Several citizens involved in a study to determine where to place a new interchange and bridge in the Los Lunas area to relieve congestion on Main Street are saying they’ve had little voice in the decisions being made during the study process.

“I don’t think a lot of the advice that we give or the positions we take or whatever is being taken into account. I don’t think we hold any value in the decision-making process,” said Mike McConaghy, a member of the study’s citizens advisory committee who’s also involved in the El Cerro Neighborhood Association.

The citizens advisory committee, along with a separate steering committee made up of local elected officials and government staff, has assessed possible routes for a new four-lane roadway that would connect Interstate 25 with Highway 47.

So far the groups have studied seven routes, two north of Main Street and five south of Main Street. All but two routes south of Main Street are considered infeasible and unlikely to be selected for implementation.

The two south routes run roughly atop or immediately alongside Morris and Miller roads, then cross the river. Where the two routes connect to Highway 47 remains in dispute, but they’re likely to connect between North and South El Cerro Loop.

Dave Pennington of D. Pennington & Associates, who is conducting the study with the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG), said portions of Highway 47 in northern Tome and El Cerro might be widened to accommodate traffic resulting from a new roadway connecting to it.

“Highway 47 would likely have to be improved. It could be improved to three or four lanes, possibly five lanes if you add a turning lane,” he said.

Pennington said no decisions have been made. McConaghy, however, told Pennington he thinks decisions about the interchange and bridge have been made.

“I feel like there is a straight goal that has been given to your organization by the Village of Los Lunas and other government entities,” he said.

McConaghy said the citizens advisory committee appears to be a way for Pennington and others to get citizens who may be opposed to certain routes in line, to push one or more routes past any opposition.

“I don’t feel like we have a say-so in what’s going on,” he said.

Pennington, who clicked through a lengthy slideshow about the steps in the study process, said no one is anywhere near making a decision about a final route. He pointed out that decisions will be made after the conclusion of the study and by the Village of Los Lunas and Valencia County, with input from the Town of Peralta and the City of Belen.

Loretta Tollefson, a project manager with MRCOG, said the Village of Los Lunas, of course, wants to build a new east-west roadway that will stretch from I-25 to Highway 47, but no final route has been determined.

“Very simply, there is no secret map,” she said.

While there is no “secret map,” Pennington hinted at knowing where the final route would be during a July meeting, saying at the time that he could draw the route on a map.

Responding to an accusation that developers are controlling the direction of the study and its conclusions, Pennington admitted to meeting with developers — but no more than he’s met with citizens.

“We were called by the Rancho Cielo developer and he said, ‘You really like the southern alignment, right?’ And we said no,” Pennington said. “We don’t have a preference.”

He said no one in government is advocating a particular outcome, a comment supported by Valencia County Manager Eric Zamora.

“This is pure technical information we’re dealing with at this point,” Zamora said. “There are no politics. I have received no pressure, no comments, no direction from any commissioners to steer it one way or the other.”

Pennington agreed, saying he and MRCOG are looking at the routes technically and analytically, not politically.

“This is a political issue. Let’s not kid each other,” said Rita Padilla-Gutierrez, a member of the citizens advisory committee who’s also involved in the Historic Tome-Adelino Neighborhood Association. “This is about politics and who has the ins with whomever, who has the resources and who has what it takes to, politically, get it done or not done.”

Padilla-Gutierrez said the congestion in Los Lunas is a “self-inflicted” problem for a village that has mismanaged its growth.

“Those of us in the unincorporated areas are having to deal with Los Lunas’ bad planning,” she said.

This page was published on January 19, 2010 at 9:18am and is filed under Infrastructure, Rancho Cielo.