Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
City wants right of way owned by State Land Office; Philippou has agreed to try to trade for the land and give it to the city if he gets it
As part of the settlement with developer Philip Philippou that the City of Las Cruces announced earlier this week, the city said Philippou was giving it a right of way along Mesa Grande Drive from U.S. Highway 70 to Lohman Avenue.
That may or may not happen, because Philippou doesn’t currently own that right of way.
Philippou does own a right of way along Weisner Road — further east toward the Organ Mountains. He offered that to the city, but what the city really wanted was the Mesa Grande right of way, which is owned by the State Land Office.
The Weisner right of way is larger, at 70.9 acres, than the 47.3-acre Mesa Grade right of way. Philippou agreed to try to make a trade with the land office so he could give the Mesa Grande land to the city, Assistant City Manager Robert Garza confirmed.
That’s interesting in part because Philippou and the land office have a long history that includes a controversial land deal and some large campaign contributions.
Whether the land office is open to such a trade with Philippou isn’t clear. Garza said he doesn’t know whether the land office will agree to the trade, and the land office has not responded to a request for comment.
Either way, the city will get a right of way along one of the two roads that run between Highway 70 and Lohman. Garza said the settlement between the city and Philippou stipulates that Philippou will give the city the Weisner right of way if he’s unable to trade it for the Mesa Grande right of way.
“But we would prefer Mesa Grande,” Garza said. Mesa Grande is on the edge of the city’s current development on the East Mesa and would likely be needed sooner.
Philippou’s history with the land office
The relationship between Philippou and the land office has long been controversial.
Pat Lyons, the state land commissioner, bypassed his own bidding process and agreed to lease thousands of acres of public land in Las Cruces to Philippou in 2006. Around the same time, Lyons received approximately $30,000 in campaign contributions from Philippou and a political committee and lobbyists tied to the developer.
That raised quite a few eyebrows in Las Cruces and around the state. It led to a change in state law that requires the land office to now use a competitive bidding process that can’t be bypassed.
The controversy also led to a request from a lawmaker for an AG opinion on the legality of the land office’s deal with Philippou.
Attorney General Gary King has said the deal is flawed. The AG’s formal opinion states that the lease agreement’s method of compensating Philippou’s company for developing the land is “not comprehended by and in conflict with” a statute that allows developers who improve land for the state to be compensated only for the appraised value of the improvements.
The controversy surrounding Philippou’s deal with the land office helped fuel public outcry over the city’s growth policies and helped lead to the overthrowing of the city council in two elections held in late 2007 and early 2008.