In the midst of a comprehensive update of its municipal zoning code, the City of Santa Fe is wading through a great deal of material, from the mundane to the more notable, such as its first-in-the-nation historic district designations. They broke the project into three phases and hired a consultant, and the REALTORS® have been valued partners in the work from the beginning. When it was time to make sure the re-write of the first phase was all tidy and correct from a legal standpoint, the Santa Fe Association of REALTORS® reached out to the REALTOR® Party for help.
Donna Reynolds, SFAR’s Director of Government Affairs, serves on the city’s Land Use Committee. “They definitely wanted REALTOR® involvement, because of our understanding of the issues, but also because of our access to the Land Use Initiative program,” she says, referring to the REALTOR® Party’s arrangement with the law firm of Robinson & Cole, LLP, to review and analyze zoning legislation on behalf of state and local boards. “We are careful to use the LUI program judiciously – I’d never submit the whole re-write – but we’re happy to engage them to keep an eye on particular items. Re-writing the entire code, there are always issues of accuracy and consistency, even if there’s nothing particularly controversial in play.”
In updating the zoning code, the city wanted to increase user-friendliness, eliminate redundancies, and present information using more visuals, “To make the official document a little more palatable, and less scary,” says Reynolds. The substantive code changes that were submitted for the LUI review included the removal of overlay district redundancy; the creation of new voluntary density bonuses for affordable housing developments; the codification of existing REALTOR® signage regulations; and allowing fourplexes by right in R-1 non-historic zoning districts.
Reynolds notes that she was especially eager to get the regulations governing real estate signs codified, so that something so basic and necessary to the industry would have legal protection. “This is a really important reason to be paying attention to land use code re-writes: REALTORS® might not realize that laws could be written-in affecting how they are able to conduct their business.” The law firm’s analysis was very helpful in identifying inconsistencies and issues surrounding increased density bonuses, among other proposed changes, reports Reynolds. She used the report to develop talking points for a meeting with the City of Santa Fe’s Land Use Director, who was grateful for the insights and advice, and fine-tuned the re-write accordingly.
“The Land Use Initiative program is such a valuable tool, allowing us to bring real zoning expertise to our work with the city and county,” says Reynolds. “Our local attorneys know the area, but they don’t focus solely on zoning issues all the time. The LUI gets us an additional legal review that capitalizes on deep knowledge of cases and models nationwide. It’s very specialized, and we’re so grateful that NAR provides the service.”
As Santa Fe enters the following phases of the project, Reynolds expects she will be calling on the program again. She observes that, “AI is certainly going to become a tool in land use review; we’re going to see a drastically altered way of approaching these tasks, with software tools and coding already in use. It is a comfort to have a team of real experts on our side.”
To learn more about how the Santa Fe Association of REALTORS® is working to help the city bring its zoning laws up-to-date with an eye toward protecting members, contact Government Affairs Director Donna Reynolds at donna@sfar.com or 505.982.8385.
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