Here’s a brief report on the March 27 P&Z Commission meeting, that included discussion of proposed changes to the zoning ordinance to accommodate energy and utility facilities, exploration and production.
Many people from Placitas, and some from Algodones, showed up to participate. Planning & Zoning Director Mike Springfield began the proceedings by saying that this was only the beginning of a long process, which could last through summer or later, directed towards possibly changing procedures to accommodate applications for oil & gas exploration and production, certain types of water uses, and certain utility uses. He made clear to the Commission that they could choose to proceed with a revision of the zoning ordinances, as suggested, though only suggested, by the wording provided by his Planning & Zoning Department staff, or choose to make no changes at present.
When Springfield attempted to explain why some changes might need to be made, he cited increased interest in oil/gas production, other energy production, and various utility uses in Sandoval County. He said that the County does not have sufficient knowledge or resources to vet these uses, and that it should rely more on state and federal agencies to determine what are and are not acceptable uses. He likened this to what the County did some years ago with water uses, when they essentially offloaded the determination of proper water uses to the State Engineer, so that it would not be a matter for County zoning decisions and enforcement. This could explain why in the proposed ordinance changes such activities as oil/gas production, also exploration, could be PERMISSIVE use, which does not even require approval from the County P&Z staff, let alone Commission decisions and public hearings. (Building a house in a platted residential development as allowed by zoning ordinances is an example of a permissive use.) The idea is that state and federal procedures would take the place of such County/public oversight. The result, however, could conceivably be that an energy company could buy the residential-zoned property right next to you, then start exploration and even production activities without there being a single County public meeting about it. All that would be required is approval by the appropriate state and/or federal agencies.
Springfield also confused matters by talking a great deal about a supposed need to make sure that people who want to hook up their new houses to existing electrical lines, water lines, gas lines, etc., do not have to go through a burdensome zoning process, which also could tie up staff resources. But that makes no sense, because at present these are all permissive uses (as they should be), and only the proper building permits are required.
It must also be pointed out that all the facility, exploratory and production uses dealt with in the proposed ordinance changes are already allowed under the present zoning ordinance as Special Use (SU), so long as the applicants go through the SU rezoning process, which involves public hearings before both county commissions. Recently PNM filed just such an SU application for a solar power array in an area near Rio Rancho, and it was easily approved. So there is nothing at present to prevent any of these uses, so long as they are thoroughly vetted through a public process.
The P&Z Commission weighed in after Springfield’s presentation. Some of the commissioners, including Chairman John Arango, were appropriately concerned about the proposed ordinances allowing intensive energy activities as permissive uses. They were clearly opposed to oil & gas production as a permissive use right in or near to our residential neighborhoods. However the Commission seemed not to take up Springfield’s invitation to discuss whether modification to the zoning ordinances is needed at all, and discussed only how the proposed language might be changed so as to be less frightening to the public.
Chairman Arango took the unusual step of not allowing public comment on this discussion item, which was his prerogative as chairman. Even so, 3 members of the public did step up to make comments, and others tried. Even more unusual is that the chairman did not allow any 3-minute public comments at the end of the meeting, which is a standard agenda item at County commission meetings, and is fairly regularly allowed. Instead he called for a motion for adjournment as soon as it became evident that other members of the public wanted to have their say.
Chairman Arango did invite the public to submit comments by email as to changes in the wording of the proposed ordinance language. He said that there would be a series of public meetings before any ordinance modification was finalized, so that everyone would be able to have their say.
The ES-CA Board plans to communicate to the County that this should be handled quite differently. Before even considering changes to the ordinances there should be extensive discussion, as Mr. Springfield suggested, as to whether such changes are needed at all. While he is right that dealing with many applications from the industries involved might prove to be a burden on County staff and officials, it might be that this could be handled better by developing staff and commission guidelines for dealing with the Special Use zoning applications regarding these activities. It might be better to allow the first few applications for these uses to proceed as SU ones, with full public involvement, and then afterwards, on the basis of that experience, develop a combination of guidelines and possibly some ordinance modifications that could streamline and improve the process. A staff report that discusses in some detail why changes might be needed, and which provides clear options for making changes, should first be produced, be made available to the public for review before commission discussions, then discussed by the staff and commission – far before any decision is made to make even slight changes to the zoning ordinance.
ES-CA will continue to watchdog this issue, and keep the public informed and involved.