Las Cruces targets new areas for redevelopment

LAS CRUCES — In an effort to address blighted areas of New Mexico’s second-largest city, the Las Cruces City Council approved designations for four new metropolitan redevelopment areas Monday.

The council unanimously followed the recommendations of a study that assessed ideal areas to pinpoint MRAs, where the city may contribute public funds to remediate hazards and promote new development. The four additions join two MRAs designated in 2023. The new MRAs lay the groundwork for future investments in infrastructure and potential incentives for private developers to invest in these neighborhoods.

“The city of Albuquerque has 22 metropolitan redevelopment areas,” Councilor Becky Corran said during the meeting. “It seems like we have a little bit of time to catch up in terms of prioritizing these areas and really making sure that we’re leveraging every tool at our disposal to do it.”

The four MRAs are within an area defined as the Infill Study Area, west of Interstate 25 and enclosed by University Avenue near the New Mexico State University campus, Valley Drive and an interchange of streets near U.S. 70 in the north.

One of the new MRAs encompasses the city’s Mesquite Historic District, an area that includes the original town site and features narrow streets lined with vintage adobe homes, small businesses and vivid murals. While the district is known for its historic value and properties owned by families who have lived here across generations, many buildings in the area are abandoned, damaged by fires or boarded up and in dilapidated condition. The city reported 115 parcels within the small district are vacant. Sidewalks and crossings are narrow and, in places, inhospitable for wheelchair access.

Other new designations include the Amador Proximo and South Area, an area combining residential and commercial properties adjacent to the BNSF railroad tracks that cross through the city near downtown; the Apodaca and Lift Up Focus Area, a mixed-use area with 90 businesses employing approximately 1,300 people in an area prone to flooding; and the East of Solano Neighborhood Area between S. Solano Drive and Interstate 25.

“What we want is ‘better.’ What we want is improvement. What we want are things that have been neglected to be improved,” Mayor Eric Enriquez said after the vote, thanking the five councilors who were present for their approval.

He then addressed public comments earlier in the meeting criticizing Realize Las Cruces, a sweeping update to the city’s 24-year-old zoning and development codes the council passed 6-1 in February. Since that vote, opponents have undertaken a signature drive aiming to bring the plan to voters in a referendum.

Yet Enriquez said that the plan also represented progress, “to improve and get better from something that was outdated, and to move forward and have some flexibility and creativity so that this community can thrive.”

Organizers behind the signature drive say they want voters to have the final say about the plan over concerns about increased multifamily housing, new commercial development in neighborhoods and housing costs. However, the city maintains that the plan’s mixed-use idea is limited to small enterprises such as cafés or bed-and-breakfasts.

This story has been corrected to clarify a geographical detail.