Steven Holman Guest Column: Mayor Tim Keller Should Veto 0-26-61 And “Better Neighborhoods” Package; Veto Will Define Keller’s True Legacy And Future Of City |

On October 5, the Albuquerque City Council enacted three out of four measures sponsored by MAGA Republican Dan Lewis misleadingly labeled the “Better Neighborhoods” package under the guise and a false attempt to cut red tape and spur development projects. The “Better Neighborhoods” package consists of two ordinances directed at neighborhood coalitions and two memorials that request action from the New Mexico legislature to act to curb city’s zoning authority.

The two city ordinances make dramatic changes to the Neighborhood Association Recognition Ordinance (NARO). It is O-26-61 that is the most egregious of the four measures and the ordinance eliminates formal city recognition of neighborhood coalitions, homeowners’ associations and business groups and eliminates automatic development notices to them and ends developer good-faith requirements. O-26-61 strips standing from neighborhood coalitions, raises appeal fees, and requires coalitions to pay legal fees if they lose a challenge against a developer who has applied for permits.

Ordinance O-26-61 passed on a 5 to 4. Voting YES were MAGA Republican City Councilor Dan Lewis, Dan Champine, Renee Grout and Progressive Democrats Stephanie Telles and Tammy Fiebelkorn. Voting NO were Democrat City Council President Klarissa Peña, Progressive Democrats Jaquin Baca and Nichole Rogers and Republican Brook Bassan.

If signed by Mayor Tim Keller O-26-61 will become law. If vetoed by Mayor Keller, the veto would require six votes of nine the nine city councilors to override.

GUEST COLUMN BY STEVEN HOLMAN

Steven Holman is a resident of City Council District 7 which is the mid heights city council district represented by 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.

Steven Holman 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 Holman 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 as a public service:

MAYOR TIM KELLER SHOULD VETO 0-26-61 AND THE “BETTER NEIGHBORHOODS” PACKAGE; VETO WILL DEFINE KELLER LEGACY AND FUTURE OF CITY

Mayor Tim Keller faces decisions that will define his legacy and the future of Albuquerque. He has to choose between siding with citizens and established and historical communities versus investors, real estate developers, and corporations and nationally backed organizations. A core principle of being a Democrat and a progressive one at that, is maintaining the value that elected officials should serve the people and not be beholden to businesses and special interest groups.

Unfortunately, Mayor Keller has proven in the past that he aligns with investment developers more than the people of Albuquerque. This was never more evident than his utilizing the nationally backed organization Strongtowns in their common quest to deregulate zoning and allow developers to build what they want, wherever they want , and how they want without any requirements for affordable housing. Earlier this year, they both lost this agenda not only at the Albuquerque City Council level but in the New Mexico Legislature as well. This was because communities organized and stood up against these kinds of policies in a rare win against this kind of Reagan-era deregulatory free market hand out to developers.

At their core, Mayor Keller and Strongtowns want to largely remove all zoning regulations and allow development to run free without any zoning limitations and no input from communities that will be negatively affected by development. The hope is that development will flood the market and bring housing prices down. It will not! The reality is that studies are finding more and more this only has up to a 3% impact in affordability and targets poor and marginalized communities due to the low cost of acquiring their properties and leading to gentrification and displacement. For example, in cities like Memphis this has proven to gentrify and displace lower income communities. The truth is that zoning doesn’t stand as a barrier to housing or impacts affordability. It protects historic, indigenous, and marginalized communities.

Because these groups haven’t gotten what they wanted, there has now been the introduction of the outright retaliatory Better Neighborhoods legislative package that eviscerates neighborhood associations and coalitions power to fight back against developers and the city. They are also introducing 0-26-65 on October 19, 2026, sponsored by Republican Brook Bassan, who is pro development, that will allow the city Planning Department to manage the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO), which is all the city’s zoning laws, with updates to city zoning laws. This is troubling because the City Council inserted unapproved language in the last IDO updates and were forced to change it back while calling it a “clerical error.” Meanwhile this would also change the IDO zoning updates from every TWO YEARS to TWICE YEARLY, eliminating consistency of policy for development and forcing communities to come together and review changes far more often.

Organizations like Strongtowns can be utilized as a way for politicians to say they’re listening to the “will of the people”. They pose as a “local” activist community group that’s pro-affordable housing while they are nationally organized and backed by local developer interests. What is very troubling about Strongtowns is that they use their media sources to outright lie to the public. This makes it easier for political allies like Mayor Keller to side with them and investment developers. This is never more evident than a Friday, October 9, post on social media by their communications team saying that “special interests” are trying to sway Mayor Keller to veto the Better Neighborhoods legislative package. Those are not special interests. They are neighborhood associations and coalitions and everyday citizens asking Mayor Keller not to stab them in the back with the Better Neighborhoods legislation. The only special interest groups who are contacting the mayor are developers and nationally backed organizations like Strongtowns.

