Petition to stop new zoning ordinance fails

Tensions flared during the City Council meeting on Monday, May 19^th, when the city disagreed with petitioners over the number of signatures a group obtained trying to halt the city’s new zoning ordinance.

The City Council voted not to accept the petition for a referendum on Realize Las Cruces in a 6-1 vote. Councilor William Matice voted in favor.

A grassroots group led by Sarah Smith has been trying since March to gather enough signatures on a petition to halt Realize Las Cruces, the city’s new zoning ordinance that the city worked on and held public meetings over since 2020.

The Realize Las Cruces ordinance aims to bring higher housing density and more flexibility to land use to the city.

Las Cruces City Clerk Christine Rivera presented the state of the petition saying that it had 2,547 of the needed 3,240 valid signatures to successfully take it to the ballot box. While the city did receive more signatures, many were thrown out due to not following the rules of gathering signatures for a variety of reasons. Organizers of the petition effort claimed that the signatures were unjustly not counted. Councilors responded by criticizing the petitioners of spreading “misinformation.”

During her public comment, Smith said that the petition was signed by, “4,671 Las Cruces residents” but that many were thrown out due to people using nicknames, and elderly people needing other people to sign for them. Smith claimed that this should not invalidate the signatures.

After nearly an hour of divided public comment, City councilor Joanna Bencomo spoke saying that the petitioners were spreading “misinformation” about the integrity of the process and “exploited peoples worst fears about their neighbors” causing at least one person to leave the meeting angrily. Bencomo finished by saying that if you are against “diverse housing going up in good neighborhoods and with good parks, then I would ask you to reflect on where your segregationist tendencies come from.”

Councilor Yvonne Flores continued the criticism saying that she went to a segregated school in El Paso and that she can, “call one when she sees one.” She finished by saying that everyone who bashed the system and the city clerk should go “beat your head into the sky,” alluding to an earlier comment calling those demanding a referendum “a bunch of Chicken Little’s.”

Smith hoped to gain enough signatures to push the city council into holding a referendum vote in November, so voters would decide on the zoning ordinance. The City has said it held many public meetings over the course of years for residents to have input in the process.

City Councilor William Mattiace thanked the petitioners and said that the code change is “so significant that it should not be something that just we vote on. It should have been given to the voter.”

City Attorney Brad Douglas said that he stood behind the number of valid signatures and that the city followed all of the laws claiming that would be found to be the case “in a court of law.”