Village council considers concept design for bathroom facility at Gonzales Property

CORRALES — The Corrales Village Council has approved a conceptual design for bathrooms proposed to be put in near La Entrada park.

However, council members had requests and questions before they approved the Gonzales Property Bathrooms' conceptual design Feb. 9.

The conceptual designs place a four-bathroom building near the northeast corner of the park, not far from the old Wells Fargo Bank. The concepts will be used for a full site development plan and do not guarantee a look to the building.

"The big issue about this is we have funding for the restrooms right now, and the funding expires later this year," Administrator Melanie Romero stated.

By approving the concept, the village can prove that they are moving forward with the project, justifying funding.

"There'll be an amended site development plan at some point in the future to address the rest of the Gonzalez property, but one thing that Mayor (Fred) Hashimoto would like to implement is any village projects that will be going before planning and zoning that we bring it to council and allow for public input before it even goes to P&Z, before it goes to a designer for final drawings, because then that way we can take the public input and include that to our architect or designer, whoever actually creates the plan that gets approved for P&Z," Romero said.

Council requested that the building not have a pitched roof, and Council0r Zach Burkett asked if the gate to the park on the property could be moved so parents could see if their kid tries to exit the playground. 

"I am visualizing where the benches are on the west side of the play structure and where we intend to put the new gate and maybe I'm off, but I think that massive play structure is going to impair parents' abilities to see if their kids are going out the gate," he said.

Councilor Mel Knight asked if the artists in Corrales were contacted for a potential mosaic for the property. It was stated that would be placed west of the bathrooms.

The councilors made some other small requests for the property, such as keeping the existing garbage enclosure, removing a curb in the parking lot in front of the bank and more.

The bathrooms will be accessed with a walking path included in the plan. The Gonzalez Property is being considered for more improvements in the future as well.

Council approved a motion to have the concept move forward to the site plan phase with planning and zoning.