Jan Willem-Jansens picked up a thick green marker and drew a curving line from Glorieta to Galisteo on a map showing a portion of Santa Fe County. Then he drew another line, parallel to the first, and labeled the corridor an area that should be considered for the preservation of water resources, scenic areas and wildlife routes.

Nearby, planner Robert Fereilich used a black marker to define a possible transportation route identified by others sitting at his table.

About 30 people participated Monday afternoon in the first of a series of meetings being held by planners hired to prepare county ordinances for oil and gas activities and other types of development.

Most, like Willem-Jansens, executive director of Earth Works Institute, were the hard-core: Activists, planners, residents of the Galisteo Basin; people who have attended every public meeting and submitted lengthy written comments on the drafts of the county's proposed ordinances.

Anne Potter-Russ, whose family has leased thousands of acres of mineral rights in the basin to an oil company, was represented by her attorney, Michelle Henrie. "Hard-rock mining is already regulated to the point where it's impossible," Henrie told others in her group. "If oil and gas is overly regulated, we've got nothing; mineral rights owners lose all the value of their estate."

The participants pondered questions about where growth should and shouldn't be allowed, which areas were most important to preserve and which values (such as scenery, water and wildlife) were most important to people. They also participated in a key-pad voting exercise in which they ranked items for consideration, an activity many found wanting.

"We're asked to answer questions in a vacuum," said Priscilla Hart, a former Wall Street executive turned optician who moved to Santa Fe four years ago. Hart said she opposes oil and gas development in the county and would need "a lot more information" to feel otherwise.

When Tecton Energy announced plans to drill for oil in the Galisteo Basin last year, the public erupted in protest. In January, Gov. Bill Richardson ordered a halt to all drilling activity in the basin for six months while state agencies conducted studies of the area. Those studies are being reviewed in anticipation of the expiration of the ban at the end of July.

Santa Fe County enacted a yearlong moratorium on oil and gas development in February, to buy the county time to prepare ordinances that will govern the industry.

But unlike the packed meetings that occurred when the specter of oil and gas drilling first loomed last fall, Monday's meeting featured plenty of empty seats.

Workshops were held at 2 and 6 p.m. But poor attendance — about 30 people attended each session — resulted in the cancellation of one of two identical workshops scheduled for today. Planner Bruce Peshoff said only three people signed up to attend the 6 p.m. workshop set for tonight, so that meeting was cut.

Peshoff said the number of people who showed up was low, but the quality of the information they contributed was high. He said those who did attend were "sophisticated, educated and committed."

Peshoff said his firm Planning Works has received a lot of data and will spend the next month or so reviewing it. He said rough drafts of new plans and policies being created by the planning team should be available for public review in August or September.

Gary Miller, a resident of the Galisteo Basin who said he supports the rights of private property owners to develop hydrocarbon resources responsibly, said he thought the low turnout was "lame."

"This is the kind of conversation, discussion and debate we need to have on these issues, instead of jumping on a bandwagon and waving a picket," said Miller, a mortgage broker and vice president of a green energy company.

Miller attended the 2 p.m. session. He said he felt the issue was important enough to warrant taking a day off from work, and wished more people had done the same. "This is a rare opportunity to be involved," Miller said. "Instead of complaining, they should embrace it. This is the closest we are going to get to being founding mothers and fathers. This is we the people and we need to show up."

Another planning workshop will be held today at 2 p.m. in the Ortiz Room at the Hilton, 100 Sandoval St.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.