The Santa Fe City Council on Wednesday overturned a decision by the Historic Districts Review Board to designate a couple of buildings at Sanbusco Market Center as historic, making it easier for the New Mexico School for the Arts to renovate the 88,000-square-foot shopping complex into a high school campus.
The council voted 6-1 to grant an appeal filed by the charter school’s foundation, the NMSA Art Institute. Councilor Chris Rivera cast the lone dissenting vote. Mayor Javier Gonzales and Councilor Peter Ives were absent.
At issue was whether the Sanbusco buildings, which the school’s foundation purchased last year, had “sufficient historic integrity” for such designations, which restrict the types of changes that can be made to a structure. The foundation argued that some structures weren’t old enough to qualify for the status, and city staff contended that an extensive overhaul a few decades ago left little original building materials in the complex.
Not everyone agreed. Nicoletta Munroe, one of three Santa Fe residents who testified against the appeal, yelled in protest after the council vote: “You can’t go against federal law!”
In June, the city’s Historic Districts Review Board voted to maintain the status of the former retail center’s main building as contributing to the area’s historic relevance and to upgrade the status of some parking sheds in the complex to contributing as well. The board also designated the complex’s Butler & Foley Building, which formerly housed Cost Plus World Market, as historically contributing, but that designation wasn’t part of the foundation’s appeal.
Under city code, to earn a status of historically contributing, a structure must be at least 50 years old and retain sufficient historic integrity to establish and maintain the character of its district — in this case, the Westside-Guadalupe Historic District — according to a report by the City Attorney’s Office.
A previous historic board designated the main Sanbusco building as “contributing” in the 1990s. But the city’s historic preservation staff later recommended downgrading the status, in part because of renovations made by Joe Schepps, who bought the complex in 1983.
“The property had been sitting idle for a number of years when I purchased it, and was basically a junkyard,” Schepps wrote in an Aug. 24 letter that was submitted as part of the appeal. “After a substantial cleanup, the work began with sledgehammering off all the brickwork and stucco that had been done in the 1920s and the removal and replacement of nearly all historic windows.”
Schepps also said that a portion of the building was demolished and the interior was “gutted and reconfigured” to turn the building into a retail mall.
“The interior materials seen today, including the brick floors, the thick posts, and the wood framing, are all modern material,” he wrote.
City staff contended that even without considering the 1999 addition of a Borders bookstore, “a substantial amount of the building material is non-historic, which is sufficient to find a lack of historic integrity.”
The City Attorney’s Office advised the City Council to “independently weigh the facts” but apply the Land Use Department’s interpretation of “historic integrity,” which requires that at least 70 percent of the physical materials be at least 50 years old.
The foundation argued the parking sheds failed to meet historic status because the structures are less than 50 years old.
“We’re reluctantly here but necessarily here,” said David Ater, a member of the school foundation’s board.
“We’re asking you, the governing body, to overturn what was an incorrect decision by the board,” Ater said. “We respect the citizen members on the historic review board and all other volunteers who work for all of us in the city. Mistakes do get made and sometimes not by intent.”
The New Mexico School for the Arts’ foundation bought the complex last year for more than $7 million, with plans to create a new campus for the state-chartered high school, whose curriculum focuses on fine arts and performing arts. The school is currently housed at the old downtown Cathedral School on East Alameda Street, but officials have said the school is outgrowing the space.
The foundation had been searching for a site to accommodate up to 400 students with classrooms, dance and art studios, a theater and dorm space for students from other parts of the state. It chose Sanbusco, with 88,000 square feet of space and plenty of parking on 5.8 acres close to a commuter train stop, art galleries, museums and theaters that could cater to the needs of the school’s creative students.
The purchase initially raised concerns that several longtime retail businesses would be displaced, but many of those shops have found new homes at the nearby DeVargas Center.
Councilor Ron Trujillo said his daughter attends the New Mexico School for the Arts, but he didn’t recuse himself from the vote because he said he could be “fair and impartial.”