Zuni loses fight to stop
Tampico development

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — The attempts by a Phoenix company to create a large subdivision south of Gallup near the Zuni Pueblo is back on the front burner.

County Manager Tom Trujillo said Monday that with the decision last week by New Mexico District Court Judge Robert Aragon to lift the temporary stay he placed on the project, the county commission will be ready at its next meeting on May 28 to consider giving final approval for the first phase of the development. The Zuni Pueblo had challenged the development in court, hoping to kill the plan.

The Tampico Springs Ranch Subdivision is located in southern McKinley County about one mile from the Zuni Reservation. The first phase consists of 173 lots with all three phases totaling 491 lots. Over the years, the developers have said that their plans are to sell the lots to people who want to build summer homes in the mountains.

Zuni Pueblo officials have been fighting the development, claiming that once all of the homes are built, it would have a disastrous effect on water on streams south of the development.

Kirk Bemis, who has been hydrologist for the Zuni Conservation Program since 1995, in statements submitted to the court, said that once all of the lots have been sold and all of the houses are up, residents would pump a total of 147 acre-feet per year for all phases of the subdivision.

While the developer has claimed that water usage by Tampico Springs residents would not have an adverse effect on streams south of the development, the tribe’s evaluation, said Bemis, “determined that this pumping would deplete 124 acre-feet per year of flow from the Nutria Spring and Rio Nutria. Therefore, the subdivision’s full water demand would dry up this spring or stream baseflow.”

But Aragon will not have to determine which water usage prediction is right.

The tribe has gone to court on the issue of whether the county commission has followed all of its own procedures in approving the development. The Zunis say the commission has not; the commission says it has.

In his motion for a stay, Samuel Gollis, the attorney for the Zuni Pueblo, brought up three main issues.

The first deals with water.

The Zunis have been asking the county to require the developers to require people who buy the lots to put meters on their water wells and stay within certain limits on water usage. Gallup attorney Jay Mason, who represents the developers, said they have no problems in requiring meters to be placed on the wells but there is no one with the authority to monitor water usage or do anything if water usage is too high.

There’s also the issue of access roads.

Gollis contends that state law requires that the roads to the development be improved before development occurs. Developers say they can’t afford to do that until they start selling the lots. The county agreed with the developers.
Another issue deals with septic tanks and what is going to happen with solid waste generated by the people who live in Tampico Springs.

Gollis said Monday that while the stay has been lifted, the tribe’s appeal to the district court on these issues still remains and Aragon is still accepting briefs on these issues with the expectation that he will render a ruling, possibly as early as the end of summer.

If he agrees that the county commission has not followed its rules, any approvals that have been made will be declared null and void and the commission will have to start over again with the approval process. If the court rules in favor of the county, the development of Tampico Springs will continue.

County Attorney Doug Decker said the developers were given some conditions before final approval would be given to allow for the development of the first phase and it appears that the developers have complied with those conditions. He added that if the commission were to disapprove the application at this time, it would have to be for a substantial reason.

Gollis said representatives of the pueblo will be at the commission hearing but with the expectation that the approval will be granted.