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SANTA FE – The Santa Fe County Planning Commission late Thursday night unanimously rejected a proposed Pilot Flying J truck stop after five hours of comment from among hundreds of opponents and the project developers

The Planning Commission was tasked to make a recommendation on a conceptual plan for a 26-acre parcel on the south side of Interstate 25 at the Cerrillos Road/N.M. 14 interchange. Development would occur in three phases, and its first phase would be the 10-acre truck stop.

At the Thursday’s meeting that initially attracted about 300 people — large crowds of opponents have shown up for several meetings on the truck stop over the past few months — the commission also took the position that a truck stop in the Community College District is not eligible for a conditional use permit.

A truck stop is not listed as a permitted or conditional use for the south-side district in the county’s Sustainable Land Development Code. But the county staff and a hearing officer who took up the case last month said the Flying J could be determined as “materially similar” to other listed uses like gas stations or truck/freight transportation centers.

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Planning Commissioner Frank Katz, a former Santa Fe city attorney, saw Pilot Flying J plan as not similar enough to anything else listed in the code. For that reason, he said the entire conceptual plan shouldn’t move forward.

He said a mission of the Community College District is to serve residents and businesses that support the neighborhood. “It’s a district that has very clear focus on the local area,” Katz told the developers’ attorney Karl Sommer. “The county… was very concerned that this area not be a free for all, that it retain a somewhat rural village aspect. I don’t know whether you could argue whether a truck stop is allowed anywhere else in the county, but I think the whole point of the CCD is to not have that type of business.”

This Planning Commission’s decision doesn’t halt the application. Matthew McQueen, attorney for the Santa Fe Gateway Alliance, the community group opposing the truck stop, said the Pilot Flying J plan now goes to the County Commission. If the County Commission denies the proposal, Pilot Flying J could appeal in court.

Sommer noted that the county’s staff and the hearing officer approved the travel center plan. “From a legal standpoint, there is no justifiable reason to deny this,” he said.

Earlier in the meeting, commissioners questioned the safety of big trucks driving on nearby roads and exits including the new “diverging diamond” interchange at I-25 and Cerrillos. Ross Shaver, a representative from Pilot Flying J, said the developers have received assurance from state and federal officials that the roads are safe for trucks.

“If (truck drivers) are out here having accidents all the time and we’re creating all these issues, I’m not in business and I’m creating liability for myself,” said Shaver. “It’s not going to happen.”

Lisa Burns, president of the Gateway Alliance and one of the nearly 50 residents who spoke against the truck stop citing impacts on traffic safety annd air, light and noise pollution, said community support has kept the group fighting against the travel center.

“I’m so excited,” she said after the meeting. “We have worked so tirelessly.”

A County Commission public hearing is tentatively scheduled for May 8.