The St. Michael’s Corridor Revitalization Initiative

SFIP is pleased to lead the renewable energy component of Santa Fe’s RE:MIKE initiative, under its Microgrid Innovation Lab. This initiative, which is designed to catalyze the revitalization of a “Central Santa Fe” district, kicks off with “a participatory festival-style public event on September 21, 22 & 23: A pop-up previtalization of Central Santa Fe.” The RE:ENERGIZE component will feature pop-up renewable generation and infrastructure; an “Energy Village” with displays, electric vehicles, and passive efficiency techniques; a Smart Home demo; and an exploration of what a future “neighborhood energy network” might look like. A fuller description from the initiative’s website follows:

“RE:MIKE is a celebration of the past, present and future of Santa Fe’s St. Michael’s Drive, its extended corridor and the surrounding neighborhoods.

It’s a partnership led by The City of Santa Fe, MIX Santa Fe, The Chamber of Commerce, The Santa Fe Art Institute, The Story of Place Institute and a host of public and private collaborators. The process is to recognize the history of the area, identify its assets, determine what’s missing and reveal the potential.

The process will lead to short-, mid- and long-term outcome projects. These outcome projects will be identified by community buy-in, attainability, responsible financing and phasing, return-on-investment potential and impact on quality of life. Additional outcomes will include form-based code recommendations for the implementation of a zoning overlay, input into best practices for legal guidelines around temporary and pop-up projects and establishments and a full report on the process, engagement levels and data collected.

A final outcome should be a recognizable sense of identity for this important area of central Santa Fe. This identity will congeal from key historic factors and characteristics that correspond to core residential and business values along with creative, entrepreneurial and innovative potential.”

The RE:ENERGIZE team includes SFIP Board Member Alexi Dzurec, of Autotroph Design; Santa Fe Community College’s Sustainable Technologies Center (our partner on the Microgrid Lab); Santa Fe’s Positive Energy; and other community energy leaders. We commend RE:MIKE’s organizers for recognizing the importance of energy infrastructure to this effort, and look forward to engaging with the community on its vision and design. As with all SFIP projects, we also anticipate that the RE:MIKE initiative, and the RE:ENERGIZE component, will have relevance for other communities elsewhere, thereby maximizing its effectiveness.

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