BY JESSICA DYER / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Published: Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020 at 10:05pm Updated: Wednesday, June 24th, 2020 at 12:05am
With a pandemic and protests now commanding the public’s attention, Albuquerque neighborhood advocates say they fear the city is rushing a series of development rule changes without sufficient discussion.
Neighborhood leaders say they have had little time to evaluate 23 Integrated Development Ordinance amendments on the City Council’s Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee meeting agenda Wednesday.
Officials, however, say they continue to welcome public input and a final decision remains at least a few months away.
The amendments at issue – grouped in a 58-page document called “Packet B” – raise allowable building heights, reduce some setback requirements, increase open space requirements for certain multifamily projects, and more. The city did not release the full compilation until June 5 and it was discussed – but not acted on – during a June 10 LUPZ meeting.
Packet B is being considered part of the first annual update to the IDO, the city’s development rule book that took effect in 2018. The proposed update also includes hundreds of technical edits and an 18-amendment slate known as “Packet A.”
But Dan Regan from the District 4 Coalition in the Northeast Heights said the technical changes and Packet A have undergone much more public vetting, while Packet B came as a surprise. He contends some Packet B changes would “gut residential rights” and said councilors should not vote without significantly more discussion.
“They want it passed in the dark; they don’t want examination of what the real impact is,” Regan said.
Officials dispute that, saying some amendments are a direct reaction to citizen complaints.
Petra Morris, City Council planning manager, cited a Packet B amendment that would extend front-yard parking restrictions to include side yards on corner lots – an issue recently raised by a resident.
Councilor Trudy Jones said she does not expect a Packet B vote Wednesday or during July, when the LUPZ committee recesses. A vote could happen in August, but anything LUPZ approves still goes to the full council for final action.
“It will have a great deal of hearing. It will have an opportunity for everyone to look at it, study, ask questions and make comments,” Jones said.
While Packet B was not released until recently, Morris said some amendments had been on the horizon for months because the city’s Environmental Planning Commission recommended them while reviewing the Packet A and technical changes.
Some, however, are entirely new.
René Horvath of the West Side Coalition of Neighborhoods said she was still combing though the technical edits and Packet A when she learned about Packet B.
“The community is having a hard time understanding some of this stuff, and we’re kind of approving it on the fly,” Horvath said. “It doesn’t feel good; it doesn’t feel like we’re getting good zoning that way, and we’ll have problems down the road.”