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Trustees approve LCPS accessory CTE building in Mesilla after debate over $60,000 fee waiver
Summary
The board approved Las Cruces Public Schools' application to build a 4,295‑square‑foot career and technical education building at Rio Grande Prep, and debated whether to waive roughly $60,000 in town development/zoning fees for a government applicant before voting to approve the application under standard fee rules.
Trustees voted May 11 to approve Las Cruces Public Schools’ application to construct a 4,295 gross‑square‑foot career and technical education (CTE) building at the Rio Grande Prep campus at 2355 Avenida de Mesilla, while declining on the spot to universally waive roughly $60,000 in zoning and development fees without a separate policy.
Eddie Salazar, community and economic development director, told the board the CMU/steel building will include classrooms, a CTE workshop area focused on construction trades, restrooms and storage. Robert Williams, LCPS construction project manager, said the school currently enrolls about 30 high‑school students at the campus and that the new building is designed to support hands‑on trade training; LCPS and partners have discussed evening or community classes but program details remain to be worked out.
Salazar estimated the project could approach $3,000,000 and said the town’s development fees—because the fee schedule scales by project cost—would run to roughly $60,000. Board members debated options: some trustees favored waiving or discounting fees for another government body as a customary practice; others urged consistency and asked staff to research prior waiver decisions for churches, state entities or nonprofits before making a policy change.
Trustee (speaker 3) said the town typically waives small school project fees but that the scale of this project merited board consideration. Trustee (speaker 9) warned that an ad hoc waiver could create inconsistent precedent. After discussion, trustees approved the development application as submitted under the standard fee process; Salazar noted that past small school projects had their fees waived, but this larger project will follow the town’s regular process unless the board later adopts a code amendment or discount policy.
Why it matters: The new CTE facility is intended to expand hands‑on career training for high‑school students in the region. The fee debate highlighted how the town balances supporting public‑education partners with the need for consistent municipal fee policy.
The project will proceed to building permits; Salazar said the town would mark parking and ADA spaces as required and that construction bids could go out as soon as state funding arrives, with a roughly nine‑month construction timeline if funding is secured.
