With the re-election of Mayor Tim Keller and a new Albuquerque City Council, there is a major controversy emerging within the city and on the Albuquerque City Council involving Mayor Tim Keller, his Planning Department and a few members of the Albuquerque City Council who want to enact blanket amendments to the city’s zoning laws known as the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO). The IDO changes will mandate “upzoning” of all existing residential properties to the determent of residential property owners who will have no rights to contest or appeal the upgrading. Mayor Keller and City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn in particular argue mandated rezoning laws will address what they proclaim to be the city’s “affordable” housing crisis.
What is very disturbing is that overt efforts by organizations and supporters of upzoning are going to great lengths to disparage and attempt to discredit critics of upzoning amendments to the city zoning laws. They go to great lengths to try and influence and counter neighborhood association positions in opposition to upzoning. They have even undertaken to suppress opinions with censorship on social media outlets such as “NEXTDOOR.com” by having the neighborhood app. posts deleted. Consequently, guest opinion columns in opposition to upzoning have been encouraged and submitted on the issue upzoning for publication on www.PeteDinelli.com.
HOLMAN GUEST OPINION COLUMN
Steven Holman is a resident of City Council District 7 which the mid heights city council district. 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.
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. Their first home itself is a small 75 year old adobe-style home to which they’ve been making upgrades and repairs when they can afford them. 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.
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.
“The City Has Taken Underhanded Efforts To Forcefully Rezone Nearly All Single Family Properties; Homeowners And Community Groups Will Have No Recourse To Prevent Harmful Zoning; Property Taxes Can Be Raised”
BY: Steven Holman, Albuquerque Home Owner
The City Council agenda for 2026 is stacked with major amendments to the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) to allow “Upzoning.” What is harmful is that the City’s Planning Department with the Environmental Planning Commission have covertly slipped massive changes into their recommended IDO amendments sent to the City Council AFTER public notice, AFTER the ability to comment and AFTER their recommendations were officially documented in hearings.
The proposed changes if passed by the City Council would eliminate nearly all existing Single Family Zoning City-Wide and could allow for major property tax increases as a consequence.
THE UNDERHANDED ACTIONS OF THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT FAVORING DEVELOPERS
The Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) is the city’s zoning laws. This document allows for amendments every two years. First they are voted upon by the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC), then must past the City Council Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee (LUPZ) before a final vote by the full 9-member City Council.
At the final Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) hearing on November 20, 2025, there were two small word changes to “ R-1 Single Family Zoning” contained in the amendments, but no change to the zoning outright. Nothing was verbally addressed during the meeting either. No major changes were noted in the EPC’s written notice of final recommendations or in official documentation, in fact it still refers to R-1 Single Family Zoning districts.
However, in the December EPC recommendations to City Council, there is now new language changing the R-1 Residential Single Family Zone District to R-L Residential Low Density. These changes accommodate the increased density of duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and other housing options. The change in the amendment forces rezoning of most if not all Single Family properties across the entire City.
Two major points on this forced attempt at re-zoning need to be addressed as being detrimental to the public interest and existing homeowners:
- The city has violated its own zoning laws by not following the Integrated Development Ordinance’s required process for notice to the public and to allow public hearings for input on proposed changes.
- Communities and property owners would be deprived of their right to challenge harmful zoning laws and this change would favor private equity and developers in removing those rights.
When reaching out to City Planning Department, they stated the following:
“The editorial change is shown in the Post-EPC Redline, which is in transit to City Council for review and decision and posted online for public review. As the footnote explains, the change is a “ripple” of the EPC recommendation to allow duplexes and triplexes in the R-1 zone. As the 1 in R-1 signals 1 dwelling unit, the change recognizes that low-density (L) residential dwellings are allowed permissively. City Council can introduce an amendment to reverse the editorial change or any other EPC-recommended change that is shown in the Post-EPC Redline.”
What this boils down to is that the Planning Department using their power to make small editorial changes in amendments instead decided they could just completely rewrite the entire amendment, forcing a zoning change city-wide. The excuse being given is that a City Councilor could strike it down in later hearings. The Planning Department is also attempting to justify the change by describing R-1 Single Family dwelling units as meaning single use, when city laws already allow for multiple uses in the previous legalization of Casitas.
