Residents of Los Chavez are preparing for a court hearing on Friday that will pit agricultural preservation against subdivision and development, an appeal of a controversial decision made by the Valencia County Commission more than a year ago.

“We appealed the decision,” said Dr. John Huchton, the president of the Los Chavez Community Association, the group that filed the appeal along with 41 Los Chavez residents. “It’s taken us until the end of this week to get on the docket.”

The land owned by John Whisenant and Elias Barela near John and Edmundo roads in Los Chavez was zoned Agricultural Preserve (AP), which meant it could be subdivided into five-acre lots. The county commission changed the zoning to Rural Residential 2, allowing two-acre lots.

The zone change took place after the Valencia County Planning and Zoning Commission denied the zone change and after Los Chavez residents banded together to try to stop it.

The county commission overturned the planning and zoning commission’s denial with a controversial tie-breaking vote by Commissioner Georgia Otero-Kirkham, who is Barela’s first cousin.

“This is not a family venture,” she said at the time.

Whisenant and Barela plan to build 15 homes on the land, calling the development Rancho de Los Chavez. If the land remains AP, eight homes could be constructed.

“We’re not trying to prevent people from developing their property,” Huchton said. “What we’re trying to do is have them develop the property as it was zoned when they bought it.”

If the zone change is allowed to stand, Huchton said, he and others think it’ll mean the end of agricultural preservation in Valencia County.

“If they want to build a bunch of houses, go build them on the mesas, don’t build them in the agricultural zone,” he said.

Huchton said several outcomes are possible. The judge can overturn the county commission’s decision, uphold the commission’s decision, or send the issue back to the commission to be voted on with Otero-Kirkham recusing herself.

If the judge upholds the county commission’s decision, the judge’s ruling can be appealed to the New Mexico Court of Appeals.

The Los Chavez Community Association has been working with its attorney to prepare for the case. It’s also been reaching out to Los Chavez residents and other groups to get people to attend the court hearing.

Neighborhood associations in the agricultural communities of Tome-Adelino and Southern Valencia County have teamed up with the Los Chavez Community Association to pay the attorney fees for the appeal, hosting fundraisers.

The court hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30am on Friday at the Valencia County 13th Judicial District Courthouse.

This page was published on February 3, 2010 at 10:56am and is filed under Economy.