Back to dirt: Mayor Hashimoto reverses unauthorized parking prep

It’s not a parking lot, Corrales Mayor Fred Hashimoto says. It was never a parking lot, and likely will never be a parking lot.

Hashimoto told the Corrales Comment that he ordered village public works staff to remove subsurface materials commonly laid onto dirt before parking-lot construction from part of the Gonzales Field.

He said that material appeared on the site, which fronts Corrales Road, without his knowledge or approval.

“I was very surprised,” Hashimoto said. “I’ve been mayor for three months, and I never heard anything about it.”

After seeing the material and some heavy equipment on the site Monday, resident Nancy Baumgardner wrote a letter to Hashimoto, Romero, the Village Council and others, in which she reported being told workers were laying down the materials “for a parking lot.”

Hashimoto said that isn’t the case. Construction of a parking lot in Corrales is a multi-step process, none of which has been initiated.

“You need a site development plan, architectural and engineering design, electrical hookups, EV stations and possibly lighting,” he said.

Hashimoto said the placement of the material was particularly bothersome as he worked for seven years on getting the village to buy the property.

Community members, he said, have consistently talked about the space as a public park, a “heritage park” showcasing local flora, or being put to agricultural use.

Hashimoto said he asked public works director Steve Lesku and Village Administrator Melanie Romero to have the material, a mixture of crushed stone, gravel, and sand, removed. He said that was done by Tuesday afternoon, and that the lot’s dirt surface is once again visible.

Hashimoto said there might eventually be a parking lot on the Gonzales Field or the nearby Anderson property, but not on the Corrales Road frontage, and that any lot would have to go through the village’s planning process.

He said he believes the materials were ordered by the administration of then-Mayor Jim Fahey in December. Hashimoto described the cost of those materials as minimal and said it can likely return to storage on the public works lot.

He said the long-term use of the property is still up in the air, with roughly a half-dozen different drawings circulating around the village.

While the Gonzales property hasn’t been officially designated for parking, drivers have been using it that way. At the Feb. 10 meeting, Councilor Mel Knight said she’s seen vehicles parked on a “mud pile” at that location, across the street from the Village Administration Complex. Knight and others have said Corrales needs more safe, accessible public parking. That’s part of the impetus for a delay in enacting a new village parking ordinance.