (CITY) TO ACCEPT BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS FOR VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS THROUGH AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY’S ADOPTED FISCAL YEAR (FY) 2024-25 BUDGET. Vanessa Perez, Budget Analyst gave the overhead presentation. Councilor Bencomo asked can we just speak a little bit more about the fire? Vanessa Perez said we received some revenue from the AMR services, and we are supposed to reimburse this to Dona Ana County. Dona Ana County did not bill us on time for us to be able to pay that million dollar invoice so we had budgeted for the invoice in fiscal year 24 but since they didn’t charge us on time we are having to pay this out of fiscal year 2025 funds so basically that expenditure that was not spent in fiscal year 24 is just rolling over into fiscal year 25. Sean Heck, Interim Fire Chief said the contract that was generated back in March of 2024 with AMR we are still in the process of going through the liquidated damage portion of that and the contract was established with parameters for response time criteria and if they didn’t hit those response times criteria’s then they were going to be assessed liquidated damages. Right now, we met just on February 4th which was going to be the finalization of just trying to get the first quarter done which would have been March through May. We still have not successfully finished that. We ran into a roadblock in that meeting and so the goal here is to try to get that done as soon as possible but what you are saying is absolutely correct. The money was held for that payment to be done for that three million contract that they received. The one million that we received for that or one million of our part of the county’s part of that, it hasn’t been paid yet and we are just trying to get that finished. We are not even sure how much of that is actually going to go to them because of the amount of liquidated damages and that is what we are working through right now. So, we are hoping to get this resolved within the next, I am hoping by the end of next month so that we can move forward and get that part done. Councilor Becki Graham moved, seconded by Councilor Becky Corran, to Approve Resolution No. 25-099. Corran, and Councilor Yvonne Flores 7.4 COUNCIL BILL NO. 25-019; ORDINANCE NO. 3090: AN ORDINANCE REPEALING CHAPTERS 32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39, AND 40 OF THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE, IN ITS ENTIRETY, AND REPLACING WITH CHAPTERS 32,33,34,35,36,37, AND 38 OF THE LAS CRUCES MUNICIPAL CODE (LCMC) AND ADOPTING THE ZONING MAP AS PRESENTED. Chris Faivre, Interim Deputy Director Community Development gave the overhead presentation. Sara Gonzales, Economic Development Project Manager continued the overhead presentation. Councilor Bencomo asked this will be filtered on an individual basis on the things you hear the feedback from the public and end users essentially to staff, will it go through a committee, through PNZ, how are you going to be fielding feedback? Sara Gonzales said the best way that we can essentially tackle everything that we need to get done within those eight-month transitional period would be working with everybody, especially the community. So, as developments come in we are going to have to be documenting and noting what changes aren’t working or not. We have Development Review Committee, we have P&Z, that will ultimately come as part of the review board anyway. So, it is really working with the community members. Each one that is coming in and developing a property and saying, oh this didn’t work, so we need to document it and come back. Or did it work but it didn’t work for every situation and how can we make it maybe with conditions and so it is really going to take I think our public engagement process to say please go look at these, see what maybe this doesn’t work in a neighborhood or this does work and so as we continue to work with the public going through district meetings I think that is going to the be time that you can capture the most. Councilor Flores asked will you be having meetings in the areas where this will be implemented or calling for community meetings? I think you did mention that there would be meetings. In order to have people where some of this is going to be implemented it would be good to have that sort of stuff. Meetings, community meetings, you did mention that but what does that mean, when? How? Chris Faivre said yes some of this will be kind of building out on the fly. So, we know that councilors have district meetings from time to time. We certainly want to be a part of that as you have those meetings. There are definitely local groups within the community that we can get in front of and explain this to. There are groups you know like the Home Builders Association that we can get in front of their groups through them that they can put us in contact with. A lot of this is going to be going and building this process as we identify audiences that we get with but we will be sort of tailoring our message to the audience, so a conversation we have with someone who would be considered a design professional is not the same conversation we will have with someone who is just a resident. For example, carports, I know carports are a big issue. We are reducing the set back from 25 feet to five feet. That is something that every resident is going to want to know. So that will be something that is very critical to the conversation we have as we move forward with residents. So, as Sarah mentioned, accessory dwelling units. Now they are available by right if you meet the setbacks and all the other requirements you can now have an accessory dwelling unit on your property by right. So those little things that are very applicable to a resident. We want to make sure we are getting in front of those groups. Maybe it means going to a neighborhood watch meeting or something like that. So, it will be very fluid. It may take us several months or a couple of years to get in front of everybody, but the point is it is a good opportunity to kind of reset and engage with the community on all levels just keep that conversation going and at a minimum let them know who they can contact if they still have questions. Councilor Flores asked an accessory unit, can you explain what that is? Chris Faivre said it would be a little house in the back of your house. For say, your parents want to come live with you or if you college kid is stuck at home and you want to get him out of your actual house and put him in the backyard, something like that. Councilor Flores said you would have those casitas, and you would let everybody know who is going to be impacted by those decisions that this is what the city is allowing and permitting? What I visualize is that we are going to have people coming in and saying what are you doing, you are adding more people, we don’t have any parking space. We don’t have a garage for them. That is my concern about full disclosure. Letting people know that there is that impact. Chris Faivre said it is going to be an ongoing process. I think the big thing is to let them know that they can come to the Community Development Department for answers to figure out what those particular questions are. We are not going to be able to anticipate all of them. We will try and create as much material as we can once this is adopted. We will definitely work with the city’s Communications Department to do an ongoing social media campaign that may be able to identify some of those key issues and just keep it up there just circulating on social media for a period of time so that people see. I can see the casitas one, the one about the carports. Those kinds of things we can just kind of keep it out there in the public so that if you miss it one month it is still available on social media down the road so we will try and take advantage of all the resources we have available to us to get the message out. Councilor Flores asked how big of a lot do you have to have must it be to build a casita? Is there any regulation on that or any limitation? And how big can the casita be? Chris Faivre said a lot of that is going to depend on the size of your lot and setback requirements of how much space you have. Some lots are larger and can accommodate something. Others may not be able to have that same kind of flexibility. Councilor Flores asked is there any regulation on that right now? Chris Faivre said as long as you meet the setbacks and some of those other requirements. Councilor Mattiace said I would like for you to put up on the screen maybe what is allowable, businesses on the 43,000 parcels. Is that the total amount of businesses allowed? You are talking about small local grocery stores? What specific businesses, I know you had a list that was allowed? Chris Faivre said yes, within the code there is actually a chart that shows what is allowed. What is allowed with special use permit. What is not allowed and there is a very extensive list. It runs for several pages, but I created this slide because it seems like the biggest questions were coming around what we commonly know as a single family neighborhood and that seems to be the comments and questions come from and so as it relates specifically to what is known now as a single family neighborhood the only things that will be allowed that are not allowed currently are a small B&B, a small local grocery store of 3,000 square feet or less, or like a small neighborhood café with the exception that you can’t have a drive thru there so there is some of those restrictions but it is not unbridled commercial development that you can have on any residential street whether you are starting from a brand new development or if it is an existing neighborhood that may have some sort of a vacant lot some place. Councilor Mattiace said let’s say you have invested in a home for 25/30 years and that is your biggest asset you have when you are 75 or 80 years old, and a small café comes in next door. Do you think the value of that home would be the same or reduced or decreased? Chris Faivre said there is other communities that have implemented this. Councilor Mattiace said I am not asking about other communities. I am asking about this community, and your feeling is on the value of that home. Chris Faivre said there are other communities that we can use as sort of a benchmark and determine those property values. So, we would use that as a guide. If you are asking me personally if I think that the value of my home would go up because there was a walkable café, I do. So, from that standpoint I do think that there is an interpretation that these do add value to your neighborhood. Councilor Mattiace asked you are talking about a walkable café right next to your home, right? Chris Faivre said you have to understand that there is going to be restrictions that probably would not allow that to happen. I don’t think the lot size. Councilor Mattiace said that is where I can’t vote yes on this because you are talking about probably. We will probably not let that happen, but it could happen? And I just have a lot of faith in you, my staff, everyone that worked on this. I realized you worked on it for two years, but I believe that we can do better. I believe we could actually maybe have the neighborhood allow a petition. Just like all of you could petition to have me recalled. In other words, if we don’t make the right decision anybody could start a petition. You could do is maybe allow a petition of those neighbors like you do for speed bump because I remember I needed a speed bump in my neighborhood, and I needed to go get 75% of the neighbors had to comply to get that speed bump built. Maybe you could put that into the law so that the neighbors have a say if they want that café next to Molly’s house or Jennifer’s house. It is just a suggestion. Mayor Enriquez asked just to recap, so this standard is almost 25 years old? Chirs Faivre said that is correct. Mayor Enriquez asked we are upgrading a new development code for the city of Las Cruces, replacing one that was initially 2001? Chris Faivre said that is correct. Mayor Enriquez asked a lot of the comments and thoughts are that single family residences are being removed? Chris Faivre said that is not accurate. What this code does is it allows other options for developers when they are developing new neighborhoods to look at. So, for example, expansion on the East Mesa, when you are master planning a new neighborhood you now have the ability to include single family homes, multifamily homes, town homes, maybe you do want to have a street that has a little grocery store at the end or a café at the end. That is what this flexibility is built into allow. Mayor Enriquez said it creates flexibility for growth and development in our community. The other thing is when we talk about a café next door to your house or in your backyard, things like that other than this there are plenty of safeguards that we have in our city, is that not correct? Chris Faivre said that is sort of what I was alluding to before is just because and let me just preface by saying not every neighborhood doesn’t have vacant lots but most of these established neighborhoods don’t have vacant lots sitting in them but if there was a vacant lot next to a house, I know that I grew up on Cedardale and I for some reason there was a vacant lot at the end of Cedardale for years and years and years that they finally built a house there. That lot would not allow you to do a lot of these things. It is just not big enough for that. These things are put into code so that when you are developing a new neighborhood you can build the lot to accommodate something like this. So, if you are doing a café you still have parking requirements that you have to meet. You still have ponding requirements that you have to meet. There are still setback requirements that you have to meet so I don’t want to say that it is impossible because that is not a good place to be, but it is very difficult and cost prohibitive if you were going to try and retrofit existing developed neighborhoods to accomplish something like this. I am not saying that you can’t do it, but the code was intended for new development and really try and encourage that creativity and deal with some of the shortfalls in housing right now. Mayor Enriquez said that is what we want. We want the flexibility, we want the ability to grow but then again we all recognize and I have lived it personally here in Las Cruces and I can say we don’t want it in our backyard. It happens sometimes but there are plenty of safeguards and those are the things we want to make sure that Community Development and our Public Works, our traffic, everybody is on board that they understand and that these safeguards are to protect our residents but yet we can still continue to grow. That is what this is all about, correct? Councilor Flores asked that is the point that the Mayor just brought up, it is all prospective. It isn’t as if the city is going to allow a market to go into existing neighborhoods? Am I correct? Chris Faivre said it will be possible under code but again you need to follow all the safeguards the Mayor was referring to whether it is having space for parking or having space for the setbacks or all the other various things you have to have. You still have to be able to meet that standard. So just having a vacant lot and saying I want to put a café there and code allows me to do it it’s not that simple. There are safeguards to prevent something like that from happening. Councilor Flores said the people here today can pretty much anticipate that and prepare for anything the city has to offer. Beverly Hogan, Member of the Public said I live in a single family residential neighborhood in Las Colinas. We chose this very diverse neighborhood for a reason. Our neighborhood is a mixture of all age groups, races, religions, and cultures. I taught