The water and sewer systems are not sufficient for it to incorporate more territory, according to a ruling — which was met by applause from several residents — by the state's Municipal Boundary Commission.

The commission decided the issue at a public hearing at the Edgewood Community Center at 10 a.m. on Monday. Despite meeting on a weekday, midday, several people in the audience were forced to stand due to lack of seating.

After the ruling, boundary commission chairman Patrick Casey apologized to Edgewood Mayor Robert Stearley, who sat in the front row during the hearing.

"You have to look at it with a jaundiced eye, as the saying goes," he told the mayor.

Ultimately, the commission voted against the annexation because its water and sewer systems were not sufficient to serve additional residents, according to Casey. In fact, those kinds of municipal systems don't exist.

All of the residents both inside the municipal boundaries and near the town use a well or a private water utility for water, and all of them are on private septic systems. The town has not started any project to create a municipal water system and its sewer project is designed to serve the town's commercial corridor on N.M. 344 and Old Route 66, not residences, according to interim town administrator Karen Mahalick.

Nor have those kinds projects ranked high on the town's infrastructure capital improvement plan or been discussed at council meetings as pressing needs for the town. Casey said he was concerned about issues of groundwater contamination, however.

The commission's decision can be appealed to state District Court, according to the town's attorney, Marcus Rael. Stearley would not say what the town's next step will be, however.

"Certainly I'm disappointed. What we'll do, I don't know," he said.

The proposed annexation would have shored up the checkerboard pattern of the town's boundaries in an area roughly three miles from east to west — from Meadowlark Lane to Horton Road — and five miles south to north, from the Torrance County line to Hill Ranch Road.

Mahalick said she believed the town could provide better services to those residents than Santa Fe County, had the annexation gone through. Specifically, she said animal control service would improve and police service — which is currently done with the assistance of the New Mexico State Police and Santa Fe County Sheriff's deputies — would be better with less confusion over where the town ends and the unincorporated areas begin. The town can also provide better road service than Santa Fe County, she said.

Residents of the unincorporated areas of Santa Fe County who opposed the annexation were critical of the level of service they might receive from the town after annexation, however.

Jonathan Sibray said he felt the services supplied by the county are "adequate," while roads that were taken over by the town for maintenance a decade ago have gotten worse. He was also critical of the town's police department, pointing out that it is operating with only six full-time officers.

It should be noted that the department has a new chief and is in the process of hiring additional officers.

"I don't want to live in a town," he said, "I moved out here and it wasn't really a town … as a citizen I believe it is my right to be unincorporated."

That sentiment was echoed by many of those who spoke after Sibray sat down.

Other residents pointed out that the town decided not to annex areas in the northern parts of town, which also suffer from the checkerboardlike pattern of municipal boundaries. Mahalick said the town decided to start resolving the checkerboard issue in the town's core area and may address the northern region later.

She also answered a question about a large tract of land on the eastern side of town was left out of the annexation, an area known as Parker's Farm. It was left out because the owner didn't want to be in the town, she said. The owner also granted the town an easement for its sewer, according to Mahalick.

"It was the least we could do …" she said.

There were two residents who spoke in favor of annexation. Audrey Jaramillo said she wanted to be part of the town but didn't have time to take an annexation petition around to her neighbors.

"I have embraced the town as my community," she said. "It doesn't make sense to me to have the checkerboard."

She is "offended" that she can't vote in local elections, she said. She also said that she feels the town does a good job of maintaining the roads.

"The town is already here," she said. "We need to look forward."