On Monday, the Albuquerque City Council met for the first time in 2025 and had a full agenda to get through.
For much of the seven-hour meeting, Council members heard testimony on 0-24-69 — a proposal from Councilors Dan Lewis and Joaquín Baca to address Albuquerque’s housing crisis.
The ordinance would ease restrictions on housing developments in some parts of town, as well as fast-track housing projects along certain busy corridors, including on Central Avenue, and remove barriers to getting those projects underway.
Baca told Council members that the city has been working on housing for decades, and this reform will help move efforts forward. He said the Council has tried to tackle housing issues for years.
Del Esparza, Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce chairman and Esparza Digital CEO, testified that the Chamber is in strong support of the bill.
“The ongoing housing crisis affects all Albuquerque residents in some way, from rising housing costs to increased homelessness to slow job growth and limited access to medical care,” Esparza said. “The Chamber supports Councilor Lewis’ proposed amendment to the IDO, which will put the city process on equal footing with those of the state, of UNM, and of APS. (It will) set up guardrails that will require the majority of property owners within a set distance of a development to sign on an appeal.”
Esparza said in this way the ordinance will ensure that neighborhoods truly have a voice and an individual or two does not have an unfair or an outsized power to stop everything from a housing development to a medical clinic, to a homeless shelter. It also requires appellants to pick up the legal tab if they lose, discouraging frivolous appeals as “those who file an appeal seriously believe that they could prevail,” he continued. “The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce respectfully urges you to strike a right balance and approve the IDO.”
Baca said the state’s most recent housing assessment report found Albuquerque’s population is up by 6.3%, yet housing hasn’t kept up. Statewide, there is also a backlog.
The bill will increase housing density along the ART route, as well as main street corridors like Fourth Street and Broadway Boulevard through zoning changes to allow more multi-family developments and new restrictions on how those projects can be appealed.
There was plenty of support and opposition to the bill from the community.
Council members also heard amendments — 14 in all — before voting on the bill.
Councilors eventually passed the bill on a 7-2 vote — Councilors Louie Sanchez and Klarissa Peña cast the dissenting votes.