fair housing laws for the Pennsylvania State Real Estate Commission. Our current zoning is not “deeply rooted in class and race issues”, as Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo states. I am vehemently opposed to eliminating traditional single family residential zoning in Las Cruces. You are our elected officials. You are supposed to represent your constituents not this progressive ideology of “reimagining” American single-family zoning. I doubt that there is a single person other than most of the city council and your spokespeople who are even aware that you planned this major coup for today. Yes, I am a retired teacher and what you are doing today is a coup. It is an overthrow of traditional single-family zoning that most of your constituents chose when they purchased their single-family home. A neighbor beside us has seven children, many of us have grandparents, having restaurants and cafes, retail stores or apartment complexes makes it very unsafe for them to walk in this neighborhood. The no single zoning family changes will cause a major drop in property values and existing family homes. Many of our seniors are on fixed incomes and cannot afford to move. If you really want to do something to make housing more affordable do something about the crime that we can hopefully attract more small businesses and bring this city around. Change that attitude before you ever consider changing the zoning. Kim Schilmeister, Member of the Public said I also read that the husband of another city councilor has said that single family zoning promotes poverty, addiction, and crime as well as Mayor Pro Tem Bencomo said that it is deeply rooted in class and race issues. Again, I also have a single-family home, and I like so many people lived in poverty when my husband and I were taking care of three children and he was working for Las Cruces Fire for less than $8 an hour while I was going to nursing school. We fought our way out of poverty by the grace of God with our values, our morals, and our hard work. Just as everybody can. The root issue of poverty, addiction and crime we have to address the poor city and state laws that we have on the books. It is not addressing this. Police are doing the best that they can to address this but this is not the Las Cruces that I moved into. I see people with needles in the parks, our kids cannot safely go to the bathroom in a park. If you integrate these things the safety is going to go down, the issue of having a quiet neighborhood will go down. Parking will become an issue and remember that those property taxes are what pay for us to have a decent and livable city and those who commit crimes, those who are addicted, they have choices, they have the freedoms as we should. They can choose to seek help. We have opportunities. I think we should grow those opportunities. I think we should have affordable housing. Get rid of the eye sore on Amador and Valley. Tear that down, make an apartment complex out of that. Make it where these people do have a hand up. I needed a hand up, we all do at some point so that we can get where we want to go but we all have freedoms and choices and that should be recognized for all populations and this kind of wording is divisive. It is not helpful for us as a community. Tim Jenkins, Member of the Public said I would like to bring to your attention that according to newmexico.gov for the last 24 years Las Cruces has been ranked within the top three in the nation for seniors and retirees moving here to Las Cruces and from 2022 to 2024, 67.8% of the people moving here to Las Cruces were above the age 55 moving here to retire. I believe that this is going to cut seriously impact our seniors nationwide that are seeking to move here. Because if you are a senior you are looking to move into a quiet neighborhood and have your own privacy and I am in full agreement with what Bill Mattiace said. I believe that it should be the voice of the people that we vote on this and not this. Dave Rice, Member of the Public said I among one of the older ones that moved into the area. I’m in the Councilor Flores area. The area I am in is mixed already. It does not have little B&B and other things in the area. I am in general support of Realize Las Cruces because I think we have a clear affordability of housing issue. It has to do with income but there are a number of people who are older people who I know who have had a sudden change in their fortune and they cannot find housing. I think the idea of at least allowing local housing flexibility of an owner to add a casita kind of a situation or something could help with the affordable housing thing, and I would urge you to at least adopt that part of this proposal. Edward Howell, Member of the Public said you have been looking at your computer screens, you have been reading reams of paper and all that stuff and I wanted to provide for you a visual that I think might help you in your decision as you look at the approving or disapproving this Revitalize Las Cruces plan, okay but I am going to have to turn around a little bit here. How many in this room are homeowners here in Las Cruces? Raise your hands. How many of you are against this plan as it is presented today? Raise your hands. How many of you would be inclined to vote against someone who is on the council who has approved this bill voting going forward? Maybe that will help you as you start to think about this because there are many people who don’t like this plan and those people not only are they home owners they are voters. I think this is a really bad plan. I have seen how it has been implemented and read about it in other cities. It causes lots of problems and we have a great city here. We can sell it as it is and grow it as it is without this plan. Liz Rodriguez-Johnson, Member of the Public said I urge you to pass Realize Las Cruces. The proposed changes will make the development code more flexible, make it easier to build a variety of housing styles and types for rent and for purchase across the spectrum of affordability, which is what we really need right now. This will help make Las Cruces a place where people can lead good lives. Where they can prosper and thrive with reasonably priced housing. Grace Martinez, Member of the Public said I would like to inquire about the weight given to public participation in your decision making process. Time and time again, concerned citizens have voiced similar worries about safety and the wellbeing of our homeless and transient populations yet it seems our collective concerns are being disregarded. The lack of acknowledgment is deeply disheartening. As a community we are invested in the well-being of our city and it is frustrating to feel like our voices are being ignored. I urge you to reconsider the value of public input and take concerns seriously. We are not just stakeholders we are the very fabric of this community. Our collective voices deserve to be heard and respected, with that being said to all my friends that are concerned about the safety in their neighborhoods I share your concerns and frustrations about the state of our community. It is disheartening to see areas like Amador being neglected and allowed to deteriorate because that is exactly what is happening. The lack of attention to pressing issues like theft and safety is alarming and it is unacceptable that these concerns be taken to a backseat. Moreover, the proposal to allow businesses to build in our residential neighborhoods is a recipe for disaster. Our homes are our sanctuaries, and we deserve to feel safe and secure in our own communities. Why must we normalize theft? Why must we normalize our kids being targeted in our own front yard? The idea of disrupting our peaceful neighborhoods with commercial development is outrageous and must be opposed. I urge everyone to make their voices heard and vote no on this proposal. Our future and safety depend on it. So, let’s come together and vote no. Mary Jo Birch, Member of the Public said I specifically moved back to Las Cruces and bought a house in a neighborhood where I could walk to the grocery store, walk to a clothing store but now it is unsafe to walk in those areas because the desert is no longer safe. From my house I used to be able to walk from there just across the desert to Albertsons. It is not safe. There are people down there starting fires, they have propane tanks, they are talking to themselves. In addition, why would people come to Las Cruces when we are last in education and first in child poverty and I suggest that we address those issues first. Kathy Brook, Member of the Public said I live in Mesilla Park and I have lived there for 30 some odd years. I previously lived in a four plex in Las Cruces for eight years and I lived in single family dwelling in Las Alturas area acre lot. Now I live in a single-family dwelling. I have found Mesilla Park to be an area with a mix of housing and in fact, there was a city staffer, I don’t remember who mentioned Mesilla Park in an earlier discussion of Realize Las Cruces. I support Realize Las Cruces. It serves the needs of the people in a variety of ways to have a mix of housing. I myself moved my mother here from California twenty years ago and moved her into the condominiums that are about a block from where I live. That was very workable for me and my family. I know other people that live in the same neighborhood where a grown maybe middle-aged child and a parent live within a block or two of each other. Sometimes in single family units and sometimes in condominiums. We also in my neighborhood have a small trailer park, so single family units, small trailer park, condominiums, apartments. This is all very workable and safe. Ruth Jarre, Member of the Public said you know that our city is in a housing crisis. We all agree with that but how bad is it? The Pew Charitable Trust published an article in January confirming that New Mexico’s situation is among the worst in the nation. Worse even than other western states including Arizona and Montana. Pew found that rental costs in New Mexico rose by 60% in the last seven years. Home buying is no better. The average price of a home in our state is now over $300,000. The problem is a lack of housing. Researchers have found that strict land use regulations prevent new homes from being built therefore limiting supply while raising rents as well as the cost of homes. Exclusionary development standards add additional hurdles to building homes, often resulting in fewer multifamily choices and making existing homes more expensive. Realize Las Cruces removes those regulations that are causing our crisis while giving residents more housing choices. Please vote yes today and by the way I will vote for you if you pass this. Jane Asche, Member of the Public said I have lived here a little over 25 years. I have followed the work with great interest of the city council for all those years. I could look at everybody seated up here as a councilor today and our current Mayor and I know enough about the history to know that over time you have done many things to improve the quality of life here in this city. First, I want to second what has just been said so well by the people who have come to the microphone and who has spoken in favor of Realize Las Cruces. I am asking that today that you support the approval of these development codes which I believe are going to increase, not decrease but increase the quality of life for so many people in our community and to make it a livable affordable place for everyone. Nancy Akbari Shahmirzadi, Member of the Public said I urge the council to table this vote today. As you can see there is a large group that opposes it in general. I like also the Revitalize Las Cruces concept, but I think the zoning and all those changes should be for new developments. I noticed that Chris was talking a lot about new developments. I think that it should be very attractive but not imposed on the existing single-family homes. I am a retired lawyer, I am not giving legal advice however there are a few serious impediments that could be brought by neighborhoods, by people if you vote this in. One of them is an appeal. I believe and I am not 100% certain because I didn’t look it up but if people appeal this it could stay put off the entire program. Number two there are constitutional issues which have been brought up in terms of value that too would delay tremendously the implementation. There is plenty of tools in the system for delaying this. So, I recommend tabling, thinking about putting this on new developments but not on existing. Beth Bardwell, Member of the Public said I am here on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexico. Las Cruces has a housing shortage. I want to repeat what another public member said and that is a recent analysis from the Pew Charitable Trust found that from October 2017 to October 2024 median rents in New Mexico increased by 60% while the cost of a home climbed by 70%. We want Las Cruces to be a place where people can lead good lives. Where they can prosper, and they can thrive and at a minimum that means paying a reasonable amount of your hard earned income to put a roof over your head. The changes that Realize Las Cruces is proposing are drawn from hundreds of hours of community input that proceeded today’s vote. Input during Elevate Las Cruces, the comprehensive code and this Realize Las Cruces code as well and the proposed changes that were said today that were laid out today by staff are a reasonable valid response to those community comments and community visions for Las Cruces. Realize Las Cruces changes to the land use design standards and zoning districts will enable more home building, slowing rent growth and a decline in homelessness. Please, I urge you to vote yes today for Realize Las Cruces and I thank you for your public service. Jim Hoerst, Member of the Public said I want to thank the commission for coming this far and I hope you get the ball across the goal line today. I am a parent. I have three children. I do not live close to them. I wish I did, and I can say to the people in the opposition to this, if you are in opposition to this measure, you are in opposition to your kids growing up and living in this community. Very few young families can afford to buy a home. They have to rent. If you are concerned about child poverty. If a family’s spending half their income on rent then they are not taking proper care of their children. It’s just that simple. Good communities have affordable housing. We don’t. You either want to make Las Cruces a healthy growing community or you don’t. If you do you have to support measures like this and if you vote for this I will only vote for you, I will knock doors for you. I will social network for you. I will do whatever I can. I don’t have much money, but I will do whatever I can to get you elected. Terry Miller, Member of the Public said I have lived here 52 years. So, I have two points on the many things that you are wanting to work on to talk about today. The first is that I would bet that every single person in this room who is a property owner feels like they should have the freedom to choose what to build on their own land. I also believe that everyone in this room would like to have any unnecessary or burdensome regulations removed from the building code. I appreciate all the time and effort the city staff and the city council have put into this. I support it wholeheartedly and I support you wholeheartedly. Marisol Diaz, Member of the Public said I am as Mr. Faivre so eloquently said just a resident. I live in District 3. I would like to share my experience of living in a district where business activities are mixed with residential areas. My comments are specifically about the residual impacts of living right next door to a non-profit religious institution that operates and has traffic flow similar to a regular business. While the religious institution provides