Talavera Community Association

The Talavera area has seen the first significant rainfall of 2009. The rain on Sunday, June 28, was heavy enough that many arroyos were running. This photo is of Achenbach Canyon Road, between Cueva Mine Trail, and Lost Padre Mine Rd.

Achenbach Canyon Rd, June 28, 2009 about 7:30 PM.

Residents are reminded that most roads in the Talavera area, are NOT maintained by the county. If the road to your house is a little too rough, or impassible, it is your and your neighbor’s responsibility to maintain it. I would recommend that unless your road is impassable, you probably shouldn’t hire a grader or maintainer until after the rainy season.

The Feb 21 neighborhood cleanup was a great success. Over 40 people participated in the cleanup, including this happy group from the Organ Mesa Ranch development.

Our next clean-up project will be in late August or early September. Join your neighbors and join in the fun. Help keep your neighborhood clean!!

The minutes from the meeting of February 21 are now posted on the meeting page. You can read them HERE.

As you may be aware, the LC School District will start the site work for the new high school to be built in our area, on Dripping Springs Road, this summer.  It is expected that the school may be ready to open its doors in two years.  The District has said that there will be at least 2,000 students plus faculty and staff at the new school on opening day.

So far, there has been very little planning or coordination with the city and the county to handle the huge volume of traffic this new school will create.  The School District currently has plans to offer only one entrance to the school.  Students and visitors will turn north, off of Dripping Sprigs Road onto a short road that will run along the east side of the school site.  Eventually, this piece of roadway will become part of Sonoma Ranch Boulevard.  The intersection of this road and Dripping Springs Road will be just west of the “A Mountain Curve” where the gravel trucks are currently entering.

Huge amounts of traffic can be expected at the Dripping Springs/Sonoma Ranch Blvd. intersection and continuing all along University to I-25, especially during the heavy commute times.  The impact will be enormous to all neighborhoods using University and Dripping Springs Road.

A possible access from Missouri was also discussed at an earlier meeting and all three roads (Sonoma Ranch Blvd, Dripping Springs, and Missouri have been submitted to the Metropolitan Planning Organization for inclusion in their Transportation Improvement Projects (TIP) list.  However, the state highway commission makes the final determination on those projects and it often takes years for any of them to materialize.

We have invited the School District, the City, the MPO and NMSU to meet with us to discuss this situation and to address our concerns on this one important topic.  Please come and bring your questions, concerns and solution ideas!

Date:  Wednesday, March 4th
Time:  7:00PM
Place:  Good Sam Auditorium, 3011 Buena Vida Circle (just off Telshor)
Contact Person:   Helen Zagona, 532-5668, hzagona@yahoo.com

At the February 21 meeting, 4 new members were elected to the TCA Board of Directors, and 2 officers were re-elected. The new Officers are:

Douglas Hoffman – TCA President

Gary Kology – TCA Vice President

Tom Brophy Jr. – Member at Large

Helen Zagona – Member at Large and Chairman of the High School Impact Committee

Tom Smith, TCA Treasurer and Janet Honek, TCA Secretary were re-elected.

The full minutes of the February 21 meeting will be posted shortly.

The Talavera Community Association is the successor to the Soledad Canyon
Homeowners Association. We have a long history in the Soledad Canyon/Talavera area.
The TCA is an educational and support organization. We act as advocates for our
neighborhood.

The organization is an entirely volunteer organization. The members of the board of
directors are all volunteers. Even our membership dues are voluntary.  But now the TCA
needs your help!

The President and Vice President are leaving and one of our members-at-large is now
the new state senator for our district and is also leaving the board. The current
secretary and treasurer are willing to stay in their positions. We need residents who are
willing to volunteer their time to continue the work done by the Talavera Community
Association.

The duties of these positions are simple and require only a small investment of your
time. The President organizes and coordinates (with the help of the other board
members) the 4 quarterly meetings of the TCA. In addition, the president may need to
attend an occasional County commission meeting or ETZ meeting. The vice president
Shares this responsibility with the president. In addition, all members of the board
should be willing to listen to the concerns of neighborhood residents and bring them to
the attention of the TCA for discussion at our meetings. No previous experience
needed – just be a Talavera property owner and current resident of Talavera.

There are issues that face our community. The on-going concerns over the flood
mapping project, the potential traffic problems that will be created by the new proposed
high school and continuing attempts to re-zone our neighborhood to higher density are
some of these issues. Some of our area residents are actively involved in these issues,
attending County meetings, organizing and disseminating news and information.

