Public Works plans to lower the initial neighborhood petition requirement from 75% to 51%, eliminate a second ballot and use safety data to prioritize projects — but renters’ role remains unresolved

Damien Willis, Organ Mountain News

LAS CRUCES - Residents trying to get speed humps, cushions or other traffic-calming measures on neighborhood streets could face fewer procedural hurdles under changes Las Cruces Public Works plans to make to its neighborhood traffic-calming program.

The existing process requires 75% approval from property owners just to begin, followed by engineering review, committee consideration, public hearings and ultimately another neighborhood vote requiring 51% support before a project can move toward construction.

Interim Public Works Director Jimmy Moreno told the City Council during Monday’s work session that the department wants to replace that system with a streamlined process built around a single initial petition and a data-driven safety review.

The proposed initial petition threshold would fall from 75% to 51%.

“So all we are requiring is a simple majority,” Moreno said.

Once that threshold is met, Public Works would score the street using a 100-point matrix that considers speed, pedestrian risk, traffic volume and crash history. A second neighborhood ballot would no longer be required.

Moreno said the current 75% requirement can frustrate residents who are already dealing with speeding or cut-through traffic and can also prevent Public Works from testing measures staff believes could improve safety.

How streets would be scored

Under the new system, speed would account for as many as 40 points, pedestrian risk for 30, traffic volume for 20 and crash history for 10.

That represents a shift from a process Moreno said has focused heavily on peak speeding.

Pedestrian risks could include missing sidewalks or a location near a school, park or senior facility. Greater traffic volumes and documented crashes would also push a street’s score higher.

Public Works would place streets into one of three tiers.

Tier 1 streets, generally scoring below 30 points, could receive measures such as radar enforcement, neighborhood education or additional signage.

Tier 2 streets, scoring between 30 and 65 points or showing speeds 5 to 9 mph above the limit, could receive temporary traffic-calming measures or pilot projects followed by evaluation.

Tier 3 would include the highest-risk locations — streets scoring above 65 points or where speeds exceed the limit by more than 10 mph — and could move toward higher-priority improvements as funding allows.

Before a petition moves through that process, staff would also screen streets for physical or operational characteristics that could make certain traffic-calming measures unsuitable, including steep grades, sharp curves, emergency-response routes and designated heavy-truck routes.

Renters still may not have a vote

One significant question remains unresolved: who gets counted on a neighborhood petition.

Moreno said the existing policy counts property owners rather than the people who necessarily live on the street.

Councilor Johana Bencomo urged Public Works to change that.

“If there’s a renter on that street, I would argue that person is impacted a lot more than a homeowner who doesn’t live there,” Bencomo said.

Moreno said staff could examine the ramifications of changing the policy.

Bencomo said excluding renters leaves out people who may have lived in a neighborhood for years but do not own their homes.

“They deserve to have a voice too,” she said.

Councilor Becky Corran also urged the department to count renters and reduce petition barriers generally, saying residents have repeatedly gone door to door gathering signatures only to feel that nothing happens.

“I would much rather face calls from people complaining about speed bumps than the people saying that their children are going to be run over,” Corran said.

Mayor Pro Tem John Muñoz went further, questioning whether even a 51% petition requirement could remain too high in neighborhoods with absentee property owners or low participation. He suggested Public Works consider a lower threshold or another way to demonstrate neighborhood support.

What can residents do?

The changes matter most for neighborhoods already trying to get the city’s attention about speeding.

Residents can continue documenting recurring speeding, cut-through traffic, pedestrian hazards, missing sidewalks and crashes on their street and organizing neighbors around a request for traffic calming. Under the revised framework Public Works described Monday, gaining support from a simple majority would be enough to move a street into the city’s safety-scoring process instead of requiring 75% approval at the outset.

Residents who have already collected petitions may not necessarily have to start over. Corran specifically asked Public Works to preserve earlier petition work when the new process is implemented rather than forcing neighborhoods to repeat it.

That point, along with whether renters will count toward the petition threshold and whether the threshold could fall below 51%, is still being worked out.

There is also no guarantee that meeting the petition threshold will produce a speed hump or other construction project. Streets would still have to pass the city’s initial screening, score high enough to warrant intervention and compete for available funding.

But neighborhoods would no longer have to clear two separate votes before the city can act.

And unlike the automated traffic-camera proposal discussed during the same work session, the neighborhood traffic-calming changes do not need to return to the council for another formal vote.

When Bencomo asked whether the revised policy would have to come back to council, Moreno said Public Works already had the guidance it needed.

“We have Public Works doesn’t need any further action from council,” Moreno said.

The department did not give a specific date Monday for when the revised process will take effect.

Damien Willis is founder and editor of Organ Mountain News. If you have a personal story to share or a lead we should follow up on, reach out at OrganMountainNews@gmail.com or connect with him on X at @damienwillis.