The amendment changes make it even easier for developers and private equity investors to do what they want, where they want, and how they want because now they will not be required to apply for a zoning change and it will be a permissive use. The city would already have made the change for them, further removing the ability for residents and community organizations to have any input.
The legality of what the Planning Department has slipped through is highly suspect. The Planning Department’s actions will likely lead to a class action lawsuit against the city over the clandestine changes it is making to existing zoning laws, materially altering people’s existing property rights.
The City and the Planning Department by massively updating zoning amendments without following legal processes that require notice to the public and public hearings for input, have demonstrated their outright disrespect and disdain for communities and homeowners.
The city thought the public would not notice and would simply not care. They were wrong. We definitely did notice.
INCREASED PROPERTY TAX IMPLICATIONS ARE A REAL DANGER
Besides forcing zoning changes on thousands of property owners city-wide, under New Mexico law the zoning changes would also remove the 3% personal property tax cap. That means properties across the city could be reassessed at market rate, which could lead to exponential tax increases for all real property owners and impacting senior citizens and low-income households the most.
The narrative from the city and other groups in allegiance with these zoning changes is that “you shouldn’t worry about your taxes going up, because they believe the Bernalillo County Assessor will simply reassess value based on property use alone.” They are asking you to simply trust that it won’t happen based on a hope, a wish, or a dream but there is absolutely NOTHING in writing as a guarantee. A recent class action lawsuit filed against the Bernalillo County Assessor by property owners, which includes former Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenberg, for wrongfully reassessing taxes proves that their interpretation is a fallacy.
There is NOTHING in legal language within the IDO amendments that could prevent Bernalillo County from reassessing properties when the 3% tax cap is removed due to these zoning changes. Since these kinds of mass zoning changes are unprecedented, the state law was never intended to address this type of situation. As such, we need to oppose these kinds of mass zoning changes because of the dangers they present in usurping laws that protect property owners like the 3% property tax cap.
This is also how you methodically and systematically force low-income people from their homes to gentrify communities. Low income people, especially senior citizens on fixed incomes, do not have the legal or financial resources to fight back against these kinds of decisions being forced upon their communities.
CONTINUED DISTORTIONS ABOUT HOUSING DATA AND THE ATTEMPT TO CONTROL THE NARRATIVE
Mayor Tim Keller, Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn and the City, and various lobbying groups declare the amount of general (not affordable) housing inventory needed varies from 55,000 units over 20 years which is based across 5 counties and on a rate of growth we aren’t experiencing, to the most recent quote of 30,000 units by 2040. What none of them will address is how the city experiencing a reduction in population year over year actually leads to more inventory available and they are not acknowledging the city already has 125,000 to 150,000 “pre-platted” lots for residential development.
So why is there this push for “Upzoning” as a solution, when we already have the tools available to address the need?
It is because Mayor Tim Keller and City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn believe that a libertarian deregulatory free market handout to developers and private equity investors will hopefully flood the market with a variety of densifying housing to lower costs. Studies are beginning to prove this does little to address costs and promotes gentrification in low-income communities.
The issue with housing costs is largely due to the lack of elected officials having the backbone to regulate against price speculation, prevent the monopolization of apartment ownership by out-of-state investment companies like Greystar and end the purchasing of Single-Family Homes by real estate investment interests.
With the word getting out about the dangers of “Upzoning” and as more people contact their elected representatives and more community groups speak in opposition, the city and friends of “Upzoning” have recently turned to damage control tactics in an attempt to retake control of the narrative, including disparaging those who oppose upzoning.. Recent examples of the well scripted attempt to change perception include the following:
- The Journal Opinion piece by the city’s Director of Economic Development Max Gruner.
- The National Organization and Lobbyist group StrongTowns self-publishing about “IDO myths”
- The Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors (GAAR) published piece in support of “Upzoning”.
What is blatant in these attempts to change the narrative is how they are communicating. They are DICTATING what they believe should be done instead of LISTENING to communities and their needs. What this reflects is that their only concern is compliance instead of inclusion or collaboration.
