Preservation groups may seek new spaceport site

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is expected to name El Camino Real National Historic Trail to the list of America’s 11 most endangered places at a news conference on Thursday.

A well-preserved portion of the trail runs very close to the spot that is to become Spaceport America. The announcement will likely be accompanied by a request that the Federal Aviation Administration, in considering a license for the spaceport, analyze whether it should be located further from the trail or at another site altogether.

Securing the FAA license is the last major hurdle the spaceport faces. State officials say moving the spaceport further from the trail or locating at another site isn’t logistically possible.

Susan Krueger, president of the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance, would not confirm that the site will be placed on the list but said such a designation would include a request that the FAA “take a close, careful look at alternative sites” for the facility. The preservation groups have scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. on the Mesilla Plaza to make a “major announcement.”

The FAA has to consider environmental impact before issuing a commercial spaceport license, and the preservation groups have been expressing concern about the trail for months.

Established in 1598, the historic trail was a primary economic route that ran between Mexico City and the Española Valley in Northern New Mexico, and served as a vital trade route linking Spain, through Mexico, with New Mexico.

In an effort to help protect the trail and reach a compromise, the spaceport authority and state have agreed to a 20-mile no-development zone around the spaceport, limiting of vehicle traffic in part by providing park-and-ride facilities in Hatch and Truth or Consequences, committing to a single entry road to the spaceport using an existing county road that crosses the trail, and other moves to help preserve the area.

But Krueger said she is concerned that the spaceport will look like Los Angeles International Airport, complete with a number of runways, lots of security and bright lights. She said the FAA needs to conduct a “very careful, very thorough, very honest” analysis of the situation that includes knowing what the spaceport will look like when it’s first built and 20 years down the road.

In a guest column that ran Sunday in the Las Cruces Sun-News, spaceport authority Executive Director Rick Homans said the authority “wholeheartedly” welcomes the new designation from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

But Homans took issue with statements from preservationists that the spaceport threatens the trail.

“The trust, from day one, has exhibited concern about the impact of the spaceport on the trail. In response, we have opened a substantive dialogue, because we believe in the importance of the trail, and we intend to share a beautiful valley,” he wrote. “We have promised to work collaboratively to protect and preserve the trail, and to assist with public education, marketing and promotion as well. We believe, through collaboration and transparent communication, we can strike a balance between historic preservation and economic progress.”

Being added to the list of endangered places doesn’t guarantee preservation, but is used as part of an educational and lobbying campaign by the influential group.