New legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate designed to accelerate the building of broadband infrastructure on tribal lands, while also reducing the paperwork leading up to the approval of such projects. The measure, introduced by New Mexico Senator Tom Udall, would establish a working group with the mission of improving federal efforts to build broadband infrastructure in Native communities. “It is unacceptable that Americans living on tribal lands, in addition to tribal governments, face so many barriers to accessing reliable broadband,” Udall said in a statement. The Senator added that the legislation, co-sponsored by Washington Senator Maria Cantwell, is entirely focused on “connecting tribal communities with broadband funding and eliminating bureaucratic hurdles so that we can bridge this tribal digital divide.” If passed, the bill, otherwise known as the Bridging the Tribal Digital Divide Act of 2020, would also set aside both Federal Communications Commission and U.S Department of Agriculture funds for broadband infrastructure construction. According to a report issued by the FCC in the spring of 2019, fewer than 50 percent of current households on Native lands have access to a fixed broadband service. The report added that that number represented a significant 27 percentage point difference compared to households in non-tribal rural areas. The legislation, Senate Bill 3264, is now being reviewed by members of the Committee on Indian Affairs. By Garry Boulard
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santa fe center dedicated to substance abuse treatment may receive funding for facility expansion2/25/2020 A 15 year-old recovery center based in Santa Fe that serves up to 1,300 people on an annual basis may soon be receiving state funding for facility expansion work. Located at 5312 Jaguar Drive, the Santa Fe Recovery Center treats those with a variety of substance abuse issues on both a residential and outpatient basis. Formerly known as the Recovering Alcoholics Program, the non-profit center moved to its Jaguar Drive location in the spring of 2018 where it has both administrative offices and a busy outpatient effort. The center additionally opened a treatment facility at 4100 Lucia Lane, which uniquely allows for women and their children to reside at the center. Last year Santa Fe Recovery Center officials said they hoped to eventually build more residential space, as well as sober living units. Now, members of the New Mexico State Legislature have approved spending some $2.1 million for the center to expand its facility out of a total of more than $700 million in capital outlay expenditures. Now it is up to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to approve or reject the $2.1 million. Any legislation passed in the most recent session not acted upon by the Governor as of March 11 is regarded as being officially pocket vetoed. By Garry Boulard A new apartment complex with just under 150 residential units may soon be going up on the west side of Denver. The Denver-based GM Development has purchased a former one-story funeral home that was built in 1960 and designed by well-known local architect J. Roger Musick. A previous developer had suggested building a similar apartment facility at the same 2-acre site, but with plans to demolish what is officially called the Olinger Moore Howard Chapel, which was closed in early 2019. An effort to save the structure by local preservationists ad neighbors prompted the original developer to withdraw from the project. In its place, GM Development has promised to keep the roughly 14,000 square-foot funeral home structure intact, while also upgrading the building. The new multi-story apartment complex would be built around the former funeral home. Exact plans for the site, as well as a construction schedule, have not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard A return to the classical style of architecture, gracing the oldest federal buildings in Washington and in many other cities across the country, is being urged by a group called the National Civic Art Society. The Washington-based NCAS is a nonprofit organization promoting what is defined as the “classical tradition,” not only in architecture, but also in the arts in general. The group has taken off against modern government structures built mostly in the last half century, which it says rejects “traditional standards of beauty and harmony.” The movement has now won the support of the Trump Administration as seen in a draft of an executive order declaring that “Federal architecture should once again inspire respect instead of bewilderment or repugnance.” If the order should become law, it would update the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture written in 1962, and would require that all new federal public buildings costing more than $50 million must adapt a classical architectural style. The move has sparked the opposition of a number of professional architecture organizations, including the American Institute of Architects which says that building design decisions “should be left to the designer and the community, not bureaucrats in Washington.” In an open letter to the Trump Administration, the AIA further argues that “all architectural styles have value and all communities have the right to weigh in on the government buildings meant to serve them.” Writing for the website Salon, Kai Gutschow, a professor of architecture with Carnegie Mellon University, said the classical style “doesn’t always symbolize democratic ideas of self-government.” “Dictators, plutocrats and autocrats have long used the classical style to connect the grandeur of the Roman empire to their own power,” continued Gutschow. “Hitler, Stalin and King Jong-II all favored classically inspired buildings.” But author Andrew Ferguson, writing in the Atlantic, noted: “After World War II, the federal government adopted modernism in its many variations as a kind of house architectural style, and as a consequence has managed to build a very large number of unlovely buildings.” According to sources, the executive order draft is currently in the initial stages of development, with no time frame set for when it will be officially announced. By Garry Boulard A new air service line, and a possible new facility to accommodate it, may be in the future of the Roswell International Air Center. The airport has received a $750,000 federal grant designed to expand its services, with a commercial airline flight connecting Roswell to Denver. The funding is coming through a Small Community Air Service Development grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation. The service would belong to United Airlines, which has not yet announced when the connecting line will be launched. The grant has a two-year window for use, although that timeline could be extended. In an interview with the Roswell Daily Record, Scott Stark, director of the Rowell airport, said having the federal funding available “puts us into the next phase of our air service development plan.” With roots reaching back to World War II, the Roswell airport currently offers flights to Dallas and Phoenix by American Airlines. An earlier study conducted for the Roswell airport determined that the most logical new flight service would be between Roswell and Denver. That connection, because of the size of the Denver hub, would additionally provide connections to more than thirty other destinations. The Small Community Air Service Development Program has awarded just under $200 million in grants in the last two decades. Those grants, ranging in size from $20,000 to just over $1.5 million, have gone to airports