essential services to the community and is often a lifeline for many the impacts on the neighborhood are not as positive. The church hosts numerous events every year such as spring parties and festivals which draw many individuals to the neighborhood. To accommodate the influx of people, the church purchased an empty lot next to our house. Although this lot is zoned residential it is used as a parking lot which is not permissible. I did check. Patrons leave trash, play loud music, set off fireworks and create a tremendous amount of dust. This situation also feels like a violation of our privacy as people peer into our yard and pick on our animals, my chickens included. Last year they hit our fence and neither the church nor the patrons took responsibility. They left us to deal with the insurance company and the costly repairs. Additionally, the church uses a commercial dumpster on this lot causing heavy trash trucks to drive on it one to two times per week, loosening the dirt and worsening the dust. They host community distributions, which is a good service, but it requires an 18-wheeler to drive through our residential street. Residential streets are not likely paved with the appropriate type of asphalt for such heavy trucks as Mr. Faivre also alluded to. Patrons also leave provided shopping carts up and down our street and they use the alley way as a street, blocking entry and speeding through with no regard for residents. There is a constant flow of strangers passing through our neighborhood creating a sense of insecurity and vulnerability. Additionally, the increased traffic makes it unsafe for our kids to play outside. I share my experience to highlight the challenges faced by residents living next to such institutions and to raise awareness about the potential issues resulting in the zoning changes that you are now considering. We are not against it we are asking that you reconsider some of those additional pieces about how it impacts us living in those neighborhoods because there are protections, but we have a cannabis shop right next to our house as well. So, it’s permissible. Joe Blust, Member of the Public said I have been in a single family home for 18 years. I like the single-family home life. I am concerned about B&Bs, cafes, and small stores, whatever coming close to me. However, I do understand the need for a lot of the program of Realize Las Cruces. The one that I am most concerned about and I think is a totally separate issue is our single-family home residence that are already established. I just think that we should be grandfathered in aside from Realize Las Cruces. I just don’t feel that those of us who are already invested and are looking for this as our forever home or an investment should have to worry about a business coming in right next to us. So, I am just saying that I see this as a two-part issue. Please just find a way to grandfather in at least the single-family residences that already exist. Giovanni Hernandez, Member of the Public said I am here to urge your support for city ordinance 3090. I have a question or something for you all to consider, for the audience to consider as well. I wonder how many of you all after this city council meeting ends, public comments ends, how many of you are going to drive over to Mesilla, go get a coffee, go eat at a restaurant, walk around and say to your neighbors and to your friends that don’t live here say I love how walkable it is. I love how accessible it is. That vision is a vision for Las Cruces also. I hope that you acknowledge that irony city councilors and fellow Las Crucens. Again, I just urge your support for this ordinance. Lucas Herndon, Member of the Public said I am a resident of District 2 which is councilman Mattiace’s district. He is going to go to Mesilla because that is where his business is. It is interesting to hear Councilor Mattiace and some others talk about property value. A little bit of a history, by the way I have my degree in history from New Mexico State University because I am a lifelong resident, I have owned my home for 19 years. The only time I have ever lost value is when big banks in New York City blew up a housing bubble and decreased my house value by half. So, if you want to blame somebody blame banks not small businesses. Where did single family zoning get its start, in the progressive bay area enclave. The first city in the country to implement single family zoning was adopted for Elmwood Neighborhood in 1916, making it illegal to build anything other than one home on one lot in that neighborhood. Duncan McDuffie, a prominent real estate development in Berkley who built the Claremont Court Elmwood Neighborhood in the early 1900s was a big champion of single-family zoning. His development all came with racial covenants which bared homeowners from selling or renting their homes to people of color but he also wanted to make sure that neighborhood next to Claremont including Elmwood wouldn’t allow families of color to move in because he thought it would lower property values. When I hear people talk about their property values and not about their neighbors or not about caring for this community, I cannot help but wonder what you really mean? Martha Guerrero, Member of the Public said I currently live in District 1, and it seems rare and odd to me that I am one of the only people here that was born and raised in Las Cruces and I have watched this city grow. I have lived in Picacho. I lived up on Highway 70. I have seen the growth and how small business has thrived. How like all kinds and businesses and things have just grown in this city and I am very lucky to live in a spot where I can just walk a couple of minutes down the road and I can get to my job. I can get to different restaurants. I can get to different public spaces and go to these events that Las Cruces has and to me I wonder why don’t we spread that to the rest of Las Cruces? Why is it such a bad thing to people? It boggles my mind and like someone who has ridden the bus for several years, as someone who is going to get a bike really soon, I would love for the streets to be more safe. I would love to have sidewalks in the downtown area. That goes for a block and then it stops for a block and it is again sidewalks. That is so unsafe and if Realize Las Cruces can help with the sidewalks if it can help with making transit more accessible, more friendly to people that might need it I would really appreciate it if you helped pass this. I would love to see Las Cruces grow. Las Cruces has changed so much, and I feel like there is so many people here that want to call this place their home including myself. I have so many friends, I have family here that want to call this place their home and if Realize Las Cruces can help spread that. If you could help make people more comfortable, make it more accessible for them to enjoy their lives, I would love to see this happen. Alicia Quevedo, Member of the Public said I live in District 1. I am here to ask that you vote yes on Realize Las Cruces which includes comprehensive changes to resolve conflicts arising from past code modifications as we have already heard and will not affect all neighborhoods. These changes will not only ensure neighborhoods will have less traffic and will have space for children to play but will also ensure less children are homeless. Not sure how many people opposing this have read all 1291 pages of this ordinance, but I read all of the section dealing with residential and mixed-use neighborhoods and Realize Las Cruces does not get rid of single family houses. It defines zones within the code as single-family low density residential districts. In Section 36-2 it describes areas of primarily detached single family dwelling units to maintain and protect a low-density residential character development. Section 36-1 describes purposes which include encouraging innovation and land development that compliments neighborhoods’ existing character and encourages bicycle and pedestrian and transit modes of travel. Controls and abates unlawful use of structures or land, minimizes adverse environmental impacts of development, reduces nuisances, encourages development of vacant properties within established areas and conserves the values of buildings and land. These are wins for our city. This ordinance does allow some mix of homes and apartments, mobile homes, restaurants, and grocery stores. That is a win for our city. Realize Las Cruces will allow more people to be able to afford housing, reducing homelessness, that is a win. This ordinance allows for dozens of exceptions for single family dwellings from various new adaptive reuse driveway and other construction codes and ensures all of you all can still park your RV on your single-family lots so I am just wondering is it just the RVs that are the only roof over families heads that you object to? Vacation RVs somehow don’t offend your delicate sensibilities. You cannot pretend to be pro- business and at the same time condemn business development in Las Cruces except I guess you can because I guess that is what so many people are here to do today. Thank goodness areas like Sonoma Ranch will start allowing apartment complexes and restaurants and grocery stores. I know a small powerful group of people would prefer not to see working class people exist but I ask the city council to not design our city around their feelings, this ordinance is a win for our city. Nick Chingole, Member of the Public said I live in District 6. I have spoken here a few times about the mountains of data related to housing security and overall physical and mental health outcomes. Obviously that data hasn’t changed so I won’t bore you with it again. So, I will just say that Las Cruces is changing and growing and it is going to continue to change and grow whether or not we pass Realize Las Cruces. Really the only thing we can do is to change and grow with it. The way for a growing city is with diversity as unique as ours to continue to be successful is to take care of our most vulnerable populations. That is just not low income, that is services workers, college grads and seniors. If we want to curb crime, if we want to curb substance use, if we want to attract and retain jobs, we do need to get to the root cause and that is to end those adverse experiences that perpetuate generational trauma. We do that by providing services needed for basic survival, specifically the fundamental right of accessible housing. I ask all the city councilors to proceed with Realize Las Cruces so that this city can continue to grow, and all of our citizens of our unique and wonderful community can be successful. Skye Que, Member of the Public said I wanted to show my support for Realize Las Cruces. We have an ever booming population of people that have prior have forced accommodations by the volume of people by expanding out which inevitably is expanding into our national park areas that make Las Cruces so unique also making those with limited commuting options have less than safe access to desired locations which will now be something with rezoning, create more job opportunities, having more affordable housing by building out and closer to desirable locations will be a boom to the economy because of this accessibility. Rezoning will create the much needed means of a more walkable city. Meaning less need for excessive carports or parking. New Mexico is known for its hospitality which will only grow as we build community. Protecting cyclists and pedestrians should be our priority, ensuring that we are keeping those who already exist here at the forefront of our development which includes low-income families and unhoused people. Providing for the community should be an antithesis for crime. People are better well taken care of and provided for and is known for lessening crime and making spaces ultimately safer. Housing is a human right, access to resources is a human right and if you vote for approval for this I will in turn vote for you. Trent Scribner, Member of the Public said I am up here today to support Realize Las Cruces. I have lived here my whole life. Like other people have said I have seen this city grow. I have seen this city change and this city is changing, is why there is so much backlash here today is because people are adverse to the change that makes sense. I understand but this is the only way that we can change the city for the better. The way it stands right now you want to keep housing unaffordable. One surefire way to do it, to restrict development, is to keep single families zoning, this we know. I am less concerned with property values for people who already have homes, than I am for people to have a roof over their heads at night and for the people concerned about safety I understand and you have my sympathy. It is not a serious concern from having small businesses in your area. It’s a myth. It is something to keep people scared from progress and I hope that you guys realize this and I will come out and fight for you if you vote for this. Roseanne Amendola, Member of the Public said I live in District 2 and I am a lifelong resident and a home owner. I am for this rezoning thing. The one thing that has been really frustrating about living here in Cruces is the lack of resources for people in the community and what is a better way to improve that is by giving the people what they need. Affordable housing, job opportunities and you give people the resources you tackle all kinds of things. You decrease crime, you improve life expectancy and yea this is something that we need. I feel that the positives outweigh the negatives here. I hope you see in your heart to really think about the different communities here that really benefit from this especially of low income and living in rural areas. You vote for this, I vote for you and I will continue living here. Clare Wallace, Member of the Public said I am a fifteen year resident of Las Cruces and I just wanted to say I am here to support Realize Las Cruces because it is good for our city. Being a number 3 retirement destination is cool. That is a good achievement but there is also other demographics of people who live here in Las Cruces and the job of the city government is to look after all of the people of the city not just the retirees. This is also very good for people who do not have cars. Having a small grocery store in a walkable distance is an absolute game changer. We currently only allow on the city buses people to carry two bags of groceries. So, is two bags of groceries with an indeterminate amount of time when you will have access to a grocery store enough to feed a family? Usually no. Maybe for one day. A bus ride every day to the grocery store is not very feasible for most parents. So, we need to think about not just people who have the means to get here to this meeting today on Tuesday afternoon when most people are at work, but you also need to think about people who do not have the means to get here. Who are members of this community and are taxpaying citizens and they deserve a right to food, a right to a place to live and a right to community that is not completely in accessible simple for them not having a car. So, I hope you all find it within yourselves to make the right decisions here and support this common sense policy. Chris Center, Member of the Public said I am from District 3 I believe. Let me just tell you a little bit about myself. I live in a lower income area of Las Cruces and we are in a walkable distance. Last year I didn’t have a car and was unable to get access to a car and I was able using the transport system and with that I was able to walk to stores, I was able to get my groceries, I was able to get the things that I needed and with having small businesses and small corner stores and small grocery stores in these places of our city is extremely helpful because in the city of Las Cruces and I just looked it up it says over one quarter of the county’s