La Cienega Valley Association – Halloween – Harvest Festival

The Community Halloween-Harvest Festival, 2-5 p.m. Sunday, October 26 at El Rancho de las Golondrinas is just around the corner so put it on your calendar, fun and games, costume parade, cakewalk, bean bag toss, mask making, storytelling, pumpkin decorating and don’t forget the squash bake off. Fun for all ages so please join your friends and neighbors and all their kids for some good community fun.

The Halloween – Harvest Festival Committee has been very busy but still need your help. Here is what they need. Donations of or funds for:

100 hot dogs and buns
5-7 bags of chips
3-5 gallons of apple cider
250 six-inch plates
250 six to eight oz. cold/hot cups
250 forks
150 spoons
250 napkins

Need an adult pumpkin decorating host, not carving but drawing faces on the pumpkins.

There will be a community table for information on the proposed fee-low cost health clinic and other community initiatives. Please let us know what you would like to contribute or donate. All volunteers will share serving or being available at the food table.

Requests for Variances in La Cieneguilla

The following comes from Penny Ellis Green, Director of the County’s Growth Management Department. These are requests for lot splits in La Cieneguilla. The LCVA will review the details of the proposals before deciding how to respond but this is something we all need to be concerned about. In the last 10-20 years our communities have added almost 500 homes via lot splits which means they are not subject to subdivision rules and requirements. In an area that has demonstrated water issues, this can’t continue.

I wanted to advise you of 2 applications that have been submitted in your planning area for density variances:

Case 14-5240 Rodriguez at 92 Camino Montoya
Case #14-5400 Sauceda at 77a Calle Debra

Mathew Martinez is the case planner and the files are available in our offices if you are interested in viewing them.

County Code Adoption

The LCVA Board welcomed the County Commission’s recent decision to postpone the adoption of the County’s proposed zoning map until the fall of 2015. The adoption of the zoning map is the final step in the formal adoption of the County Code. The impact of the proposed zoning would have been devastating to our community and our efforts to maintain a rural way of living. The growth allowed with the proposed zoning map for La Cienega and La Cienguilla was not sustainable and the resulting urbanization would have changed our communities forever.

The LCVA will continue to actively support the work of the La Cienega La Cieneguilla Planning Committee and the zoning map they proposed. Their map had a better understanding of our community and respect for our efforts to preserve and protect its history and traditions.

La Bajada Ranch Steering Committee Update

The following is from Mark Hogan, the County project manager for La Bajada Ranch. The LCVA is unaware of any formal proposals for La Bajada Ranch at this time.

The Steering Committee will meet next Thursday at the Admin. Building in the Legal Conference Room at 4 pm. We will be hearing 3 to 5 minute presentations of any ideas for the property from the public that may not have been presented to date.

This information will be added to our database for the project and made available to interested development teams that wish to propose on the formal requests for proposals (RFP).

On Thursday we will also complete the review of the RFP with the intention of releasing it for advertisement at the end of the month. The solicitation is expected to be completed in two parts. The first will be for the qualifications of those teams interested in submitting a development proposal. Those that qualify will be invited to put together comprehensive development proposals in the second portion of the solicitation. The evaluation criteria will also be published so that developers know what the County’s interests are when preparing their plans. We expect those proposals will be due in March or April for evaluation.

A presentation on this process and the invitation to present ideas was made before the BCC last Tuesday. The BCC approved the next steps regarding the input of the public and the RFP process.

The road to the existing house, barn and foreman’s house incurred some heavy damage during the heavy summer and fall rains and will require repairs. We are working to get those repairs underway.

The County is also working on plans to make the foreman’s house fully accessible for public meetings and gatherings. Plans include HC accessible parking, an accessible path to the house and interior remodeling to address HC accessibility inside as well. Bathrooms, kitchen and exterior spaces will finally meet code requirements for those with disabilities. Those plans are scheduled to be completed next month.

Ninth Annual Gretchen Dickens Blood Drive

The ninth annual Gretchen Dickens Blood Drive will be held noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, November 16th at the community center. Please contact Becky Dickens at 471-2193 or Carl Dickens at 424-2235 if you would like to donate.