P&Z approved the site plan for the Bluffs apartment complex during its Sept. 23 meeting. Courtesy/LAC
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
[email protected]
Affordable housing for seniors is one step closer to coming to fruition. The Los Alamos County Planning and Zoning Commission approved 4-2 the site plan for the Bluffs apartment complex during its regular meeting Sept. 23.
The commissioners agreed to an amendment, which requests an additional six or more parking spaces for the apartment complex be included in the site plan.
Right now, the site plan offers 49 spaces for the 64 units, which Commissioner Jean Dewart said she felt wasn’t adequate.
Besides the number of parking spaces, another big concern was the recent discoveries of radioactive waste on the parcel located next to the property where the apartment complex will be built. Due to this concern, Commissioners Sean Williams and Neal Martin voted against approving the site plan.
“I do fully appreciate the need of housing within the County, but I think this plan is reckless and dangerous and I do think we have the latitude to reject it,” Williams said. “I don’t think that it is a good idea for the County to support putting the most vulnerable population imaginable – elderly poor people – on land where we have legitimate concerns of radiological contamination … we have a housing crisis; we have to solve it but this isn’t the way.”
Martin agreed.
“I think the optics of this placing low income housing adjacent to a contaminated site … upon its face is just horrible and presents a clear reputational risk to the County itself (and) those concerns are made exponentially worse given the fact the site was … certified clean before we transferred (the land) …,” Maritn said.
Williams asked Dan Terlecki of Bethel Development Corp., which is developing the Bluffs apartment complex, about his views on the hazardous waste.
“We had an environmental report done,” Terlecki said. “The site was deemed as environmentally cleared for residential use. There were representations by Los Alamos County that they had a clearance on the site and I believe that there were some radiological material on the adjacent site but we have since had testing done on the A-8 site, which is the site we now own. We had a significant amount of testing … that has shown no evidence of anything radiological.”
The land was originally owned by the Department of Energy (DOE) before it was transferred to the County. The County donated the land to Bethel to construct affordable housing projects.
Cheryl Rodriguez with the DOE Environmental Management-Los Alamos Field Office discussed the work that has been done and is planned to be done to address the waste.
She explained that prior to the land transfer to the County an assessment of the site was conducted to identify any areas of concern and none were found. As a result of the recent discoveries, Rodriguez said DOE officials returned to the site and trenched along the proposed sewer line but did not find any radiological debris. She added that in October, portions of the land parcel where footers or anything that requires any deep ground activities will be assessed. This will supplement the radiological information that is available to date, Rodriguez said.
Additionally, she said an assessment plan is being prepared of the radiological material that was found earlier this year as well as the extent of the material in the property. A geo-physics scan also is planned to see if any more buried hazardous debris exists.
Williams and Martin expressed their skepticism about the handling of the hazardous waste; however, Planning and Zoning Chair Beverly Neal-Clinton pointed out they can only move forward.
“We’re have to work from where we are … based on the information they found they took measures and took steps to mediate that and then also sought approval and also to move forward,” she said.
The Bluffs, according to the staff report, will be a multi-family affordable rental housing complex, located at 135 DP Road. The complex will be built on approximately 3.13 acres. The proposed development will consist of one mid-rise structure of four stories containing a total of 64 units. The project will have on-site parking, access to Canyon Rim multi-use trail and be directly across the street from Bethel’s first apartment project, Canyon Walk.
Terlecki added that the Bluffs is specifically for people who are 55 years old or older. The units are either one bedroom/one bath or two bedrooms/two baths. There will be 52 one-bedroom units and 12 two- bedroom units, he said.
The apartment complex is being developed under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, which is financed under the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.
“Our commitment is to maintain the property as affordable, which is defined in this instance as family units making incomes of less than 60 percent of the area median income in Los Alamos …,” Terlecki said.
He added that the rent for a one-bedroom unit will range from $558 to $850 a month. A two-bedroom unit will be rented from $755 to $975 a month. Terlecki said the rent includes utilities. Furthermore, Bethel is committed to these rental rates for a 35-year period.
“We are very excited about this project because of its location being so close to the central business district and especially close to the grocery store and tied into the very nice walking/biking trail, the Canyon Rim Trail,” Terlecki said. “What we are trying to accomplish here is a very walkable neighborhood design. It’s de-emphasizing the need for automobiles and for being able to walk the downtown and enjoy all that downtown offers.”
It is anticipated that construction on the Bluffs will start the second or third quarter of 2021, Terlecki said. The project is expected to finish by either the end of 2021 or the second quarter of 2022.
