Los Alamos County Community Development Department Director Paul Andrus speaks to citizens during a meeting in June at the Los Alamos Public Schools administrative building regarding 20th Street plans. Courtesy/LAC
A birds eye view of the County-owned 20th Street property. Courtesy/LAC
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Right now, 2.6 acres of land off 20th Street is brimming with potential. There is a paved street and sidewalks waiting to be utilized by traffic and pedestrians and six land parcels that could contain any number of things. The question is – what should these parcels contain?
A bit of that question has been answered; during the June 27 Los Alamos County Council meeting, the sale of 375 20th St. was unanimously approved to Pet Pangaea.
The sale price is $420,000. Pet Pangaea owner Cyndi Wells plans to construct a two-story building. On the bottom floor, there will be a 7,500 square foot retail space for Pet Pangaea and on the second floor there will be four apartments.
But what about the remaining lots? To answer that question, the Los Alamos Community Development Department (CDD) along with its contractor conducted a community survey to find out what the public sees when it looks at the blank slate located on 20th Street.
“What we are looking at is what are the community themes,” CDD Planning Manager Sobia Sayeda said.
Sayeda said the survey showed people wanted any development on 20th Street to address three main things: support for small businesses, housing and open space.
From this point, she said CDD is working with the contractor to produce concept plans for council’s input and possible approval.
There are numerous ways to achieve what the public wants, Sayeda said.
For instance, to achieve small business development, Sayeda reported there is a high interest for business owners to own the property that houses their businesses. She said the land on 20th Street could be subdivided or put in some business-oriented subdivision.
As far as housing, she said other studies that the County has conducted revealed that Los Alamos needs an additional 3,000 units. Additionally, the 2016 Comprehensive Plan identified housing as a top priority. In response, Sayeda said 20th Street could offer a combination of lodging and housing.
“It’s been identified that we need a variety of housing in the downtown to support our growing needs,” she said.
To achieve more housing and small businesses, increasing building heights on 20th Street could be done, she said.
This could maximize land usage; after all, since the land on 20th Street runs up against a canyon edge “we can’t build out we can only go up,” Sayeda said.
Finally, regarding open space Sayeda said, options are being considered to extend Canyon Rim Trail and Urban Trail to 20th Street.
She noted that it is not just the survey being referenced to develop different concepts to present to council, the downtown masterplan that was just recently adopted by County Council is serving as a primary vision as well as the council’s strategic goals.
It’s an opportunity for the County to show potential developers what type of development is needed on the site, Sayeda said, in effect the County can say, “Let me show you the possibilities that are here.”
In turn, buyers need to show how they are going to satisfy the public’s needs, she said, explaining that developers need to show “if (they) build it, how will it support our needs.”
“To support small businesses, we have to be mindful of that,” Sayeda added. “We have to be our own advocates.”
The land at 20th Street does offer the County a lot of potential, she said.
Once the process of developing high level concepts is complete, CDD staff will present them to Council with the intent to move forward with a development solicitation.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the County to look at and say this is how to maximize our land,” Sayeda said.
Offering something that is attractive to developers as well as possibly offering housing in a central location could be a real boost to the local economy, she said.
“This is a huge opportunity for Los Alamos County to look at this parcel as catalytic for downtown development and it’s very timely with the downtown master plan being approved because we can put all this work to good use.”
Sayeda added, “This is how we can meet all of the needs in the community … I think this is a great opportunity to make improvements…”
If successful, 20th Street development could be an example of what the County should do moving forward, she said.
“Who knows what the potential of the rest of downtown will be.”
