Agenda Item 7.5 Los Alamos County and School Board Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)

[North Mesa]

11/8/2020

Dear Chairwoman Ben-Naim, members of the School Board, and Dr. Steinhaus,

There are a growing number of Los Alamos residents who are expressing concern with the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) regarding development of Los Alamos Public Schools (LAPS) land on North Mesa; we consider the MOA to be premature and imprudent. There are many concerns about the MOA by North Mesa residents, parents of students, this district’s constituents, and the community at large that have not been addressed. In addition, many residents have only recently become aware of what is being decided by the School Board. The decisions occurring during this time of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic appear to lack full transparency and appropriate timeliness. We are calling on the school board to halt the progress on the MOA with the county council, to develop a clear and concise plan that includes determining how to maximally benefit the students with the North Mesa land parcel, minimize impact on North Mesa and LAMS, and to involve the community in planning. 

Housing is a Los Alamos County Responsibility and Not the School’s

Low-income housing and affordable housing for teachers is a real need in our community. There is a solution to low-income housing and it is the county council’s responsibility to seek these solutions on county land. If the county council will not or cannot successfully develop low-income housing on the numerous tracts of county land they possess, then how can they reasonably help the school with development of low-income housing on its very limited land? The county has many land options for affordable housing which already have infrastructure in place. These locations, such as DP Road, can better manage traffic increases and population surges. Despite county efforts to develop low-income housing, developers struggle to maintain the necessary profitability to develop these properties, and negotiations often fail. It is up to the County Council to find, develop, and negotiate developments, with infrastructure already available, without involving LAPS. It is the Council’s job to work with LANL on housing concerns in Los Alamos. The currently proposed development on school land has an environmental impact on North Mesa that is unnecessary and negligent. The School Board moving forward with the MOA and proposed development makes them culpable in the failure to account for the best interests of the residents, environment, and students of Los Alamos. 

The School Board Must Maximize Benefit to Students

The School Board has an ethical and legal obligation to maximize the use of its public assets for the educational benefit of the LAPS student body. The School Board’s duties and responsibilities to the electorate do not include solving the housing needs of the Los Alamos community at large. Developing high-density, low-income housing will not provide maximum benefit to LAPS students. The goals of creating a revenue stream and providing low-income housing are mutually exclusive; any school land used for low-income housing is contrary to the obligation of the School Board to the public. Additionally, any land development on school property should remain entirely in the hands of the School Board in order to retain maximum revenue streams. Working with the Los Alamos County Council may result in reduced streams, as seen in the past. The board’s primary function must remain focused on the educational needs of LAPS students and cannot do so by providing low-income housing or progressing on the MOA. We are asking the school board to go back to the drawing board and begin with clear goals that provide maximum benefit to LAPS students.

School Growth and Expansion Has Not Been Adequately Addressed

If LANL continues to hire at the anticipated rate, then the schools will need to expand. The parcel on North Mesa is not only the last vacant property owned by the school, but it is also the most reasonable property for expansion. In fact, the public fully anticipates that LAPS will need to build a new wing and relocate the sixth grades of all five elementary schools to North Mesa. Plans for expansion should be drawn before the School Board considers disposing of this vacant land. It is the only way the School Board can be confident that enough of the vacant land for successful school expansion has been set aside. Room for expansion must be the priority for LAPS students. Additionally, high-density housing on North Mesa will result in overpopulation at Barranca Mesa Elementary. Barranca was recently remodeled to fit current needs and was not designed to house more students. Furthermore, re-zoning the district is not an option since similar challenges are present at both Aspen and Mountain schools.

Student & Community Safety

Student safety needs to be paramount to the School Board. The concerns about safe arrival and departure during regular middle school activities and after-school activities have been noted by many in the community. Even a single fatality is one too many, and we cannot lose any more students to traffic accidents. The county has not addressed the current issues via traffic calming and lighted intersections, or even recognized the traffic problem on North Mesa. 

The evacuation of LAMS students and the surrounding population from North Mesa during an emergency must also be considered. It is currently known to take three to four hours to perform an evacuation; this is already too long. North Mesa has the most difficult egress in all of Los Alamos during an evacuation. The round-about is too small to handle a traffic surge from North Mesa and San Ildefonso roads. Barranca Mesa would also be evacuating in many scenarios, making those residents and elementary students highly vulnerable in an emergency as well. We live in a region prone to wildfire, and the risk of fire is only ever increasing. Egress and traffic must be addressed by the county before the School Board drafts the MOA. Signing the MOA and leaving these issues to the county does not make the School Board free of responsibility.