residents lives in a food desert. Which means that they have to walk over a half a mile to access the nutritious food. That is super important because we need access to food. That is how we survive. I highly suggest that you guys advocate for this and to vote yes on Realize Las Cruces because it is going to help the community and it is going to help lower income people as well as housing and food and cafes so I believe you guys should make the right decision and I will vote for you. Valeria Barron, Member of the Public said I am here to speak in favor of Realize Las Cruces. Specifically for the fact that it is not going to take away your single-family resident homes from your hands. It is for newer developments as well as lots from my understanding lots that have been empty and away from people for a long while and with these local businesses, local parks. It has been historically proven in the past that with providing local businesses you open up jobs for people who are in desperate need of a place of work. Opening a said café next door, maybe it could inconvenience you in noise, however it is providing that homeless Veteran an opportunity to work and to be able to afford housing. Perhaps the park that they are going to install might attract some leaves on the ground but it is also going to provide that wife that has several children that she can’t take out very often to finally have a place for them to play and have enrichment and it has been shown that in studies that places that have enrichment for every member of the community have been shown to have lower crime rates, lower rates of addiction and lower rates of self-harm and suicide as well. So, think of it as more enrichening the society that you live in and giving people an opportunity that they were not given beforehand. Larry Sedillo, Member of the Public said I came here today because I do not live right in Las Cruces. I have many friends and family that live in Las Cruces. But one thing about what you are talking about today is it has to do with our right to have privacy, have our own house, have a decision made by us to find a place that we want to live that is comfortable for us to have our neighbors to access, available resources that we have that is close to us. That is what we decided to. Most of you did not come to Las Cruces, find a place to live in a neighborhood that was beside a store or a bar or whatever else. You did not do that. Just like most people don’t. They decided on a place that was safe for all of us. I want something for everyone. I want safety. I want protection. Those things are important in our area. Especially Las Cruces. We have a majority of problems here that have been brought on by many many needs. There are things that can be solved but it takes time. It takes resources. It takes using conscience not spur of the moment decisions that are not based on fact. I think you need to really consider what you are going to do today because you don’t want to have the effects later on or appeals that come in the future. We have had major lawsuits here in the city and in the county for people who do not respect our properties, do not respect our laws. For me I think we need to really, really realize what needs to take place here in Las Cruces. We want the best for everyone in this community. We don’t want it for a select few so basically when you make a decision like that you are representing everybody in Las Cruces. Not just what your ideals or your agenda is. So, think about what you are going to be doing because I am willing to support you. I plan to do many things to help Las Cruces and the county in the future and that is what I am planning to do. Logan Adams, Member of the Public said I am proud to say that I was born and raised right here in Las Cruces and if I am lucky I will die here to. I love this city, and I hope the best for its future in our collective prosperity. There is promise too allow local grocery stores, cafes in all neighborhoods but I have to admit I really like the idea of being able to support a new locally owned small business that is within walking distance, that is quite appealing. I would much rather have the opportunity to support a local grocery store than to be forced to do what I do now which is hop in my car, drive four miles down the road to the closest Walmart and watch as my money is funneled out of New Mexico through a gigantic soulless corporation. We all know that small businesses are the backbone of our community and I for one am excited by the idea that we may cut the red tape and open up brand new opportunities for new small businesses to take root and thrive right here in Las Cruces. Now if you dislike the idea of higher density living it is understandable that you might look out to the vast and beautiful deserts and think surely we have room still while putting aside an argument that it is probably not the best idea to completely bulldoze and destroy our national environment around us that we all appreciate so much there is a much simpler problem to consider higher taxes. The cost for the city facilitate, install, repair, inspect, plan, and otherwise maintain our infrastructure is already massive. The further outward the city expands the greater the glut of that bill and as it goes up so does the need to raise our taxes. It is either that or the city’s ability to keep up with the maintenance nose dives because they can’t afford to be everywhere at once. Fellow Las Crucians should not follow us to subsidize outward control of expansion of our city especially when there is an alternative to both increase the supply of housing and avoid this potential untenable maintenance cost. We should do what we can to increase housing in our city and facilitate the growth and we should support small businesses that serve and connect our communities. This motion is not the only step to take in this direction, but it is a first and for these reasons I support it. John Negley, Member of the Public said I just want to take second to say how much I really like the city of Las Cruces. I went through the education system. I was given the opportunity to go to Arrowhead Park, early college high school, get myself a college education my family could not have otherwise afforded. I got the opportunity to do Junior Leadership through this city and learn about the many institutions here and I really enjoyed that too. Now I am at the stage, I actually don’t own a home, but I have a meeting with a real estate agent and a mortgage officer this week I am very excited for it. I am looking to start a family and raise a family here in the city of Las Cruces and the things I am looking for I am not just looking for the investment cost. I am looking at the places I can take my kids, the schools they can go to, the parks they can play in. I want to be able to give my son $5 and have him go down the street to the café and hangout. I am excited for that. I love this city and I want my kids to have to the opportunity to exist in third spaces. I don’t want them to be indoors. I want them to have fun and go out into this city and for that to happen there needs to be housing with opportunities within a walking distance. I would just like to say you I can’t imagine reaching this point in my life and pulling the ladder up behind me to all of the people that are coming up, you know it is not the Christian values I was raised with. My grandfather was a priest and he raised me with good values. He worked with this guy you might have heard of him, his name was Rev. King and he was a civil rights priest and he instilled in me a set of values that every member in the community matters and I want to see opportunities for all members of our community. Laura Reynolds, Member of the Public said we have seen a lot of word salad and disingenuous theories put out here misidentifying the problem. We don’t have a housing shortage. We have a housing affordability problem. What is wrong with Councilor Mattiace owning a business in his neighborhood and visiting it? Isn’t this what it is all about? Yet he is criticized. I am a local real estate broker, productive, active, and successful for over twenty years now. Not in the ivory tower where my brokers can’t reach me. I am out in the trenches listing and selling real estate like others and I see the problem. Prices are determined by the market. Not by what you want them to be or what I wish they were. I have watched Las Cruces go from a thriving and gorgeous community to destruction resembling a third world country. All of my grown daughters and their husbands have left for better opportunities elsewhere after struggling for years because there were none here for them. This would greatly impact neighborhoods. If you don’t think a commercial property next to a residential property devalues it then talk to an expert who knows and quit listening to these people who are throwing out theories that don’t make sense and are not true. Do you want a strip club next door to you? Your grandkids? Do you want a liquor store next to a church? They can come a tear down the house next to you and build whatever they want. This should be limited to new neighborhoods and developers who can make those decisions themselves. Christopher Brown, Member of the Public said I am a faculty member at NMSU and I have been a member of the Technical Advisory Committee that worked to develop Realize. I worked for two years to help build what we have for you today. We had members of the development community, AARP, the retirement community, Safe Routes to School, and folks like me working together to build something that advances the sustainable development goals that city council passed in Elevate Las Cruces. I urge you to support Realize and the plan that it has to build a Las Cruces that our Comp Plan calls for. Las Cruces is short $5,600 housing units and the good work that staff is doing to build 500 units is one tenth of what we need. If we want a town where kids have a chance, just a chance at buying the American dream that so many of us in this room enjoy we must solve this housing crisis. The code before you will give you the best chance at doing this. Realize will also support Complete Streets and safe transportation for people that walk and ride their bicycle in their daily life. The most disturbing thing I have heard, many people implore multifamily housing with the crime crisis. That is simply not true. Realize does not eliminate single family residential it simply provides other options. I implore you to support Realize Las Cruces and put in code the place you have before you. As someone else before you said if you support this, I will vote for you, I will walk for you, I will campaign for you and everything you do. Is Realize perfect? Absolutely not. But the perfect is the enemy of the pretty darn good which is what you have before you today. I urge you to vote yes. John Holtsman, Member of the Public said I want to thank the city council and especially the staff for your efforts on Realize Las Cruces. I urge you to pass it. I have participated in this process in several ways including submitting some written comments, making some comments to Planning and Zoning, emailing staff, talking with some of you. I didn’t actually get what I wanted but that’s okay. I felt that I was listened to. I recognize that you are juggling a lot of different and conflicting input which is sometimes expressed in a hostile and perhaps less than constructive way. Overall, I think Realize Las Cruces does a good job recognizing issues that face our community and trying to address whatever root level that is equitable. I think we are at a point in our community where we have to be willing to be open minded about change and to consider what we need to do to address our issues and I think that Realize lays out the policies and especially the flexibility to do so. I respect the process and look forward to working with you in the future to make adjustments and improvements as needed. I thank you and staff again for your efforts on Realize Las Cruces and hope that you will support it. Athena Huckaby, Member of the Public said I am here to voice my strong support of Realize Las Cruces. Our city is facing a housing crisis and outdated zoning laws that restrict neighborhoods to single family homes only make it worse. By allowing for a mix of housing types like duplexes, townhomes and accessory dwelling units of which I have one, we create more affordable options, support local businesses and build a more inclusive community. My colleague and friend that was sitting with me that had to leave due to time owns a mix use property in Ashville, North Carolina which is very lucrative for her. She and her son both own real estate in Las Cruces and at this point are unwilling to invest in more real estate because of these restrictive zoning laws. The alternative to not passing this is more unchecked suburban sprawl, soulless, car dependent development that isolates people, drains city resources. Realize Las Cruces gives us the opportunity to build more vibrant walkable and a sustainable city where people of all income levels can thrive. Please move forward with these changes. Dana Hopkins, Member of the Public said I am a resident here in Las Cruces. I am a native New Mexican although I have recently returned to New Mexico and I wasn’t going to speak because I saw so many people my age speaking but we are not a monolith. We do not all agree. Not everyone here is a homeowner. I am not and for many of the people behind me and I am going to remind you that you are one medical crisis from not being a homeowner. We are a city of many, many kinds people and ages of people, it breaks my heart to see that we are ignoring the voices of our younger folks, our more marginalized folks and I truly believe that what we are looking at here and I have to say that it sounds like people haven’t actually read it or listened to this presentation. What we are looking at here isn’t unreasonable. It isn’t perfect like all things are but it improves Las Cruces for everyone. It improves it for people like me. It improves it for my neighbors behind me and it improves it for all these neighbors of all ages and walks of life and people who cannot afford a home at all. There is not a bad thing about it. Things that people are afraid of are not the things that are going to happen, and change happens. It is 2025. It is not 2001 and what worked then does not work now. Renee Frank, Member of the Public said I am a long term citizen of Las Cruces and the surrounding areas. Been here for actually now that I have counted it up, 45 years. I have watched Las Cruces grow and I am very, very proud of Las Cruces. In 2006, I became a realtor and have really come to understand the importance of the opportunity for homeownership and even beyond that the importance of a home. A home that provides safety, security, health and a base from which people can live their lives. I want to appreciate with all of the work that has gone into the Realize Las Cruces plan. I do believe that these are the kinds of changes that we need. It actually cuts through some of the bureaucracy and the red tape that is required to get some of the development that we desperately need. It opens up opportunities and provides more freedom for homeowners and landowners to be able to determine what they want to do with their land. The landowners and the developers and the builders together will be able to take these and move forward in the ways that people really want. I want to say thank you for the many opportunities that were provided for input. I got involved with Realize Las Cruces, it was a year ago when the draft being presented and many people coming to deliver their objections and their concerns and I also saw a concerted effort to take all of those concerns into effect and to make changes in the code which were then I saw many of those come back today which I think helped to listen and to