Council Rejects Zoning Change for Old Hotel

Albuquerque city councilors late Monday voted to reject a zoning change that would have allowed the old Vagabond hotel to be redeveloped into apartments.

In rejecting the zoning change, the council overturned a June decision of the Environmental Planning Commission. The University of New Mexico and nearby neighborhood leaders had appealed the EPC action.

“This area is coming along very nicely,” said Councilor Ken Sanchez, who voted to grant the appeal. “I just don’t feel the applicants have proven they are deserving of this zoning. I believe it could be harmful to the community.”

Sanchez joined five other councilors — Rey Garduño, Debbie O’Malley, Dan Lewis, Isaac Benton and Brad Winter — in favor of the appeal and against the zoning change. In dissent were Trudy Jones, Don Harris and Michael Cook, who wanted to uphold the EPC decision.

The proposal would redevelop about 4 acres on University near Gibson SE. The application was from Ittleson Dhaka Hotel LLC.

The developer said the project would provide infill development of a site that had been vacant since 2006. In addition to housing, some of the hotel site could be redeveloped into commercial and office uses.

Critics, however, assailed the proposal as “low-income housing” that would hurt property values.

UNM, which owns property adjacent to the site, said the hotel project would interfere with the university’s own plans for a mixed-use retail complex supported by the neighborhoods. UNM’s project would be north and west of the site.

The university said the area needs commercial and retail development, but the hotel proposal amounts to minimally upgrading a dilapidated property.

The proposal is “detrimental to the upward development trend in the neighborhood,” UNM said in an appeal filed with the council. “To inject low quality, high density apartment housing in the midst of a neighborhood resurgence would be most unfortunate.”
— This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal