City Council District 7 is the mid heights city council district currently represented by Progressive Democrat City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn. The district includes the uptown retail business district including the Commons, Winrock and Coronado Shopping Center. The District boundaries are generally Montgomery Boulevard on the North, I-25 on the West, Lomas on the South and Eubank on the East.
District 7 City Councilor Tammy Feibelkorn is aggressively sponsoring “upzoning’’ amendments to the city’s zoning laws known as the Integrated Development Ordinance over the strong opposition of her constituents and neighborhood associations. Feiebelkorn’s intent with her upzoning efforts is to address what she and Mayor Keller proclaim as a housing crisis for affordable housing by doubling and tripling density in all established and single dwelling neighborhoods.
City Councilor Feibelkorn wants to allow casita, duplex, townhome and apartment development unilaterally by property owners on all residential property and deny adjacent property owners the rights to object and appeal which have been the historical norm. Feibelkorn wants to allow apartment and retail business development (i.e. convenience stores) on single residential corner lots without allowing adjacent property owners the right to object nor allow them to appeal. Feibelkorn falsely proclaims unfettered “upzoning” will increase affordable housing by increasing inventory ignoring the reality of market forces. “Upzoning” will destroy the character of existing neighborhoods and will lead to gentrification.
BIOGRAPHY OF STEVEN HOLMAN
Steven Holman is a resident of City Council District 7. Steven and his husband Jesus decided to permanently set their roots in Albuquerque in 2023 and purchased their first home in the Bel-Air neighborhood. They are both everyday working-class citizens who have overcome obstacles like poverty and homelessness to achieve their home ownership.
Steven is a strong believer in accountability in government, having been involved in progressive marches in Washington DC against the Iraq War, for Women’s reproductive rights, for Marriage Equality, and with the Occupy and BLM Movements. In writing this piece Steven and Jesus want the voices of local communities and their advocates to not be suppressed or silenced.
HOLMAN GUEST COLUMN
Steven Holman submitted the below guest column to be published on www.PeteDinelli.com. He was not compensated for it and his column is being published “free of charge” as a public service.
“UPZONING” CHANGES TO CITY ZONING LAW IS CORPORATE URBANIZATION THAT DOES NOT ADDRESS HOUSING COSTS
BY: STEVEN HOLMAN, Albuquerque resident
We are at a crucial turning point in the identity of our collective home, Albuquerque. Mayor Keller and Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn support the concept of “upzoning” which they are trying to implement while no one is paying attention through biennial Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) updates. The IDO is all the city’s zoning laws.
WHAT IS “UPZONING?”
The idea behind “upzoning” is to be able to change residential zoning to high density to allow for apartments and townhomes. The concept is to flood the market with housing to hopefully bring down the cost of homes. This would allow any homeowner city-wide to change their R1 zoning to high density and allow for duplexes, townhomes, apartments and bodegas on corner lots.
The problem is in how this is being implemented as there is nothing in writing that could stop a developer from buying up a bunch of homes in a neighborhood and putting in high-cost housing. This would not allow for impact studies on water use, safety, schools, traffic, and infrastructure. It also does not have any language to protect historic places like Old Town, Historic Neighborhoods or National Monuments like The Petroglyphs.
Even worse is that “upzoning” does not allow for any comment or input from residents or community advocates. It removes height restrictions along transit corridors and it rezones thousands of properties along those corridors from R-1 to R-T. This removes the protection of the 3% cap on property taxes and leaves it up to interpretation by the county if they would re-assess at market rate or not, having the potential of raising taxes on thousands of seniors and low income households across the city. “Upzoning” completely removes the protective guardrails of zoning and allows for no notice or recourse, except filing a lawsuit.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
“Upzoning” was previously brought forward as a resolution by Councilor Fiebelkorn at the request of Mayor Keller (R-25-167) but was voted down 4-1 by the Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee (LUPZ) in August. Mayor Keller and Councilor Fiebelkorn are attempting to force it through by amending updates to the City Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) which is a lengthy document that is difficult to navigate and provide public comment. Within the current process, amendments went to a second Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) hearing on November 20 and were passed.
One EPC commission member boldly said they would like developers to do what they want before removing requests for extra protections for historical sites. This will proceed to LUPZ for at least one hearing before being presented to the full city council for a final vote. Full Council votes and review of these kinds of amendments go well into the night with additions and subtractions and changes.
The Mayor and Councilor Fiebelkorn back this under the guise of “affordable housing”. The proposed IDO amendments allocate for no required “affordable housing” and no language against price speculation. The term “affordable housing” itself is problematic and does not speak to housing equity or housing justice (dignified housing).
MANUFACTURED HOUSING CRISIS
The “urgent need” for more housing is not based in reality. Albuquerque’s population has gone down in recent years based on census data. There is a talking point of needing 50,000 homes over 20 years, but that is for 5 counties and not the city, based on a percentage of growth we are not experiencing. This is a manufactured crisis supported by private equity and developer money who see nothing but dollar signs in untapped residential properties across Albuquerque.
The issue is not supply, it is the cost of housing due to the same private equity and developers buying up single family homes and apartment complexes as “investment properties.” The city has done nothing to address this uncontrolled takeover of the housing market. That is why our prices are so inflated. We have high vacancy, but it is expensive.
This is a fast-tracked zoning change that would bypass every piece of proper planning and allow carte blanche construction across the city’s neighborhoods by developers and private equity interests. It is a handout to promote corporate urbanization at the cost of equity, history and identity.
