Cocoposts

House of Cards

Homebuilder online, August 2007, calls the housing boom a house of cards.

The Commerce Department said in March that the number of vacant, privately owned homes had reached its highest peak in the nation's history. And through the first half of this year, there were, conservatively, at least 500,000 mortgage defaults, including notices of foreclosure, auction sales, or bank repossessions, according to various estimates. So the last thing that builders—already in the throes of a downturn that seems to get worse every month—need right now is a new flood of foreclosed homes cascading onto a market where finding willing buyers has become a snipe hunt.

It might be too late to dam that flood, however, at least in the short run.

Guard Spider

This monstrous miss made a much bigger impression on the cableguys than did the guard dogs.

Eclipse Lunar

Beautiful. It does bring out the moon's dimensions and details and makes it look much closer and larger. This photo from Vancouver Sun of last March eclipse.

This astrologist, Molly Nagy, (who?) says it's an Anything Goes Moon. Some call the August moon the Sturgeon Moon.

We could call it the Developer Moon, in recognition of the great construction and land speculation acts that have beaten driven our economy.

What A Hat

Blog-like snarky arrogance with a touch of snide developer-speak characterizes this Albuquerque Journal editorial. It suggests that the poor pitiful builders (WestCo? Get serious.) are being held hostage by a couple of city councilors who had the audacity to ask questions about growth at a Water Authority meeting. Wrong hat!.

Then they repeat the misremarks about how the developers will (generously) build the water infrastructure - leaving out the ginormous state grant for economic development that will provide infrastructure to Tesla. Tax dollars. Not developer dollars.

The Journal also keeps repeating how growth policy is the City Council's responsibility - leaving out the County's thoroughly forgettable role in planning.

Come permitting time, the council can— and should— open its opinion floodgates.

After the horses are all decidedly out of the barn. Then you can talk about putting up fences.

Las Movidas de Taos

Interesting description of planning and zoning fights in Taos per the Horsefly. You gotta read Bill Whaley's whole agonized insider thing but here's a taste.

Behind the scenes, if hardly behind the curtain, on July 19, 2007, were the masters of Plaza de Retiro, affectionately known by residents as King John and Prince William Himes. The developers had applied for 16 additional units to supplement their outrageously successful continuing-care retirement facility. For the purchase price of $325,000, plus $2000 to $3000 a month for care, you can grab a casita, which has the additional advantage of reverting, reportedly, to Plaza de Retiro Inc. upon your death, thus avoiding family squabbles over your will!

Though produced by King John and directed by Prince William, the script for the appeal was written by land-use maven Dave DeCicco (pronounced DeCheeko).

Sickened by reams of requests from the Planning Department’s Co-Director Rudy Perea and the P&Zers, Himes & Himes appealed to the Town Council for relief from the paperwork nightmare. Himes the Younger even referred to himself in the Albuquerque Journal North news reports as the catalyst in the demise of his fellow P&Zers, due to his decision—call it a movida—to skip the Commission and go straight to the Council. In effect, he gave the Council the excuse it was looking for to punish the P&Zers. In particular, newly-elected Young Blood Councilors Darren Cordova and Rudy “Real Estate” Abeyta have repeatedly decried the use of the “public welfare, health, and safety” clause of the LUDC, calling it too vague and liberal when it came to “interpreting” the Code, and throwing roadblocks in the way of developers. Himes the Younger served as the straw that broke the back, so to speak, allowing the Young Bloods to express their animosity toward the bureaucratic planning process. (...)

Epilogue
Since Allen Vigil resigned his post as the town’s planning department head, circa 1999, the Town’s chief planners have become a casualty of the revolving door movida. Remember Monica Abeita, Robert Torres, Sarah Backus, Miguel Salinas, Lou Baker, now Rudy Perea, and Michael Valerio? Three directors have been disappeared since the first of the year. Now the practice of picking P&Zers appears to be following in the wake of planning policy per Las Movidas. By the way, some Councilors rushed out to beg a few special P&Zers to return but the honorable ones (all) said, “No.” Read “The Autobiography and the Artist” to get some idea of what the P&Zers were up against in terms of the real “Code”—the code of the good old boys.

Westside Water

Under category of Giving Away the Farm, our Water Authority has opened multiple new water pressure zones for an unprecedented round of new westside sprawl. Some get this perfectly. From the Albuquerque Journal:

Cadigan said the economic development argument was a thinly veiled plan to provide water service for homes in previously closed water zones. That, he said, violates a yearlong policy of not opening more than one water pressure zone at a time for development.
The approval immediately opens four zones and gives a green light for three more in the future.
"Tesla can open with the water they have now," Cadigan said. "I think the whole Tesla thing is a red herring."
But County Commission chairman and water board member Alan Armijo said Westland had followed proper procedures and was complying with a policy to ensure the water authority pays no net cost for new services.
"We're not breaking any policy, we're following policy," Armijo said Thursday.
Although the councilors had some "valid concerns," Armijo said, it is up to the City Council to address growth, not the water board.