attend to those things. I want to urge you to please pass this ordinance. This is not going to solve every problem in Las Cruces but once you pass it today then you can move on and put your attention to those other big issues that need to be addressed. Paula Groves, Member of the Public said I have emailed and called all of you many times over the years about issues. I have been involved in this effort. I have lodged public comment and the only response I have ever gotten was last night from Councilor Mattiace. So, thank you for that. I would like to urge you to table this motion or to vote no. I am not in favor of many of the changes proposed under the Realize Las Cruces plan because these do impact existing neighborhoods and so if you read the thousand pages, if you listen to the staff presentation which it said it probably wouldn’t affect you. Probably isn’t good enough for me. I am a third generation Las Crucen. I have raised two now adult children here and I believe that these changes will be detrimental to existing properties allowing large apartment complexes and retail stores within our existing single-family neighborhoods increases noise, light pollution, traffic, and impacts safety for families with young children or elderly residents. These proposed changes will fundamentally change the standard of living in our city, which will impact the quality of life and potentially the tax base and I on purpose am not talking about property value or these other things because I am much more concerned about the quality of life in the city where four generations of my family have lived. We have current zoning regulations that allow citizens to live in these varied neighborhoods so I would urge you to table this and change the zoning for new development only. Julia Yancy, Member of the Public said I have lived in Las Cruces for about four years now. I moved when I was just 14. Currently I am a student at NMSU and I think from where I used to live and in Alaska I noticed the positivity of having local spaces, third spaces and I have a lot of conversations with my fellow students and fellow friends who don’t enjoy not having community and I think that is a lot of my focus in this and I think I want to kind of bring that up and how having local spaces and possibly cafes. A lot of community is built in that and I just wanted to say that from where I used to live with my experience living in a small town in Alaska it brought many tourists, a lot of community within that and I just wanted to highlight that and how that could be a positive effect in Las Cruces. Sylvia Yancy, Member of the Public said I live in District 2. While I am a Las Cruces resident, I am also a Swedish citizen. I have visited the country many times and have seen the benefits of walkable cities and diverse neighborhoods. I have also seen the disadvantages of the American car centric society for the benefit of our community. I believe that we need to start moving away from a car centric society and I believe that Realize Las Cruces is a great step towards that goal. I am not a homeowner, so I am not become so selfish to only worry about my property value and to not care about others in my community. Of course, we all want our neighborhoods to be safe. If we truly want to end crime, then we want to see what the root causes of these crimes are. That can be substance abuse issues, lack of resources, and help, etcetera so please if any of this is word salad then call me the dressing. So please vote yes on Realize Sylvia Ulloa, Member of the Public said I love Las Cruces. I want this beautiful community to grow and to thrive. One of our councilors here believes we shouldn’t take a vote for change on the possibility that something bad may happen instead of voting for something good that could happen. We deserve a community with thriving small businesses with walkable neighborhoods and with easy access to public transit. My nephew left Las Cruces because he didn’t want to have to own a car. My niece left because there was nothing to do here and because there was no interesting neighborhoods. Not everybody wants to live in a single-family house, even those vaunted retirees that we keep trying to bring here over our own residents. They are selling their big houses and they are downsizing. When we say that only single-family houses are allowed, what we are saying is to our kids, go live in Denver. Go live in Phoenix. Go live in Austin and when you are ready to get married and have two kids and buy a house then you can come back. You just keep renting and keep throwing your money away on that until you have the money to buy a single-family house in Las Cruces. So, Realize Las Cruces is about the market working for all of our consumers. Not just for baby boomers who are holding on to all the wealth and all the resources and then wondering why their kids can’t buy a house and why they don’t live near them. So, I really urge you to do this so that we can make our community work for all people. Young people, old people, working people, and retirees. Gloria Molina, Member of the Public said I am here to support Realize Las Cruces. I was born and raised here and I have seen the many changes and not for the good but this it really does have a potential to make a great impact on people that need it, low income people. I serve on the board for the Mesilla Valley Public Housing Authority and our list is 1,437 for public housing, which is 244 units. I really believe that this will help. I know and I have heard a lot of things. I have been here all afternoon. That was a long wait. My daughter also went to Austin. My kids are grown up, but I have grandchildren and great-grandchildren that I hope will some day be homeowners. I went to college. I chose a low paying early childhood education degree and I have never made more then $24,000 a year. I have done a lot, and I am proud of what I have done. I am a big advocate for low-income people because I grew up in the housing project on Mulberry and Ash and I lived there again. I moved there when I was six years old and I live there again and it is not anybody’s childhood dream to say I am going to go back to live in housing, no but I am in a position where I can help people and advocate for them now. Please support and also I am going to ditto what everybody says I will go all the way for you and I will support you if you back us up on this. George Pearson, Member of the Public said I have seen recent commentary and social media opposing Realize Las Cruce. Realize has been in the works for many years. It is a result of Elevate Las Cruces. The Comprehensive Plan that was itself a two year project that was adopted as it happens five years ago today. The ideas in Realize are not new and were accepted throughout the seven or so years planning process. I was on the Technical Advisory Committee and probably made 30 of the 33 meetings and I don’t remember more than a handful of people coming to talk to us from the public. So, you are hearing a lot more here today than we ever heard in the year and some process that we had at the Technical Advisory Committee. Critics are suddenly saying that Realize will destroy Las Cruces. This is simply not true. Development is incremental and the flexibility offered by Realize will allow for the creation of more livable and walkable neighborhoods and there is nothing in Realize that stops developers from creating an HOA style neighborhoods with restrictions that would probably prevent casitas from being built that could be enforced by neighbors from suing neighbors. I like my neighbors, so I am not going to be suing anybody for the casita. My neighborhood probably about half the houses have casitas behind them and you hardly even know that they are there. Please approve Realize. The rest I was going to talk about bike parking, but Sara addressed that in the presentation so thank you for that please vote yes. Donica Fraiser, Member of the Public said my observation when I hear all of the yes and against and my question will be and I didn’t hear the numbers. How many units of the affordable housing will Las Cruces get with the plan? Compare the cost and everything. So minimum how many units? I am not asking about the number, I just didn’t hear and it bothered me. When we compare the cost and number and the infrastructure that will convince me. The other thing is this about affordable housing and how much you think the rent or the housing will cost people who need those very much to the other alternatives because sometimes everybody says we need affordable housing. Now when we came, a very short background, I came to the United States on the Visa which President Reagan let the people who were oppressed in solidarity time you know. I lived in New York for a while and then I lived for a while all together thirty plus years. I lived most of the time in Orlando. We came here and we loved this. This city is a tourist place to get the money for the budget why do we not focus addition to make this city welcome and this is for whole world not only for Las Crucen or America. Sarah Smith, Member of the Public said Realize Las Cruces takes away our choice to live in neighborhoods that will be safe for our kids to play in or for the elderly to walk across the street to check their mail. Who among you are going to speak up for the thousands of families who bought homes with reasonable expectations that their neighborhoods would be for homes and not businesses or large apartment complexes. You have not done due diligence in making sure the public is widely aware of what you are planning to do. At least one of you has also been making false statements that Realize is not going to remove single family residential zoning. That is clearly not true given that Realize would allow apartments and businesses in all neighborhoods. People will have no guarantee that they can live in quiet neighborhoods to get away from the hustle and bustle. A reasonable compromise would be to allow townhomes and casistas in existing neighborhoods but push the rest of these changes to new development areas only. Ostensibly Realize was intended to allow more people to afford housing but fundamentally changing our way of life without our consent is not the answer. Instead, you should be working harder to reduce development fees. Deal with the crime situation and retain and attract job opportunities. Several builders and developers have spoken with councilors that Realize is going to increase development costs. They have also repeatedly told council that theft of building materials at construction sites in increasing the price for homeowners. Numerous businesses have failed or chosen to go elsewhere because of the crime and the blight. Please stand up for your constituents by voting no. This proposal is like a sledgehammer when we need a more nuanced situation. City staff indicated that the goal is to allow flexibility for new development. Then why not revise this proposal to allow apartments and businesses in new development and not existing neighborhoods. Fred Miller, Member of the Public said I want to see you vote in favor of mixed use neighborhoods. In support of that I want to read a paragraph from Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. “So I think that any successful policy program would recognize what my old high school’s teachers see every day. That the real problem for so many of these kids is what happens or doesn’t happen at home. For example, we would recognize that Section 8 Vouchers ought to be administered in a way that doesn’t segregate the poor the little enclaves. As Brian Campbell, a Middletown teacher told me when you have a large base of Section 8 parents and kids supported by fewer middle class taxpayers it is an upside down triangle. There are fewer emotional and financial resources when the only people in the neighborhood are low income. You just can’t lump them together because then you have a bigger pool of hopelessness. On the other hand, he said put the lower income kids with those who have a different lifestyle motto and the lower income kids start to rise up. Yet when Middletown recently tried to limit the number of Section 8 vouchers offered within certain neighborhoods the federal government bought, better I suppose to keep those kids cutoff from the middle class”. Jenny Buckingham, Member of the Public said I am probably the newest resident of Las Cruces. I have been here for two and half months and I own my own home. I first want to give a shout out to what I consider the younger people who have come with ideas and requests and are really talking from their heart about what they need, what they want in the face of hearing about how people want to save the value of their property. Which is a fear tactic to use. These established developments are not going to be completely changed or even significantly changed. There are lots of rules that require a certain amount of land and other things. So that is really a cop out, and it is not evidence proven that that happens. What is evidence proven is that stable, variable housing lifts everybody up in the community and the people who live here now and need that kind of housing, we should be listening to them. This is not going to bring down the city. It is going to lift it up. There is a lot to repair in this city and this is an easy way to get big change. I request that you definitely approve this plan. Paula Akeeno, Member of the Public said I live in Councilwoman Flores district. Back during the pandemic there was charrettes in that for the Mesa Vista Master Plan, I don’t know how many here remember that but that was a mixed use housing development with apartments, a lot of apartments and little town square where you could have stores and housing above it and that and I thought that plan had been approved back then so I don’t know what happened to that but that is exactly what you guys are talking about today with that kind of a neighborhood. However, that ended up disappearing or never got approved it hasn’t happened yet but that is what I was expecting to go on past the neighborhood I live in with that part of the desert being raked over and all of this housing stuff put up. I understand that we need to grow, and I have no problem with that. I was part of that charrette that gave my voice and opinion back then, so I am just kind of wondering what happen to that plan? Jo Ruprecht, Member of the Public said I am a longtime resident. I ran home in the midst of the start of the comments because I wanted to come back with my copy of Realize. This is what Realize looks like without the technical manual attached to it. In fact, this is an outdated copy because this is what was presented at P&Z more recently and has been modified since. This itself runs over 400 pages and front and back 200 pages of paper. I am sure it has expanded since then. I want to address this to the people in the audience who have spoken and in particular in favor of Realize and ask them how many of you have actually read this cover to cover? I am not asking that of any of you on the dais and I frankly haven’t read it but unless people have read it cover to cover then I have this comment, the community development folks including Mr. Faivre and including several of the other staff who have spoken in these meetings made it sound very vanilla. In fact, today I have commented that you must have practiced your speaking because unlike me where I have hesitations or pauses you are very polished in presenting exactly how you want to, and it sounds vanilla but one thing that you brought out is this idea that it was only intended for new developments. I haven’t seen a page in here yet that says that. I live in an older neighborhood where just in the last few years we had two things that happened. One was a death that meant that the property was open. The new owner wanted to put something in his garage as a living space for rent. We were able to stop that because