in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. The program has also just awarded $950,000 to the Grand Junction Regional Airport Authority for the possible creation of a new service to San Francisco. By Garry Boulard A project that could see the eventual construction of nearly 4,000 new homes in a community-like setting has won the approval of the Fort Collins City Council. What is being called Montava will be developed by the Fort Collins-based development company HF2M, going up on some 850 currently vacant and rural acres just to the west of the famous Anheuser-Busch production facility at 2531 Busch Drive. Long in the talking and planning stage, the project is designed to respond to both the continuing population growth of northern Colorado, as well as the stated desires of homebuyers who put as much stock in the neighborhoods they are moving into as they do the houses they are buying. Plans submitted to the Fort Collins council have shown a development with residential units of varying sizes on winding landscaped streets inside a community that will also include schools, retail space, a town center, and green space. All of the homes, some 60 percent of which will be single-family with the rest multi-family, will be built to zero energy standards. The developer has also agreed to the construction of just under 400 homes to be designated as affordable housing for residents earning at least 60 percent of the area median income. An additional feature of the project, which is also being seen in more and more planned community developments in the West, will be the creation of a working farm. It is thought that it may cost as much as $300 million to totally build out Montava, working on a time frame that may not reach completion for another three decades. By Garry Boulard The Commerce Department is reporting that building permits for new housing increased by 9.2 percent last month, their highest point since early 2007. Those permits are for both single and multi-family projects and comprise more than 1.5 million units. Single-family permits were up by 6.4 percent in January, while the multi-family permits revealed a vibrant 14.6 percent increase. Despite those strong numbers, the same Commerce report showed that housing starts fell by some 3.6 percent in January, after increasing during the three previous months. Although those numbers were on the down side, many analysts said the decline was less than expected, with CNBC reporting: “The housing market remains on solid footing, supported by the lowest mortgage rates in more than three years.” The numbers also stack up well compared to where they were exactly a year ago, which is thought to be almost entirely due to declining interest rates. The Commerce report, Monthly New Residential Construction, also noted that housing completions last month were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,280,000. “This is 3.3 percent below the revised December estimate of 1,323,000, but it is 1.5 percent above the January 2019 rate of 1,261,000,” the report said. By Garry Boulard Nearly $4.1 million has been approved by state lawmakers in Santa Fe for the construction of a much talked-about soccer and multi-sports center in Albuquerque. The proposal is part of a much larger $528 million total capital outlay bill, introduced as House Bill 349, and now awaiting New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham’s signature. The soccer complex has received particular attention, owing to the growing popularity of the New Mexico United soccer team, which has been attracting record crowds to their matches at the Isotopes Park. On average, nearly 12,600 people have been turning out to watch the team, far above the attendance recorded by other United Soccer League teams. Ticket prices have ranged between $13 and just under $100. The new stadium, as proposed, could seat up to 18,000 people. It is thought that it will ultimately cost around $100 million to build the new stadium. Last year, Peter Trevisani, chief executive officer of the New Mexico United, suggested to members of the New Mexico State Legislature’s Economic and Rural Development Committee that a new multi-use facility could also be used for artistic and retail space. An analysis of this year’s capital outlay projects by the Legislative Finance Committee notes that each proposal was subject to “site visits, review of infrastructure capital improvement plans, monthly meetings with major departments, and testimony held in the interim.” By Garry Boulard A move to provide regular funding for facility work on county courthouses across New Mexico is up for consideration in the New Mexico State Legislature in the final hours of its 2020 session. Senate Bill 244, which previously won the approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is asking for an appropriation of some $250 million to be spread out between fiscal years 2021 and 2024 for selected projects. According to the legislation proposed by Senator Ron Griggs, the funding will specifically be used to build, remodel, or renovate the courthouses. The money would be appropriated from the state’s general fund to the Department of Finance and Administration’s Local Government Division, which would then send the funding to qualifying counties. The legislation will not apply to the purchase of any land or buildings. As proposed, $100 million would be available for courthouse projects in the first fiscal year, with $50 million to be tapped for each fiscal year from 2022 to 2024. Currently just over $6.3 million is available for magistrate and district court improvement projects, with $2.2 million targeting the planning and design of a new magistrate court in Santa Fe. According to a fiscal impact report done by the Legislative Finance Committee on Griggs’ bill, the projects are currently “vetted using a variety of metrics,” including the criticality of need, feasibility, cost-benefit and other factors. The New Mexico State Legislature will wrap up its business at noon on February 20. By Garry Boulard While new apartment construction has been enjoying unprecedented growth across the country, the existence of the additional units has a negligible effect on area rents, says a new report. According to Xiadi Li, a real estate and urban economics scholar with the New York University’s Furman Center, fears that new market-rate housing may lead to a sudden spiral in the rents of other nearby apartment complexes may have been overstated. In fact, available evidence suggests that the average rent prices have in many cases marginally moved in the opposite direction. According to Li, “for every 10 percent increase in the housing stock within a 500-foot buffer, residential rents decrease by 1 percent.” The author adds: “Across neighborhoods, the impact is smaller in more central areas, presumably due to more elastic demand.” While the economic benefit of having a new high-rise housing luxury apartments has long been debated in many communities, Li notes that such completed projects also tend to attract “new full-service restaurants and coffee shops.” Li adds that, overall, if a new market-rate development doesn’t reduce area rent prices, it can have the effect of at least slowing down the growth rate of those prices. In an assertion sure to engage community activists worried about the negative consequences of increasingly larger high-rises, Li contends that “opposing such development may exacerbate the housing affordability crisis and increase housing cost burdens for local renters.” The Furman Center is devoted to the study of urban policy, housing, and neighborhoods. By Garry Boulard |
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