The city of Española is negotiating two land deals that will grant more land along Industrial Park Road to public entities and not to the businesses that the area was intended to attract.
City administrators are negotiating deals that would give several acres apiece to the Regional Transit District and the Española School District.
The Transit District is negotiating to lease a fenced-in piece of city-owned land west of the Espanola middle school to build new offices, and the School District is trying to obtain a piece of land that is also west of the middle school to build recreational fields.
City Councilors and administrators said although the two deals aren’t attracting any small businesses, they would still allow the city to use land that has served no purpose up to this point.
“I guess that over time we’ve gotten away from Industrial Park Road in terms of being an industrial park,” said Councilor Alfred Herrera, who is also on the Transit District Board. “Initially, it was intended to bring in businesses and generate jobs. But, in a way, this is still economic development. The (Transit District) should bring in additional jobs and a by-product of putting in soccer fields is the idea of bringing in tournaments, which brings economic development.”
School District Superintendant David Cockerham said the District plans to build a combination soccer and football field for middle school students on the vacant piece of property the city owns just east of the middle school.
“It will be a joint use facility for the school and the city,” Cockerham said. “We need it more in the winter time and the city would need it more in the summer. But right now we’re just waiting on site details.”
The city owns a field near the District’s proposed site for the new recreational fields, which Cockerham said the District might also want to try and negotiate to be included in the land agreement.
Community Services Director Leroy Garcia said the city’s field has not been used in several years, but said he hoped to start a softball league at the field.
Cockerham said the proposed soccer and football field would require between two and a half and three acres to construct. In return for using the city’s land, the District would grant the city land to build a long-awaited detention pond east of the school. Both Cockerham and Interim City Manager Veronica Albin said talks are still in preliminary stages and would require formal action by both the School Board and the City Council.
The city wants to build a detention pond to help alleviate flooding along Industrial Park Road that has plagued businesses near that road’s intersection with Paseo de Oñate, Española Planning Director Cyrus Samii said. The pond will detain water running down the road and gradually release it into a nearby arroyo that follows Paseo de Onate and crosses through Northern New Mexico College’s campus.
For the Transit District, the city is discussing an agreement to temporarily lease about an acre and a half of land so that the District can build new offices and move its vans out of the city’s compound along Railroad Avenue.
The District, which is made up of government entities in Rio Arriba, Santa Fe and Los Alamos counites, does not currently pay rent for its current storage facility.
The fenced-in piece of property the District is hoping to lease to the Transit District is currently used by the city as a storage facility for various materials and equipment, Streets Supervisor Anthony “Hawk” Trujillo said.
Transit District coordinator Ivan Guillen, who is the city’s former community services director, said the Transit District wanted to lease the piece of land until Rio Arriba County could grant it land for a permanent location. The terms of the lease have yet to be negotiated.
The District allocated $70,000 to purchase a modular building for the site from a 2006 federal appropriation of $445,500, Transit District Manager Jack Valencia said. The building is expected to house between 25 to 27 employees. The cost to upgrade the land and extend utilities to the building has not yet been determined, Valencia said.
“Our goal is to build a temporary facility for workers in the Española area,” Valencia said. “In the long-term we want get a facility with Congressional help and pledged land from Rio Arriba County onto (Bureau of Land Management) land.”
Councilors said they supported the lease with the Transit District because it would help the city develop the land at no cost.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Mayor Pro Tem Alice Lucero said. “It’s a temporary lease that will give us an already built facility, and we’ll retain the improvements to the site.”
Valencia said the District, with support from the County, has applied for federal funding to build a larger, permanent facility in Alcalde on land the County received in 2006 from the Bureau of Land Management but has yet to develop.