Albuquerque Journal

MAYOR KELLER’S duplexes and casita proposal remains mostly intact after being taken up at a council land use

Proposed zoning changes largely left intact by City Council committee

BY JESSICA DYER JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Albuquerque city councilors who had their first chance to edit Mayor Tim Keller’s proposed zoning code overhaul wielded their red pens lightly this week, leaving the legislation’s highestprofile elements largely intact.

Keller’s plan to allow duplexes and casitas in single-family home neighborhoods survived the City Council’s Land Use, Planning and Zoning committee meeting Wednesday with only minimal change, despite some outcry and Councilor Renee Grout’s repeated attempts to amend it. In fact, the committee extended the casita allowance to also include the city’s residential-agricultural zone.

But the legislation is far from final. LUPZ agreed to hear it at least once more during its April 26 meeting before sending it up to the full council, where it could undergo additional amendments.

Grout on Wednesday repeatedly said she was trying to represent “neighborhood association” interests, but she gained little traction with a five-member committee that also includes Isaac Benton, Tammy Fiebelkorn, Trudy Jones and Dan Lewis. She unsuccessfully tried to change the bill so property owners would have to undergo a public hearing process before building a casita and to require that casitas be at least 5 feet away from a property’s rear and side lot lines.

She was able to amend the bill to require that casitas — detached living units — be the same color as the primary residence, but not that they be built with the same materials.

Grout also wanted to strike Keller’s duplex allowance from

the legislation entirely, an idea that fizzled when no other councilor would second her motion.

“I think that it would be odd in a regular neighborhood to all of the sudden have a duplex in the middle of the neighborhood,” Grout said. “When somebody spends their hard-earned money on a single-family home that was their biggest investment they ever made and (then), for the neighborhood to change, it scares some people.”

Fiebelkorn, who chairs the committee, said she would like to discuss some version of Grout’s duplex amendment at the next meeting. But she repeatedly questioned the notion that the proposed changes are dramatic or unnecessary. And she took issue with critics saying that the officials making these decisions will not be affected because they live in gated communities with different rules.

“If I wanted to live in a gated community, I could not afford to,” she said. “I live in a modest home that I literally bought 20 years ago and I could not afford today if I had to buy it again, which is why we’re here today having this conversation.”

Wednesday’s meeting featured over an hour of public comment for and against Keller’s ideas. Most — though not all — of the speakers stating affiliation with a neighborhood association argued against the changes. They said the zoning proposal, released in November, is being rushed, and some voiced concern that the changes would alter neighborhood character or invite developers to buy up single-family homes and replace them with duplexes and a casita to maximize value.

Developers — including NAIOP, a commercial real estate development association — were among those who spoke in favor of Keller’s proposal. But so too did people who work with lowincome and homeless populations, homeowners interested in building casitas to keep their own family members close by, and college students and other young people who said the changes could help make housing more affordable.

While the committee did not significantly alter Keller’s duplex and casita allowances, it did change the parking elements. It struck the bill’s original language that drastically eased or, in some cases, eliminated parking-spot minimum requirements in apartment or multifamily housing developments. However, the committee added provisions that would lower by 30% the minimum parking spots that multifamily developers must provide and create a 20% parking exemption for certain developments that contain affordable housing.

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2023-04-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-04-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

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Albuquerque Journal