One of the central questions in Tuesday’s Las Cruces municipal election is whether the city’s growth is out of control. This article is the first in a two-part series that explores that question. Today’s article looks at growth in a new area, while Thursday’s article will consider infrastructure needs in older neighborhoods.
By Vicki Nisbett
People who moved into homes in an East Mesa subdivision as long as 18 months ago are still waiting for the completion of drainage systems and landscaping and are experiencing problems with weed control and trash accumulation.
Residents of Dos Sueños, which is located north of U.S. Highway 70 on both sides of Jornada Road, have phoned numerous times and met with officials from the city and Logos Development, the Philip Philippou-owned corporation that built the subdivision, but many of their concerns haven’t been resolved. The developer says its outstanding projects in the subdivision should be complete in the next few weeks.
Whether
City officials say the developer needs to finish the infrastructure in Dos Sueños, and it must receive engineer approval, before they can take hold of the subdivision. That policy is common throughout the
“The developer is responsible,” he said.
Kirk Clifton, development administrator for Logos, said most of the work should be completed in four to six weeks. That includes construction of a 20- to 40-foot-wide concrete drainage ditch the city required on the north side of the subdivision.
“There’s been continuous work out there, although it might be slow,”
Dos Sueños is located in City Council District 5, which is represented by Gil Jones.
“I’ve asked our public works department to keep abreast on that project,” Jones said. “They’ve made a lot of headway. If the developer has any sense, he’ll get that done as quickly as he can because all of the utility bills (for the development, not individual homes), including the light bill, are on his nickel until he gets finished. ”
Fewer issues in newer subdivisions
Mike Johnson, city public works director, said one mile of a 37-foot-wide residential street costs about $2 million. Sixty percent of that is for storm drainage, water and gas.
“I’m really proud of that,” he said.
Dos Sueños residents are frustrated
But the new requirement doesn’t help Dos Sueños resident Karen Gunther, who said it should have been applied retroactively.
Dos Sueños resident Steve Kelly moved 14 months ago into a neighborhood that had no street lights and, during heavy rainstorms, water flowing into resident’s yards. Kelly said there were numerous car burglaries before January, when the final street lights were installed.
“I had my car broken into once, and my neighbor next door had his car broken into twice,” Kelly said.
Dave Arrey, another resident of Dos Sueños, made numerous calls to the city and developer after he almost ran over someone with his car on a dark street in the subdivision. The lights have since been installed but Arrey said, in the future, he wouldn’t move into a new development before infrastructure is complete.
Work is ongoing
Almost two years after the first lots were sold, the city provided on Tuesday a long list of items that Logos still needs to complete in addition to the drainage ditch, including cleaning of dirt and debris, installation of roadway markings, median grading, major water ponding and repair of several cracked curbs.
Completion of such infrastructure, even under the old requirements that apply to Dos Sueños, must happen before the city takes over maintenance.
Even upset residents say work is being done by Logos to complete outstanding issues, but they’re frustrated that it’s taking so long. Some streets have cement drainage funnel systems that were introduced by Logos after numerous complaints, but Kelly said the systems do not completely take care of the problem. The north-side drainage ditch isn’t complete.
Water flows from the
However, the retention pond’s completion is dependent upon agreements with other developers, and won’t likely happen for several years, so Logos decided to go ahead with the drainage ditch at Dos Sueños.
“(The retention pond) was taking so long, we just completed the ditch as originally planned,”
In the meantime
In the meantime, residents say there are still problems. Beer bottles have been thrown into medians that aren’t landscaped, Kelly said. Some of his neighbors’ yards have been flooded and their landscaping washed away during rainstorms.
On one occasion after a rain, Kelly said he and some neighbors called the city and developer numerous times to clean up the mud and debris on the streets. Logos eventually came out, he said, to sweep it into piles next to residents’ rock walls.
The developer is not responsible for landscaping its subdivisions,
Adjacent to some corner lots, there are semi-circular rock planters that are full of weeds. Kelly said he and two of his neighbors recently shared the $200 cost to buy plants, landscape paper and rocks for one of the corner planters.
Near some houses weeds are more than 5 feet tall.
Meanwhile, “We’re paying city taxes,” Kelly said about the overall problems in the development. “The city and the developer keep pointing fingers at each other and nothing gets done.”
Meeting with residents
Kay said letters sent from Logos to some residents three weeks after the meeting did address some individual concerns, but others are outstanding.
Nisbett is a reporting intern for Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics.