Members of the Albuquerque City Council are expected to take up a proposal next week calling for the creation of a new revenue source to fund a growing list of street infrastructure projects. District 2 City Councilor Isaac Benton earlier this year proposed a gasoline tax of two cents per gallon that he said could raise anywhere from $4.5 million to $5 million a year in revenue. The language for Benton’s proposal says revenue from what is officially called the Municipal Gasoline Tax will include improvements for roadways used for motor vehicles, “as well as for transit, pedestrians including the physically-challenged, and bicyclists.” Although currently a previously approved quarter-cent Gross Receipts Tax is being tapped into as a revenue source for road projects in Albuquerque, it is thought that that revenue is not enough to pay for all of the city’s street and road upkeep and enhancement needs. A previous version of Benton’s tax proposal in early 2018 failed after members of the council declined to take any action on it. As proposed, the new two cents per gallon tax would raise around $53 million over a period of 15 years. Formally introduced in June, Benton’s proposal cleared the council’s finance and government operations committee in late August. If approved next week by the city council, the gas tax proposal would have to go before Albuquerque voters, probably next year. By Garry Boulard
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Final numbers from last week’s election indicate that support for transit construction and operation initiatives remains strong across the country. Out of a total of 17 local or regional transit proposals on the ballot, 15 won voter approval. In a statement after the voting, Paul Skoutelas, chief executive officer of the American Public Transportation Association, remarked: “Even during this pandemic and economic downturn, voters have spoken and pledged their vote where they know it’s needed—public transportation investment.” Two Texas propositions, one in Austin and the other in San Antonio, providing additional operational support, were overwhelmingly approved by voters, while a ballot question asking for a mill levy increase to support improvements to the Mountain Line system in Missoula, Montana, also proved successful. Not all of the election news was good for transit enthusiasts. In a close contest, voters in Gwinnett County, Georgia rejected a 30-year sales tax that would have provided more than $12 billion for the expansion of the local transit system. This marks the second time Gwinnett voters have turned down a transit funding proposal. In one of the larger proposals, voters in Bend, Oregon overwhelmingly approved a $190 million bond designed to pay for a series of capital transportation projects. That bond will pay for the building of a two-lane roundabout, a trail overcrossing railroad tracks, and a new pedestrian and biking system. Perhaps because of the pandemic economy, many cities and counties this year declined to place transit bond questions on the ballot this year. This year’s voting took place against a backdrop seeing an estimated 76% drop in transit ridership nationally, which industry experts say is attributable to the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent national economic lockdown. By Garry Boulard The era of great skyscrapers may be returning to Phoenix. A project that will see the construction of a 535 foot-tall structure has now been approved by the Phoenix City Council. The project, set for downtown Phoenix, will surpass in height the well-known 483 foot-tall Chase Tower that went up in 1972. What is being called Astra Phoenix will belong to Aspirant Development, with a second tower topping out at 380 feet. Aspirant is a division of the Empire Group of Scottsdale. Project architect is the internationally known firm of Solomon Cordwell Buenz, which is based in Chicago. Planned for a nearly 3-acre site near the east side of Second Avenue, just to the south of Fillmore Street, the project, now approved by the Phoenix City Council, will house around four hundred luxury apartments as well as a 230-room hotel. The site has been the home to a parking lot serving the Lincoln Family YMCA, which last month announced it was closing with its services taken up by nearby YMCA branches. Also included in the project: 200,000 square feet of office space, and 40,000 square feet of retail space. Plans were originally announced for the $350 million high rise last fall. By Garry Boulard Plans have been announced for the construction of a new four-story, 122-room hotel on the south side of Mesa, Arizona. The structure will go up on a 5-acre site at 1911 South Mesa Drive, off the 300 and 400 blocks of East Baseline Road, and will be branded as a Woodspring Suites Hotel. The roughly 48,000 square-foot structure will also include a guest laundry area, gym, and parking spaces for 131 vehicles. According to city documents, the hotel, as designed by the Phoenix-based Gilmore Planning & Landscape Architecture, will “complement the existing buildings in this area as much as possible,” with a landscape design utilizing a “lush desert plant palette.” The structure will be comprised of stone, stucco and glass, with three colors of