Growth

Domenici's staffer blames wilderness group for lost opportunity

Steve Bell, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici's chief of staff, had hoped the retiring Republican senator could travel to Las Cruces during his last months in office to celebrate a compromise that had protected hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Doña Ana County. But that won't happen, Bell said in an interview, and he blames the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance for the missed opportunity.

Southern NM developer stands to make millions from controversial lease

You know those controversial leases the State Land Office has been routinely entering into over the past few years? Well, planning work under one was recently completed by Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou and the land is now up for sale. When you crunch the numbers based on the minimum acceptable bids for the parcels, Philippou stands to make several million dollars. The original appraised value of the land was $8,000 per acre, or $1,968,000 given the total of 246 acres up for sale. If the land office receives bids for each of the 13 parcels offered that Philippou did work on, the minimum required bid amounts will total $17,180,000, or $15.2 million over the original appraisal. Philippou will get a majo cut of that.

The big H2O transfer

The demand for water has driven up the value of Middle Rio Grande water rights more than tenfold in the last 20 years, and landowners are cashing out in what appear to be record numbers. But even as water transfers speed up, so has opposition from farmers and pueblos alike. In recent months the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has chimed in over concern for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow.

Widening income gap partly due to NM's high illiteracy rate

The income gap has increased in New Mexico, according to a report released last week. According to some, one reason for the growing inequality may be found in the state’s shift to a knowledge-based economy at the same time that a sizable portion of adult New Mexicans are functionally illiterate.

Green growth gambit

Depending on whom you talk to, five new zoning codes currently being considered by Albuquerque’s Environmental Planning Commission are either a positive step forward, toward less sprawl and more transit-oriented development, or they’re potentially a Trojan horse that will allow developers to more easily deviate from existing neighborhood sector plans. The new codes are called “form-based,” which is a wonky way to describe a new way of regulating how the city develops.

Does Albuquerque need an arena?

What do you think about the proposed arena for downtown Albuquerque? In official parlance, the "downtown events center" would include an arena, convention center expansion, and a new hotel. And just last month, the City Council allocated $700,000 for an impact study of the idea.

This project would change the landscape of downtown Albuquerque dramatically. We're talking bigger and denser.

Your government at work

The State Land Office has been at the center of a controversy involving the development of public lands. Questions of pay-to-play have surfaced. An equally important, but less emphasized, aspect of the controversy is how little community input has gone into the agency's development deals in Las Cruces, which are changing the landscape of that city.

NASCAR in TorC?

The Hot Springs Motorplex development in Truth or Consequences has been widely touted as a potential home away from home for both NASCAR and Roush Racing, but according to an investigation by the St. Petersburg Times, it's not likely to happen. Nonetheless, officials in New Mexico are giving the developer the benefit of the doubt.

Double ditch: MRGCD ditches ditch trail program

A three-year effort aimed at enhancing the pedestrian trail system on irrigation ditches in Albuquerque's north and south valleys died Monday night after supporters of the status quo galvanized opposition that underscored the plan's potential problems.

 

The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District board sided with opponents of the Ditches With Trails program and by unanimous vote severed its relationship with the group. Board member Janet Jarratt spoke for many on the board when she said she supported the concept behind the trail program but had strong reservations about a slew of details, including the board's loss of management control over its 300-mile-long network of irrigation ditches in Bernalillo County.

 

Said board member Jim Roberts of the trail system, "I like it the way it is."

Atrisco strikes brackish gold

A company drilling for natural gas on Albuquerque's West Side has struck another valuable commodity — water. Atrisco Oil & Gas drilled into an aquifer believed to be 50 square miles in size and at least 1,000 feet deep. The discovery of a large aquifer could make it easier to accommodate the anticipated growth of another 100,000 homes on the West Side in the next 20 years, said Atrisco CEO Peter Sanchez.

Water worries

A Silver City judge's recent decision that new household water wells cannot impinge on a neighbor's water is rippling through the state, creating the potential to drive up rural home prices, dry up agricultural land and cause a major political dust-up in Santa Fe.

A label that hurts

If you live in one of three ZIP codes in Rio Rancho, expect for it to be harder to sell your house. The three ZIP codes have been hit with an unwanted designation: declining market, which means higher interest rates and loan fees for buyers. And if it's happening in Rio Rancho, Albuquerque may be next, one realtor said.

TIDDs on the table

Albuquerque City Councilors will take up a controversial form of financing development at City Hall tonight. Councilors tried last year to limit the creation of Tax Increment Development Districts (TIDDs) but Mayor Martin Chávez vetoed the legislation. TIDDs allow for the collection of part of the future tax revenue of a particular geographic area in order to pay off bonds issued to help private developers pay for infrastructure.

Land Office explains why it enters into no-bid deals that benefit developers

The New Mexico Land Office has approved land leases over the years that are now generating controversy and publicity. The New Mexico Attorney General recently issued an opinion saying they are legally questionable. Land Office General Counsel Robert Stranahan tells NMI's Marjorie Childress that his agency disputes the AG's opinion, explains the Land Office's rationale behind the deals and says developers involved in the deals are selected based on reputation. He, and others in the Land Office, however, declined to turn over documents related to the deals. NMI was directed to file a written records request with the lease number and the name of the lessee. When asked how to get that information to make the request, the Land Office said there was no way to isolate them from the almost 900 current Land Office leases.

Lehman Brothers and NM SunCal: connection or not?

SunCal Company has issued a statement saying that it’s New Mexico project just west of Albuquerque isn’t connected to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.

According to the New Mexico Business Weekly, a SunCal spokeswoman said the property being developed by the company just west of Albuquerque isn’t one of the SunCal projects invested in by Lehman Brothers.

'Clean coal' power: Real or imagined?

There is a lot of talk about clean coal, including from Gov. Bill Richardson, as the country tries to find the right energy mix. But can science make coal clean enough?

Lehman Bro's problems include SunCal in the mix

Another bank is suffering from the mortgage crisis fall-out. Actually, the New York Times says Lehman Brothers is in an “all-out fight for its survival.”

The bank was a major underwriter of mortgage-related securities before the subprime crisis hit, and it’s shares are down 90 percent from last year. It’s situation wasn’t helped this week when it’s stocks lost 45 percent of their value in the wake of the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bail-out:

Lehman’s announcement came a day after the bank’s shares plunged 45 percent to $7.79 a share following reports that its efforts to secure a strategic investment from Korea Development Bank had failed. Investors also feared that the federal government would not bail out Lehman as it has mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and investment bank Bear Stearns.

Use a lot of water? Your bill is about to go up

Albuquerque’s top residential water consumers will soon pay more for that luxury after Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority closed a loophole in the water rates that allowed a small number of people to use an exorbitant amount of water. Additional changes may be coming that would charge water wasters even more, and pass the savings on to those who conserve.

NM housing market surviving better than other states

While other states in the Southwest, namely Nevada, California and Arizona, are getting hit hard by the housing crisis, New Mexico has remained somewhat insulated. The recent statewide slump, however, is giving New Mexicans a taste of what other regions have been experiencing for the last few years. Overall, across the nation foreclosure rates were up 8 percent in July according to the most recent numbers.

State lawmakers talk tough on adjudicating water rights

State legislators meeting in Las Cruces this week are talking about springing loose millions of dollars in state funds to help untangle one of the state's thorniest issues: who is entitled to water and how much are they entitled to?

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that state Sen. Mary Kay Papen, a Las Cruces Democrat, suggested at a meeting of the Water and Natural Resources Committee that the Legislature appropriate $10 million for the process of adjudicating water rights. And rather than wait, she suggested making the allocation during the special session that begins next week in Santa Fe.