Neighbors aren’t crowing over Audubon construction plans
Work on pavilion at bird sanctuary is set to begin next month
Along-discussed plan by the Randall Davey Audubon Center & Sanctuary to build a pavilion for nature-based
experiential learning and private events on the 135-acre property on Upper Canyon Road is ruffling feathers among some neighbors.
Residents are voicing myriad concerns, from misplaced financial priorities to increased traffic and potential drunken driving after an event where alcohol is served, according to Canyon Neighborhood Association emails obtained by The New Mexican.
“I am aghast that space now available to birds and wildlife is going to be snatched away for parties,” neighbor Joan Blythe wrote in one of the emails. “Something is very wrong here.”
“This is dreadful news,” Caryn Glickman wrote in another email. “No longer a sanctuary at all.”
The center and sanctuary anticipates construction of the 2,320-squarefoot multipurpose pavilion to begin early next month. The $1.4 million project, which is being funded through donations, includes an adjacent nature discovery area for children, a solar array and a water catchment system. It is expected to take six to eight months to complete. The pavilion, which will be enclosed, will increase the organization’s capacity for educational programs. Its main space of 1,387 square feet will accommodate classes, lectures, workshops and community events, as well as
meetings, special events and private functions.
A ceremonial groundbreaking is scheduled May 23, the day before the birthday of the late Randall Davey, a renowned artist whose east-side Santa Fe estate was donated to the National Audubon Society in 1983.
Some area residents are crying foul over the project.
Jacqueline Schmeal said it is a “tragedy” to commercialize the sanctuary and “displace birds with catering trucks.”
“Every group gets a leader who always has to build an empire,” she wrote.
Jon Hayes, executive director of Audubon New Mexico, wrote in a draft letter to Upper Canyon Road residents that the organization is committed to being a good neighbor “by constructing a pavilion that will truly be an asset to the neighborhood and community.”
“Of course we are also aware of the concerns that many of those in the neighborhood have expressed regarding this project,” Hayes wrote. “It is my desire as the new executive director of Audubon New Mexico to maintain an open and responsive dialogue with the neighborhood.”
In an interview Thursday, Hayes said his organization shares neighbors’ concerns.
“Lord, we don’t want drunk drivers on Upper Canyon Road, either,” he said. “We don’t want to love this place that we have stewardship of to death either.”
Hayes noted other neighbors and community members are “very supportive” of the proposed pavilion, which he said has been a long time in the making.
“We’ve tried to maintain an open and responsive dialogue with the neighborhood association,” he said. “I’ve attended their meetings. I’ve invited each of them to come up here and meet in person, and I would continue to extend that.”
Hayes said the center and sanctuary has developed “traffic mitigation guidelines” that include requiring parties with more than 30 vehicles to hire a shuttle service to transport attendees to and from the site. To reduce the likelihood of drunken driving, he said, statecertified servers are required for parties where alcohol will be served.
While some residents believe there should be no further construction in a bird sanctuary, others understand and support the educational mission of the Audubon Center and support the new pavilion, Jim Gollin, president of the Canyon Neighborhood Association, said Friday in an email.
“Members of the Canyon Neighborhood Association are united in their concern about the volume and speed of traffic on our narrow winding roads,” he wrote. “Our residents bear with the traffic to and from the water treatment plant and the upstream dams, the Dale Ball and Nature Conservancy hiking trails, and of course the Audubon, but are concerned about any activity that would add to the already high traffic burden. The traffic mitigation plan presented by the Audubon, bringing school children up in buses, requiring shuttles for larger events, and not expanding parking, helps mitigate those concerns.”
Hayes said the organization’s mission “has always been about lifelong nature-based education and learning and experiential learning.” But the property has a history of being used for private events, too, he said.
“There’s a number of people in Santa Fe that have gotten married out on the lawn in front of the Davey house. It makes a beautiful setting for an event like that,” he said. “Part of the reason we wanted to build this pavilion was to take some of that pressure and traffic off of that lawn in front of the Davey house … so we could have another place to kind of move some of that foot traffic so we don’t love the property to death and we’re able to maintain the space in the way we feel we need to.”
While some neighbors are questioning why the organization is taking on a new construction project when the already existing house and adjacent studio are in need of restoration work, Hayes said his organization is committed to a capital campaign for the upkeep of the house.
The pavilion will be named after the late David Jay Henderson, a conservationist who directed the Randall Davey Audubon Center for 22 years and launched the state office of the Audubon Society.
After Henderson died of melanoma in 2012, “there was a massive outpouring from the community of donations to a memorial for him,” Hayes said. “Those funds started the seed for this project.”