Citizens’
Task Force for
Open Space Preservation
www.zianet.com/openspace
State
Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons
State Land Office
PO Box 1148
Santa Fe, NM 87504-1148
RE:
Application for Lease #R-28640
(right-of-way for roadway crossing Fillmore Arroyo in
Section 36, T23S, R2E)
December 5, 2003
Dear
Commissioner Lyons:
The
Citizens’ Task Force for Open Space Preservation (CTF) would like to comment
on the application for a roadway right-of-way submitted by Jake’s Development
Corporation, which is intended to provide access to a new development on the
southeast edge of Las Cruces. Our
primary concern relates to protecting the open space values and natural drainage
system of the major arroyo that this roadway would have to cross.
Through community planning processes, Fillmore Arroyo has been identified as a
major arroyo with significant open space values worth preserving.
For instance, it has been designated as a potential trail corridor by the
Las Cruces Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) as a part of an arroyo and
irrigation drain trail plan adopted by the MPO in March 2002.
This trail plan recognizes the value of major arroyo corridors as
critical components of a trail network that will provide connections from urban
and suburban environments to open space areas on the mesas and in the river
valley.
Fillmore
Arroyo has also been designated as a major arroyo in the City of Las Cruces’
Storm Water Management Policy Plan, and both the City’s Comprehensive Plan and
the Extra-Territorial Zone’s Comprehensive Plan support the preservation of
major arroyos as natural open space corridors to provide aesthetic,
recreational, and storm-water drainage functions. Because of Fillmore Arroyo’s outstanding open space values,
CTF feels that any major roadway that is going to cross the arroyo should be
designed to allow for a continuous trail corridor and to preserve the natural
vegetation and drainage patterns within the arroyo.
We
request that you keep this issue in mind as you consider the application for
this right-of-way lease. If you
decide to grant the requested right-of-way, we would ask that you consider
attaching some sort of restriction to the easement, which would require
maintenance of the natural drainage pattern and vegetation within the arroyo, as
well as a roadway design which would provide continuity for the eventual use of
this arroyo as a trail corridor. At
this time, funding is not in place to implement the MPO trail plan, but we are
hopeful that in the future, our community will implement the plan within
Fillmore Arroyo, perhaps via a recreational right-of-way lease from the State
Land Office.
Thank
you for considering our request, and please feel free to contact me if you have
any questions.
Sincerely,
Nancy Stotz
For the Steering Committee,
CC:
Ken White