‘This place is very much alive’: Downtown vacancy bill signed into law

A bill that penalizes property owners of vacant and dilapidated buildings in Downtown Albuquerque with the hope of creating housing and spurring business growth was signed into effect by Mayor Tim Keller on Thursday.

“People say that ‘Downtown is dying and this and that.’ It’s not. It has challenges, but, as you can see, there are businesses, there are great places to go. … This place is very much alive, it just has challenges,” Keller said.

The bill’s sponsor, Councilor Joaquín Baca, was also in attendance. Keller thanked Baca for his work and said that he “had trouble finding a sponsor for this for years.”

Keller declined to say which councilors wouldn’t sponsor the bill. “I’ve learned you can’t speak for other elected officials, so you’ll have to figure out who it was, but I’ll give you a clue that they’re no longer a councilor,” the mayor said.

Former Councilor Isaac Benton represented Downtown for 18 years before retiring. Baca was elected to replace him in 2023.

The news conference was hosted outside the Gizmo building, which is owned by the Church of Scientology and has sat vacant for years, according to Baca. The Church of Scientology did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The bill was passed by the City Council at its first meeting of the year, but it wasn’t Baca’s first attempt at trying to get it into law.

He introduced a similar bill in September and October that ultimately failed. He was the lone vote in support of it.

The previous version of the bill was criticized by other councilors for being too broad, and members of the public showed up to speak against it for having a no-obstruction clause that barred people from lying or sitting on sidewalks and said it criminalized homelessness in that area.

Baca said after the first attempt to get the bill through failed, he took time to meet with more stakeholders to put forth a new version.

The newly passed and signed legislation does not include the no-obstruction zone clause the last one did, but Baca told the Journal in December he plans to introduce a similar, separate bill in the coming months.