Most of the Better Neighborhoods package has largely passed the city council. It is now headed to Mayor Keller’s desk for his signature approval or veto. Keller is left with the grim choice of either backing the people and voters he represents or backing the city’s special interest groups or the investment developers and corporations. These pieces of legislation headed to Mayor Keller for his signature will ultimately disarm citizens and communities from being able to defend against encroachment on indigenous sites, destruction of historical neighborhoods, and displacement of lower income communities.

For my part, I’m seeing history repeat itself. Growing up in Northern Virginia outside Washington DC, I was witness to the worst of what these policies do. Among the many things I’ve seen are:

A historic Civil War battlefield being bulldozed for a shopping center and then unironically named Battlefield Shopping Center.
The demolition of a historic African American Church so a development could be built.
The demolition of a historic community center that was previously the town elementary and high school.
People’s homes allowed to burn to the ground so the land could be used for developments.
The displacement of Washington DC’s poorest neighborhood when they bulldozed the entire community to build the nationals baseball stadium.
The displacement and pricing out of my own family who was there there for four generations, forcing them to move to another nearby state due to housing being some of the most expensive in the country due to gentrification.

With the policies these people want to pass I can see the same things happening to the petroglyphs or historic parts of Old Town or Martineztown. Unlike the many transplants of Strongtowns, I respect the culture and history of this place and realize I’m just a guest here. I don’t want to force changes on communities in Albuquerque but instead want to help preserve and protect what makes this place special and uniquely beautiful.

Change can happen without destroying identity, but handing the keys to the kingdom to investment developers is just plain bad policy. Ultimately, the Mayor’s actions will serve as a message to communities, organizations and citizens across the city letting us know if we have an ally in Mayor Tim Keller.

If Mayor Keller signs this legislation into law, it will stand as a reflection of his “abundance agenda” and “democratization” of housing he announced earlier this year in his State of the City address. In essence he will have proven to be no better than Trump and his “Big Beautiful Bill” that also gave special business interests a handout over helping people. These decisions will ultimately shape Mayor Keller’s legacy not only in Albuquerque, but for any future political aspirations he may have.

Mayor Keller, the ball is in your court! We hope you’ll be a true Democrat and support the will of the people reaching out to you or you may end up showing us who really holds your puppet strings.

DINELLI COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The “Better Neighborhoods” package sponsored by MAGA Republican Dan Lewis is a false and misleading attempt to cut red tape and spur development and encourage upzoning to increase density. Taken together, the measures will have a major impact eliminating the rights of neighborhood coalitions to challenge developments. The legislation is nothing more than a continuation of a complete frontal assault of rights and remedies of not only neighborhood association coalitions and businesses but of neighborhood associations themselves and private citizens. The City Council’s objective is to stifle and prevent opposition to developments that have a negative impact on residential neighborhoods and giving developers unchecked influence and authority.

PLAN OF ACTION OPTIONS

There are three options voters, and the public, have to reverse the disastrous enactment of the “Better Neighborhoods” package:

First, contact Mayor Tim Keller and ask him to veto Ordinance O-26-61. Strong Towns and the development community are already engaging in an extensive lobbying effort contacting the Mayors Office and encouraging Mayor Keller to sign the legislation into law.

Second, in the event Mayor Keller does not veto the legislation and signs it into law, city voters and residents need to contact city councilors. They have two options:

City residents should demand that City Councilor Republicans Dan Lewis, Dan Champine, Renee Grout and Progressive Democrats Stephanie Telles and Tammy Fiebelkorn, who voted for passage, move to reconsider passage of the legislation or introduce a Resolution or Ordinance repealing it .
City residents should ask City Council President Klarissa Peña, Progressive Democrats Jaquin Baca and Nichole Rogers and Republican Brook Bassan who voted NO to introduce a Resolution or Ordinance .

CONTACT INFORMATION

MAYOR TIM KELLER CONTACT INFORMATION

Department: Office of the Mayor

Phone: 505-768-3000
Fax: 505-768-3019

Physical Address: 1 Civic Plaza, 11th Floor, Albuquerque NM 87102

Mailing Address:

Office of the Mayor

PO Box 1293

Albuquerque NM 87103

EMAIL: tkeller@cabq.gov, MayorKellerIQ@cabq.gov, MayorTimKellerPress@cabq.gov

CITY COUNCIL CONTACT INFORMATION

CITY COUNCIL PHONE: (505) 768-3100