New Mexico project will take a lifetime

Forest City looks to develop 12,400-acre community in Albuquerque. Anew urban project so immense that it may take 70 years to complete is envisioned for the southeastern section of Albuquerque. The New Mexico State Land Office has selected Forest City Covington LLC as master developer for a project called Mesa del Sol, which will be built on 12,400 acres previously devoted to little more than cattle grazing. Forest City Enterprises’ experience in orchestrating large new urban projects such as the Stapleton Airport redevelopment in Denver was one of the reasons the Land Office selected the Cleveland-based firm. Perhaps the biggest private developer of New Urbanism today, Forest City has projects that include town centers like Birkdale Village, north of Charlotte, and urban revitalizations like the Villages of Central in Cleveland. Forest City is partnering with Covington Capital, an Aspen-based group of private investors, to undertake the project. The goal is to convert a vast area, which comes within 4.5 miles of Albuquerque’s downtown, into a community that the Land Office says could have “a maximum population of 97,500, with 39 neighborhoods in urban and rural villages,” along with employment and other activity centers. “We are trying to set the standard for how you develop reasonably in an arid environment,” State Land Commissioner Ray Powell said in announcing the choice of Forest City. An on-site solar energy plant and state-of-the-art water recycling and conservation technology are among the features intended to reduce the impact of human habitation on natural resources. “We’ll be using only 30 percent of the water the average home in Albuquerque is currently using.” Powell said. Residents will be close to jobs and services. “No one,” said Powell, “will live farther than a quarter of a mile from their dry cleaners or the trail system.” “The master plan is my magnum opus,” says Tom Leatherwood, a Santa Fe urban design consultant who spent six years at the Land Office in the 1990s formulating plans for a new urban development that would be “responsible to regional conditions, culture, topography, and sustainability.” The site is said to be the largest tract of undeveloped territory under a single ownership within the boundaries of any major US city. It is bordered by the Albuquerque airport, Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Isleta Indian Reservation. Will Gleason, manager for planning and development at the Land Office, says the plan went part way through the city’s approval process previously but “kind of got stuck.” Since then, Albuquerque has grown more receptive to New Urbanism. “Mesa del Sol fits really well with the current philosophy of City Council,” Gleason says. “They just passed a Planned Growth Strategy, trying to incentivize infill. They’re looking for a development paradigm different from what you usually see in Albuquerque.“ “Essentially, it involves creating a new community, from manufacturing to offices to residential,” says Richard Sertich, the city’s associate planning director. Forest City will work with city officials to hammer out what Sertich describes as a “Level A master plan, which is fairly general,” and then to produce a more detailed Level B plan identifying where specific elements of the project will be located. If all goes well, ground may be broken in 2004. The project will have to overcome an unfashionable southeastern location near the airport — far from Albuquerque’s “favored quarter,” which lies north and west of downtown. The land for Mesa del Sol, like much land in New Mexico, is held in trust by the Land Office, primarily for the purpose of benefiting the University of New Mexico and public schools statewide.