Commentary: The county Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) Commission has now reduced the minimum lot size for subdividing in the R zone from ten acres to two acres. That reduction cleared up one of the major issues being discussed in relation to the Unified Development Code (UDC) currently under consideration by the P&Z.
Landowners now have two options when they want to sell and/or develop property. They can use the conventional route and sell off/develop as little as two acres or they can use the newly proposed Community Types (CT) route and develop using one of the CTs, with a variety of lot sizes and housing choices plus some open or civic space.
CTs also affect property value. Sometimes farmers need ready cash to keep their operation going and they take out a loan against the value of their land. Due to the higher density allowed in a CT, that format would likely be the “highest and best use” of the property and could raise the value of that land to nearly ten times more than its value as agricultural land.
The UDC was developed to implement the county’s new Comprehensive Plan. Comprehensive Plans (CPs) are required by the state and they set out broad goals for the development of a community. The major goals of the county’s new CP, based on public input, are to value the rural character of the region, reduce sprawl, and preserve open space and agriculture.
The current approach to development has put a burden on taxpayers and made providing county services more difficult. When development is spread out across the county in small development projects, the county has to build and maintain more infrastructure and that costs money. It also means that the sheriff and the fire fighters have a huge scattered area of development to serve and that also costs money as well as reduces response times. More compact development, close to existing infrastructure, means less cost to the taxpayers as well as more efficient service to our residents. The inclusion of some smaller lots also means more affordable lots are made available for families with limited incomes.
The UDC was developed alongside the CP over the past four years and has been discussed in meetings across the county and, more recently, at the P&Z. Previously, the subdivision and zoning ordinances were scattered across a number of documents, included much repetition, and even some contradictions. The UDC, mostly comprised of already existing ordinances, is a much shorter, condensed, and updated version.
Articles Three through Nine of the UDC have been covered article by article for several months now by the P&Z and have seen many revisions based on both those discussions and copious public input. Because of the need for vetting by the county’s legal department, Articles One and Two were saved until the end of the discussion of the UDC. The ten-acre minimum lot size and wireless communication regulations had proven difficult in early discussions so they, too, were saved for the end of the process. Now those issues have been settled. Article Two is under discussion. That will finish the revisions and move this final draft to the public hearings.
Final date for comments is midnight, Thursday, September 22nd. The public hearings before the Planning and Zoning Commission on the UDC will be on Tuesday, October 11, at 6 pm and Thursday, October 13, at 9:00am, at the county complex at 845 N. Motel Blvd. in Las Cruces. The P&Z commissioners have pledged to stick to this schedule and to vote at the conclusion of the meeting on Oct. 13th.