“UPZONING” INCREASES GENTRIFICATION
In recent studies it was found that “upzoning” actually increases the gentrification of communities and even worse, raises the cost of living, and reduces racial diversity. In many ways it ironically has been found to reinforce the history of racist and classist zoning of the past by raising prices on the poorest communities, such as what was recently found in a study about “upzoning” in Nashville. This also removes social mobility because many first time home owner programs require residential single family zoning, further creating a renter class that will be unable to achieve ownership.
“UPZONING “ IS PROGRESSIVE “YIMBY” AGENDA TO HELP DEVELOPERS
This is all counter to the “YIMBY” or Yes In My Back Yard, progressive talking points supporters of this agenda like to try and justify. YIMBY itself has been hijacked nationally by the likes of the Koch Brothers, BlackRock and corporations like AirBnB. It is the co-opting of progressive language to further the agenda of corporate interests.
“Upzoning” is supported by national organizations like StrongTowns, with a local chapter in ABQ. They are a supposedly progressive minded group whose messaging has been co-opted by private equity and developer interests to further their cause of build anywhere and everywhere without restrictions.
They are very skilled at what they do, being propped up by local political and private equity interests and they will likely show up in your neighborhood or social media to dispute any opposition. They have even gone out to try and “calm down” the rhetoric with marginalized communities against their cause, yet despite being called colonizers to their faces they maintain their agenda and the outreach is only a ploy of damage control to their perception.
ALBUQUERQUE’S “MAJORITY MINORITY” BEING MARGINALIZED
Let’s understand and respect that our city is a majority minority. We should listen to communities and lift up the voices of the very people who’ve built this city and lived here for generations, not dismiss them.
Imagine high density luxury housing developments gentrifying these communities with zero recourse from the very people who built them. People are going to be angry when you destroy their livelihoods and price them out of their generational homes and paths towards class mobility.
They have every right to be angry.
But then to demonize people and call them “NIMBY” (Not In My Back Yard) to try and destroy their voices in opposition? This is the weaponizing of progressive language against marginalized communities standing up for their homes. It’s colonizing in its methodology of fall in line or be steamrolled.
Ask any marginalized people, be they African American, Indigenous, Latino, Asian, or even LGBTQIA and they will tell you that the erasure of culture and history always happens when monied interests and the government dictate policy.
True public servants want inclusive planning and cooperation with communities to ensure that voices are heard and that changes to neighborhoods are equitable. These IDO changes are excluding the most important part of any city planing, the very people who live here.
MAYOR KELLER AND COUNCILOR FIEBELKORN SELL OUT
Mayor Keller and Councilor Fiebelkorn tout their supposed progressive values, while quietly selling out our entire city to developer and private equity interests that aim to gentrify and price out long time residents. Why? Because they see dollar signs in your homes and communities. In their world, the inequity of Manifest Destiny never ended.
PLEASE SIGN PETITION
My husband and I created this petition to counter the monied interests, political machines, and nationally backed interests pushing this agenda. It serves as a means for community voices that are being excluded to finally be heard loud and clear.
It all begins with you.
Please sign and share this petition if you are an Albuquerque resident. Below is the link to sign the petition,
https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-exclusionary-upzoning-of-mayor-keller-and-councilor-fiebelkorn
Thank you.
Steve Holman
DINELLI COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
Mayor Keller and City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn are aggressively advocating for major changes to all city zoning laws proclaiming a “housing crisis exists” and their plan will increase affordable housing. It will not as they embellish and proclaim a housing shortage of up to 55,000 units. The truth is that Mayor Keller’s 55,000 unit projection, as stated in the Holman guest column, is in fact over a 20-year period, or until the year 2045. The reality is that Keller’s housing shortage is based on a 2% growth rate each year. The truth is the city is in fact losing population, and the actual shortage is about 15,000 perhaps 20,000 units at most.
The term affordable housing is about as misleading as it gets. It is a term often used by politicians, elected officials and developers to promote their own personal or political agendas. Simply put construction costs are consistent when it comes to housing with no real differention between costs and in today’s market are extremely high as are existing housing costs. When the term “affordable housing” is used by the politicians, elected officials and developer’s, what is meant is “subsidized government housing” also known as Section 8 federal subsidized housing.
Both Mayor Keller and City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn want to double or triple housing density in established neighborhoods over strenuous objections from property owners and neighborhood associations. They want to allow “upzoning” by residential property owners to increase density and allow casita, duplex development and townhome development in virtually very stablished neighborhood in the city. They want to allow apartment development and retail business development (i.e convenience stores) on all corners in all established neighborhoods to benefit developers and to deprive adjacent property owners the right to object and appeal.
Keller and Feibekorn erroneously believe that increased density will increase affordable housing as they simply ignore the market forces and the profit motive. They argue in essence that “flooding the market” with more housing than what is needed will result in lower cost of housing and make available more housing for sale and rent. It’s a false narrative.
The one thing city does have is open space that can be developed. There is no need to increase density in established neighborhoods that will destroy a neighborhood’s character. Sources within the Planning Department have confirmed the city has already “pre-platted” residential development of 125,000 to 150,000 residential lots for development.
One thing that is clear, there is absolutely no language in the existing Integrated Development Ordinance amendments that specifically requires affordable housing. There is no language in the proposed amendments that addresses private equity and developer price speculation.
With their “upzoning” agenda, both Mayor Keller and City Councilor Fiebelkorn want to make gentrification an official city policy that caters to developers at the expense of neighborhoods and property rights.
City Councilor Feibelkorn, along with City Councilor Joaquin Baca, is already pushing for City Council public hearings after the first of the year on her proposed amendments to the integrated development ordinance allowing for unzoning believing that she has more support on the new council. Those hearings could take place as soon as January 5th depending on who is elected the new City Council President and who is appointed as chairperson of the Council’s Land Use and Planning Committee. Please stay tuned.