stucco used to “further break down the scale and add interest to the building façade.” Woodspring Suites, with nearly 300 locations nationally, advertises itself as extended stay hotels, featuring living room and kitchen space, and has long been prominent in the Midwest and South. The company, however, has also been growing its footprint in the West. It currently has nearly two dozen locations in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. An exact construction schedule for the new Mesa hotel has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard A greater governmental policy embrace of emerging technologies will help facilitate the country’s recovery from its current pandemic economy. So says a report just issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called the 2021 Technology Agenda, noting that even in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak, social unrest, and global economic disruptions, the country’s technology companies have been “innovating to rebuild our economy.” Looking at four areas of innovation, the study is calling for a “national data strategy that promotes a single privacy standard, robust artificial intelligence adoption, and government IT modernization.” Noting that 18 million Americans continue to lack access to high-speed broadband, the study recommends a federal initiative to fund enhanced “access and adoption,” along with “permit streamlining and smart regulation.” In the area of transportation, the study notes that technology today includes “drones, urban air mobility, and automated vehicles.” Such technology can be accelerated by “safely removing barriers to innovation, ensuring regulatory clarity, educating the public, and maintaining U.S. leadership.” Finally, in the area of workforce development, the study argues that policymakers “must empower the gig economy, modernizing immigrant laws, partner with the private sector on upskilling, and encourage the deployment of data centers.” The study additionally notes that today’s technology sector makes up some 6.5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, directly employing nearly 6 million people. In an overview of the study, Tom Quaadman, vice president of the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, asserts that “American innovation depends on a close and cooperative public-private partnership.” Quaadman adds: “Smart regulation can invigorate and incentivize business while protecting and enabling consumers.” By Garry Boulard A substance abuse recovery center with locations in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos wants to open a new facility on an 11-acre rural site just outside of Santa Fe. The project could see the possible upgrading and repurposing of a sprawling rectangular-shaped structure on the property in question with the goal of housing nearly two dozen women dealing with substance issues. Officials with the private-for-profit Shadow Mountain Recovery Centers, which additionally operates a facility in Spring Branch, Texas, say the new site will prove particularly conducive to the recovery process due to its bucolic setting. That site is at the end of the small, unpaved Calle Del Barrio road trailing off the Old Las Vegas Highway, roughly 12 miles to the southeast of downtown Santa Fe. Documents pertaining to the development of the site have been submitted to the County of Santa Fe, in particular the county’s Growth Management-Land Use Department. According to reports, the New Mexico State Historical Preservation Division has also reviewed the application for the project. Shadow Mountain centers are typically upscale developments with an emphasis on spacious living rooms, full kitchens, and comfortable residential quarters. The proposal has sparked the opposition of residents in the sparsely populated area primarily expressing concerns regarding the possibility that some of those receiving treatment may be dangerous. Center officials maintain that its clients are not dangerous and are typically white collar professionals with addiction challenges. Although it is not known when the county will make a final decision on the project, some neighbors, in an area where homes are often listed above the $250,000 mark, have vowed to take the matter to court should the project get a green light. Through a series of counseling and education initiatives, the Shadow Mountain centers address addiction issues holistically and claims to have a better than 85% recovery rate. By Garry Boulard Construction could begin before next spring on just over thirty affordable housing units in Las Cruces. Members of the Las Cruces City Council have given their approval to a resolution that will see the units, geared for lower-income residents, going up on around 4.5 acres of land not far from the Sierra Middle School on the northeast side of the city. The effort, to be built on land currently owned by Las Cruces, will include a variety of housing alternatives, with a dozen townhome and apartment units each, along with 8 single-family homes. What is being described as a new subdivision will be done as a partnership between the City of Las Cruces and the Tierra Del Sol Housing Corporation. Tierra Del Sol is a regional community housing group established