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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Duke City Purchases Gutierrez Canyon

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
    Albuquerque officially took control of 420 acres of open space known as Gutierrez Canyon at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
    Albuquerque's Mayor Martin Chávez announced the finalized deal in a meeting with the press on the same day at the city's Open Space Visitor Center.
    The property's final purchase price was $2.2 million.
    The property is accessible from N.M. 14 in Cedar Crest and adjoins 300 acres of open space the city already owns.
    Jay Hart, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department, said a parking lot suitable for horse trailers probably will be built off the Cedar Crest access.
    Other developments may include fencing, trails, trash cans, signs and possibly bathrooms.
    Hart said the fencing and signs will be there to inform the public that activities like using motorized vehicles, firewood harvesting, campfires and hunting will not be allowed. Anyone who observes such activities can report them to the city by dialing 311, he said.
    Horseback riding, biking, educational or nature walks and general hiking are all suitable uses of the land, Hart said.
    He added that some of the assessments needed for trail building, for example, have already been done and some of that work will be done this year.
    "We (Albuquerque) acquire land to keep in unchanged," Hart said. "Improvements (are) to accommodate access in a responsible way."
    The money to buy the land was cobbled together from contributions of the state Legislature of about $1.25 million and other sources.
    Legislative contributions came from Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort of Sandia Park, Rep. Kathy McCoy of Cedar Crest and— at Lt. Gov. Diane Denish's request— funding came from Gov. Bill Richardson's office as well.
    At the meeting, state Sen. Kent Cravens, R-Albuquerque, and Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, along with the East Mountain Historical Society and resident John Peterson, were also given credit for their efforts.
    In addition, the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department also kicked in funding and the city of Albuquerque recently contributed $500,000.
    Despite a groundswell of support for the project, at the final tally there was a deficit of $100,000 than the assessed land value of $2.3 million.
    "We ran out of money, basically," said Greg Hiner of the Trust for Public Land.
    Hiner was involved in the multiyear project from early on, and his offices helped to bring funding sources together and hammer out some kinks in the real estate deal.
    The owners of the land, the Milne family, finally just sold it for $100,000 less than market value.
    The gift is in keeping with the land's history, according to Ruth Milne-Schifani, one of the owners.
    When the land was purchased, in the first half of the 1900s, Milne-Schifani said her grandfather, John Milne, paid 10 times the asking price of 10 cents an acre.
    John Milne was superintendent of Albuquerque Public Schools from 1911 to 1956, according to his granddaughter.
    Even though the land was bought for more than it was worth and sold for less, Milne-Schifani said she is happy with the deal.
    "I'm very pleased that it is (now) public land," she said. "More people can enjoy it."
    In honor of a request by the Milnes, the name of the open space was changed to the John A. Milne Open Space Area by an executive order from the mayor of Albuquerque.