The Sandia Bar was owned and operated continuously by the Chavez family from 1948 until 2018, and was featured prominently on the television show Breaking Bad.
Corrales will soon be home to a new, improved Sandia Bar on the corner of Ella and Corrales Road.
At the July 20 meeting of the Corrales Planning and Zoning Commission, plans to double the bar’s square footage, add outdoor seating, and a performance stage were approved unanimously.
Troy Howard of Synergy Builders, LLC and property owner Jay Schoenbaum, have previously appeared before the commission seeking approval for the project.
In March of this year and again in May, they requested the commission’s approval, but a decision was deferred. The commission at the time considered the application incomplete citing the need for an architectural and engineering stamp.
On July 20, the project was again submitted, and this time was approved unanimously although not before Patrick Mcclernon, a local resident, outlined his concerns.
At times, it wasn’t clear whether Mcclernon was objecting to the project itself or to the commission approving what he considered an inadequate application, which he compared to his children telling him they’d cleaned their rooms, but upon inspection discovering they hadn’t.
Mcclernon’s first concern was the application did not contain the required seals. Alluding to Section 18 of the Village’s ordinances, he said, “I just go back to our ordinance… [that] says drawings, specifications, and documents depicting land use improvements are required to… have a stamp, a seal.”
He then critiqued what the applicants had included: “You actually have an engineer seal on framing plans, which you have no reason to look at. You don’t care how it’s framed. You don’t care how the electrical wiring is run.”
Although Mcclernon articulated each of his concerns thoroughly, the commission voted unanimously to approve the Sandia Bar project. He could not be reached for clarification or comment on his objections to the project.
According to Howard, construction should begin as soon as August.
The Sandia Bar was owned and operated continuously by the Chavez family from 1948 until 2018, and was featured prominently on the television show Breaking Bad.
In other business, the Commission approved a short-term rental request and a variance request moving parcels of land from long, narrow strip of property on Perfecto Lopez properties on Hollywood Boulevard.