That covers it. Proper procedures were followed. And those procedures were devised to disconnect growth and water so that no one is responsible. Armijo's quote is straight out of the playbook. The Water Authority model was adopted by our legislature and two local governments precisely because it got the utility out from under any planning responsibility. The model was Nevada. Patricia Mulroy, the Water Empress, brags that planning and growth management are not her problem. The authority is simply meeting market demand. Which is why northern rural Nevada groundwater will soon be pumped and piped to southern urban Nevada - to benefit homebuilders.

Transmission Authority

The Santa Fe New Mexican notes Governor Richardson's appointments to the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority.

I just hate "Authority".

The appointees and the newly formed authority came under criticism from a longtime clean energy advocate, Ben Luce, who is chairman of Break the Grip, a grass-roots advocacy group.
Luce said the appointments strongly favor the utility industry. Under state law, the authority can finance and operate projects in which 30 percent of the electricity originates from renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and biomass. However, Luce said the authority could end up promoting the interests of traditional power sources — as well as clean coal technology and nuclear power — rather than primarily advancing renewable energy, such as a solar and wind.

The State of New Mexico has created yet another bond-issuing governmental entity for the one thing that alternative energy, at its most effective and competitive scale, doesn't need. Transmission.

Zero-interest loans for home systems and homeowner association installations? Dream-on. More butt-ugly power lines for the free-wheeling monopoly? ThankyouSirMayIHaveAnother.

Let's face it. The statute creating this queasy-making Authority should be amended to get rid of either Renewable or Transmission in it's name and purpose.

And "Authority" too.

Electric Car Building Sprawl

The Albuquerque Tribune asks whatever happened to the electric car? Tesla Motors is still designing.

Tim Cummins, a Bernalillo County commissioner and co-owner of the development company, said Rio Real Estate and Tesla have had weekly discussions about the plant.

Plans for a 157,000-square-foot building are "90 percent complete," Cummins said. Tesla in July, however, asked for 30 days to re-evaluate the initial design to see if more space is needed, Cummins said.

Straightforwardly, sin verguenza, the elected official on a board responsible for public infrastructure talks about his development.

Lands in the south valley, some already in industrial use (south Broadway and south Second), don't have public services. But Cordero Mesa does.

Short-Lived No Doubt

The Albuquerque Journal quotes local mortgage company spokesmen who are quick to discount the bubble-pop impact on the Albuquerque area housing market. The piece is enheadlined: As Mortgage Companies Tighten Loan Policies, Area Professionals Say It May Be Short-Lived .

What "It" is.

"The sky is not falling," Michael Wilshire, qualifying broker for the Rio Rancho office of Coldwell Banker Legacy, told the Journal on Friday. He said Albuquerque and Rio Rancho tend to be insulated from the extreme price swings that affect housing markets on the East and West coasts. He characterized the 16 percent to 18 percent price appreciation that some area homeowners saw between 2003 and 2006 as an anomaly. The market slowed in 2007 and will likely remain slow as homeowners find it harder to command the sort of prices they have become accustomed to. Sellers must be prepared to drop prices and wait two or three months to sell, Wilshire said. Hal Barnett, qualifying broker at Exit Realty of Rio Rancho, said his agents are still seeing new buyers despite the sudden tightening of loan policies. "Interest on loans is still not bad. A lot of people don't remember the '70s and early '80s when interest rates were 13 percent or higher," Barnett said.

He's right. I know I sure don't remember much of the 70's and early 80's.

There is this Albuquerque Journal story too - the tone of which continues our theme of casting doubt about doubting the real estate market - this time about retail space.

And another more than 445,000 square feet of retail space is under construction, spread out in projects across the metro area.
The robust activity comes in the wake of one of the best years ever for the Albuquerque metro area's retail real estate market. Retail construction doubled in 2006, with 1.3 million square feet of new space coming on line during the year.
"The total inventory is consistently growing," James said.

He says that like it's a good thing. So if it is, do we know when we have too much of a good thing - when it's enough? Like maybe this side of rezoning that alfalfa field?

Doubt this.

The South Valley We Knew

There's this in the Albuquerque Journal about amending the Southwest area plan for big box a neighborhood center on the alfalfa fields behind Wal-Mart at Rio Bravo and Coors.

Lordy, lordy. Within living memory that area was flooded river bottom-land where one of the largest arroyos - the Amole - drained into a big oxbow - the Hubbell. All this physical history is disguised now and nearly forgotten - along with the planning for a equestrian, bike and hiking trail down the Amole and the mixed use village centers among the farms.

Now ugly Dennis Chavez Boulevard plows up the edge of the valley leading to the finest examples of butt-ugly sprawl imaginable. The natural arroyo, like nearly all others, is turned from intermittent stream into storm drain - twisted configurations of silted-up channels of graffiti tagged concrete.

I used to go out there and watch burrowing owls with Pop. It was beautiful. Now, not so much.

When I saw the story about the shopping center it made my eyeballs hurt. Then I saw this about how spent blooms tire-out geraniums and had to go get busy with something I might fix.