What Actually Protects the Open Land Around La Tierra Trails

The fight over this land had already produced one marathon hearing before it produced an answer. On June 9, opponents packed a Santa Fe County meeting for hours, and when a procession of speakers finished denouncing the proposed Camino Verde subdivision, the applause got loud enough that Commission Chair Justin Greene asked the room to hold it in. Commissioners delayed their decision that night. Three weeks later, on June 30, they came back and voted 3 to 2 to reject the plan: a proposed 158-home development that would have covered two parcels totaling 304 acres straddling Camino La Tierra.

If you're looking at land near the La Tierra Trails right now, it's tempting to read that vote as the end of the story: the open land held, the trails stay open, the character of the place survives intact. That's not quite what happened. The commission rejected one specific plan from one specific developer. It didn't rezone the parcels, and it didn't place them under any permanent open space protection. The same 304 acres are exactly as buildable today as they were the week before the vote. What a buyer evaluating land in this corridor needs to understand isn't the outcome of one hearing. It's the mechanism that produced the proposal in the first place, because that mechanism is still sitting there, unaffected by a single lost vote.

The Density Bonus Is Doing More Work Than the View

Camino Verde wasn't an odd fit for this stretch of county. It was an ordinary use of a specific tool in Santa Fe County's Sustainable Land Development Code: a density bonus for projects that cluster homes and dedicate open space. Under the developer's proposal, more than 50 percent of the 304 acres would have been preserved as natural open space and trail easements, including a stretch of the historic Chile Line rail bed, in exchange for concentrating the 158 homes on smaller lots rather than spreading them evenly across the property. That's the trade the code is structured around. A developer gives up uniform density in exchange for the right to build more units overall, as long as a defined share of the land is set aside.

The lot sizes shifted as the plan moved through the process, which is worth sitting with for a second. At an April hearing before county hearing officer Taylor Hartstein, the project was described with lots ranging from 0.24 to 3.67 acres. By the time developer representative Jennifer Jenkins addressed commissioners in June, the range being cited was closer to 0.3 to 3.13 acres. Those aren't dramatically different numbers, but they show a plan being tuned in real time to satisfy code thresholds, not a fixed layout that simply waited for a yes. Eighteen of the homes would have been offered at rates the county deems affordable, meeting a separate ordinance requirement.

Here's the part that matters if you're pricing raw land in this corridor: the density bonus rewards proximity to exactly the kind of amenity La Tierra already has. A 25-mile trail network is precisely the sort of open space a developer can point to when arguing a project has earned its bonus units. The trails don't just make land here desirable to live near. They make land here more attractive to develop at higher density, because the amenity itself can be counted toward the open-space trade that unlocks more homes per acre. That's a different relationship between amenity and land value than most buyers picture when they're standing on a quiet lot off Tano Road or Las Dos.

Dewey Lederer, a resident of the nearby Tierra de Oro subdivision, made a version of this same argument during the process, citing the county code's own mission-statement language about preserving the character of existing communities and unique rural landscapes, even as that same code offers density bonuses that push in the opposite direction.

The Access You're Counting On Is Informal

There's a second thing this fight surfaced that never shows up in a listing description. Hikers, cyclists, and riders who use the La Tierra Trails frequently get there by parking along Camino La Tierra and crossing private, undeveloped land to reach the trailhead. That undeveloped land is the same land Camino Verde would have built on. The Santa Fe Conservation Trust's maintenance agreement covers the 25-mile trail network itself, which sits on city-owned property and has been maintained under that arrangement since 2014. It does not extend to the parking areas and access points that run across privately held parcels nearby.

That distinction matters if trail access is part of what's drawing you to a specific piece of land here. The core network being city-owned and actively maintained tells you it's stable. It tells you nothing about whether the way you currently reach it will look the same in five years, because that access runs through exactly the kind of parcel that keeps attracting subdivision proposals.

The Friction That Shows Up at Underwriting, Not at Showing

The most concrete number to come out of this fight wasn't about homes or acres. It was about insurance. William Feiereisen, who chairs the emergency preparedness and fire safety committee for the nearby La Mariposa Homeowners Association, told county officials that Camino La Tierra is "a high fire danger area with marginal fire department support," and that insurers have already withdrawn coverage or canceled policies in the area. His argument against Camino Verde was that adding density on the only road serving as an evacuation route for the neighborhoods to the north and west would compound a problem that already exists.

Whatever you make of the zoning fight itself, that insurance detail is the kind of thing that doesn't surface until you're deep into a transaction. A listing won't mention which carriers have pulled back from a corridor. A trail map certainly won't. The only reliable way to find out is to get an actual quote, from more than one carrier, before you're under contract on a parcel here, and to ask specifically about wildfire coverage for that property rather than for the general area.

A Timeline Worth Knowing If You're Watching This Corridor

1. April 2026: Hearing officer Taylor Hartstein takes up variance requests for Camino Verde, including reducing side and rear setbacks from 25 feet to 10 feet and driveway separation from 100 feet to 60 feet.
2. Late April 2026: Opposition organizes formally as Northwest Residents United, with spokesperson Mona Shoup arguing the variance request arrived before the public had seen a full conceptual plan.
3. May 21, 2026: The Santa Fe County Planning Commission takes up the variance requests.
4. June 9, 2026: Developer representative Jennifer Jenkins presents the conceptual plan, including the open space set-aside and affordable housing units, to a packed and hours-long commission meeting. Commissioners delay their decision.
5. June 30, 2026: Commissioners reconvene and vote 3 to 2 to reject the plan after further testimony.

The land itself didn't move through any of that. Only the paperwork did, and the paperwork can be refiled.

What This Means If You're Looking at Land Here

None of this means La Tierra, Las Campanas, or the surrounding Tano Road and Las Dos parcels are a poor place to buy. It means the diligence looks different than it does in a fully built-out neighborhood. Before writing an offer on raw land or a home on a large parcel in this corridor, a few extra steps are worth the time a standard home search skips:

• Ask the county for the zoning and variance history on adjacent parcels, not just the one you're buying.
• Get a wildfire insurance quote early, from more than one carrier, before you're locked into a purchase timeline.
• Confirm in writing whether any trail access you're relying on crosses land the Santa Fe Conservation Trust actually holds an agreement for, or a private parcel with no such agreement.
• Ask which road serves as the evacuation route for the property and whether that road has documented capacity concerns on file with the county.

None of this is legal or financial advice. It's the homework that turns a scenic parcel into a well-understood one before you're committed to it.

FAQ

Does the June 30 vote mean the Camino Verde land can never be developed? No. The commission rejected this specific conceptual plan. The land remains privately owned and zoned for development under the county's existing code, and a revised plan or a different developer could bring a new proposal forward.

Does this affect land values in Las Campanas or along Tano Road? The vote itself doesn't change zoning or assessed values directly. What it does show is that any large undeveloped parcel near the trail system is a candidate for a future proposal, which is useful context for anyone evaluating land nearby.

Where can I follow future proposals for this corridor? Santa Fe County's land use department keeps public records on active applications, and the community group behind caminolatierra.org has tracked county hearings on this parcel closely since April.

If you're weighing a parcel near the La Tierra Trails, or trying to sort out what's actually protected from what's simply quiet for now, Bunny Terry has spent years walking this exact corridor with buyers who wanted the record, not just the view. Start your Santa Fe story with someone who reads the county file before the listing photos.