there was a covenant that had been applied to that property originally that prevented but it took a lot of work on the part of the neighborhood to bring that to affect and that stopped the subdivision. The other thing is that we had a house that went up with a fire, total loss. When that we rebuilt because of our neighborhood that was rebuilt as a single-family house. I am not sure if that would happen if Realize comes in and we have more fires happen in the city. Dolores Lucero, Member of the Public said 2001 of course we should update the zoning code. There is no doubt about that but let me tell the people in this room. It is already decided. The Mayor never in the 20 years that I have been involved in politics, any Mayor on this dais has never put something on the agenda that is going to fail, ever and only maybe once or twice in the eight years I served. The Mayor doesn’t do that. He already knows what the vote is. It might be a 4 to 3 but it just has to be 4 to win. So, it doesn’t happen in these chambers. I also am a gambling woman, I will lay money down that someone organized all this group of people to be here today to show you that they care about their community. Nobody cares as much as I do and a whole bunch of other people in this community. I am 71 years old and I have lived in this community. My family has been here for 400 years. I do not live in the community that I have always loved. I do not have the services that I should have at this age because I can’t get good medical care. How dare someone stand there and say that I live in Sonoma Ranch, I worked hard for my home, I care about people in this community. I have helped people that have needed care and I am upset obviously. How dare you say that I don’t care about this community because I own a nice home. There is an empty lot on my street. If a mobile home ends up there I am going to be real pissed and let me tell you if something else shows up in my neighborhood, two nights ago guess what Mr. Mayor, third time in a row hoodlums in my street checking doors. I don’t live in a bad neighborhood. I live in a neighborhood of Las Cruces and none of you care where I live. Fred Huff, Member of the Public said I have heard all of this talk about affordable housing and it suddenly dawned on me. What is affordable housing? Who owns it? It is real estate people, investors. People who are going to be making lots of money off of this. Let’s look at some supposed affordable housing that is supposedly taking place here in Las Cruces. A place called Amador Crossing. My understanding is from what I have heard, and I can be corrected or along the way is that is about a $15 million project for 50 units. That doesn’t take much of a mathematician to see that that is $300,000 per unit. I could never afford that if I was having pay rent typically. Typically rent is about 1% of the cost that is $3,000 a month. That doesn’t sound affordable to me. The other thing that I think a lot of people miss is if you are renting, they can raise your rent anytime they want and I have seen a lot of people recently on Facebook and stuff where people are getting evicted because suddenly their rent is raised. As a homeowner I don’t have to worry about that. So, what is affordable housing as opposed to homeownership and if that really is a probability as Mr. Faivre said why wasn’t that grandfathered in? Daniel Buck, Member of the Public said I too sat on the committee for this plan. I look at it much like a bicycle that has no training wheels or a car without a steering wheel. It puts our city into urban sprawl and expedites with unplanned trajectory the aftermath of tearing down existing single-family homes in areas which have been called selfish for people investing family money to form a life in which they took and created. I live in the Historic District. I live in an area where you do not need special use permit to put businesses because Mesquite is already zoned commercial. You can own any type of business. For years my neighborhood has been traded for pennies by politicians and torn to the ground with only a small percent of the original dwellings still existing. It has not had any economic rebirth. We have an Albertsons not far down the road on El Paseo. There has been nothing to spike economic growth in the area. Nothing has come that has risen people out of poverty in our neighborhood. I once lived on the West Mesa and I can tell you that I would be very upset if somebody tore down an existing home next to a home that cost over half a million dollars to put a random business which sunk the property value and then made me write a check at closing to make up for the loss of such an investment. I think there is a loss of trust in the council. I think there is a loss of trust in the public officials. I think that we have a concern that there is backdoor deals being done. I have had some very disturbing things said to me by people up on this dais before. There has not been a focus on losing the Amador downtown Main Street. How many years could we have launched a pilot program that has never gotten off its feet? Board after board, investment after investment. Nothing has come to really create a lifestyle. You can go to El Paso and visit Montecillo a strategic planned development. I happen to be from Naples, Florida where Coconut Grove is a strategic planned area where multi family housing is closest to the commercial district that includes stores, restaurants, and groceries and in the outer banks is condominiums and then single- family homes for people who are more likely to have a vehicle. I hardly doubt a 3,000 square foot grocery will be put into a single-family home by a private individual and benefit anyone including the homeless Veteran inside of our community. William Beerman, Member of the Public said I had to tear up my prepared statement because of time restrictions and because I feel the need to rebutt some of the things that have been said here. I know that there was a concerted effort to bring out a crowd for your meeting to support this ordinance and I know there were talking points provided to speakers and one of the organizations that did that was the Dona Ana County Resilience Leaders. I don’t know who that is but I know they try to drum up people to come here. I listen to people with warm and fuzzy ideas and hypothetical claims about what good this ordinance might do to help others. I know that some of you are motivated by a desire to help others and I appreciate that. Beside from these hypothetical ideas about how this might help people I would like to present you with some stark reality or rather present the audience with some stark reality because you already know about the hazardous waste the bio hazard business that the city department of Community Development has been allowing to operate one block from my house in a single family residential neighborhood even with single family residential zoning. So, my point is there is a statement in that zoning ordinance that gives the city the authority to approve businesses in my neighborhood and I cannot trust the city staff not to put something like a hazardous waste business on the one block over from me. Even little league kids in this town know that you can’t change the rules after the game has started. So, I would urge you to maintain the existing residential zoning for people who already have it and then do whatever you want in the undeveloped land in the town. Ray Solar, Member of the Public said Las Cruces has been hated by Washington bureaucrats because of our unique city design that makes it feel like a small town. It was designed for the residents instead of for big businesses and investors. It is not designed like New York City however your program will change that all with one swipe of the pen. It is like the same disaster that happened when you closed up the city and killed all the businesses downtown with a closed mall. I thought I would never live to see that happen again and well it is going to be happening today. Today they are going to close up the city from being an open city to being a closed city full of bad plans. Each plan should be decided one by one not on taking all our rights away with one stroke of the pen. We know the only beneficiaries will be businesses and investors from this plan and not the residents. The residents who are living right now are living under a safe plan that requires each community to be dealt with one by one. This will just throw everything out and put us all in the water with a life jacket with a million holes poked in it. It may be more airy and that is that feel good feeling and it is disastrous. It won’t save your life, and it won’t save our community. Please do not destroy this community. Deal with it one by one, project by project. Patty Olson, Member of the Public said I am a local realtor here in town. I do want to say that planning and development has done a great job in the new developments, making multi use affordability for all of Las Cruces. Multi-family homes, commercial projects available to be made but we need investors and we need money to make these things happen and to make that grow. Each one of you behind the desk there is going to make a decision that impacts every single-family homeowners investments. Do any of you want to sell your home today at the prior 21 price to make homes affordable? I will sell it. I bet each and every one of you want to protect your home value. So please table this. Let the community, let the homeowners make these decisions not each one of you making this decision for my investment. We have things in place today, special use permits. If there wants to be a grocery store or café on my street and we all agree around it, great. That is what a special use permit petition is for. But to recreate my investment, that is not fair. That is not right and talking about affordability I do have concerns. I have one child who bought a house and another that may take longer to buy but it is because of our economy as a whole. Interest rates are up, and because we have seen in Las Cruces appreciated values go up so high and so fast because people are bringing money to our town, people are bringing money to the city and our state. Please table this, get more people. If you only had 270 people asking questions out of 43,000 properties, you weren’t asking the right people. Maria Varela, Member of the Public said I don’t have a speech. I didn’t read the book, and I don’t have a lot of information about this project but I am in favor with the little that I have heard today. I live in 88001 area. So, I was confused because we have such a mixed community there with businesses and a lot of activity going on but I feel like it is almost okay just for my area to have that kind of lifestyle. I also work very hard. I have my house. I am a homeowner and I see the unhoused and they need houses. I am also a social worker. I am a child protective services worker, and I think I want to say that a lot of children come into care because there is not enough homes in Las Cruces. So, I am in favor of more jobs, more housing for our children, more work towards building the future of our children we would not have the issues that I have today. Marieanne Lovano, Member of the Public said I am the proud owner of Glitz School of Cosmetology and thirteen years ago I actually bought my very first property here in Las Cruces from Mr. Mattiace. I am eternally grateful for the city of Las Cruces. If people want to work here, you can make money but you have to give it all you have to be able to make it. I had no idea I was going to be speaking here today at all. I am eternally grateful for people like you, for Sarah because she has helped us to get where we are today but I also see the housing issue that a lot of people here have. I as a homeowner would not want by no means am I saying that a mobile home park is any less but the value, let’s just be real the value it matters, right? Nobody would want that next to their home. I think it is a wonderful plan because when we go to Scottsdale or we go to Houston and we see these beautiful places where they have these amazing coffee shops downstairs from this beautiful residential area that is kind of cool, right? That would be something nice for Las Cruces but listen to the homeowners. Maybe just tweak one or two little things with that plan and I am not here promoting Sara. I am not here promoting anybody but all I have to say is that I myself am going to be coming to you guys with a very amazing project in the next year. That is going to bring a lot of jobs to Las Cruces and something very amazing for the youth here, which is what we need. So, I am all for this but maybe just one or two tweaks and I think a lot of people will be happy. Maybe just listen to a lot of the homeowners here. Charles Miller, Member of the Public said many years ago I attended several meetings over at the county building similar to this plan that you have and did a little bit of research at the time and found out it was a result of Agenda 21 from the United Nations, the driving force at that time. You are all members I suppose still of the Metropolitan Planning Organization which is part of that movement. So, people need to understand where this is coming from. I don’t think it is coming from the real people here in Las Cruces. Some other things I have been in the chambers here when I have heard business people here in town crying out to you for help. The safety and security of their small businesses and our heart goes out to those folks and the police who are inundated with all kinds of calls for help. So, is this really going to help things? Then I hear that it is over 1,000 pages or so. This kind of reminds me of one of those things where you have to pass it before you know what is in it. That is not logical reasoning folks please, common sense. Leave it alone. I vote no on this resoundingly. It doesn’t make sense. Troy Mitchell, Member of the Public said I am here on behalf of the New Mexico Construction Alliance, it used to be the LCHBA. First, I want to say thank you to the Community Development Department and Public Works. We have had multiple meetings with them about the issue that we had with Realize. We wanted to get it to a point where we fully support it and we are super close. P&Z made a recommendation, almost unanimous vote to table Section 38-5 and that I the park trails and open areas. We are concerned about the cost that it is going to pass to the home buyer and really what our intent has been behind this is to make houses more attainable here in the city of Las Cruces and so what our thought process was in this was that they have Park Impact Fee analysis coming up that we are going to be a part of as well that comes up in May. We want to recommend that you guys table this Section 38-5 and do that in conjunction with the Park Zone Impact Fee analysis, just like Planning and Zoning voted as a recommendation. Again, we appreciate Community Development Department, Planning, they have been a huge help. They have heeded our problems with Realize. We have gotten some changes. You guys have been a big instrument in that, and we really appreciate it. Kathleen Montgomery, Member of the Public said I live in a single family housing area, very happy there but I would hope you all would vote no on this and if you are going to vote yes at least push it toward the new construction in this town so if people want to make a choice they can go in that direction and then we can stay where we are at and then that way everybody is happy. Pam Sundy, Member of the Public said after listening to many people and going to meetings it seems that Realize Las Cruces is not the best plan, and I feel that those of you that vote yes I will work tirelessly against your being reelected and be the word salad and dressing to see new members on this committee. Michael Harris, Member of the Public said I have lived in Las