Commentary: A Comprehensive Plan is a tool used by communities to plan their future growth and development. All New Mexico counties that receive state funding are required by law to develop a Comprehensive Plan and to revisit it at regular intervals. In the process they can make the changes necessary to guide community decision-making in subsequent years.
In 2011, Doña Ana County and the City of Las Cruces, the local municipalities of Sunland Park, Mesilla, and Hatch, New Mexico State University, and a variety of planning organizations and nonprofit groups formed The Camino Real Consortium. With the support of these entities, along with a $2 million grant from the federal government, the Consortium began a process that included developing our county’s new Comprehensive Plan.
Key to the process was securing the participation and engagement of as many county residents as possible. Since the summer of 2013, there have been scores of meetings with leaders of local municipalities, non-profit and business organizations, and other community groups. Community workshops, public input sessions, and focus groups were held throughout the county. Hundreds of county residents attended sessions where the emerging Plan was reviewed and revised.
Possibly the most remarkable outcome of this intense and lengthy process of engagement was the broad consensus in support of the key principles guiding future growth in Doña Ana County: development within or close to existing communities, prioritized flood management, infrastructure maintenance and expansion, transportation choice, and farmland stewardship. Economic development, community health, and education also received high consensus rankings and were incorporated into the final Plan, which was adopted by the Doña Ana County Commission in August of 2015.
The next key step in the planning process has been to develop a Unified Development Code (UDC) that serves the double purpose of 1) implementing the vision adopted in the Comprehensive Plan and 2) updating and combining all subdivision, drainage, zoning, and engineering design standards into a single, coherent code for future development. The new UDC also creates map-zoning districts for the entire County and provides a transition from the currently awkward administration of the Extraterritorial Zone (ETZ) to County oversight and implementation of non-municipal development standards.
Significantly, the UDC was developed with an understanding that individual landowners may want to develop their properties in ways they are familiar with. For that reason, conventional zoning categories will still be available to landowners much as they are now. What the UDC also provides is an option for access to more flexible development standards that are designed to better adapt land use to community preferences laid out in the Comprehensive Plan. Landowners who select the more adaptive approach have the incentive of being expedited more quickly through the development process.
The UDC, like the Comprehensive Plan it implements, will continue to support the vision laid out by community members and stakeholders over the four year planning process. It will encourage maintaining the integrity and function of existing communities and of built and natural environments. It will encourage development and growth that is sensitive to natural resources, culture, and economics. It will also provide a framework for economic growth that utilizes industry standards and best practices as part of economic development and ongoing commercial and residential growth.
The UDC, while far more technical, is also like the Comprehensive Plan in that it has received an unprecedented amount of public input, including over 100 meetings covering every possible aspect of the Code. This includes over 40 meetings of the Planning and Zoning Commission itself, where line-by-line edits have been pored over carefully and in detail by P&Z commissioners; stakeholders; landowners; county planners, legal staff, and engineers; and the public at large.
This thorough oversight is, of course, exactly the way it should be. A Comprehensive Plan and its associated Unified Development Code are important achievements for a community. So, by all means go to vivadonaana.org and review the final draft of the UDC, under the tab “Specialized Plans.” Send suggested edits or other comments to county staff via the link provided. Your input should be received by 5 pm on Friday, September 2.
Public hearings before the Planning and Zoning Commission on the UDC have been tentatively set for Tuesday, September 20, at 6 pm and Thursday, September 22, at 9:00am, at the county complex at 845 N. Motel Blvd. in Las Cruces. Following these hearings, the final UDC will be scheduled for consideration by the county commission for adoption.
Residents of southern New Mexico have every reason to be proud not only of the Comprehensive Plan and emerging UDC, but of the process itself, which has involved all sectors of public life in Doña Ana County. The input of everyone, including the Plan’s critics, has been essential to the process. In coming years, we will look to the Comprehensive Plan and UDC to guide our county wisely and well.