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Thursday, December 13, 2007
Campbell Ready to Roll
Mountain View Telegraph
Campbell Ranch will seek approval at the Edgewood Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Monday night to start work on a 92-home section on the southern part of the 8,000-acre master-planned community.
Jim Lindeman, Campbell Corp. director of development, presented information about the planned development at a public meeting Tuesday at East Mountain High School.
Lindeman asked the roughly 30 people in attendance where they were from. The majority were from the Paa-Ko subdivision.
Later, one audience member asked those present another question: If they had a choice, would they stop the development of Campbell Ranch?
Three, including the man who asked the question, raised their hands.
Lindeman put a stop to that line of questioning.
"You're not going to co-opt the meeting," he told the man who asked the question.
He also said such a vote would be irrelevant because Campbell Corp. doesn't need permission from those at the meeting to develop the area.
"Nobody said, 'Go do this (meeting),' '' Campbell Corp. president Robert Gately said. "If people like (the development) or don't like it, we'd rather people have the facts. ... (We're here) to dispel some of the myths."
Gately addressed one of the points of contention the proposed development has faced.
Campbell Ranch was annexed by Edgewood in 2001, even though it is near Frost Road and N.M. 14, far outside the area traditionally known as Edgewood.
At the time, Gately explained, it was becoming increasingly difficult to get approval for the development from Bernalillo County.
"Every time we would fulfill a certain amount of requirements, the goalpost would move," Gately said.
In addition to changing requirements, he said, Bernalillo County "didn't even have a master plan process in their system."
According to Lindeman, the master planning process allowed for a plan that preserved more of the area's open space.
To get the same design through Bernalillo County's planning process, Gately said, the developer might have had to go through what the Paa-Ko developer did.
"Paa-Ko had to go through a very painful process of adjudicating in court," Gately said.
The benefit of the current plan is that it has smaller lot sizes and more open space than would have been possible in a traditional planning process, which would have imposed a two-acre minimum lot size, Gately said.
Lindeman said the current plan preserves mountainous regions and will set the development away from N.M. 14, shielding it from view for the most part. Other natural features, such as San Pedro Creek, will be preserved.
The planned community was certified by Build Green New Mexico as an Exceptional Sustainable Community, according to a Campbell Corp. news release.
"If (development) is going to happen, let's do it in a way that is natural," Lindeman said.
Campbell Corp. may also have found a way to solve another tricky problem, according to Lindeman: water rights.
Campbell's claims of historic water use for farming purposes have been legally challenged. It is unclear whether Campbell will have sufficient water rights on the property to support all of the planned development.
There may be another way to supply water.
"(The New Mexico Water Service Company of Belen has) committed to provide water to us," Lindeman said.
Gately said it is likely the planned community will be served by a combination of wells inside Campbell Ranch and external sources.
The New Mexico Water Service Company's legal authority to provide water may be in question, but Lindeman said Campbell Corp. is confident enough in the utility's legal team to move forward.
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