Cruces my entire life which is not young anymore. I am here today to express support for this ordinance. I think it is a great step forward for the city, lived here a very long time. I do own my own house, so I am a homeowner. I do own my own business property, and I have read through not all 500 pages in exquisite technical detail but a good amount. It seems like a pretty good plan. One of the areas I would like to point out to the people in the audience and express my appreciation for is the fact that there is a recommendation for kind of yearly review of this plan and so a lot of the concerns that a lot of people have might be addressed then. In the meantime, I think the plan over all is a pretty good step forward and I would like to see it implemented. I personally live in a pretty nice relatively mixed-use area of town. I think it is an excellent model for the people worried about random stuff popping up when you have allowed density in your area. You know there is a great neighborhood of single-family homes. People who live on certain streets with certain names have very strong feelings about their homes I know and then there are town houses and owners/occupiers in the town houses. We take great pride in our homes, and they look beautiful and then there is apartment complexes further down the street and very little crime and everyone seems very happy with that. So, over all I will close with a note, and I think this was Harry Truman who said it, “the world is not static and the status quo is not sacred”. And Las Cruces needs to grow, and I think this is a great step towards that. Jennifer Schaeffer, Member of the Public said I would say table it and I find that the documentation was very cumbersome and I can get through documentation quite well but I found it really hard to understand in some ways and so to me when something is that big and that convoluted that there is something in there that wouldn’t be agreeable to me. One thing that I don’t think anyone talked about is, existing real estate purchase agreement and mortgages are legal contracts in which zoning is specified. I don’t know how that can be disregarded and not be a legal problem and also, I am wondering if there are any federal funds being used for this at all? Through NGOs or otherwise? That is something to talk about later. I don’t really have much else to say except I want people to have the housing they need but leave what is already in place in place. Randi Himelgrant, Member of the Public said I have attended several meetings regarding zoning changes and I have been favorably impressed with the knowledge and pleasant demeanor of all the contractors and city employees involved. I grew up in an R1 neighborhood with a small grocery and a Phillips 66 one half block away and felt quite safe. For those with concerns about property values, Zillow lists that house at $950,000 right now. Please note that I checked, and I could not find any homes built in this century for sale within a mile of a grocery store. I hear other Las Cruces citizens concerned that they will lose their privilege to nice quiet neighborhoods. I live on a cul-de-sac in a residential planned urban development neighborhood of about 30 homes, one block from a middle school and half a block from a church. I expect that most people would call it a nice quiet neighborhood and safe for the kids using the basketball court. My neighbor has a pet chicken. The most dangerous traffic is about 3:45 on weekday afternoons when people picking up children park seemingly as they please blocking USPS and Fed Ex deliveries as well as those of us who live there. I am not asking for an elimination of this traffic issue because I reasonably expected it when I purchased the house. Reasonably I expected several empty lots on Roadrunner may well be developed into something more dense then single family residences. I think it is reasonable to expect all neighborhoods to increase in density especially accessory dwelling units as people move wherever they want to live and as economic conditions require more of us to care for aging family and boomerang kids. In summary I have no dread regarding the new code and urge you all to vote in favor it. Sandra Hunter, Member of Public said I am a former homeowner, but I am now living in affordable housing. I believe that is important. My anger is that housing now has become so outrageous now that even senior citizens, there are more senior citizens that are now living in affordable housing now, but it is constantly going up and you are going constantly have these problems with people being out homeless and things of that nature. Now a lot of you and I sat here for a while and I have heard both sides of the story and I understand about the fears of needing to have your own home and things of that nature. I got that. I got the understanding that you all are afraid of where your children are going to be and who is going to live next door but everyone living next door is not all that bad. If we fix what is broken with the system and the system says that if we have all these things that we are not taking care of and I am talking about the city officials, the mentally unstable, the drugs that are running up in here, if we don’t fix any of those things we are going to continue to have more of a problem with having to build more units to house more people. I believe in low income. It is important because not everyone can afford these things, but I am just simply saying that I understand what you all are saying, I really do but I do understand that we need affordable housing. We do need low income, and we need help in those areas but stop being afraid that the people next door that if they move in or the restaurants that will move next door or whatever the case maybe they are all not bad. If we have policing like we do back in the back there. If we do our part in ensuring that things are done correctly, decent and order then we won’t have to worry about whether or not we should have extra zoning for this or extra zoning for that. I just want you to know that I am for Realize, I am. Debbie McCurdy, Member of the Public said I have listened to everything. I feel like there is pros and cons on both sides of the division. There is a lot that I can get behind. There is a few things that I can’t get behind as a new homeowner in a single family residence. I agree with the other people that have come forward and said let’s table this. You guys have had a chance to hear from a lot of different members of the community and I think there is things that you can do to eliminate some of the things that won’t work and add some things that will work so that we can bring the community into an agreement and then when you vote you can get a unanimous yes and we will all be in favor of it. One of the things I heard was what this gentleman recommended. Let’s include a clause where there is going to be a petition so if there is any new business that wants to come into a neighborhood established or new there can be a petition where all the local residents in the area get to weigh in and decide that they want that business there or not. There are a lot of businesses on the list that are viable and worth having. I also think that it should be restricted to the new development and five years from now let’s readdress this and see all the pros and cons and then five years from now there might be all new faces up here and they are going to want to implement another plan just like this and we are all going to have to go through all of this again so that this is not necessarily etched in stone but we need agreement and we don’t have it right now but you guys could make agreement if you would just listen to suggestions that have been presented today and amend this plan so that we can all agree on it. Conrad Oknoff, Member of the Public said we are already experiencing an invasion of many new residents, Las Cruces residents from out of state, from many states. So, we are already growing rapidly. All I can point out is a great prescription for overburdening the city services providing a nest for crime and continued snarls of traffic here in Las Cruces is to pack more and more people into an existing area. Rick Reynaud, Member of the Public said I have a compromise instead of recommend. Instead of voting no, tabling it to bring in the good suggestions such as the former Mayor made. Let the residents have a say in what goes on. I talked to a realtor and she said no, they should just keep it the same. Leave the single-family neighborhoods. I think the reasons given for this thousand page plan, it’s 25 years old we have got to update it. Why? How many letters did you all get in the last two years from citizens saying my single-family neighborhood is racist, we have got to do something? I would like to hear one example of racism of single-family neighborhoods in Las Cruces, just one. You know you have a staff of what 50? You guys have any examples of single-family neighborhoods rooted in racism in Las Cruces? This is ridiculous. I will compromise, why don’t we table this and make it right? The other thing I was going to say you haven’t fixed Desert Hope Apartments. I hear this we will fix it as we go along. It’s got 1,000 pages. Why would you have to fix it as you go along? It’s 1,000 pages. I would vote to table it. Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to Approve Ordinance No. 3090. AYES: Mayor Eric Enriquez, Councilor Cassie McClure, Councilor Becki Graham, Councilor Johana Bencomo, Councilor Becky Corran, and Councilor Yvonne NAYS: Councilor William Mattiace 8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS 8.1 Councilor Cassie McClure was appointed to the New Mexico Municipal League Board of Directors. 8.2 ERIN BOYD Councilor Becky Corran moved, seconded by Councilor Johana Bencomo, to appoint Erin Boyd to the Mesilla Valley Public Housing Authority Board. SECONDER: Councilor Johana Bencomo 9. NOTICE OF PROPOSED ORDINANCE(S) 1) There will be no public discussion. 2) A Councilor may ask staff for clarification on the proposed ordinance(s). 9.1 None. 10. CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BOARD REPORTS AND COMMENT 10.1 COUNCILOR MCCLURE I appreciate a couple of you still sticking around and I appreciate the ones who came and left. I was anticipating a lot of commentary, but it was good and it was civil and I appreciate that on all behalf. I wanted to thank staff specifically for taking the time on this one. There was just so much back and forth with an acknowledgement that this is a living document. This is what I am telling a lot of people too because we are a growing and evolving city and I am really excited about it because I want to kind of remind people too that when we talk about the American dream which is a lot of emails that I got was that it doesn’t look the same for everyone and to me a lot of that means that we care for our community. Maybe not as much as we care for our property values. It is what it is. It is also interesting to me how quickly misinformation can spread so I think a lot of people came in with some bits of clarity out of this and we are hoping to spread that information more as we go forward. 10.2 COUNCILOR GRAHAM I wanted to acknowledge the amazing turnout for the Fallen Officer Memorial Walk/Run over the weekend. It was amazing to see CAO Bencomo was there who was actually running. I in fact was walking. Mayor I know you attended, Ikani, that is just who I saw. I was happy that there was so many people that it was hard to know who all was there. And also, a shoutout to the crew from Truck 1 for coming out with the Garrison Flag on no sleep because they were just back to back to back to back. Really appreciated having them out. I also want to reiterate Councilor McClure, my sincere thank you, thanks to staff and I know we had some members of the Realize TAC here earlier but thank you. This is the first thing that I have actually seen through. Realize was one of the first things I had heard about when I first came on in January 22 and it is finally here. It has happened, the wheels have turned and I got to see something sort of from start to finish. Finally, I am also going to comment on the comments. It was really great to see so many people come out and what struck me is when I think about the emails that I received as well and so many people said everyone I know thinks this whether it was for or whether it was against and I think that is probably true because how often do we challenge ourselves to talk to or listen to somebody who does not have the same opinion and as uncomfortable and frustrating as that may be I am happy there was opportunity for some community members to experience that today in chambers and I hope that everyone listened with open minds even when someone wasn’t agreeing with you because it does it was just a small sample of just how diverse our community is in age, in background, in history, in work. So, ya talk to people you don’t agree with. 10.3 COUNCILOR CORRAN I wanted to follow up on something that we got via email today or via a message today from a family who had a crisis in District 5, and they really identified a number of LCPD and LCFD that really supported them through that. So, I just want to sort of say that here and I would follow up with those folks as well that Sgt. Melendes, Officer Adler, Officer Rodriguez, Battalion Chief Haver, Lt. Niki Palma, Eric Miller, Isaac Marin, Ariana Reyes, Juan Joseph Duarte, Lt. Montoya, Aaron Lara, and Jesse Bustamante and so I just want to thank all of those folks. This is from residents in District 5 where we are going to have a new fire station soon and I know that there are a lot of calls like this that are really difficult where we are providing frontline health care and emotional care and mental health support and childcare and in this case as well for families that are really struggling through difficult moments and I really do want to share the gratitude of these residents that they asked for these officers and these fire fighters to be recognized and so thank you to them and all of those involved. I also want to give a shoutout to the Animal Services Center. The event this weekend was very fun, and a lot of folks came through and saw different animals and it was really a great event and I really appreciate them hustling to get dogs home in particular because there aren’t any cats right now. I also want to thank the staff that worked really hard on Realize. When I got on council I said things like what is upzoning and I think we should abolish zoning and I had no idea what I was talking about at that time. Since then, it has been a three years of really learning, understanding really Community Development staff, supporting me and understanding me, talking to residents. I have resident who tomorrow is going to apply to build his carport and I told him I would come in and go with him if he wants but this education for me has been really powerful but also understanding the history and background of the complicated nature of zoning I don’t say we should abolish zoning anymore and I have met someone from Houston who talked about how no zoning meant many parts of the city became industrial, very polluted industrial areas because of a lack of zoning and so I understand a lot more of the context and I wouldn’t say something as stupid and uninformed as abolish zoning. For myself I understand though why folks feel that way and so I really want to thank all of the folks who showed up today and shared and the staff who has been alluded to. I hope a lot of folks said we will remember in November right? And I would ask folks to expect more from your elected officials than them voting in ways that you demand because you will vote for them or not. I would ask folks to expect their elected leaders to read all of the emails that come in from constituents on any side. Do the homework, read the 1,000 pages, talk to people in other cities, talk to their own staff, respect processes that exist that might last years but eventually get things done like this. So I would ask that folks consider also in addition to talking to people who don’t agree with you but expect more from us frankly because I don’t think that saying I will remember in November necessarily a very constructive way to have folks listen to you and so I would urge you to expect more out of your legislators in whatever way that might come. So again, thank you to all the folks who shared and the staff that led us through this and the other folks who educated me along the way over these last few years. I am really glad that we passed Realize. 