We all chose to live here, so we know you care about your neighborhood. It’s time to
show you care and donate a little time and energy. You are needed and can make a
difference. If you know of a neighbor who would be great in these positions, call them
and tell them you want to nominate them. If you have any questions, please contact
one of our board members, or just come to our next meeting on Saturday, February 21
at the Talavera Fire Station.

Photo from KVIA TV

Many Talavera residents were awoken about 2:30 AM this morning by a loud explosion and subsequent fire. According to news reports this morning, the explosion occured at 4852 Deadwood Camp Ct., in the Miners Ridge neighborhood. According to the Dona Ana Conty assesor’s records, the house is listed under the name of Paul and Kimberlee Hering. The news reports indicate that the house was unoccupied and for sale. News reports also indicate that several adjacent homes suffered damage as a result of the explosion. At this time, no cause has been determined.

I found the best local news coverage so far is at the KFOX TV web site as the have photos available. Other media outlets with stories are: The El Paso Times, KTSM Channel 9, and KVIA TV.

The Talavera Community Association had mixed results on the October 15 meetings. At the 9 AM County Commission Meeting, the County Commission voted 4-1 to approve our petition to request that FEMA withdraw the Fillmore/Tellbrook Arroyo flood plain study, and have it redone. In general the commissioners were impressed with the work done by the Noahs Ark Group Study(NAGS), led by Mike Park and John Smith. They commended the community activism and the community’s willingness to donate our own money for this study. The lone dissenting vote was cast by commissioner Oscar Vasquez Butler. Mr Butler’s reason for dissenting is that he thought it was unfair to support one area of the county because we had the money and drive to pay for our own engineering analysis. He felt that all of the flood studies may be flawed and this was unfair to the poorer areas of the county.

While we acheived our objective with this vote by the County Commission, this was only a step on the path to our overall goal. Having the County agree with us, lends a lot of credibility to our arguments. However, the final decision will still be up to FEMA and is yet to be made.

At the late afternoon ETA meeting, the ETA voted 3-2 to grant the Shittal LLC appeal of the ETZ’s earlier decision to deny their rezoning request. That means that the request to rezone 36.5 acres at the corner of Achenbach Canyon Road and Chippewa Trail from ER2 (2 acre minimum) to ER3 (1 acre minimum) was granted. There were conditions attached to the rezoning approval, so the parcel is officially zoned ER3C. The two conditions attached to the zoning change are 1- Maximum of 18 lots total, and 2- Minimum lot size of 1.5 acres. County commissioners Oscar Vasquez Butler and Kent Evans supported the change along with 1 city counselor. County Commissioner Karen Perez voted against the change.

Sadly, the ETA has once again shown that hey consider maximizing developer profits is a higher priority than maintaining neighborhood integrity.

Please mark Wednesday, October 15 on your calendar.There are 2 county meetings of great importance to Talavera residents. At 9:00 AM, the regular County Commission meeting will occur. The Noahs Ark Group Study (NAGS) petition to request a new study of the Tellbrook/Filmore Arroyo flood plain will be presented to the board. A strong turnout by area residents is needed to show our support for this request. The agenda for the meeting can be found at THIS LINK. Note that our request is item # 25.

At 5:00 Pm on the same day, the ETA (Extra Territorial Authority) will consider an appeal from Shital, LLC, on their request to rezone 36.5 acres at Achenbach Canyon Rd and Chippewa Trail to ER3, 1 acre minimum lot size. A strong turnout by local residents at the August ETZ meeting, helped convince the ETZ to reject the proposal.We need a strong turnout once again, to convince the ETA that we have not lost interest. The agenda for the EtA meeting can be found here: ETA Agenda.

The Noahs Ark Group Study (NAGS) flood plain mapping results were presented to area residents in a meeting that was held Wednesday September 17, at the Farm and Ranch theater. Approximately 75 area residents attended the meeting along with State Senator Lee Rawson, and a representative from the staff of U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman. The study, prepared by Mr. J. E. Fuller of E Fuller/Hydrology & Geomorphology, INC., found serious flaws in the original FEMA study. Links to the documents presented to NAGS and at the meeting have been added on a separate page labeled NAGS documents. The links to these .pdf documents are also posted here:

talavera-floodplain-delineation-study-presentation

talavera-rvw-comments-letter-9-03-08