Councilor Fiebelkorn‘s own hypocrisy and irony must also be called out. She has championed “Upzoning” while lifting up the National Non-Profit Lobbyist group StrongTowns. However, during her last campaign for re-election she declared Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors (GAAR) as “dark money” in supporting her write in opponent. Now that StrongTowns are quoting GAAR and are ideologically aligned with them in support of “Upzoning” you would think she would disavow the “dark money” now involved in “Upzoning.”
Let’s clear the air on what these changes and proposals for “Upzoning” have on tap for Albuquerque. The changes are:
- Forced rezoning city-wide on Single Family Homes that allows for higher property taxation, most impacting seniors and low income families.
- Removal of community notice, input, and self-determination.
- No guarantees against private equity/developer price speculation.
- No mandated affordable housing of any kind.
- No planning for water or environmental impacts.
- No measures against monopolization of apartment and rental ownership by major investment corporations.
- Removal of zoning restrictions that protect historic neighborhoods and sites like The Petroglyphs.
- No adoption of Anti-Displacement measures.
- No protection or resources for low-income tenants.
- No impact studies to determine racial inequity.
The fact that private equity and developers see dollar signs in our neighborhoods hasn’t changed. Forcing mass rezoning simply makes it easier to build, build, build!
A CALL TO ACTION
This is a call to action and your help would be appreciated!
On Monday January 5th, the new Albuquerque City Council will be meeting for the first time and will be electing its new officers. The city council will also be receiving all the updated amendments from the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) and the amendments will be sent to the City Councils Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee. Hearings before the City Council Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee could happen as early as January 14th.
Please reach out to your city councilor and demand answers to the following questions:
- Why wasn’t I given notice or the ability to provide comment on this newly proposed amendment changing my zoning?
- Why is there such a lack of transparency around these changes?
- Are you demanding an audit and the inspector general to investigate this potentially illegal amendment change?
- These forced zoning changes remove the 3% property tax cap and could have harmful effects on the taxes of just about everyone, so why is this being quietly pushed through and do you support it?
Most importantly do not be placated by excuses. Demand accountability and demand that these toxic proposals be investigated and not be enacted.
The emails to contact all 9 City Councilors and to voice your opinions are:
bbassan@cabq.gov
joaquinbaca@cabq.gov or bacajoaquin9@gmail.com
nrogers@cabq.gov or district6@cabq.gov,
Below is the link to our petition against the proposed amendments:
https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-exclusionary-upzoning-of-mayor-keller-and-councilor-fiebelkorn
Respectfully yours,
Steven Holman, Albuquerque Homeowner
DINELLI COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The proposed amendments to the Integrated Development Ordinance are supposed to address the city’s so called “housing crisis” and to increase affordable housing. 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 to gain support for their positions. When the term “affordable housing” is used by the politicians, elected officials and developer’s, what they actually mean is “subsidized government housing” also known as Section 8 federal subsidized housing.
EXISTING HOMEOWNERS CANNOT AFFORD UPZONING CONSTRUCTION COST
Mayor Tim Keller, his Planning Department and City Councilor Tammy Feibelkorn want to double or triple housing density in established neighborhoods over strenuous objections from property owners and neighborhood associations. They essentially are saying they want “upzoning development” by existing residential property owners to increase density and allow casita, duplex development and townhome development in virtually every established neighborhood in the city. Ostensibly, they believe existing property owners can afford to build on their own properties whether they own the home outright or if there is a mortgage.
Residential zoning covers 27% of the city’s land and 68% of its properties. City officials have said that 68% of the city’s existing housing is single-family detached homes with 120,000 existing residential lots with already built homes. It allows only single-family homes, which city officials say has contributed to exclusionary patterns and limits housing options for lower-income households. The new rezoning process is designed to loosen those restrictions and allow to double or triple housing development in established neighborhoods.
Two years ago, the Albuquerque City Council approved amendments to the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) that allows for casitas to be built on virtually all existing residential lots zoned as R-1 of upwards of 120,000 homes. The city also offered pre-approved casita architectural plans. The city’s casita development plan has been a total failure with only 14 casitas approved to be built by the City Planning Department.
