LOCAL GOVERNMENT
City Council votes down zoning reforms in tense final meeting
Proposals would have loosened regulations on townhomes, bodegas and sanctioned homeless encampments
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After months of debate, the Albuquerque City Council narrowly voted down a series of zoning reforms that proponents say would have alleviated the city’s housing shortage.
“In the end, we didn't make it easier to create dignified housing, but we did make it easier to put in a fence,” said sponsor Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn after watching all of her pro-development amendments fail Wednesday.
The proposed changes would have allowed townhomes and duplexes to be built in single-family neighborhoods, as well as small retailers and grocery stores.
Also among the failed proposals was a push to loosen regulations for Safe Outdoor Spaces, which are sanctioned homeless encampments on private property owned by churches, businesses or residents.
These changes drew both praise and ire from the public. The council chamber was packed with spectators and more than 70 people signed up to speak about the amendments.
How to solve a ‘housing crisis’
According to city planners who drafted the reforms, the amendments could have spurred development in a city already short tens of thousands of housing units.
Albuquerque faces what politicians and activists have called a housing crisis, much like the rest of the United States.
Put simply, without enough housing units to meet demand, rent and home prices soar while residents’ wages stagnate.
As a result, many Americans are spending more than 30% of their income to keep a roof over their heads, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Advocates say that these shortages are worsening homelessness, which has doubled in Albuquerque since the pandemic, according to recent point-in-time counts.
Opponents, however, said zoning changes could open up their neighborhoods to development and gentrification. Loosening regulations only serves to line developers' pockets, opponents argued, because there is no incentive to build affordable housing rather than luxury apartments.
Although both sides agreed that Albuquerque faces a housing shortage, on Wednesday neither could reach any meaningful compromise about how to solve it.
Ultimately, 16 amendments were proposed, nearly all of which were voted down by a slim majority of conservative-leaning councilors on a 5-4 vote.
Councilors Renée Grout, Dan Champine, Dan Lewis, Brook Bassan and Council President Klarissa Peña all voted against the amendments. Supporting the measure were Councilors Stephanie Telles, Nichole Rogers, Joaquín Baca and Fiebelkorn.
The failed votes were met with fierce disappointment by proponents and relief by opponents.
“The incrementalism here will kill us,” said resident Marceline Kostiner during public comment. “It will kill people.”
Kostiner described the zoning changes in moral terms, saying that the council's reluctance to change rigid zoning code means less affordable housing, worsened poverty and more people living and dying on Albuquerque’s streets.
Kostiner waited through a series of failed votes late into the evening Wednesday before finally leaving the chamber exasperated.
Throughout the meeting, several supporters were asked to leave the council chambers for shouting or speaking out of turn.
Much of the vitriol comes from a growing economic rift between generations.
“The people speaking in favor of these amendments are overwhelmingly younger than the people speaking against them,” said Jordon McConnell, an Albuquerque resident and spokesperson for advocacy group Strong Towns. “Most of them already own a home. That's not a coincidence. It's the generation that's trying to stay here to build a life in Albuquerque, asking all of you to make just the smallest amount of room for us.”
However, for established homeowners, the amendments felt like a threat to their way of life.
“This is the American dream,” said homeowner Keith Allen during public comment. “People work for 30 or 40 years for a (residential) zoning place. We want to keep those requirements.”
Lewis, who represents part of the West Side, agreed with homeowners, who he said worked hard and intentionally sought out suburban areas for peace and quiet. These citywide zoning changes threatened to undo those decisions by opening neighborhoods up to unwanted development and population density, he said.
In response, Fiebelkorn implored property owners and opposing councilors to think about what’s best for Albuquerque rather than what’s best for them. Fiebelkorn went on to say that zoning codes, when applied incorrectly, segregated people of color and the poor from more affluent residents.
“One commenter earlier today made the statement that (single-family residential zoning) was created for a purpose,” Fiebelkorn said. “And I want to say, ‘Yeah, it really was.’ It was created for the purpose of keeping ‘those people’ out of your neighborhood. There is no other reason to think that you would not want a duplex next door to you.”
The meeting stretched until midnight, with little change marked on the books and the once packed chamber nearly empty.
Gillian Barkhurst is the local government reporter for the Journal. She can be reached at gbarkhurst@abqjournal.com.
