The Village Council Filibuster

Last night, we wasted 4 hours of our lives listening to an elected village official ramble on and on about useless nothings to try and obstruct a decision about a proposed zone change in support of a commercial development in our rural-residential paradise.

The development is an assisted living facility (part of a national franchise called Beehive Homes), and while Jon and I aren't opposed to having such a facility in our neighborhood, the Bosque Farms planning and zoning commission approved the application without seeing nary an architectural plan or schematic! Nary a traffic analysis! Nary a water use projection! Not to mention, nearly the entire community is opposed to the location of this facility (on 4.3 acres of dirt and pasture, formerly an alpaca farm), particularly when there is commercially zoned property available just 1/2 mile up the road near the main boulevard.

What we learned from last night's council meeting and hearsay about the planning and zoning meeting on Monday is that the land sale involves many close-knit cronies--good ol' boys (and gals) who are trying to turn a buck from the sale without regard to the future and sustainability of this wonderful community.

The good ol' gal on the council filibustered for nearly 2 hours to postpone public testimony. It was outrageous and disgusting. All we ask is that the council require the development company (who is applying for the zone change from rural/residential to "special use", which could mean lots of things) to present detailed visual and statistical plans to the public (hmmm...sounds like a case for Building Information Modeling!), to the planning and zoning commission (for pete's sake!!), and to the council before making their best informed decision. But because their loyalties seem to lie with the landowner over the constituents who voted for them, it looks like they will once again opt for unstrategic, aesthetically monstrous, poorly planned development. So typical of New Mexico politics....