On Tuesday, October 10, 2017, 5:29 PM, Veronica Salinas via Neighbors_nobhill-nm <neighbors_nobhill-nm@mailman.swcp.com> wrote:

Dear Neighbors:

Amendment D, sponsored by City Councilor Pat Davis, will be voted on at tomorrow's LUPZ meeting on October 11 at 5:00 pm. It will set commercial building heights in Nob Hill and Highland for IDO zoning. 

Although the heights in lower Nob Hill have been reduced to the maximum allowable heights in our sector plan (thank you Pat Davis!), commercial building heights in Highland are going up from 67 to 89 ft. (or 2-stories). And we are losing approximately 80% of the "step-down" requirements, which provide a gradual transition from commercial to residential zones, in both Nob Hill and Highland.

In practice, this means that an 89 ft. commercial building could go up directly across the street from a 1-story historic residential building along Copper between Graceland (1 block west of Washington) and San Mateo. These residential properties along Copper could also lose their winter solar access and be in complete shade on winter solstice.

If you want to maintain the heights in our current sector plan and retain our "step-downs" (called Neighborhood Edges in the new IDO), please reply all to this e-mail to let Pat Davis know. The letter below contains more information on the proposed changes.

Thank you,

Veronica Salinas

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Veronica Salinas <veronique_salinas@yahoo.com>

To: Pat Davis <patdavis@cabq.gov>; Pat Davis <davis.patrick@gmail.com>; Sean M. Foran <seanforan@cabq.gov>; Petra Morris <pmorris@cabq.gov>; Shanna M. Schultz <smschultz@cabq.gov>

Cc: TheBoard NobHill-NM <theboard@nobhill-nm.com>; Gary & Melodie Eyster <meyster1@me.com>; Susan Michie-Maitlen <sgm150@ymail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2017, 5:05:58 PM MDT

Subject: LUPZ Amendment D

Dear Pat:

I would like to thank you for the hard work both you and your staff have put into Amendment D to address the neighborhoods' concerns. The IDO proposed almost doubling commercial building heights in Nob Hill and Highland. Amendment D represents a vast improvement over these proposed changes, but the Neighborhood Edges provision in the IDO, which replaces the "step-back" requirement in our current sector plan could still be improved. 

Commercial building heights in Amendment D are much closer to what is in our current sector plan, but they are still being increased from 39 to 42 ft. in lower Nob Hill (Girard to Aliso), 54 to 57 ft. in upper Nob Hill (Aliso to Graceland), 26 to 30 ft. in MX-T zones in Nob Hill and Highland (Girard to San Mateo) and 67 to 89 ft. in Nob Hill and Highland (Graceland to San Mateo). This means that zoning is becoming less restrictive in Nob Hill and Highland yet again. 

In addition, the Neighborhood Edges provision in the IDO falls far short of the gradual transitions provided for by the "step-back" requirements in the 2014 Nob Hill-Highland Sector Development Plan. The "step-back" requirement (page 89) allows a maximum building height of 26 ft. at the property line in commercial zones (CCR-1, CCR-2, CCR-3, SU-1) located adjacent to residential zones, regardless of zoning (SFHD, MFHD, R-1, R-2, R-3, C-1, C-2, O-1, OR-1, OR-2, P-R, SU-1, SU-2). Commercial buildings are then required to step-back 15 ft. for every 1-story increase in building height. The purpose of this provision is to facilitate a gradual transition between residential and commercial zones, which is imperative for maintaining the human scale and walkability of our neighborhood.

The Neighborhood Edges provision does not afford these same protections. This is because current zones such as R-3, C-1, O-1, OR-1, OR-2, P-R, SU-1, SU-2 located adjacent to residential zones north of Copper and south of Silver have been mapped to R-ML, R-MH, MX-T and MX-L zones in the IDO. However, the Neighborhood Edges provision in the IDO only applies to R-A, R-1, R-T and R-MC, which means those properties zoned R-ML, R-MH, MX-T and MX-L are no longer protected under the Neighborhood Edges provision in the IDO (see https://www.abc-zone.com/ido-zoning-conversion-map).

I request that you please keep the standard maximum building heights in Highland of 45 ft. with the allowance of two 1-story bonuses because this is most consistent with the current 67 ft. maximum. I also request that you extend the Neighborhood Edges provision to include R-ML, R-MH, MX-T and MX-L along Copper between Carlisle and San Mateo and along Silver between Girard and Montclaire.

Thank you,

Veronica Salinas

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