Flows: Blueprint for Santa Fe is a report by Ken Hughes, chair of the Rio Grande Chapter's Conservation Committee, analyzing how Santa Fe can recognize, confront and reduce the threats coming our way due to changes wrought from global warming. It presents a variety of strategies that will cumulatively require major changes in the way we live. The strategies are grouped into five flows: water, mobility, energy, food, and conversation. The report is available in two formats:

• Text. (pdf. 0.6 Mb)

• Powerpoint slide show. (pdf. 3.4Mb)

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Mesa Del Sol is a master planned community expected to have 100,000 residents south of the Albuquerque airport.

For more on it, see the following article from the Sierran:

• Being There at the Creation of a Sustainable City - Mesa del Sol. By Susan Gorman and Blair Brown. September/October, 2005, Page 14.

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Redevelopment of the Broadway Boulevard and Central Avenue corridors just east of downtown Albuquerque is governed by the East Downtown Master Plan developed with input from our Central New Mexico Group.

For more on this project, see the following article from the Sierran, reprinted from newspapertree.com:

• We Won! Real Urban Living is Coming to East Downtown Albuquerque. By Susan Gorman and Blair Brown. May/June, 2005, Page 10.

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The US Army is working on an expansion of Fort Bliss that would increase its training area by up to 352,000 acres and bring up to 80,000 more people to the area, including dependents. The impact on El Paso and the surrounding desert are expected to be massive.

For more on this project, see the following article from the Sierran:

• Fort Bliss Expansion a Done Deal; Now, Let's Talk Impact, by Sito Negron, January/February, 2007, page 13.

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This page is the entry point for a variety of campaigns and issues related to land use in the urban areas of the Rio Grande Chapter.

The Sierra Club, America's oldest and largest environmental organization, named the East Downtown (EDO) Redevelopment Project - Historic Albuquerque High one of America's Best New Development projects, in a report the group released in November, 2005. Better known for its efforts to combat sprawling construction, the group is making the point that there is a better way to build and produce healthy and livable communities.

"Too often local governments accept poorly planned development, and the traffic that goes with it, because they believe they have no other choice," said the Sierra Club's Carl Pope. "Our hope is that Americans will be inspired by the East Downtown (EDO) Redevelopment Project - Historic Albuquerque High and demand better projects in their own communities."

Using these historic buildings, with the existing infrastructure to create vibrant living and working space is a real win for Albuquerque. This redevelopment of long vacant buildings has rescued a threatened section of Central Avenue and the surrounding neighborhoods from continuing decline. This is an example of how a new vision for a neighborhood, driven by local residents and implemented by businessmen with support from city and state officials can become real. The partnership between neighborhood groups, businesses and local and state government has made a better Albuquerque; with increased economic activity, protection of historically significant buildings, and the creation of an area where it is easy to walk and use public transportation.

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Ken Hughes, Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club's Rio Grande Chapter explained: "The revitalization of downtown Albuquerque over the last 15 years, along with projects like Historic Albuquerque High shows how a city can turn itself around. The visionary leadership from public officials, the business community and community at-large have made the proverbial silk purse out of a sow's ear."

In addition to the East Downtown (EDO) Redevelopment Project's Historic Albuquerque High, Sierra Club applauded a diverse set of other projects, from cities large and small, to suburbs, to small towns in each corner of the nation. They involve economically challenged areas like Fruitvale in Oakland and Highland Park in Milwaukee, as well as well-off areas like Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. They also included massive projects like Atlantic Station in Atlanta, which encompasses 138 acres and includes 12 million square feet of retail, office, residential and hotel, and by contrast, smaller scale projects like 66 residential homes and an industrial building in Hopkins, Minnesota.

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To merit consideration for the Sierra Club's top development honors, projects had to:

• Offer a range of transportation choices, including walking, biking, and public transportation;
• Redevelop existing areas, rather than developing natural areas, working farmland, or wetlands;
• Locate homes, retail shops, and offices close to each other;
• Preserve existing community assets, by re-using older buildings and protecting rivers, woodlands, and farms;
• Minimize stormwater pollution and handle runoff in an environmentally responsible manner;
• Be the product of meaningful input by local citizens and reflect a broad set of local values.

The Sierra Club also considered the use of "green building" design and housing affordability in compiling our list of the best new development.

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"The single, most important factor in all of these projects is that neighborhood residents actually had a say in how they were built," explained Pope. "And when you ask people what they want, they ask for ways to get to and from work without sitting in traffic, and they want walkable neighborhoods, clean water, and green space."

Much of the development in New Mexico and the United States today is sprawling, low density, car-dependent "big box" or "strip-mall" construction, which produces more and more traffic and harms our land, air, and water. While the Sierra Club opposes poorly planned, sprawling development, built on natural areas and farmland, it actively supports quality investment in areas that already have a history of development to enhance communities and the environment. By reinvesting in existing neighborhoods and creating more walkable, transit accessible places to live and work, a select subset of the nation's development leaders are raising the bar for neighborhood design.

Click here to view the complete report (pdf. 1.9Mb).

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