While Performance Maintenance Incorporated representatives took their share of constructive criticism from the Planning and Zoning Commission Jan. 16, there was a fairly large amount of concern over their site plan review from an unlikely source — Rio Arriba County Assessor Fred Vigil.
Vigil attended the meeting as a local property owner instead of in his professional capacity. He said he owns and lives on a piece of residential property north of the proposed 835 Paseo de Oñate janitorial supplies warehouse and retail space.
When prompted by the Commission, Vigil rattled off a long list of concerns about the project, including glare from the lights, noise from supply trucks, trash disposal and unwanted attention from burglars.
Architect Thomas Cordova and Celina Quintana, the wife of owner Eric Quintana, addressed Vigil’s issues one-by-one.
Quintana said Performance Maintenance Incorporated is a 17-year-old janitorial supply company with a rented warehouse currently located in Arroyo Seco. She said the business had a retail property in the Hacienda Home Center as recent as December, until her husband closed it in anticipation of occupying the new property in Española.
Quintana said traffic was expected to be light for the retail portion of the warehouse — box trucks delivering supplies come once a week, while package delivery trucks come once every couple of weeks.
Cordova said the proposed warehouse’s lights were specifically designed to glow within the boundaries of the property and pointed out that it would be difficult for any burglars to break into the warehouse with an iron gate protecting the property.
One of Vigil’s most ardent concerns was over any trash the warehouse would generate.
Cordova said all trash would be contained within the facility. Quintana said Performance Maintenance Incorporated was in the business of cleaning, so it’s imperative that they maintain their facilities.
Commission Vice Chair Erle Wright attested to their cleanliness. He said he passed by their current location every day on his way to work and called their facilities “immaculate.”
Also to be contained within the premises is any drainage from rain. Cordova said the site plans included three drainage ponds totaling 1,700 cubic feet.
Even with reassurance from Cordova and Quintana, Vigil remained unsure of the project.
“The issues are addressed verbally between myself and the presenter,” Vigil said. “But in reality, how do we make sure these issues are taken care of?”
After Vigil finished his comments, another familiar face shared his concerns with the Commission. Municipal Judge Stephen Salazar said he also lives north of the proposed warehouse site and said his issue is with the heating and cooling units to be featured on the northern section of the property and the noise they would emit.
Salazar proposed Cordova move the units from the north side to the east side.
Cordova said the units were no louder than a refrigerator and if they weren’t, they would be in need of repair.
He also said there was no room for the units on the east side and the only viable location would be the roof of the warehouse, which would require screening and extra costs.
Cordova said any concerns Vigil or Salazar had would be outweighed by the positive things Performance Maintenance Incorporated would bring to the area.
“I think that you will note the entire property will be a vast improvement to the property that is there now that’s just vacant and has a number of weeds on it,” he said. “We think its going to be an amenity to the site rather than a detriment to the site.”
Most of the Commission’s concerns surrounded some landscaping on the southern portion of the site plan that acted as a noise and light buffer to a trailer park south of the property.
Commissioner Amrit Khalsa said the landscaping included lilac trees, which would mature slowly in Española’s climate and would be dormant six months of the year.
Despite their concerns, the Commission stressed the need for aesthetically pleasing landscaping.
“I’d like to see the landscaping from the street,” Wright said. “One of the problems we have is, we don’t get a lot of plans that actually have landscaping beyond a planter box or two and I appreciate the landscaping plan and the thought you put into it.
Cordova said he could replace the lilacs with evergreen trees. The Commission agreed with Cordova’s suggestion and included it as one of the conditions of approval.
Other conditions of their 4-0 approval of the site plan included the removal of a cluster box on the property, ingress and egress permits from the state Department of Transportation, planning and zoning staff-approved engineering plans and signage that meets the city’s sign codes.
Commissioners Julie Atencio, Dick Beaudoin and Clyde Vigil were absent from the meeting.
Title Max
Cordova waited around after the Performance Maintenance Incorporated presentation, because he is also the architect for a site plan review to convert a former gas station on 1205 Riverside Dr., to a TitleMax loan company.
Property owner Jeffrey Bustos said his family successfully operated the property as a gas station for three decades.
In 1997, Bustos said a Fairview Lane realignment cut off a significant portion of his property, effectively ending his family’s business.
He said he was close to renting out the property in 2000, when Starbucks showed interest in building a coffee shop on the site, but the Commission at the time showed too many concerns in the coffee company’s plans and Starbucks decided to move on from the proposal.
Seventeen years after his family’s gas station was closed, Bustos found the right tenant in the form of title lending company TitleMax.
The TitleMax website states the company offers personal loans, signature loans and title loans on cars and motorcycles.
The Commission voted unanimously to approve the site plan with the conditions that Bustos add a four-foot sidewalk on the southern portion of the property, construct a pork chop median with a “right turn only” sign on the southern driveway, eliminate four parking spots to allow emergency vehicle turnaround and add an exit door to the rear of the structure.