Despite objections from the Cortez Sanitation District, the Cortez City Council added 23.5 undeveloped acres to the city’s land base and approved subdividing it for mobile homes on Tuesday night.

The Sedona Estates annexation is located at the eastern end of Andrew Lane and south of the right-of-way alignment of 11th Street and will be developed by Don Etnier, owner of Residential Building Systems.

"Probably the biggest problem or challenge is dealing with the sanitation district," Etnier told the council. The subdivision will not be completed if the sanitation district refuses to provide services. In a March 5 letter sent to city zoning administrator Jeff Reinhart from Bill Smith, the district manager of the sanitation district, Smith cited "conflicts" with sewer-line placement and the lot lines in the proposed subdivision.

To resolve the conflicts, Smith is asking Etnier to give the sanitation district ownership of "green belts" at least 20 feet wide between the lots so the sanitation staff can properly maintain the sewer lines. Etnier said the sanitation district was asking for a form of ownership of the green belts he wasn’t sure was legal.

"The issue we have before us now is that he wants some new form of ownership we’ve never heard of before. I’ve offered to give them the land, the 20-foot piece of land, in exchange for them maintaining it. The response was that they don’t want ownership, but they don’t want an easement — they want something in between," Etnier said. "I guess Bill (Smith) just has some idea of utopia that the rest of us just don’t agree with."

The sanitation district will hold a public hearing concerning providing sewer and water services to Sedona Estates on March 5. "At that hearing, staff will recommend against the inclusion because of the problems with lot-line locations. Preliminary indications are that the board will not accept the property into the district or provide services until the lot-line issues are resolved," wrote Smith.

The new development will be zoned for manufactured housing or residential mobile homes, and will be split into 55 lots for single-family units. The Planning and Zoning Commission will review each phase of the subdivision’s development, and Etnier donated one lot to the Cortez Parks and Recreation for green space. In addition, Etnier has promised to fence the lots which run up the canyon rim and drop off into McElmo Creek.

In other council business:

• During the council workshop, Mayor Joe Keck suggested cracking down on skateboarders who use Main Street as their primary thoroughfare. He said an elderly woman complained that she was almost run over by skateboarders on Main. "She said, ‘Isn’t there anything you can do? I thought when the city built the skateboarding park that they weren’t going to be using the public sidewalks in town.’"

The city built a $120,000, state-of-the art skateboarding park that officially opened in September. City officials hoped the park would provide a safe venue for skaters who otherwise used city streets.

"The skateboarding park has not relieved the downtown problem any," said Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane. "You can’t be cute at the skateboard park, and have all your buddies see you skating up and down Main Street. You have to be on Main Street to be cute." Lane said in some cases the police have taken skateboards away from kids on the street as "evidence," but they have to release them later. If the council amends the ordinance, the judge would take away the skateboards permanently.

"What I’m really concerned about is we’re going to get one of our senior citizens hurt, and someone’s going to break a hip," explained Keck. "I just feel like if we don’t really get involved in enforcement and have some consequences that one of these people are going to be hit, they’re going to be hurt, and it’s just a matter of time."

Keck said he would like to have a provision in the skateboarding ordinance for skateboards to be taken away from offenders. Currently, the skateboarding ordinance only prohibits skateboarding on four blocks of Main Street.

City Attorney Jim Hatter said the first thing council should do is amend the skateboarding ordinance. "Not only do you have old people out there at risk, these kids go through traffic lights like you wouldn’t believe. If we don’t kill an old person, some car is going to kill a kid. I think we need to revise the ordinance so that on the second offense the judge can take the skateboard away."

Chris Burkett suggested that a skateboarding path be built to Centennial Park and Parque de Vida, where the skateboarding park now lies.

• The council asked staff to scrap the proposed yard-sale ordinance in favor of amending the "junk" ordinance to regulate year-round yard sales. "I would like to see us beef up the ordinances as they are, rather than having another ordinance we can’t enforce," said council member Cheryl Walkenhorst.

• The council is considering giving a one-time donation of $5,000 to help the Cortez Cultural Center put on an outdoor Anasazi pageant each summer beginning in 2002. The pageant would alternate with the Native American dancing that the center currently features. The grant would be contingent on the CU center getting matching grants from the county, and the Umbrella Tourism Committee.

• Wal-Mart has notified the city that it intends to build a gas station on its lot at the corner of East Main and Cactus Street. "Can’t we put a limit on gas stations?" asked Walkenhorst.