Santa Fe County launches public participation plan to revise Sustainable Growth Management Plan

Santa Fe County planning staff on Wednesday detailed a public participation plan and initial framework to revise the county’s Sustainable Growth Management Plan (SGMP), with the stated aim of closing gaps between the county’s long-range vision and its land-development regulations.

Herbert Foster, planning team leader for growth management, described the SGMP as a 288-page document that currently includes only limited implementation guidance and said his team’s revision will prioritize actionable, community-based outcomes. Foster said the project will update SGMP elements, map where growth should occur and define a set of “community types” (rural, contemporary, traditional and urban or urban nodes) to better tailor development standards and zoning to local character.

Foster said the Agua Fria neighborhood and other community plans will be considered in the countywide mapping exercise; he also explained the SGMP’s sustainable development area (SDA) concept—SDA 1 for near-term growth, SDA 2 for later growth and SDA 3 for long-term rural areas—and said the revision should move away from a simple “infinite growth” model by emphasizing quality and location of…