Santa Fe presents designs for water‑wise median makeover, seeks up to $3.8M more

Santa Fe Parks and Open Space and consultant Site Southwest presented design plans and a community‑engagement summary for a median beautification project covering four entrance corridors to the city and asked the governing body to consider funding the next design and implementation steps.

Scott Overly, Parks and Open Space project manager 3, told the City Council the effort targets Airport Road, Cerrillos Road, North St. Francis Drive and Old Pecos Trail and is intended to create “gateway” medians that are safer, lower‑water and lower‑maintenance than existing planting. Overly said the city contracted Sites Southwest after legislative funding and community outreach began in January.

Shasta Meehan, a landscape designer at Site Southwest, walked councilors through preliminary visuals showing landscape walls, pigmented concrete paired with mortared cobble, gravel planting beds and lower‑water plant palettes. Meehan said the team has completed five public engagement meetings, interviewed key stakeholders including Keep Santa Fe Beautiful and the Public Works Department, and will produce 100% construction drawings so the designs are shovel‑ready for contractors.

Meehan and Overly emphasized measures to reduce long‑term weeds and maintenance: deeper gravel sections (about six inches), landscape fabric and improved joint detailing in concrete and cobble work. The team also proposed planting suites with pollinator‑friendly species such as Hesperaloe, Apache plume and chamisa and said color palettes will favor reds and blues to attract bees and hummingbirds.

Melissa McDonald, Parks leadership, and the design team said the project received $1.7 million in one‑time legislative and GRT appropriations but the current design and a more detailed cost estimate put the likely total near $5.5 million. George Radnavich of Site Southwest told councilors the earlier figure was an estimate based on linear footage; now that the team has a design they applied square‑foot cost metrics (roughly $20 per square foot for hardscape and $8 per square foot for landscape) and found construction costs and market escalation are the main drivers for the increase.

Councilors asked several practical questions: how the plans relate to roadway work (staff said the medians are being designed within existing footprints and the Airport Road median work would be coordinated with an upcoming repaving on that corridor), how the team will work with NMDOT on state‑owned segments (staff said the designs are intended to be engineered to NMDOT standards so they can be adopted by the state where applicable), and whether the city can phase work so templates can be reused across the city’s inner medians rather than building only high‑cost gateway artworks.

Councilors praised the design work and the focus on replicable templates but several — notably Councilor Michael Garcia — urged caution on committing funds beyond the $1.7 million already appropriated. Garcia said he supports starting 1 median (Airport Road) in coordination with the paving schedule but pressed staff to show square footage and a clearer plan for the additional $3.8 million the team said may be needed.

No vote or formal action was taken at the presentation; staff said they will return with final costed construction drawings, additional public outreach and options for phasing the work so the governing body can consider specific funding actions later.