Santa Fe committee approves application to adjust Candelario Park boundary for Zia Station deceleration lane

The Quality of Life Committee on April 23 voted to authorize a city representative to apply for a lot line adjustment to widen Zia Road and add a deceleration lane that would use a narrow northern strip of Candelario Park.

The vote advances a step the city says is necessary to meet traffic-safety standards tied to the Zia Station mixed‑use development and to comply with the traffic engineer’s recommendation. Committee sponsors said the action simply allows the city, as property owner, to pursue the administrative lot‑line process; it does not itself change the plat or park ownership.

Assistant City Attorney Rebecca McCurman told the committee the Zia Station preliminary development plan, approved by the governing body in April 2021, requires roadway improvements as a condition of issuing certificates of occupancy. McCurman said the project’s traffic impact analysis (exhibit C, page 45 of the packet) recommended expanding Zia Road and adding right‑turn deceleration lanes designed to State Access Management (SAM) standards. She said the city’s traffic engineer, Leroy Pacheco, concluded a deceleration lane of the length identified would reduce rear‑end…