The Albuquerque Journal Editorial Opinion pages feature 5 types of opinion columns submitted for publication: those by the paper’s Editorial Board, those by the paper’s Community Council, those by Syndicated Columnists, those by Local Columnists and those by Local Voices.
“Local Columnists are tasked with carrying a heavy load of responsibility to help readers scrutinize issues impacting them, their community and their country. It is the Journal’s goal to publish columnists from all walks of life and varying political viewpoints to give readers exposure to all sides of local issues.”
Loretta Naranjo Lopez is a life-long resident of Albuquerque and 6th generation Martinez from Martineztown in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has a Master of Community and Regional Planning and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of New Mexico. Ms. Naranjo Lopez was employed with the City of Albuquerque for 25 years of which 15 years was in the City Planning Department. She retired as a City Planner and worked as a staff planner. She serves as the President of the Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association (SBMTNA).
On March 1, the Albuquerque Journal published on its editorial opinion page C2 the below “Local Columnist” opinion column by Loretta Naranjo Lopez.
JOURNAL HEADLINE: “Zoned out: How decades of discriminatory planning still haunt Martineztown”
BY: Loretta Naranjo Lopez, Local Columnist
Martineztown is facing gentrification because for decades there has been no effort to preserve and protect the historic single-family residential neighborhood. The city of Albuquerque Housing Neighborhood Development and Economic Fund (HNDEF) 2022 Report states residents of Martineztown Santa Barbara Neighborhood are known to have higher unemployment rates, lower median household incomes and higher poverty rates than the regional average. The rents are increasing in the neighborhood, making it more difficult for residential owners to afford their homes.
Future planning and redevelopment efforts such the Rail Trail, Rail Yards redevelopment and other new amenities will increase rent pressures as property values are likely to increase. The city of Albuquerque so far is unconcerned that Martineztown will face inhospitable economic conditions that produce the displacement of residents and small business and overall gentrification.
The purpose of the Federal Zoning Enabling Act of 1922 was to keep incompatible uses separate from residential areas. In 1959, Albuquerque and all other cities, towns and communities were enabled to develop their local zoning regulations. At this time the city allowed incompatible uses next to residential single-family dwellings in Martineztown. The resident’s health, safety and welfare were ignored. Today a line of 5-ton toxic diesel trucks warm up in the morning right next to single-family dwellings.
In 2018, the city of Albuquerque enacted the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) which allowed mixed-use zoning. The mixed zoning was already established in Martineztown. The city of Albuquerque allows a property owner to construct a multifamily building next to a single-family dwelling and the single-family property owner has no say. For this reason, the current mixed zoning in Martineztown has allowed developers to compete against the families for older homes, further gentrifying the neighborhood.
Since the 1970s, the residents have protested the city of Albuquerque from expanding Downtown into the Martineztown Santa Barbara neighborhood. These discriminatory and racist practices continue. To date, the city of Albuquerque arrogantly included a portion of Martineztown into the Downtown Metropolitan Redevelopment Area, taking away economic funding for the Martineztown Neighborhood. The city also recently moved two parcels of Martineztown into Downtown, again in spite of community opposition.
When Martineztown becomes so dense and the water and sewer lines have to service more people, the city will have to upgrade the entire water and sewer systems. As housing becomes more expensive, the current residents of Martineztown and the other historic neighborhoods will continue to be squeezed out. According to the city’s 2022 HNDEF Report and community recommendations, the way to stop gentrification is to control rents not only to protect tenants but also to quell the appetite of investors for Albuquerque’s land.
Martineztown Santa Barbara Neighborhood needs the city of Albuquerque to start working with the neighborhood to stop the gentrification. We need to build and preserve affordable housing units for low-middle income residents. The community needs support and city funding to rehabilitate buildings and improve facades for housing. Existing small businesses need support. And, good quality jobs that pay a living wage with benefits are important for Martineztown and other old historical neighborhoods. This is how the city can maintain our traditional neighborhoods and protect them against gentrification.
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) is essentially all of the city zoning laws on how properties are zoned for residential, commercial or industrial use. The Integrated Development Ordinance includes zoning and subdivision regulations to govern land use and all development within the City of Albuquerque. It establishes the City’s system of planning citywide. The IDO allows the Albuquerque City Council to amend it every two years. This amendment process has resulted in upwards of 140 amendments the last two years resulting in mass confusion to the public.
The Loretta Naranjo Lopez guest column captures the real danger gentrification poses to the city’s historical neighborhoods when developers are given unfettered development in all areas of the city. Gentrification is the process where a neighborhood experiences an influx of wealthier residents and businesses that drives rising property values, increases in rent, and changes the area’s demographic and cultural character.
With the re-election of Mayor Tim Keller and a new Albuquerque City Council, a major controversy emerged 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 wanted to enact a wave of blanket amendments to the Integrated Development Ordinance that will essentially make gentrification a matter of city policy. Mayor Tim Keller and the City Planning Department wanted to double or triple housing density in established neighborhoods as a way to address what they claim is the City’s affordable housing shortage.
Mayor Tim Keller, the City Planning and City Councilors who 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 would have no doubt resulted in magnets for crime and heavy traffic patterns destroying the tranquility, livability and character of established neighborhoods.
On Feb. 18, the Albuquerque City Council voted 5 to 4 to reject a series of amendments Mayor Tim Keller sought to the city’s zoning laws, mandating upzoning in all established residential areas of the city. The debate highlighted and exposed the public’s tensions between those wanting to increase density to boost housing supply and those concerned about preserving neighborhood character.
Voting to reject were counselors Klarissa Peña, Dan Lewis, Renée Grout, Dan Champine and Brook Bassan. Voting in favor were councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn, Nichole Rogers, Joaquín Baca and Stephanie Telles. Activists continue with aggressive efforts demanding citywide upzoning by disparaging city councilors who voted to reject upzoning and actively opposing their reelection.
Loretta Naranjo Lopez was a major opponent of all the amendments and aggressively spoke out against the changes. The proposed changes would have allowed townhomes and duplexes to be built in single-family neighborhoods, as well as small retailers and grocery stores. Also among the failed proposals was a push to loosen regulations for Safe Outdoor Spaces, which are sanctioned homeless encampments on private property owned by churches, businesses or residents.
Construction costs are consistent when it comes to building a new house or adding a free-standing casita or converting a residence to a duplex or town home. There is no differentiation between the basic construction costs to construct “affordable housing” and other types of housing. According to the Homebuilders Digest, construction costs covering everything from materials to the actual construction average between $175 to $225 per square foot. To remodel or add 750 square feet would therefore carry a cost of $131,000 to $168,750, amounts only developers and investors can afford.
Under the property tax code, taxable value of a property is 33.3% of the assessed value and may not rise more than 3% per year unless the property changes ownership, is improved or is rezoned. Upzoning would result in the Bernalillo County assessor increasing property values and increasing property taxes.
Keller, the Planning Department and a minority of 4 Democrat Progressive City Councils of Tammy Feibelkorn, Nichole Rogers, Joaquin Baca and Stephanie Telles 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 and very misleading narrative. Only developers have the financial ability to make major investments in historical neighborhoods.
Upzoning efforts are nothing more than giving investment speculators and developers carte blanche to buy up residential properties to destroy existing neighborhoods by increasing density leading to gentrification. Keller and the City Council need to keep their hands off neighborhoods. They need to seek better and more informed ways to create affordable housing.