10.4 COUNCILOR FLORES I would like to thank Chris, thank you so much for the presentation, it was dynamite, and the presentation was excellent, and I have learned a lot from the two of you. 10.5 COUNCILOR BENCOMO I definitely wanted to congratulate Councilor McClure for repping us on the Municipal League, that’s amazing. I did want to just say that I was said you were sick for sure but I am glad I got tagged in for the library event a couple of weeks ago for the VITA Program that our public library is running. It is volunteer income tax assistance program that is helping prepare taxes for those making less than $67,000 a year, individuals with disabilities, and those who speak limited English so it will be free for people. It will be in Spanish for those advocates who care so much about providing bilingual information to our community, it will also be in Spanish. So honestly, I just want to express my gratitude to the public library. I think this is at its core as to what public libraries are about. So, thank you for that, I know that you spent months working on that along with GECU, who are our partners on providing that service that we should all be telling people about because we know tax season can be very anxiety producing for so many folks. I also just wanted to share because it was very exciting sticking on this bilingual theme. This morning, I participated as a panelist for the New Mexico State Seal of Bilingualism and Biliteracy Portfolio that LCPS puts on and it is this really rigorous program that high school seniors go through to get their bilingual seal and they asked me to be a panelist, and I actually want to encourage all of you. It was really incredible to see these high school seniors prepare this entire presentation in Spanish and get that very professional seal and I thought it was very amazing and I was very grateful to get invited and I definitely want to be invited once more. I also just want to express my serious, serious gratitude to everyone involved in Realize. I realized that I have been telling people that it has been a two year process and this morning I said wait a minute I remember then Councilor Vasquez was still here when we hired Nichols, the consulting firm and that was a lot more than two years ago and I actually remember those four years ago when we hired the consultant and they said it would take two to three years to fully finish this how disappointed that I felt because there was a possibility that I wouldn’t be here to see it through and because this is such an important document that was created by so many people and so gentle push back on this idea that we didn’t do our due diligence or that it was a spare of the moment decision we made when the reality has been that it has been in works for four years and I think that it teaches us something very important that politics not being a spectator sport. If you are in local government you have to be, you have to search for information about how to get involved about how to participate so that you are not mad afterwards saying well I didn’t know about it, that is your responsibility to participate in your local government and seek out the information and seek out the opportunities to provide feedback so I think for me and I want to leave this on a positive note but I have to say this because this is going to stick with me for a really long time. I got an email today that said that they were not in favor of forced integration and I think how quickly disinformation turns into propaganda and it is very dangerous how that kind of deceitful information gets passed on our community and I spoke about this a little bit at our utilities board meeting last week how it is really incumbent upon us to have tough conversations with people and to really try to interrupt disinformation when expressed because I think it can be really dangerous. Especially for something that is so powerful like this and I will say this last thing because I know everyone wants to go home. Realize is the talk of the town in Santa Fe. That people in Santa Fe, legislators, the Governor’s housing staff, they are all talking about have you guys heard about that very cool thing Las Cruces is doing. It is innovative, it is bold, and states across the country, cities across the country including cities like Houston are working on revitalizing their zoning code and making it more inclusive of these kinds of diverse and thriving neighborhoods. We are on the right path. I fully believe that and thank you staff, especially Chris and Sara but all the staff, the consultants, the advisory committee, the homebuilders, all the advocacy organizations, and all of the members of the public that participated. 10.6 MAYOR ENRIQUEZ I just wanted to echo to the staff, it has been a long process, we have hired a consultant, we have had over 33 public meetings. They have addressed it with the cultural. They have addressed it with the homebuilders, with the developers, with everything to make Realize what it is today. It is an opportunity to have flexibility in our community and I also echo the same about Houston has no zoning. I know personally of another municipality in New Mexico that has no zoning, and it is very difficult to protect your residence, your businesses, your community when you don’t have zoning, and you have to have those safe guards in places. So, we do have the safeguards in place and again thank the staff for all their work from Community Development, Public Works, Parks & Rec, Fire Department, Police, everybody who had input into this and I thank our residents for coming out and sharing their input because it is not about the votes. It is about doing our job for this community and that is what we have done today and we do have the eight months of grace period and we do have a year that we can come back and reevaluate and see what is working and what is not working so that it is a betterment for our growth and development for our community so I am very excited and happy and I thank you all for being a part of this. I do also want to echo what Councilor Graham said about the Memorial Run that took place Sunday. Thank you to DC Urenda, Chief Story but a special shoutout to Officer Adrian De La Garza that put it all together. A lot of times we take things for granted. We take a lot of things for granted and our Police Department responds to over 150,000 calls a year and to show that kind of support for them. I thank them for their service, and I encourage everybody to say thank you to our Police Department. I know that there is a catch phrase that one of my former Police Academy buddies used to say all the time when we first started the Police Department, and he was working graveyard and ya he was getting tired of graveyard, but he would tell me, did you sleep good last night and he would say you are welcome. So, I do thank you officers for all that you do to keep our community safe. 11. CITY MANAGER REPORT 11.1 IKANI TAUMOEPEAU I appreciate Councilor Graham sharing about what a great event this past weekend on the run and Mayor about that. I do want to correct that CAO Bencomo was the only one running, Mayor was walking, and I was hobbling and I just wanted to say it was a great event. I definitely appreciate the community showing up and showing out for that event. It was so great to see that so kudos and echo what the Mayor and Graham and everyone has shared on that event. Also, in the tribute of staff as well echoing those who have shared kudos to Realize. I would be remised if I didn’t share my appreciation and sincere gratitude to the Realize team and it started with the previous administration and with some on the dais looking different as well. It just shows that even through the changes staff has been there. They have stayed steady and received the direction when it comes from the dais and the community. Chris Faivre, Sara Gonzales taking us to the finish line and I was trying to write down names of where it started. It started with Larry Nichols, it started with David Weir, it started with Katherine Harrison-Rogers in a different capacity and then Katherine Harrison-Rogers came back in the park capacity as well. So, kudos to her and Steven Bingham for helping out with that. Also, David Sedillo and Tony Trevino being on TAC, giving assistance on that. As well there was a lot of Public Works, a lot of street traffic analysis and traffic impact that are huge for developers they were there to find compromise to help out with tech manual assistance so there is so many names that I just don’t have the time to share but I just want to say to all of the supporting staff helping with Realize thank you. I did want to share while we are giving kudos to our Utilities Team. So, our Utilities Team has taken feedback from the community and they will be hosting a townhall meeting March 4th to further explain the Lead and Copper Rule invitation. The invitation to the townhall meeting have gone out in the utility bills in both English and Spanish and we will have interpreters at the event. We will also have subject matter experts. We will have those from NMED in the state there, we have confirmed that, and we look forward to sharing information with our community. I do want to clarify, and the elected officials know, they are and Mayor Pro Tem and council can at any time request an item be held at city council and that is something that will never be taken away at any time a direction can be given and that will happen. I would say that this Lead and Copper direction coming down from the EPA, this will take several years. I promise you there will be council meetings, we will have various work sessions along the way to update you as council, to update the community on this. I just wanted to share that. To let everyone know and be aware that this is something that our team have one of the best subject matter experts on our Utilities staff, our team is great and I will put them against any other utilities team in the nation and for that reason I would like to recognize them. Our Utilities Team has gone above and beyond the federal requirements. They have provided information in multiple languages on our website, 9 to be exact, they have also made a how to video to help people who are interested in checking their own pipes. Besides the townhall invitation in the utility bills we have also sent out a letter in both English and Spanish to reiterate the information sent in October. I want to recognize and thank our Utilities Team for handling this with professionalism despite much criticism that has been thrown at them. Adrienne thank you, Domonique, thank you to Steven, ju and to all of our team. Again, there is a huge support role, a huge supporting staff and I just want to share my admiration for them, gratitude and appreciation. Thank you and please pass that along. The Senior Program’s Valentine’s Day Dance at Frank O’Brian Papen Center set a new record with 87 attendees. There are request coming in to start having more weekday dances and staff are exploring other options. The City Art Board met Thursday evening, February 13th and approved a partnership project with NMSU faculty and students for a new public art instillation at the Las Cruces Convention Center. Also, two new museum exhibitions open for the first Friday on February 7th and had an excellent turnout from the public. One of which at the Museum of Art Exhibit was Engaging Master’s Parady Art from the collection of David Lymon, a member of the foundation of Las Cruces Museum Board, Chris Alexander, the collection features more than 80 works of art by the more than 34 artists that parody historic master works and contemporary art. At the Branigan Cultural Center the exhibition opening was Wildlife of the Mesilla Valley which showcases a diverse collection of sculptures and nature journaling pages created by 14 local artist. The Art Stop art artist reception is scheduled for February 20th from 5:30 to 6:30 in the Museum of Art atrium on Main Street. The reception celebrates art that will be put up six different bus stops, one in each council district. For Communications, I do want to give kudos as well to Mandy. There was one of the public comments, LaVaughn Hart the CEO and Director of SNAP, she came up and she asked and requested collaboration with our Communications team to put out a word to put out promotional materials about our partnerships and the different benefits that are offered now in the community with the partnership with City of Las Cruces and so Mandy is excited to collaborate and so they will connect as well and so I just wanted to update you on that. I think hearing from the Mayor he shared that we want this to be a problem. We want to get this out to so many people that we have a line outside of this facility so we heard you and that is something that we are going to take care of but I appreciate the Comms Team working with SNAP on that. Also, Communication, Friday 21st is National Government Communications Day. I would like to give a shoutout to the Communications Office who are doing so many things to keep our community informed from televising this council meeting to running our social media, maintaining our website, managing media interviews, advertising, video production, graphic design and branding. A big shoutout to the talented and dedicated staff that is working hard every day to keep the city’s voice consistent, professional, and engaging. Thank you to our Communications Team. Also Visit Las Cruces, kudos to Ed Carnathan, VLC Sports Sales Manager was recently inducted into the New Mexico United States Specialty Sports Association USSSA Hall of Fame. Ed was nominated and elected for induction because of his excellent commitment to softball in New Mexico out of the 6, 2025 inductees, Ed was the only one from Las Cruces. The award of merit was also presented to Visit Las Cruces for the continued support of USSSA Sports Programs. Save the Date, Mira Las Cruces has announced their third annual event for Mira Las Cruces on April 26th. More details to come as you know that is the place to be. The Park & Rec announces an award of $1 million for the State Outdoor Recreation Grant to support phase one of a regional bike park at the East Mesa Sports Complex. This transformative project will enhance recreational opportunities, diversify the city’s parks and recreation system and contribute to the local economy by attracting visitors promoting active to outdoor lifestyle. This is an 80-acre state of the art facility that will cater cyclists of all skill levels featuring slope style tracks, dirt jumps, pump track and dual slalom course. Great job to our Parks & Rec and our grants team for applying for that. The last is for Economic Development. The consultants for the Picacho MRA will be visiting and will be hosting two events. Pop-up event at the Peddler’s Pavilion Saturday, March 1st, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., location is 2400 West Picacho Avenue in Las Cruces and then the second event will be at MacArthur Elementary School to meet with students there on March 3rd at 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon. 12. ADJOURNMENT 12.1 Councilor Johana Bencomo moved, seconded by Councilor Becki Graham, to adjourn at 5:42 p.m. ABSENT: Councilor William Mattiace Mayor City Clerk