Called Realize Las Cruces, the proposal would impact everything from home construction to infrastructure, landscaping, and both parks and open spaces development in New Mexico’s second largest city.
A workshop review draft of the Realize Las Cruces proposal runs to about 400 pages and is designed to “unify the City’s land development regulations into a single document and to reduce repetition and conflict among various ordinances.”
City officials have said that a holistic land development code is needed to clear up the confusion that can arise with any building project governed by hundreds of separate regulations and rules.
But Realize Las Cruces is also in part a response to an ongoing building boom in a city whose population has jumped from around 74,000 two decades ago to around 112,000 today.
In presenting the latest review of Realize Las Cruces to the city council, Larry Nichols, the city’s community development director, remarked: “We realized that our codes had not been revised since 2001. We are currently operating on the 2001 zoning code. Then we had the subdivision code. That was in 2000. We realized that needed to be updated.”
Added Nichols: “And then we had our design standards that were last updated in 2012. Our comprehensive plans were basically in 2000.”
As currently written, Realize Las Cruces also provides detailed guidelines on historic preservation, zoning regulations, subdivision regulations, roadway development standards, and outdoor lighting and signage.
It is expected that the city council will vote on the Realize Las Cruces development codes later this summer.
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Unsplash
