Page 8 from the North Mesa Recreation Master Plan, https://losalamos.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=15134758&GUID=787BAF54-A638-4064-8A24-AF92D9A6F20C Courtesy Stephanie Nakhleh
BY STEPHANIE NAKHLEH
Los Aamos
Jim Rickman’s recent letter about North Mesa was written with genuine feeling. He was personally displaced to FEMAville after his home burned in the Cerro Grande Fire, and I can’t imagine what that must have been like. But I think his argument rests on a misunderstanding of what the 2000 Council promise he refers to actually meant—and what “open space” zoning actually allows.
Start with the deed. When the Atomic Energy Commission transferred North Mesa to Los Alamos County, it was clear about the purpose of that land. According to the County’s own documentation, “When the Atomic Energy Commission transferred ownership of North Mesa to Los Alamos County in 1972, a deed restriction dedicated the eastern half as open space for parks and recreation.” Ownership would revert to the federal government if that purpose is abandoned. The land was always meant for recreation. That’s a 54-year-old legal obligation.
Rickman writes, “To be clear, the policy-making body in place at the time of the Cerro Grande Fire promised the community that the North Mesa open space occupied by FEMAville would return to Open Space. But time, or convenience, I suppose, sometimes makes us forget our promises.”
I guess I don’t see how any promises have been broken? FEMAville was emergency, temporary housing erected during a crisis. The reasonable interpretation of “we’ll return it to open space” was: we will not allow temporary emergency housing to become permanent housing. That promise was kept. The trailers came down. The land returned to its designated recreational use. It was actually the deed, however, not the Council’s promises, that kept the land reserved for recreation. Council didn’t really need to say anything; they had no choice.
There seems to be some confusion about zoning, as well. Rickman seems to believe that “open space” means “completely untouched,” but Active Open Space zoning exists precisely to allow recreational amenities—which is why the soccer fields, tennis courts, and playground that the whole community has enjoyed for years are already there, uncontested.
His warning that allowing more recreation will somehow open the door to private development doesn’t hold up either. Again, the deed forecloses exactly that scenario: any non-recreational use triggers reversion to federal ownership. A bike park, a pavilion, a community garden—these are what the land was conveyed to the County to provide.
The master plan was developed through an extensive public process: multiple listening sessions, surveys, and open houses drawing well over 100 residents to a single meeting in March 2025 alone. The existing paved walking loop that neighbors like me use daily will be preserved and resurfaced. The plan adds amenities for walkers, families, gardeners, and children alongside cyclists.
Communities that thrive are communities that adapt. We can honor the past without freezing ourselves under glass. As a North Mesa resident who will live across from the new amenities, I can’t wait to hear kids out there—laughing, falling down, getting back up, doing something with their bodies in the fresh air of this remarkable place we call home.