Simply put, the overwhelming majority of existing homeowners cannot afford the construction costs of a free-standing casita or the conversion of their homes to a duplex or townhome. Construction costs are consistent when it comes to building an entire house or adding a free-standing casita or converting a residence to a duplex or town home. There is no real differentiation between the basic construction costs to construct “affordable housing” and other types of housing.
According to the Homebuilders Digest construction costs cover everything from materials to the actual construction. In Albuquerque there are four basic categories of construction:
- A value-based custom home would start around $175 per square foot. This is a home that would have builder-grade finishes, such as ceramic tile, laminate flooring, basic cabinets, level one granite or quartz, aluminum or builder-grade vinyl windows, value series appliances, and basic plumbing and electrical fixtures.
- A mid-range home would start at around $225 per square foot. Mid-range finishes would include porcelain tile, engineered wood, mid-level cabinets with soft close, level two or three granite or quartz, and a moderate budget for plumbing and electrical fixtures. It would also have premium vinyl or fiberglass windows and higher-end appliances.
- A high-end custom home would start at around $275 per square foot. This home would have all high-end custom finishes, fiberglass or wood windows, and professional appliances.
- A home with energy efficiency features would range between $200 to $400 per square foot depending on selections for mechanical systems, windows, plumbing and lighting fixtures, cabinets, appliances, flooring, and more.
The link to the relied upon or quoted source is here:
https://www.homebuilderdigest.com/cost-guides/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-house-in-albuquerque/
The minimum hard construction cost to build a 750 square foot free standing casita or convert an existing residence to a duplex by adding on 750 square feet of living space at the value base cost of $175 or the mid-range cost of $225 would between $131,250 (750 square ft. X $175) or $168,750 (750 X $225). The homeowner who does not have the cash savings to pay the construction costs, a second or third mortgage on the residence would be required.
Simply put, only developers and investors who speculate will be able to double or triple density by buying up existing homes for purposes of building casitas or converting residences to a duplex or townhome. After that is done, the profit motive will be to sell or rent at the highest level and not for affordable housing.
ZONING CHANGES WILL DESTROY NEIGHBORHOODS
Keller, Fiebelkorn and City Planning want to allow apartment development or retail business development (i.e small convenience stores or “bodegas”) on all corner residential lots in all established neighborhoods to benefit developers and to deprive adjacent property owners the right to object and appeal. Such development will no doubt result in magnets for crime and heavy traffic patterns destroying the tranquility, livability and character of established neighborhoods.
Keller and the Planning Department 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 Albuquerque 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. If Mayor Keller, Feibelkorn and City Planning want to allow “upzoning” they should do so only on undeveloped, vacant land and vacant commercial properties and leave existing neighborhoods alone.
EXISTING RESIDENTAIL PROPERTY OWNERS CAN EXPECT PROPERTTY TAX INCREASES LEADING TO GENTRIFICATION
The Bernalillo County property tax code is clear. The taxable value of a property is 33 1/3% of the assessed value as determined by the Bernalillo County Assessor. Under the property tax code, residential property assessments may NOT rise more than 3% per year unless the property changes ownership, is improved or is REZONED. (Emphasis added.)
What should be alarming to all existing residential property owners is that the Planning Department has failed to take into account how the upzoning zoning changes from R-1 to R-L they are proposing will likely change Bernalillo County’s property value assessments and tax assessments.
Rezoning all residential property from R-1 to R-L will affect the property tax cap of 3% and allow for increases in property taxes. Simply put, increasing density increases real property values for tax assessment. Government entities never resist the temptation to increase property taxes and property taxes historically never, ever come down.
The “upzoning” agenda of the Planning Department and Mayor Tim Keller will make gentrification an official city policy because real property taxes will soar and lower income property owners will not be able to afford the increase in property taxes and be forced to sell their properties.
One thing 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.
CONCLUSION
The clandestine and sinister changes to the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) as identified by Steven Holman in his column are an affront to the general public’s bests interest and their home ownership. The general public needs to voice their concerns loud and clear before the city is simply turned over to developers who will destroy our community and make gentrification a matter of city policy.
City voters and residents are encouraged to contact their city councilors and voice their objections to the proposed amendments and attend city council meetings.
The link to a related column is here: