The Village
Gracefully held by the surrounding red rock hills and ridges in the northeast corner of the Preserve, the proposed Village at the Galisteo Basin Preserve will serve a broad range of land conservation and community building goals. The mixed-use master-planned community is designed to:
- Directly connect people to the land they inhabit
- Actively employ planning practices and building methods that respect the land and water resources of the region
- Thoughtfully and visibly support the cultural and economic diversity of northern New Mexico.
The Village will support an inclusive, mixed-income community of 965 homes that reflect a variety of housing types and neighborhoods (e.g., town homes, courtyard homes, and detached homes in addition to co-housing and elder housing). A tight cluster of residential neighborhoods linked via pathways, neighborhood parks, and alamedas will be anchored by a pedestrian-scale commercial and civic center.
As a model of conservation-based community development, the Village will leverage the sale of its homes to underwrite the conservation and restoration of approximately 12,000 acres of publicly accessible open space.
Educational, civic, and commercial land uses are also planned. The Village center will likely include a café, general store, post office, business incubator, outpatient care medical facility, fire station, ATM, non-denominational place of worship, environmental center, and live-work commercial space for local artisans and community-based businesses. A 400-student, dual-language, environmentally focused charter high school will be physically and programmatically integrated into the community. As currently envisioned, the school will support a number of "joint-use" facilities, including playfields, library, indoor swimming pool, meeting spaces, and continuing-education classrooms.
At the southern edge of the Village, a small organic farm, greenhouses, and a "memorial landscape" are proposed. In addition to neighborhood parks, Village residents and the general public will have access to more than 30 miles of public and private trails for hiking, biking, and equestrian use.
With its proximity to a proposed commuter rail line, its innovative water conservation program, solar-oriented site plan, and "healthy buildings" construction practice, the Village will demonstrate the efficacy of "green development" in a workforce housing/conservation development context.
Commonweal Conservancy secured Master Plan approval for the Village from Santa Fe County in June 2007. Approval for the first phase of development is anticipated by late 2008. The first home construction in the Village is expected to begin in fall of 2009. |
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