City speculates on commercial plans at Indian School

Officials unsure of school's intentions for bulldozed campus, and their jurisdiction is limited

Doug Mattson | The New Mexican

12/1/2008 - 12/2/08

Officials overseeing plans for the Santa Fe Indian School site, where historic buildings recently were demolished, might not have the legal authority to build a commercial project there, if that's what is actually being considered.

The school recently bulldozed numerous buildings on the Cerrillos Road campus, prompting speculation about what might become of the acreage.

However, officials in charge of the school, which is controlled by the All Indian Pueblo Council, have kept silent about what they're doing with the land fronting one of the city's busiest streets.

The Santa Fe Reporter last week reported that it got ahold of a site plan that development experts told the paper might indicate a mixed-use retail center, possibly anchored by a hotel.

The notion concerned city officials, who remain in the dark about the school's intentions.

"They're doing something. They're definitely doing something," Santa Fe Mayor David Coss said Monday.

"We certainly have an interest in what's going on there," City Attorney Frank Katz said. "We have somewhat limited jurisdiction over federally owned land, so I don't know where things would stand."

The Reporter said the drawing suggested Studio Southwest Architects was involved. Its president, Rich Braun, told The New Mexican to direct questions to the All Indian Pueblo Council, which represents the 19 pueblos. He declined to say if the drawing involved his company, but in general terms added, "We do a lot of plans for a lot of clients and lot of plans for a lot of people who we would like to be our clients. ... We do work with pueblos down in Albuquerque, too."

Several attempts to reach the pueblo council's spokesman, Gil Vigil, were unsuccessful Monday.

Coss said he talked with Vigil on election night last month about the two getting together for coffee, although not in the context of discussing any development plans. He now plans to bring up the topic, he said.

The pueblo council's chairman, Joe Garcia of Ohkay Owingeh, said the council had little to do with any development plans and that questions should go the Indian School. "They are the ones who are going to release any information," Garcia said. "I think they have done so, but I'm not sure."

Whether the school could convert any of the property to commercial use might be a matter of legal interpretation. Congress conveyed the property to the 19 pueblos in 2000 and directed the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to hold it in trust for the pueblos.

The federal Santa Fe Indian School Act says, "The land taken into trust ... shall be solely for the education, health, or cultural purposes of the Santa Fe Indian School. ..."

State Historic Preservation Officer Katherine Slick said it's unclear if the wording precludes the demolition site from becoming a commercial development.

"I don't know," she said. "If you decided that you were going to build artisan workshops and you had a gallery that sold the craft that came out of those artisan workshops, the gallery would be a retail business, but it would be supporting the existence of those workshops. I'm not an attorney, so I'm not going to give you any more than that."

Slick said her office wouldn't become involved in any development on the campus, but might if it involved use of federal funding. "At this point, the historic resources that we would have been concerned about are gone," she said, "so we're really talking as close as you can get to open land over there."

Slick was referring to the turn of the 20th century dormitories, classrooms, gymnasium and faculty housing that a contracted demolition company tore down last summer. School and pueblo council officials have remained largely silent on the demolition.

Contact Doug Mattson at 986-3087 or dmattson@sfnewmexican.com.