Planning commission outlines phased review of Santa Fe comprehensive plan and zoning code; staff to start with manufactured housing and light manufacturing

The Santa Fe Planning and Zoning Commission discussed how to begin a citywide review of the comprehensive plan and Unified Development Code and directed city planning staff to prepare a phased public-review schedule that starts with manufactured/mobile-home districts and light manufacturing before tackling highway commercial.

City planning staff explained the comprehensive plan is a guidance document the commission and staff use to evaluate rezoning and development requests; it is not a blanket rezoning map. Staff said the plan helps the city meet grant requirements but does not replace zoning. Commissioners asked how the board’s recommendations should be presented to City Council and whether the commission’s work will produce formal suggested regulation changes. Staff said the commission’s role is to identify suggested regulatory changes and that the process will include public hearings where required by law.

Commissioners and staff discussed logistics for public outreach, including required mailed notices to property owners within a statutory radius (staff cited a 200-foot radius for certain notices), the cost of mailings (city staff said funds were already set aside for the outreach mailings), and the legal public-hearing process. City planning staff said the city’s last comprehensive map file was from 2022 and that the digital GIS zoning file the office had previously used was lost; rebuilding a searchable GIS layer will be expensive and could delay some workflows. Staff recommended breaking the review into small, manageable blocks so the city does not exhaust notification budgets or run long public meetings.

Commissioners suggested practical limits for each review session (one commissioner recommended 10 topics per meeting as a starting point) and discussed holding the discussions as the last agenda item so interested members of the public who can stay will attend after regular business. Staff proposed a target start in July, allowing time for newspaper postings, mailed notices and budgeting; staff said a 15-day notice period is typical for meeting postings and mailings in their planning timeline. The commission asked staff to return with printed zoning maps for commissioners to use during meetings and to bring a recommended schedule for the first block of topics to the June meeting for an update.

Commissioners emphasized the need to preserve existing lawful uses: staff explained that when an ordinance changes, existing conforming uses generally remain lawful as legal nonconforming uses until certain conditions (such as vacancy or change of use) require re-evaluation. The commission did not adopt regulatory changes at this meeting but voted to proceed with the phased review process and public-notice plan presented by staff.