Apparently the rules are changing on development in Albuquerque. And it is being done in a discriminatory way. Let me explain. In my first term as Land Commissioner starting in 1982 I envisioned a planned community on state trust land south of the Albuquerque International airport. We named it Mesa del Sol. We commissioned a master plan of the area to build a truly planned community. When I left office at the end of my term the plan went no where. During my second term as Land Commissioner starting in 1991 I revived the project. My staff and I worked very hard at getting the 12,000 acres annexed into the city. We agreed that the development would have to be built at 'no net expense' to the city. That meant the Mesa del Sol developers would pay for the infrastructure. The city of Albuquerque would provide the water. That was the whole point of annexation. Now the city wants the development to obtain its own water rights. This is not what was agreed to upon the annexation 15 years ago.
If that is going to be the case then there should be a total building moratorium put on the table in city and county government. All west side development should stop until the Mayor's west side developer friends obtain their own water rights. All activity at Journal Center should cease until they get their own water rights. Surprisingly, the Journal's usually pro development editorial board supported the rule change in an editorial today.
I am not saying this new way of doing development in Albuquerque would be wrong. I just think it should be done fairly and across the board. It bothers me that a master community developer like Forest City would be singled out for this treatment when the property they are developing has been in the city limits for almost 15 years. (About the same time as Journal Center I think and longer than most west side sprawl areas.) Also, the city was supposedly planning for the future when it purchased the San Juan Chama Project water which is now ready to come on line. Has that water, which was said to allow the city to have a population of over a million, just evaporated?
If the city doesn't require equal treatment on this matter then there is something else afoot here. This little bombshell dropped by the City/County water authority is highly suspicious to me.
1 comment:
Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Thanks for addressing the issue of Mesa del Sol. Water is so important here. I quote above the first item on the City's sustainability page to put in context the rest of my comments.
I watched the program the other evening about the San Juan Chama project. The Water Authority and the City keep talking about the sustainability of our water usage. I read the newsletter from the Authority last week. I remember that they were saying that they consume 110,000 acre feet/year currently. They own 48,200 acre feet of San Juan Chama water rights, assuming that there is that much water available in the river. Consequently they depend on the aquifer for 60,000 acre feet/ year. Is there any studies or engineering that implies that the aquifer recharges that much each year? If not it is not sustainable. Where does the city come up with the conclusion that there is enough water to provide for a city of 1 million?
I am not sure what the assumption is in terms of what portion of the rainfall we receive goes towards recharge of the aquifer and what part evaporates, is absorbed by vegetation or runs off. If we assume that we receive 8" of rain/year on average and all of that rain were to go towards recharge then we would need the all of the rainfall from 257 square miles to equal the water consumption of the Water Authority. According to wikipedia.org the area of the city is 181.3 square miles. So even with the best case scenario we are using nearly 50% more water than falls on the city. How can that be sustainable?
The other item which was very interesting in the show was showing where the water will be distributed from the drinking water project. Looking at the map of the distribution I realized that the water does not look like it will reach the majority of the heights. For the most part the water will not go above San Pedro. As i recall how the system is constructed there are tiers where they have the same elevation North to South. I can't tell for sure but it would be interesting to see what Stomp has to say about this.
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