The benefits of extracurricular activities to student social, mental, and physical health are well known and proven. The vacant property offers on-site access to a cross country course that benefits upwards of 80 LAMS students during each cross-country season. The board’s obligation is to these students before the public’s housing needs. Planning a suitable new cross-country course after the MOA is short-sighted. Running on sidewalks, streets, and in a housing-development is not an appropriate cross-country option. Additionally, running through the North Mesa stables presents a danger to those on horseback and student-athletes as runners may easily albeit inadvertently spook a horse. 

Any residential neighborhoods built near the middle school should retain the quality of character similar to those nearby: Hawk’s Landing, Loma Linda, Camino Redondo, Camino Durasnilla, etc. Significantly increasing the density of the housing will change the character of North Mesa and may have a negative impact on the middle school students and their safety. 

Need for Community Involvement

The members of the School Board are elected representatives of their districts, required to make the best decisions for the education of the students, and are accountable to the public. Strong personal opinions about the need for low-income housing in Los Alamos should not be in conflict with their responsibility to the education of LAPS students, and to the constituents. Furthermore, the North Mesa representative, Melanie Colgan has more recently assumed the position on the school board, and has not had adequate time to survey and assess the current residents’ opinions regarding the proposed development. To make the matter more concerning, many residents are generally unaware of decisions being made, the meetings regarding these decisions, or the impact this will have on LAPS and the surrounding residents on North Mesa. The lack of regard to the surrounding residents is remiss. The only survey that some have received pertained to the kind of housing residents would like, without the option to indicate “no development”, or to provide comments. This gave the false impression that residents were open to the development as it stands. The current situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has created serious concerns throughout the community related to our students’ education. The School Board should remain focused on the challenges the pandemic has created, along with the challenges this presents to community involvement in planning. The School Board must involve the community in planning any land disposal or development before proceeding with and MOA with the county council.

Need for More Planning

The current ideas on how to generate revenue and provide teacher housing through this venture appear vague and not clearly researched or developed. This alone should be a reason to put the MOA on hold. The School Board needs more time and community input to adequately address the needs for revenue generation and teacher housing. It appears as though the School Board has only focused on the development of the land on North Mesa as an ill-defined solution, without considering other options that would retain the land for school use. Linking the need for revenue to the county’s need for low-income development is not putting LAPS students first. 

Developing new utilities and infrastructure on the raw land would negatively affect the surrounding residents and any new residents, in numerous ways: traffic, parking, increased noise, light pollution, overcrowding, loss of green space, wildlife, and impact on the current utilities. The considerable amount of construction required for developing this land would be a needless disruption when there are other sites for housing available.  The planning and consideration with regard to these issues is not something the School Board should leave open ended in hopes to be addressed after the signing of an MOA. 

Conclusion

The negative impact of the housing development on North Mesa, the residents, LAPS students, and the environment are numerous and cannot all be addressed in this letter. These issues will be further addressed in subsequent letters and petitions as the residents are only now beginning to be informed of what has been taking place without their awareness. 

In closing, there are many Los Alamos residents that recognize moving forward with the MOA, related to the development of LAPS land, is irresponsible and untimely.  No MOA or development plans can move forward until the county council first resolves traffic and egress concerns to ensure the safety of students. We are asking the Los Alamos School Board to focus on developing a clear and concise plan that includes determining how to maximally benefit the students with the North Mesa land parcel, minimize impact on North Mesa and LAMS, and to involve the community in planning, rather than proceeding on the advancement of the MOA with the county council. 

 Respectfully,

Concerned Residents and Neighbors of North Mesa and Los Alamos County

CitizensFor...@gmail.com



School Board Members information

President:  Ellen Ben-Naim - District 1  -  e.ben...@laschools.net

Vice President: Christine Bernstein - District 3  -  c.ber...@laschools.net

Board Member:  Stephen Boerigter - District 2  -  s.boe...@laschools.net

Board Member: Melanie Colgan - District 4 -  m.co...@laschools.net

Board Member:  Dawn Jalbert - District 5  -  d.ja...@laschools.net