Have you heard about this? Las Cruces population could double?
The second largest annexation in the city’s history has been approved.
Check out this expert from the Sun News:
Construction of The Vistas at Presidio, on the city’s East Mesa, won’t begin for another 18 to 24 months. Anywhere from 30,000 to 44,000 residential units will likely be built and the entire 5,920.5-acre subdivision could conceivably double the city’s population.
The general public perception, not only in this city but throughout the state, is that is an inside deal, t Don Kurtz, speaking on behalf of the Quality Growth Alliance, a group of residents who formed the organization when they became aware of the annexation proposal. “People of this city knew absolutely nothing about this. It was moved in the fastest and quietest fashion.”
One of Las Cruces’ newest and most notable residents sat quietly for hours and listened intently into the wee hours Tuesday as the Las Cruces City Council deliberated and finally approved the city’s second largest annexation ever.
When it finally came time for public comments, New Mexico State University basketball coach Reggie Theus was the first resident to speak.
“I’ve actually enjoyed this,” Theus said after sitting and listening for almost five hours. “This just reiterates in my mind that it’s a very exciting time to be in Las Cruces.”
Is this a good thing for Las Cruces? Has any one experienced similar growing pains in other cities? An how did it effect your town?
Leave a comment, I would like to here some feedback
5 responses so far ↓
Patty Hesse // June 30, 2007 at 4:23 am |
Five years ago my children moved to Maricopa, AZ. it was a small town with just one new area of construction. It had a small town charm and a nice get away from the heavy traffic of Pheonix. The small town has been eaten by thousands of new homes, strip malls, and traffic. They are even thinking now of building a by-pass over the original town. think twice before letting this happen.
Barry Fisher // June 30, 2007 at 12:25 pm |
Although I suspected that this would happen, it is the beginning of the road to destruction of a way of life. I saw the same thing happening in Las Vegas. When I moved there, it was 300,000 population. There were few infrastructure problems. Over the past 35 years it has grown to almost 2000000, and government has found it impossible to keep up as the tax base does not provide for the infrastructure needs.
Growth helps only the developers and builders, but the city will be forever changed and the quality of life that brings me to Las Cruces will inevitably change and be lost.
Life in a bigger city is very different from life as it exists today in the charming college town of Las Cruces.
Todd Archuleta // June 30, 2007 at 2:53 pm |
Las Cruces is quite charming I agree, and in 30 years it is very likely to be just as some of the cities mentioned in your comments. But what a great place to live until then! What a great way to supplement your retirement with the kind of appreciation we experience here in Cruces. I did a little research, if you had purchased a house here in 1996 and kept it until 2006 that is only 10 years, you would have experienced 126% appreciation on your home…..not bad.
Mary LaPointe // July 1, 2007 at 5:23 pm |
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to live which offers all of the basics…without the congestion, pollution, crime, and stress of big cities! I would love to find a city that has diversity, art and culture, a good social life, and economic (a job that actually pays a living wage!) opportunity. It’s either feast or famine: you sacrifice quality of life in order to pay the bills and have more than the bare necessities. Retirement communities (Las Cruces) are for the folks who don’t need to work. What about those of us who must be employed to make ends meet? Not everybody is in a financial position to retire. It’s a shame that Las Cruces doesn’t really have anything to offer to those of us in that category. The demographics don’t bode well for the working folks. As for the annexation: the only people who profit from “progress” are the “fat cats”! Although I don’t live in Las Cruces, it is sad to think of your town evolving into a “cement jungle”. However, the retired won’t really be adversely affected by this transition. Observe places such as Tucson, which has grown into a monstrosity of traffic jams and subdivisions. The retired simply live in an area with easy access to all of their needs.
ROBINSON DELACRUZ // July 1, 2007 at 10:54 pm |
I am currently a resident of Alexandria Virginia. I moved into this area back in 1985 from New York City not only because of a job opportunity but because of the tranquility and a way of life more appealing then the Big City offered. It was a joy to live here for myself and my wife, also for the development of our child. The area offered open spaces, walking trails, wooded areas and very little traffic. On rush hours I could count the amount of people on the train station heading to work in D.C. or Crystal City. My wife truly enjoyed all that this area had to offer in terms of schools,shopping and safety. Weekends we traveled into D.C. for cultural events,museums and theatre.We still have the cultural aspects of the city but slowly we have seen the drastic and devastating change brought upon this area by developments of Condominiums, home communities and such. The wooded areas have long been replaced with townhomes, small markets etc…The traffic has quadrupled since that time and the crime rate has risen considerably. Although more roads have been constructed and changes made to existing ones,the amount of traffic exceeds these improvements.Private developers are eating up every possible land available to build more housing.The industry in general has developed into a mass of concrete and steel jungle, yet the cost of living is by far affordable because both the apartment communities and housing industry are way too high for many of the residents in this sector, specially for the working class in general.
Developers are in for the profits and they know that such vast communities will need industries for peolpe to work which in turn transcends to building corporate sectors which will in turn may require roads or highways, schools and so on, in other words more business for them in terms of construction, such is a city born and of course then we have the people element entering within such areas to consider because that in turn may bring not only the working citizen but the undesirable element e.g. crime,drugs etc…
Yes, growth can be beneficial to an area but how much of it is what has to be determined and in some manner controlled. We all know that deals are made among developers and Officials-the one hand washes the other thing, and while it is proclaimed that it is to our benefit we have to ask ourselves-Is It truly to OUR benefit?
There is much more to be said and consider regarding this matter. I share the same feelings and concerns as Patty,Barry and Mary have expressed.