LCCP is so excited to be part of making Las Cruces a better place to live. Here is the latest news on our partnership with the City of Las Cruces to develop the new civic plaza downtown.
By Diana Alba Soular
POSTED on The Las Cruces Sun News:Â Â 10/11/2014 01:18:19 PM MDT
LAS CRUCES >> Work is being done to prep for a multiparty deal that would leave the city of Las Cruces with a chunk of downtown land for a civic plaza.
And a real-estate closing on the downtown Las Cruces property, now owned by Bank of the West, is expected to happen toward the middle or end of December, said city Manager Robert Garza.
“We remain optimistic that we’re on track and that this will become a reality soon,” Garza said last week.
A group of developers, Las Cruces Community Partners, is acting as a go-between with the city and the bank, but also will be responsible for building the plaza, expected to start in 2015, city officials have said.
Meanwhile, the city council may have to look at new options for funding the plaza project after an initial budget was cut short, officials said. That’s thanks to legal restrictions on spending from a downtown Tax Increment Development District, a special taxing district set up for downtown revitalization, according Garza.
The TIDD board will meet Tuesday to hear updates about the project, according to the city.
Up in the air
City councilors in June approved spending up to $5.4 million in TIDD funds on the plaza project — part of a pool of money collected for years from certain portions of property and sales tax within the taxing district’s boundaries.
Still, the exact costs of the proposed land purchase and subsequent plaza construction haven’t been nailed down because of some variables up in the air, Garza said.
A key aspect of the land purchase is getting appraisals done, Garza said. Those will factor into the price paid by the city for the parcel.
“That’s in process,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure everything we pay is proper and fair market value.”
Also, the plan for the plaza construction — the second major aspect of the city’s deal with LCCP — hasn’t been finalized, officials said.
The details of the plan — the number of trees, for instance, that LCCP would be required to plant or even whether trees will be called for — will all determine that cost, Garza said. Others specifics could entail how many benches will be placed and how much decorative concrete will be poured.
“The final scope of work will be defined on or before the closing on the property,” he said. “That degree of final negotiation is taking place.”
In the broad picture, the new plaza and surrounding improvements — such as the reopening of a closed street, Organ Avenue — will follow the color scheme and material types used in nearby Main Street revitalization projects that already have been built, said Andy Hume, city downtown planning and development coordinator. Also, a report produced for the city that stemmed from a series of fall 2013 public meetings will serve as a basis, he said.
But the city will take more feedback, likely in the form of two more public meetings, before the construction plan is finalized by the city council, Hume said. The aim would be to get specific information from residents, including from the Las Cruces Farmers and Crafts Market, which would use the plaza on Wednesdays to avoid blocking Main Street, as currently happens, Hume said.
For instance, “we want to make sure that where we provide the electricity works for the farmers market,” he said. “But we also have to make sure the electricity works for a concert.”
Another theme, Hume said, is that the city plans to keep the plaza “simple,” and not pack it with monuments. The space should be kept open for activities.
“It’s going to be a plaza for the people,” he said.
Lines redrawn
In addition to appraisals, other prep work for the land purchase includes surveying, since three property lots must be redrawn as part of the sale, Hume said. One lot contains the city’s municipal court building, another holds the Bank of the West building and drive-through and another small lot is home to a memorial in honor of the historic St. Genevieve church.
Hume said an administrative approval of the shifting boundaries is being sought. He said it’s not an action before the city’s planning and zoning commission because there are no new lots being created.
A right-of-way will be added to re-establish Organ Avenue, which borders the proposed plaza to the north.
The land with the drive-through is what’s slated to become the civic “plaza proper,” an area of about 57,600 square feet, or 1.3 acres, Hume said. But a plan calls for parts of Main Street and Organ Street be used as an expansion to the plaza at times, which would add about a 1/2-acre to its size.
“When it’s all said and done, you’re talking about over 2 acres of opportunity, right in the heart of Las Cruces,” Hume said.
Plaza budget cuts
In all, some $8.6 million has been collected by the TIDD from sales and property taxes, according to Garza.
More than half of that stems from a share of taxes that otherwise would’ve been claimed by the state, if there was no TIDD. For the city to access that money for the plaza, a state approval had to be given.
Garza said a recent legal opinion will keep the city from using the state’s share — some $4.8 million — for the civic plaza. He said the problem is that the city, when pursuing the TIDD from the state, didn’t identify a plaza as a possible use for the funds.
So now, the city has just $3.8 million — a share of TIDD revenues that stems from city and county taxes — for the plaza, less than the original budget.
“That could conceivably require us to scale back some of the amenities for the first phase,” he said.
Whether it does — along with the extent of cutbacks — depends upon a decision by the city council.
Garza said options include that the city could build what’s possible with the $3.8 million and wait for more TIDD revenues to pay for future phases, or it could loan itself money from the city general fund, which also would be repaid with future TIDD dollars, to fill in the budget gap for the plaza.
At the real-estate closing, the city will pay money, via an escrow service, to LCCP for the plaza land purchase, Garza said. Other dollars meant for construction of the plaza will be kept in escrow until the LCCP builds the plaza, he said.
Change of course
Tuesday, the TIDD board will consider authorizing a bond sale for up to $4.8 million for road reconfigurations and improvements downtown, Garza said. Part of those plans entail converting Church and Water streets, both one-way routes, into two-way routes. Because of a state law, the state’s share of TIDD money can only be used to repay bonds.
Part of the board’s action in June had authorized a bond sale to pay for the civic plaza. But since a different use has been proposed for the state share of TIDD dollars – the downtown street reconfigurations – a revised vote will be required. That vote will take place at Tuesday’s meeting.
The city must build the projects by 2018 or lose the dollars, Garza said.
For the pool of $3.8 million that stems from the city and county, those dollars can spend those dollars outright with no bond sale needed, Garza said.
Time line
City officials said, after the closing, they estimate the first demolition work for the plaza is expected to start in January 2015.
Hume said the bank drive-through will be torn down, and there’s a lot of utility work that has to be done.
Construction on the plaza and the new Organ Avenue will start in mid-spring 2015, Hume said.
“From that point, it’s going to be about 12 months — probably April 2016 for a ribbon-cutting,” he said.
The meeting starts at 1 p.m. Tuesday; a city council work session follows. The TIDD board is made up of six city councilors, the mayor and a non-voting county commissioner.