in 1973 and spearheading the development and construction of hundreds of affordable housing units in southern New Mexico. The planning phase for the project, which will include utility infrastructure and street lights, is expected to begin next year, with actual construction starting in early 2022. By Garry Boulard Nearly $30 billion in new state and local borrowing measures was approved by voters last week across the country. Voters this year proved to be in a less resistant mood than in recent elections, rejecting well under 10% of the proposed bond measures, representing around $3 billion. Among the largest approved bond measures was the $7 billion for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and $3.6 billion for facility construction and improvement measures in the Dallas Independent School District. Voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, were divided on a series of bonds totaling over $560 million for various school district facility projects. Of the ten largest bond proposals nationally, more than half were for school improvement initiatives. Although the numbers all seem large, a report put together by IHS Markit indicated that the total borrowing represented by the bonds was the lowest for any election since 2012. The study suggested that many municipalities declined to propose new bonds due to the uncertainty of this year’s pandemic economy. New Mexico was one of the few states proposing a state-wide bond: Question C, otherwise known as the Public Education Bond Issue. Nearly 65% of voters approved $156.3 million in bonds for facility construction and upgrade projects for the state’s public higher education institutions, special public school, and tribal schools. The Maricopa vote saw a $60 million bond for school repair and update projects approved in the Cartwright Elementary School District; $130 million to build and renovate school buildings in the Glendale Union High School District; and $90 million for building improvements in the Roosevelt Elementary School District. In Denver, voters by a 78% to 22% margin, approved a $795 million bond for new school construction projects, as well as facility expansion, update, and modernization work. By Garry Boulard A plan to build a new sports arena with a 5,000-seat capacity in Tempe has secured an important green light. Members of an Arizona State University Board of Regents committee have given their final approval to a project that will provide a spacious home to the Sun Devils Ice Hockey team. The $15 million project has been in the discussion stage for several years, with ASU officials wanting to build the facility on a section of the school’s Tempe campus that has seen a significant amount of new mixed-use development. That area is off South Packard Drive, to the east of the 14,000-seat Desert Financial Arena. The new arena, which will also host gymnastics, volleyball, and wrestling team competitions, still awaits the final approval of the full Board of Regents in a vote scheduled for November 18. Earlier this year, ASU officials scrapped the idea of building a new arena that would be attached to the Desert Financial Arena, proceeding instead with a project focused only on a single multi-purpose arena. It was thought that construction would start on the attached Desert Financial Arena by this fall. Now it is expected that work on the hockey stadium, which will feature two ice surfaces, and an overlaid wood floor allowing for the facility to be used for other events, will begin sometime early next year, with a late 2022 completion date. Launched in 2014, the Sun Devils have played their home games at the nearly 50 year-old Oceanside Ice Arena, also in Tempe. By Garry Boulard In a sweeping result, nearly 79% of voters in Denver last week approved a measure providing some $795 million in bonds for a variety of school facility construction and upgrade initiatives. Among the projects expected to be funded is the building of a new elementary school in the city’s Green Valley Ranch neighborhood and either the rebuilding or remodeling of the former Montbello High School. The existing Montbello school, on the northeast side of the city, was closed in the spring of 2014. But through the efforts of parents and community activists, the district earlier this year agreed to bring the school back to life. One of the biggest items, at $128 million, will see the installation of either air conditioning or cooling solutions for some two dozen Denver public schools. Additional funding to the tune of $2.8 million will go for upgrading both computer and science labs in some of the district’s middle schools. Just under $6 million is slated for enhanced school building facility work, which will include the installation of video analytics. Another $6.5 million will target the upgrading and expansion of the district’s earlier childhood learning spaces. Denver voters approved a separate measure that providing $7 million for a full-time nursing staff. In taking note of the two successful proposals, Superintendent Susana Cordova noted the generosity of this year’s voter, saying that both measures were approved by the largest margins seen in three decades. By Garry Boulard |
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