Corrales moves forward with farmland preservation funding amid council dispute

Councilors moved a step closer to paying landowners to keep property in agricultural use by commissioning valuation assessments for the two top-ranked parcels on the Corrales Farmland Preservation Commission’s list at the Feb. 10 council meeting. The action follows a 2023 voter-approved bond that village officials have said raised some $2 million to support easements and other incentives to preserve the village’s rural character.

The farmland preservation commission had ranked five candidate properties earlier; councilors voted in December to approve that ranking and to prioritize funding for the higher-ranked sites. At the Feb. 10 meeting councilors finalized the list of properties for inclusion in the village’s farmland preservation easements program and authorized appraisals for the Indigenous Farm Hub and an apple orchard owned by Morgan and Renee Holmes.

Commissioners placed the Indigenous Farm Hub, 6400 Corrales Road, at the top of the list. Commissioners described the property as “a working farm” that “hosts educational opportunities for youth.” Second on the list is an apple orchard at 211 Paseo De Dulcelina owned by Morgan and Renee Holmes. The commission ranked three other properties, but those parcels and owners were not named at the meeting.

Consultant Michael Scisco laid out the next steps for the program at the Feb. 10 meeting. “The next step, consultant Michael Scisco said, is for the village and property owners to sign agreements for the easements. Once the assessments have been completed, he said, village leaders will know how much money is available for awards.” The council did not set a public timetable at the meeting for when the valuation assessments will be completed.

The decision to appraise only the top two properties drew objection from the public. “One resident raised objection to that process, saying all five properties should be appraised first,” a meeting record shows. The public objection highlighted a procedural tension between sequencing appraisals to match limited bond dollars and conducting full appraisals across all candidates before negotiating easements.

A separate exchange at the meeting touched off an unrelated council dispute over infrastructure planning. Councilor Mel Knight “pushed back against a suggestion that she wielded undue influence on the public works department to have her street put on the village’s infrastructure capital improvement plan list. She said she’s waited eight years for its inclusion,” according to the meeting summary.

Corrales has precedent for using local bond funding in partnership with conservation groups. The New Mexico Land Conservancy notes that the village previously purchased easements “through its Farmland Preservation Program with assistance from NMLC, the Corrales Farmland Preservation Committee and the Trust for Public Land, and subsequently conveyed to NMLC.” That prior acquisition combined local bond funding with a federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program grant administered by NRCS. For information on past easements, the New Mexico Land Conservancy can be reached at (505) 986-3801.

Key questions remain for Village Hall: the final appraised values for the Indigenous Farm Hub and the Holmes orchard, the identities and valuations of the three unnamed ranked properties, whether the village will seek federal FRPP grants for these parcels, and whether any newly purchased easements will be conveyed to an outside land trust. Council records from December and Feb. 10 and the farmland preservation commission’s ranking report will be critical to tracking the next steps.