Speaker of the House Ben Lujan (D-Nambé) is not the only one fighting the state over billboards and land condemnations.
While the state Highway Department was facing off with Lujan over an illegal billboard on his Arroyo Seco property off of Highway 84/285, Charles Romero was erecting a billboard of sorts on his own property across the highway.
Romero erected a gargantuan steel mailbox March 29 in front of his property with a wrought-iron label reading “Mailbox on Steroids.”
On the side of the mailbox is an advertisement for his business. Romero, with a sly look, said he would never dream of erecting a billboard on his property, which is zoned for residential use. But anyone is entitled to list their telephone number on their mailbox, he pointed out.
“No, I just put it up ‘cause that’s the kind of guy I am,” Romero said, grinning. “I’m just a creative guy.”
Romero installed the mailbox after condemnation proceedings forced him to abandon another property he owns farther north in Arroyo Seco, near La Puebla Road, where he lived and ran a mobile home-storage and relocation business.
He moved his home and his trucks to this second property across from Lujan’s, though he cannot store mobile homes there because the property is zoned for residential use.
“I didn’t go out of business, but I lost a good 75 percent of my business,” Romero said. “People knew where I was. And here, because it’s zoned residential, I can’t run a business from my yard.”
Romero called the SUN April 3 to say a Department representative had threatened to have State Police take down the mailbox if Romero did not take it down himself. Romero said at the time that the mailbox was staying.
“They can come try and arrest me if they want,” Romero said. “I checked with (Santa Fe) County, I checked with the federal Postal Service. There’s no size restriction on mailboxes. They told me, as long as it’s 15 feet from the side of the highway, it’s legal.”
Romero said April 7 he had since resolved the mailbox dispute with the Department.
“It’s staying where it is,” he said.
Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh declined to comment on Romero’s case.
In a Jan. 15 letter, the Department had told Lujan his billboard, which advertises Camel Rock Casino on its north face and Valley National Bank on its south face, is illegal according to Santa Fe County ordinances and has lacked a state permit since 1993.
“(The Department) has determined that the billboard structure is non-conforming and illegal and was maintained in violation of the outdoor advertising statute and regulations,” the letter states.
That should not have come as news to Lujan. A 2002 letter from the Department to Donrey Outdoor Advertising, which owned the billboard on land leased from Lujan at the time, said the billboard was illegal because Lujan lacked permits and threatened to take it down. Santa Fe County acknowledged the billboard was illegal in 2003 but the billboard was never removed.
The billboard at the time advertised for the Española Valley Chamber of Commerce, which according to expired permits show it has advertised there on and off since 1983.
The billboard is on one of three adjacent properties Lujan owns in the area, from which the Department plans to buy maintenance easements and rights of way. The Department offered Lujan at least $54,180 March 11 for 0.41 acres.
According to the letter, Lujan will not be compensated when a contractor takes down the sign before construction starts.
Favoritism?
Romero spoke out against what he sees as the Department’s favorable treatment of other hold-outs such as El Paragua Restaurant owner Luis Atencio and Lujan (D-Nambé).
The Department filed condemnation papers for Romero’s north Arroyo Seco property, a few hundred feet south of Atencio’s, in August 2008. It has not made an offer on his second property, according to Department records.
Atencio has so far declined to sign an offer with the state — or even allow the Department to enter his property, according to a Department report. When Romero did the same, his property was condemned.
“Mr. Atencio talked to Ben Lujan, and they didn’t condemn his property,” Romero said. “But they condemned mine.”
The Department had offered to buy 0.6 acres of Atencio’s land in August. It revised that offer to nearly half that amount when plans for the La Puebla Road intersection with the highway changed after Atencio and Lujan met with then-Highway Secretary Rhonda Faught, according to Department records. The Department has said the changes were made before that meeting.
Early plans for an interchange at La Puebla Road would have required buying an even larger portion of Atencio’s land than the August offer. Drawings of the proposed interchange show ramps slicing his 3.4-acre property in half.
Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said plans for the interchange were abandoned in 2007 due to opposition from residents during hearings and because the cost of an interchange was prohibitive.