Santa Fe Planning Commission grants standing to AES interveners, sets Feb. 3 hearing format

The Santa Fe County Planning Commission on Jan. 16 voted to grant standing to multiple organizations and individuals seeking to intervene in AES’s conditional use permit application (case 24-52100) and set the format and time limits for a consolidated public hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Feb. 3, 2025, at the Santa Fe Convention Center.

Commissioners approved a hearing schedule that staff will present first, the applicant will make an initial presentation of up to one hour, then each party granted standing will have up to 30 minutes (to use for presentation, witnesses and cross‑examination). The applicant will have a 30‑minute rebuttal period after all parties with standing have presented. Public comment will follow; individuals will have three minutes each, and up to four people may cede their time to a single speaker for a combined maximum of 15 minutes.

The hearing concerns AES’s conditional use permit for a large‑scale solar and battery energy storage facility. The commission’s action on Jan. 16 addressed two separate procedural issues: (1) which organizations and individuals qualify as “parties with…