Santa Fe council finance committee hears Planning and Land Use budget, staff outline digital permitting, general plan and code updates

The Santa Fe Finance Committee on March 4 reviewed the Planning and Land Use department's fiscal year 2026 budget request, hearing a presentation from Planning and Land Use Director Heather Lamboy and Community Development Director Alisa Montoya on priorities including a general plan update, phase 1 of a land development code rewrite, investments in electronic permit review and a digital public platform.

The budget presentation emphasized operational efficiency and modernizing permit review. "This development guide is gonna give us an opportunity to help lay out in simple terms to the development community and the community at large all of our processes," said Heather Lamboy, director of Planning and Land Use, noting the department aims to implement electronic review for all building permits in FY26.

Why it matters: The department is asking for one-time and recurring resources to reduce permit review timelines and support two foundational projects'a general plan update and a multi-phase land development code rewrite'that staff said have not been updated in decades. Lamboy said the city has already scanned more than 250 boxes of historical planning records and will continue to upload GIS-based materials so the public and applicants can track active applications online.

Most important details - Lamboy told the committee Planning and Land Use has about 68 full-time employees and roughly 10 current vacancies. "At this point, we have approximately 10 vacancies," she said. - The department reported roughly 24,000 inspections in calendar year 2024 and cited the need for positions such as a civil engineer and construction inspectors to maintain service levels. - Contracts request: Planning requested about $1,600,000 for contracts toward the general plan and code updates; the governing body approved $755,000 of that, Lamboy said. - Budget change drivers include a 3% COLA and class-and-compensation adjustments; Lamboy reported the overall Planning and Land Use budget increase is about 2.9%.

Debate and committee concerns Committee members pressed staff about hiring and the trade-offs between frozen positions and contracted services. Councilor Lee Garcia asked why salaries rose while contractuals and utilities dropped; Lamboy answered that keeping technical expertise in-house is preferable but contracts are still needed when specialized staff are not available.

Councilor Faulkner and others expressed concern about cutting third-party plan-review contracts while moving toward in-house electronic review. "The intent is really to not let go of that," Lamboy said, adding the department expects a transition period and wants to retain some third-party capacity during the changeover to OpenGov and e-review.

Technology and process changes Lamboy and staff described work to integrate Bluebeam (e-review software) with permitting systems and discussed limits of the current EnerGov implementation. The department is evaluating OpenGov as an alternative to address applicant notifications, mobile inspector workflows and reporting. "OpenGov'we investigated that based on the good experience into other portions of this or other departments of the city," Lamboy said, adding that OpenGov offers more applicant notifications and mobile access.

Staffing, vacancies and frozen positions Staff described frozen positions that include a civil engineer and several inspection staff that have affected turnaround times. City management later characterized some frozen positions as able to be "thawed" if candidates are available and funding can be realigned during the year.

Actions The Finance Committee preliminarily approved the Planning and Land Use budget by roll call vote during the meeting. The committee recorded a roll-call outcome of the motion and the vote was recorded as passing during the session.

Background and next steps Lamboy said phase 1 of the land development code will come through committee in May and June and she expects broad public engagement for the Santa Fe Forward general-plan update beginning in mid-June. Staff said resource limits could require prioritizing contract work and some parts of the implementation schedule.

Ending Committee discussion closed with a request from Councilor Lee Garcia and staff to bring supplemental economic analysis and to continue tracking permit timelines and the impact of the permitting technology transition.