OPINION: Zoning reform is the missing link in New Mexico's housing solution

New Mexico’s housing crisis did not appear overnight, and it will not be solved by any single policy or funding stream. But one truth is increasingly clear: Outdated zoning laws are quietly but powerfully constraining our ability to build the housing our communities desperately need.

For years, New Mexico has made some investments in housing trust funds, infrastructure, subsidies and programs designed to increase affordability. These efforts matter and they should continue. But without addressing the regulatory framework that governs whether housing can be built at all, those investments will never reach their full potential.

Much of our zoning code was written for a different era. One that assumed slow growth, rigid land-use separation and a one-size-fits-all approach to housing. Today, those same rules suppress housing supply, add cost and delay, and discourage private investment. The result is a chilling effect on homebuilding across price points, contributing directly to the housing shortage we now face.

Democratic state Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas’ package of zoning reform bills offers a thoughtful, comprehensive response to this challenge. Rather than mandating a single development outcome, the legislation modernizes the rules by allowing in-demand housing to be built where it makes sense, reducing unnecessary procedural barriers and restoring predictability to the development process.

These reforms reflect a growing national consensus. In "Abundance," author Ezra Klein argues that many of today’s economic and social crises stem not from a lack of resources or ideas, but from self-imposed constraints that prevent us from building enough, including homes. When well-intentioned regulation becomes overly rigid, it stops protecting communities and starts harming them.

Maestas’ bill package takes aim at those constraints: eliminating arbitrary limits on building height, allowing duplexes and townhomes in residential zones, residential housing in commercial zones, reducing excessive parking mandates, enabling mixed-use development and streamlining appeals that add years of uncertainty and cost. Collectively, these changes lower barriers to entry, make projects financially feasible and unlock private capital to deliver housing faster and at greater scale.

This is not about deregulation for its own sake. It is about smart regulation. These changes protect public health and safety while recognizing that housing scarcity is itself a crisis with real human and economic costs. When families cannot find attainable housing, employers struggle to recruit workers, infrastructure investments underperform and entire regions lose momentum.

As organizations representing commercial real estate, homebuilders and the broader business community, we see firsthand how overregulation disincentivizes the private sector from building despite a clear demand and willingness to invest. If New Mexico is serious about addressing housing affordability, we must align our policies with our goals.

We urge the New Mexico Legislature to approve Maestas’ reform package. Funding housing programs is necessary but it is not sufficient. Reforming the systems that govern how, where and what creative types of housing can be built is the essential next step.

Zoning is not a silver bullet. But without zoning reform, progress will not be made.

Rhiannon Samuel is the executive director of NAIOP New Mexico. Terri Cole is the president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Miles Conway is with the New Mexico Home Builders Association. Alan LaSeck is the executive director of the Apartment Association of New Mexico.