Preview: Changes to city charter, zoning code on the City Council agenda for tonight

Monday night is the last Albuquerque City Council meeting before a month-long break, and councilors face a hefty agenda as debate on four charter amendments is expected to come to a close.

That discussion will align with the annual update to the Integrated Development Ordinance — the city’s zoning code — when councilors will get a chance to accept, reject or tweak a series of amendments to the document.

Charter amendmentsFor regular attendees of City Council meetings, these charter amendments should be familiar. Monday will be the third time the amendments have been on the agenda. Since being introduced, they have generated public interest, comment and debate.

And if they pass the council on Monday, this won’t be the last time the public will hear about them. Voters will have their chance to weigh in on the proposals in November. Charter amendments require approval from voters in the form of a ballot question.

The amendments have been amended themselves in past weeks. Here’s where they currently stand:

• Reducing the vote threshold to win a City Council or mayoral race from 50% to 40%.
• Creating a committee, staffed with representatives from both the City Council and the Mayor’s Office, to recommend candidates for city attorney and city clerk. The measure would also require the roles to be filled within 90 days of the start of a mayoral term and ensure that the city attorney and city clerk can be removed for cause, determined by the Office of the Inspector General, by the mayor and a two-thirds vote from City Council.
• Changing the requirements to remove a chief of police or fire chief. As the amendment stands now, the mayor could remove either position for any reason — the current charter requires cause. The City Council could also remove either position with a supermajority vote (two-thirds plus one) after cause is determined by the Office of the Inspector General.
• Creating a process to fill vacancies on the committee that is intended to handle separation-of-powers conflicts between the mayor and the City Council.

Also on the agenda is a separate proposal to form a charter review task force.

Zoning code updatesThe Integrated Development Ordinance: It’s a 650-page document that governs development in the city.

Every year, the document gets updated.

Some of the changes to the IDO have been controversial, including a 2023 amendment to allow for casitas in more residential areas and a 2022 amendment to allow for safe outdoor spaces — organized camp sites for people who are homeless.

Here are a few of the changes proposed for this year.

• Making small overnight shelters permissive in some areas of the city and prohibiting large shelters that offer more than 50 beds. Currently, overnight shelters are conditionally zoned in some parts of the city and are not permissive in any zones.
• Allowing duplexes to be permissively zoned in certain parts of the city, under certain conditions. This proposed change failed at both the Environmental Planning Commission and the Land Use, Planning and Zoning Committee this year. A proposed change to allow duplexes in larger parts of the city failed last year.
• Taking a load off the IDO process. A change included in the redlined ordinance would make the annual update process occur only every other year.
• Increasing the areas where landscaping is required for existing developments in an effort to beautify the city and reduce “heat island” effects.
• Making site design more flexible for areas around the Rail Trail.