What does Santa Fe really want from the so-called Midtown Campus? A 2021 post in a community Facebook page asked just that, and the answers were a mixed bag: A petting zoo. A trade school. A candy forest. Affordable housing.
Serious or glib, the comments show myriad conflicting visions for the campus. A year later, it’s still up in the air.
A Thursday, July 14 virtual Early Neighborhood Notification meeting will focus on proposed land uses for the site master plan, rezoning, general plan amendment and Local Innovation Corridor (LINC) overlay amendment of the Midtown property. It’s a chance to weigh in before plans congeal, but it isn’t the last chance. The ENN kicks off a land use approval process expected to result in hearings before the Planning Commission on Oct. 6, and before the City Council in late October or early November.
“We’re trying to do this early with the intent that we can continue to talk to the public,” says Lee Logston, the city asset development manager for Midtown.
There may be further informal or ENN meetings in the coming months, and there will be opportunity for public input at the upcoming city meetings.
The city’s plans for Midtown are ambitious. A June 28 news release announced that it’s moving forward with a plan to transform Midtown into a “new city center for all Santa Feans,” connecting to the rest of the city by a network of multimodal streets safe for pedestrians and bicyclists. Plans also include public open spaces connected to citywide trail networks, as well as housing, higher education, film and media, arts and culture.
Current plans include rehabilitating the Visual Arts Center and the Greer Garson Performance Theater, and expanding Greer Garson Production Studios. The city is also assessing the Fogelson Library Complex.
“There’s been a lot of public interest in seeing the Fogelson Library become the city’s main library branch and modernized,” Logston says.
The city plans to issue three requests for proposals for these projects in August.
Land development plans also include parcels for housing development—and some affordable housing. Logston says the city is in a better position to build affordable housing because it owns the land, rather than trying to incentivize a private entity to come in, buy private land and turn it into affordable housing. The details aren’t yet nailed down, but Logston expects 1,200-1,500 total housing units, out of which 220 would be affordable. That’s 14-18%.
The master plan lays out a new street network, new land uses and subzones for different sections of Midtown that allow different uses. They’ll restrict land use to avoid duplicating existing businesses, like auto dealerships and grocery stores, in the area.
“We’re not looking to cannibalize sales,” Logston says.
It allows for mixed-use buildings and film industry expansion.
“The land uses are slightly more restrictive in Midtown compared to the LINC,” Logston says, “and the design requirements are more prescriptive. We’re trying to up the ante a little bit with design standards and so forth that will be unique to Midtown.”
What the meeting is not about, Logston says, is the proposed sanctioned homeless encampment and the possibility of establishing a Metropolitan Redevelopment Area (MRA) at Midtown. Both are up to City Council, and will not be discussed at the July 14 meeting.
“Unfortunately news of all three came out at the same time and the message has been a little muddled,” Logston says.
Part of that muddle, he says, is understanding the word “blight” in the context of an MRA:
“In order to create a Metropolitan Redevelopment Area under New Mexico state code, you have to make a determination of ‘blight’—and that’s kind of a scary word. People assume their property values are gonna drop and things like that. But if you look at the definition under state code, it doesn’t necessarily always mean that an area is run down or deteriorating.”
Instead, he says, designating the area as “blighted” would be a necessary step toward establishing an MRA, which would unlock different funding streams for the city.
“It basically allows government entities to utilize government funding to invest in infrastructure, invest in interconnectivity, invest in horizontal development to create economic catalyst projects,” says Andrea Salazar, assistant city attorney for the City of Santa Fe.
“Blight” can refer to things like poor subdivision and poor road connectivity as well as deterioration. Midtown, she says, has a lot of those factors:
“It’s an island within the surrounding area, it really has very little interconnectivity.”
As for property values, Salazar says it’s hard to predict, but looks to other sites that have had MRA designations as a guide. The Railyard is the only other site in the city that’s had an MRA, Salazar says. The difference between the Railyard and Midtown is that the city doesn’t intend to retain ownership of all of the land.
“It’s not something that I can look into a crystal ball and say, yes, it’s gonna go down and then go up or it’s gonna go up,” she says. “I have no clue what’s gonna happen, but it’s not intended to suppress property values. The MRA really is about improving the economic growth, health, and wellbeing of the blighted area.”
But, Logston emphasizes, Thursday’s ENN meeting isn’t about that.
“What we hope to do is educate the public on what’s in the plan and how the input they gave us over the last few years made it into the plan,” he says, “that we really did listen.”
The Early Neighborhood Notification meeting will be held virtually this Thursday, July 14 from 5:30 pm to 7 pm The agenda and meeting link can be found here. For further updates on the project, visit MidtownDistrictSantaFe.com.
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