Stan Alcorn checks up on the status of Mesa del Sol, a 12,900-acre public-private project that broke ground outside of Albuquerque in 2006, and was planned to be the largest New Urbanist development in the Southwest.
The university campus, movie studio, and beginnings of Mesa del Sol’s first neighborhood are positive first steps in the ambitious project that was intended to eventually house 100,000 people and "keep [Albuquerque] residents from spilling out into the surrounding desert."
But with empty desert still occupying much of the parcel that is approximately the size of Manhattan, "[t]here are reasons to be skeptical of these small positive steps," says Alcorn. "The housing recovery remains weak, with housing starts in 2012 still lagging those of 2008. News of Mesa del Sol’s new houses has been clouded by the larger finding that the developer, Forest City, has spent much of the last year trying to sell its 3,000 acres."
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