Pink-bellied clouds chased the last band of sunshine behind a horizon of purple mountains in the Galisteo Basin last Monday. Then darkness descended and the stars came out, pinpricks of light in the inky sky above the Galisteo Community Center. Inside, before a standing room only crowd, Santa Fe County planner Jack Kolkmeyer jokingly took credit for the spectacular sunset.

But the people who gathered that night and the following two nights were serious about the county's obligation to protect the night skies and scenic views of the Galisteo Basin.

Several hundred people from the communities of Galisteo, Lamy, Golden, Silverado, San Marcos, Madrid and Cerrillos filled the Galisteo Community Center last week to participate in the county's efforts to gather public input that will shape future land-use policies.

They gamely wrote their priorities on butcher paper provided for that purpose:

"Manage light pollution. Maintain dark night skies," wrote one person.

"Be aware of Highway 14's National Scenic Byway designation," wrote another. "We must keep some of our views to keep that federal designation."

"It's very important to keep scenic values for our mental and spiritual health," wrote someone else.

On that, most people could agree.

Other issues though, such as water, economic development and affordable housing, produced more push-pull than consensus with some residents voicing desires to be left alone and others requesting more medical services and jobs in the basin.

"Meter all domestic wells," wrote one resident. "No meters on private wells!" wrote another.

Many agreed that the area's massive ranches — at least half a dozen of 10,000 acres or more — should be protected and preserved for agricultural purposes.

But some questioned the definitions of words like agricultural and rural in a modern world.

"Does rural mean suburban or does rural mean making a living?" wrote one resident.

"The Reality of 'rural lands' is that they are increasingly expensive," wrote another. "Only Hollywood can make a living on rural ranches."

Turnout at the planning meetings — which are being held in preparation for the county's rewrite of its general plan and land-use codes — was high. But so was the level of skepticism among residents of the small communities in the area, some of whom had participated in creating community plans in the past, only to find the priorities identified then weren't honored.

Cerrillos resident Russ Lockridge said his town was one of the first to complete a community plan designed to help dictate growth. But he said when the plan was finally adopted, the map attached to it, which would have determined lot size, was not the map the community has created designating its own zoning wishes. It was a map from the 1800s. "It felt like treachery," he said.

One resident called the planning meetings a "charade." Another expressed concern that the county would just "gather input and do as they please."

"I don't completely get what's going on," said Silverado resident William Lints. "I feel overwhelmed, and I think the people doing this are 10 times as overwhelmed. They have to make sense of it." Lints criticized the county's failure to draw a diverse crowd to the meetings — several mentioned the scarcity of Hispanic people and youth. But he said, the very fact that the meetings were held gave him some hope. "

This is unusual for me for a county government to go out and ask the community what they want," Lint said. "Normally it's 'pay your taxes and shut up.' "

The county's fourth and final series of public outreach meetings will be at 6 p.m. today at the Edgewood Senior Center. Planners said a draft report on the comments they've gathered so far should be available in about a month.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.