As Las Cruces grows, there needs to be thoughtful planning to ensure that growth fosters prosperity and wellbeing for current and future generations. The Elevate Las Cruces Comprehensive Plan is that thoughtful plan.
Initiated in 2018 and adopted unanimously in 2020 with widespread community support, Elevate Las Cruces laid out a long-term, achievable vision for sustainable, inclusive and resilient growth.
Having adopted a shared community vision, Elevate Las Cruces prepared an action plan to implement its recommendations. One of the first actions undertaken has been a comprehensive rewrite of the city’s almost half-a-century-old development code.
Next month, the city council will vote to approve or reject the proposed changes to the land development code, called “Realize Las Cruces.” Like the comprehensive plan, Realize Las Cruces involved a multi-year process with significant input from a similarly broad cross-section of our community. It is a well-balanced code and worthy of our support.
One important thing Realize Las Cruces addresses is the widely recognized housing shortage in Las Cruces. Housing costs have risen significantly, and much new construction is directed at the high-end market. If we want our families to be able to stay and prosper in Las Cruces, they need to have access to housing they can afford.
Realize Las Cruces includes common-sense changes to the development code to remove barriers to attainable housing. It increases flexibility in development regulations so reasonably-priced housing is financially feasible for developers to build. It allows the development of “missing-middle” housing that includes accessory dwelling units, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, courtyard buildings and multi-family housing in a greater variety of neighborhoods.
Families and households that will benefit from more attainable housing include newlyweds, young adults entering the job market with entry level pay, essential service workers and first responders who ensure our basic quality of life, multi-generational households who provide care for grandchildren or elders, and seniors who want to downsize but remain in the neighborhood close to family and friends. These families and households are critical to our city’s future economy and quality of life.
The impact on existing established residential neighborhoods will be minimal, since the vast majority of these are already built out. Developers will continue to be able to build single family neighborhoods if that’s what they and their customers want. A homeowners association restrictive covenant will continue to take precedence over the city’s less stringent development code, in most cases.
Allowing greater flexibility in development makes financial sense for the city and its taxpayers. Denser land use patterns increase tax revenues that help support quality of life in all of our neighborhoods including water and sewer lines, road maintenance and police and fire protection. There will be more opportunities for infill in the city’s core, reducing sprawl and making households less car-dependent. Developers will be able to exercise more creativity in meeting residents’ housing needs.
The key is for us to allow everyone more choice in how and where they choose to live, promoting economic health and well-being for our residents and their families. Let’s continue to build a city that embraces all of us in a fiscally and socially responsible way. Please support the city council’s adoption of the proposed land development code.
Beth Bardwell is vice president of the League of Women Voters of Southern New Mexico.