It’s a nonprofit corporation set up in 1993 to purchase and develop 860 acres of land the City of Santa Fe had recently acquired and paid for through a foreclosure. The main purposes of TCC is to create high-quality, livable, sustainably-built neighborhoods and to incentivize builders to provide homes affordable to lower-income and middle-income families.

It mainly sells large tracts of land to homebuilders at below-market costs that enable them to build a mix of affordable and market-rate homes.  TCC provides land for schools and community facilities. It also reviews construction plans for each new subdivision or facility to ensure that TCC Design Standards are followed. All revenues from land sales are reinvested in TCC operations and paying off the City’s loan for the land purchase.

Phase 3 has 410 acres of undeveloped land located south of Phases 1 and 2 and southwest of Capitol High School—owned by both Tierra Contenta Corporation (TCC) and the New Mexico School for the Deaf (NMSD). TCC’s 228-acre portion will be renamed Phase 3A. Within the boundaries of 3A, the current Master Plan allows up to 1,247 dwelling units. TCC also plans to reserve land for parks, trails, community facilities, commercial uses, one new elementary school, and preserved open space. NMSD has no immediate plans to develop its portion of Phase 3 or amend the land uses that were approved in 1994—for up to 656 dwelling units plus a large school site.

The main purpose of the Master Plan is to ensure that land sales and construction in Tierra Contenta result in attractive and livable neighborhoods.  It has two main components.  One is a “Land Use Plan” that shows where homes, apartments, the school, primary roads, etc. will be located. The other component will be certain revisions to “Design Standards” that set out requirements for builders to ensure high-quality, sustainably-designed homes, other buildings, roads, trails and amenities.