{"id":3109,"date":"2008-04-17T10:04:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-17T16:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/lyons-goes-ahead-with-land-deals-despite-ag-opinion\/"},"modified":"2008-04-17T10:04:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-17T16:04:00","slug":"lyons-goes-ahead-with-land-deals-despite-ag-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/lyons-goes-ahead-with-land-deals-despite-ag-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyons goes ahead with land deals despite AG opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>New Mexico Land Commissioner Pat Lyons<\/a> plans to proceed with several land deals across the state that include a provision the attorney general says is not allowed by law. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to move ahead, create economic development,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> told the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> for an article published on Wednesday. \u201cWe suggest the attorney general work with us, not against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyons is now planning to proceed with land deals in Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe despite a February AG opinion that took issue with a key provision in a similar deal in Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The formal opinion<\/a> related to The Vistas at Presidio land deal on Las Cruces\u2019 East Mesa states that the lease agreement\u2019s<\/a> method of compensating Philip Philippou\u2019s company for developing the land is \u201cnot comprehended by and in conflict with\u201d a statute that allows developers who improve land for the state to be compensated only for the appraised value of the improvements. In the lease, the land office also agrees to compensate Philippou for other project costs and 40 percent of the change in value of the land as a result of the improvements.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The office of Attorney General Gary King<\/a> said when it released its opinion in February that it did not plan to take Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to court to try to void the agreement. Later, after Lyons disputed the AG opinion<\/a>, King told me he would \u201cwait to see what happens next and then decide our next course of action,\u201d adding that, \u201cif the land commissioner chooses not to take our advice on this matter, he does so at his own risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That prompted Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to put the land deals across the state with similar provisions on hold while his office met with King\u2019s to try to resolve the issue. The two offices did not come to an agreement. Lyons<\/st1:city> is now proceeding with several deals, including the sale of land north of Highway 70 in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> that Philippou has already developed in a deal separate from The Vistas at Presidio.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

King\u2019s spokesman, Phil Sisneros, told me Wednesday that the attorney general\u2019s position has not changed.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain open to discussions with the land office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico Land Commissioner Pat Lyons plans to proceed with several land deals across the state that include a provision the attorney general says is not allowed by law. \u201cI want to move ahead, create economic development,\u201d Lyons told the Albuquerque Journal for an article published on Wednesday. \u201cWe suggest the attorney general work with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}