Neighborhoods with restrictive covenants are an all-American tradition. They originally were conceived in classism and racism about 100 years ago, but now, after generations of property value protection, they’re as beloved as apple pie and 30-year mortgages.

Until they bump up against something you want to do on your own property.

Maybe you even bought there because of protective (restrictive) covenants, but now lines seem drawn against you.

Want some chickens? OK, maybe some quietly clucking hens. A tacky, 5-foot diameter satellite dish in the yard? No way, but some shiny solar panels are cool. How about a modular home that looks like a double-wide? Are you kidding? Slather it with stucco and hide the roof with parapets and we might let you in.

How about plastic, rust-colored 50-gallon barrels under my canales? No problem.

Yes, we’re talking Eldorado, the sprawling middle-class subdivision southeast of Santa Fe where restrictive covenants have been in place since its inception 50 years ago. A place where I lived for years among many other “newcomer” progressives. A place that likes to believe it’s not as snooty as Las Campanas because its streets aren’t gated.

Still, covenant controversy rears its head on occasion, triggering newsworthy amusement by in-town onlookers. The latest is over rain catchment tanks that are bigger, taller, paler and more rectangular than their squat, fat cousins that arrived 20-some years ago and are now considered traditional.

Public sentiment, as expressed with civility and rationality on the dialogue platform known as Nextdoor (just kidding), seems strongly in favor of letting the miscreants keep the offending tanks.

“We’re in a megadrought!” “They’ve been in place for five years without complaint!” “HOA enforcers are capricious meanies!” “Just change the architectural guidelines!”

The last one may be the most logical and could be up for discussion at the Eldorado architectural committee meeting Tuesday night. The committee is chaired by Eldorado resident Katherine Mortimer, a former senior city planner at the forefront of all things green and sustainable in Santa Fe for more than 20 years.

With a master’s degree in architecture from the University of California, she is well-suited for the volunteer position in the community she and her husband Bob call home. They built their own house on Eldorado’s western edge as a testament to practical sustainability: passive solar design, solar electricity, solar-heated hot water and 3,500 gallons of harvested rainwater for their edible garden.

But they also adhered to the rules. The storage tank and solar panels are screened and hidden from street and greenbelt views. Yes, it cost a little bit more to do so, but they knew the rules when they bought their lot. It can be done.

Santa Fe-style construction, with flat roofs and multiple canales sticking out in all directions, does not lend itself to water collection in one big tank, buried, screened or otherwise. The past month notwithstanding, there’s also not much rain to harvest.

A half-inch of rain produces just 312 gallons for every 1,000 feet of roofed area. A half-dozen 50-gallon rust-colored barrels strategically placed under a home’s canales, which don’t require screening, can capture most of what comes during an average monsoon downpour.

Harvesting rainwater for landscaping is a building code requirement for newly built homes in Santa Fe County, as it should be. Encouraging it for existing homes in Eldorado is equally important and perhaps could be incentivized.

Hiding tall rectangular tanks is not that difficult. Maybe those outraged by protective covenants can join in for a weekend fence-raising to screen their poor neighbor’s tank.

Kim Shanahan has been a Santa Fe green builder since 1986 and a sustainability consultant since 2019. Contact him at shanafe@aol.com.

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