Minutes of the October 2, 2023 TVCA board meeting

The meeting at the Tesuque School gymnasium began shortly after 5:30 with a larger than anticipated turn-out of 31 Tesuque area residents, including six TVCA board members and the new leader of the Tesuque Elementary school. Lynn Pickard also carried three proxies from board members who could not be
present, so a quorum was established.

Those present were Lynn Pickard, Jamie Gagan, Bruce Stuart, Viviette Hunt, Rachel White, Mark Holland, Cathie Sullivan, Jennifer Wilson, Kitty Bryan, Jan Wisniewski, Hannah Burnes, Jacob Clemens, Paul Gilbert, Annie-Laurie Coogan, Ali McGraw, Jack and Kathy Lippincott, Jolie and Bart Humphrey, Virginia Humphrey, Alexandra Henry, Laura Ellis, Jerry Barron, Carol Sorenson, Cam Duncan, Dominique Mazeaud, Amy Thomas, Susan Waldman, Joyce Williams, Tish Fitzgerald and Margo Cutler.

During the period when those present were asked to introduce themselves and explain why they had come to this meeting, many of the first-time attendees mentioned their concerns that Tesuque should remain as it had been and seemed in imminent danger of changing further. Concerns about the water level in the river were also mentioned by several people whose families had lived in the area for generations.

Lynn Pickard then opened the meeting by introducing Amy Thomas as the Tesuque School leader. Lynn also encouraged all present to consider being a tutor or finding other ways to be supportive of the school.

The minutes of the previous TVCA meeting had been emailed in advance and as there were no objections, were deemed to have been approved.

Due to Treasurer Jeanne Boyles' recent mishap, Lynn gave her informal report stating that there are approximately $2,000 in unrestricted funds, and @$2100 earmarked for possible future use by attorneys re land use issues.

Lynn also said that the unrestricted funds could be used for this year's BBQ at the Tesuque Volunteer Fire Station, which will be on Saturday October 21st from 3-6 PM. In past years there has been a combination of grilled meats purchased for the event, and side dishes and desserts provided by attendees potluck style.
In addition to being a good community event, the BBQ provides the Volunteer Fire Department an opportunity to do a little fundraising, as well as a chance to try and recruit some sorely needed new members.

Jennifer Wilson, Jack and Kathy Lippincott, Viviette Hunt, Bruce Stewart and Cathie Sullivan volunteered to help with the BBQ. Lynn pointed out that the minutes of the last meeting listed others who had also volunteered whom Cam as BBQ committee chair might want to contact. These are Sabrina Staires, Mike Beasley, Jeanne Boyles, Kathleen Jimenez, and Kevin Daniels.

Jerry Barron then proposed the idea of establishing one or more community road clean up days. There was an enthusiastic response and general discussion of areas in great need, including near the Bishop's Lodge. To begin with, the idea of at
least two days a year was proposed, but others thought that monthly would be a good idea. Volunteers to work on this effort included Jennifer Wilson, Annie-Laurie Coogan and Lynn Pickard.

Lynn gave a County planning committee update: A final planning committee meeting was held in person and on line, and several very active members went through the County's proposed revision of the Tesuque Overlay with an eye toward insuring that Tesuque would remain a rural, residential community except in the two areas that allow for commerce or public institutions. As a result, many of the items listed in the use matrix that were formerly permitted or permitted on condition were proposed to be prohibited. The County intends to take its draft of the Tesuque Overlay to t h e land use code to the community as a whole in late October, with further presentations to the County Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioner later in the year, with a hopeful date of adoption in January of 2024.

Under the New Community Development item on the Agenda, Ali McGraw asked if after adoption the new Tesuque Overlay District would limit the ability of property owners to rent their houses out as Air BB's. The answer was no, but that the county is working on a Short-Term Rental ordinance that could help. Lynn then asked if anyone was aware of any problems with houses being built out of compliance with the building codes. None were noted.

On September 15th a Neighborhood Notification meeting was held at the school to explain the request for a height variance recently submitted for a house to be built near Tesuque Village Road. Margo reported on the Land Use Committee's response to the proposal and the letter sent to the head of the Santa Fe County Planning Department. Margo reiterated the TVCA guidelines for responding to Neighborhood Notification meetings, which are that TVCA will generally oppose landowner requests that are both inconsistent with the Code and not considered to advance important TVCA priorities, such as fire and flood mitigation or water conservation; will consider supporting requests that advance those priorities; and will not state a position or not object to requests that are arguably consistent with the Code.

Regarding the results of the recently completed Road Traffic Study, Lynn said that although the recommendations had been divided into short- and long-term projects, few actions had yet been taken. She has identified what should be the most immediate and easy to complete goals, and will keep in touch with the county in an effort to get things started.

Jerry Barron then volunteered to contact our new county commissioner Justin Greene about the road study and the need for a community and county road side clean-up project.

Lynn reported that her update on the historical marker request was posted on the news section of the website and would not be fully repeated here.

Rachel White then gave an update on Tesuque's status as a Firewise Community. She will email a form that individual landowners can fill out with information about how much time or money they have spent in the last year to reduce fire danger on their properties. She will need to have the responses returned by November 1st, so that she can meet the November 15th deadline for submission.

Rachel also mentioned that she had joined the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition and that they might have micro-grants available for participants such as the TVCA Firewise chapter. After a short discussion ti seemed that getting a chipper would be very helpful.

Jan Wisniewski, of the Acequia Madre, was given time to speak about water rights and ditch matters. The community members, whether they are parciantes or not, agreed that the ditch system was very important to Tesuque, and there should be more coordination between the ditch associations and the TVCA. We agreed to publicize the ditch newsletters. Their website is acequiamadredetesuque.weebly.com.

Under TVCA administration matters, Lynn explained that thenew website TesuqueValley.org had been completed thanks to Jerry Barron and David Dougherty. She encouraged everyone to check it out on a regular basis, at least to look at the news section, and said that she was willing to post news items for
anyone who had something they wanted to make other residents aware of and that are in line with TVCA goals, i.e., this is not like a NextDoor or Facebook platform and is instead reserved for matters that foster the goals outlined in our organizing documents or consistent with our status as a Community Organization under the Santa Fe County land use code.

The annual meeting and election of officers will be held in December. Lynn asked that all present consider becoming active in the organization and perhaps serving on the board or on a committee. Several board members expressed that they no longer wished to be board members but would consider volunteering for discreet tasks. Along these lines, Lynn thanked Christi Clancy for organizing the meeting agendas and insuring that they were sent out in a timely fashion. Lynn proposed that if there were not enough volunteers for directors, the board could lower the number of directors. The bylaws provide for between five and eleven members. Currently there are eleven.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:40 PM