that was extra aggressive tonight good evening everyone oh it's June 12th 2024 and I call this meeting to order this is the land use Planning and Zoning Comm Committee of the city council all counselors are present today and this is a hybrid meeting where all participants will be in person or video or on audio conference members of the public will have the opportunity to address the committee if they have signed up for public comment forther rules established on our agenda and on our website Friday we will call for the speakers when we get to the individual agenda item you signed up for here are the public comment ground rules comments are to be addressed to the committee members only each participant has two minutes to present and any disruptive conduct will result in removal from the meeting we will now go to agenda item a EC 157 EC 1557 is community planning area assessment report East Gateway ABQ CPA I move a receipt be noted second we have a motion in a second by councelor grout right now we have Matt C with our office to give us a presentation regarding this CPA chair counselors thank you um I am giving the presentation on behalf of Rebecca Bolan who is the principal planner for the long range team uh she is unfortunately out sick and so I am going to my best to try and stumble through this presentation um bear with me please so we are discussing the East Gateway Community planning area assessment uh the East Gateway uh CPA is actually the first CPA that was done on the timeline set out by our 2242 and that is one year exactly um this is just a really good sign from the planning department as a whole um to just show that we're getting all our ducks in a row and um doing the CPA in a much more efficient pattern after covid and everything um just as a reminder for the overall model of the CPA there are 12 within the city um after the 12 different C CPAs are completed um we find similarities within all the CPAs and try and propose Citywide policy based off those uh kind of similar themes we saw in all 12 uh those policies go into the comprehensive plan um and for the policies that aren't um Citywide uh they go into their own section Within chapter four which is the community identity section within the comprehensive plan um and will affect policy within those Geographic areas um the policies within the comprehensive plan then go on to affect um the amendments to the Ido and so this is how all three of these uh planning Focus documents kind of connect to each other um so with every CPA the main focus is community engagement going to find people go to where they are rather than them coming to us and so this starts with phase one which is assets and opportunities and and the team goes out to every nook and cranny of the geographic specific area and just tries to talk to everyone and hear what what's going on in their neck of the woods um through phase one in East Gateway uh the team gathered over a thousand different data points which then is used in phase two which is the analysis and checkback and so the team will take all those different data points see what themes are kind of bubbling up to the surface and at that point go back to the community and make sure what they heard is actually accurate um and that it reflects what they were trying to get or voice to the team after that checkback um they they find the themes that that did stay and were accurate with what the community said um and they then convene uh different focus groups to try and come up with the different actions and policies that you see within the report um there were three different focus groups um they they came up with basically the matrixes that you see within the report um and yeah so at that point the the team creates the policies and actions and again goes back and and checks in and we we review that with decision makers different community members um Partners within the community business owners what have you um for example Kirtland Air Force Base is obviously quite prominent in this area area uh and so you'll see a policy in there that um tries to pay homage to the Heritage that um our um Air Force has provided in that area as there are a lot of veterans in this part of the city um so then we get to actually forming the report um and the report has six different sections the introduction Community context area profile projects and programs policy and regulation review uh the action Matrix and then just the appendic organizing all the different data um that was collected through the process um policy and regulation review um we had five different policies um and they they kind of vary in different scales as to what um where where they can be affected and so for example policy five uh support development projects that include uh conversions of hotels and motels in permanent housing uh we already have a converted Hotel SL Motel um in East Gateway and this is also another strategy pushed by the housing forward um plan and policy at that point to try and get hotel and motel conversions all over the city and so you can look at that policy as a a Citywide version as well um the action Matrix um you can see the different departments and collaborators um that are um kind of tied to each different action and this is the exact way that the different actions are um organized within the comprehensive plan as well where we have to have a department and a coordinating Department that agrees to it to actually put this in the report um we don't want to do an action that no one is actually going to commit to um it becomes very tough to implement um and so a good example of that is the tahar a Royo um where we are where the team uh did many walks within the Terah Royo and really capture the the value of conservation in this area um and so you can find the Taris Royo mentioned in um multiple sections of the report uh the policy says specifically preserve the natural features of the taharas a Royo and promote recreational access to this Valu geographic feature um and the action uh pending funding the department of or DMD and the parks department will explore options to implement recommendations from the Wabo Hills uh connectivity and traffic studies including options for a multi-use path through the teras Royo within the next five years and that is it for my part if you have any questions I'm here to answer those and we do have Rebecca on Zoom she is watching uh but just with a very sore throat so yeah thank you counsel any questions comments about the CPA this one C grout thank you madam chair um thank you Matt for that explanation um I will say that um the team at the planning department they did a great job they were everywhere over the last year um they looked in every nook and cranny and they talked to everybody um I thought they did they were always everywhere and so I thought they did a very good job of getting out into the community and um learning from them and listening to them and so all of these things that they have come up with um I think um they did take to heart everything that theyve heard so um I think this is a good uh product and um I'm glad that they brought it forth thank you counselor any other comments questions all right Mr Solace if you'll take a no are you sure okay Mr Solace it's a receipt be noted oh I guess we don't have to do roll call okay all those in favor say yes yes okay that passes all right well that'll speed us along just a little bit more as well agenda Item B is EC 1559 it's a community planning area assess report for Central Albuquerque CPA I move a receipt be noted second by counselor grout and it looks like well it says here there's a presentation from Judith gray hello so we will go ahead and hear the presentation and then go to questions and answers thank you this is my first time so if I make an awkward mistake please tell me so I can correct it right away I am Judith gray uh a principal planner with the planning department and the project manager for the Central Albuquerque CPA um and I appreciate this time on your agenda tonight next slide please thank you the area I'll be talking about is Central Albuquerque which is shown in the map and is the area south of I40 to the southern boundary of the city and then between the RoR Grand and I25 next slide please thank you the assessment framework for is the same for all of the CPA assessments and so I'm going to try to minimize redundancy I really appreciate what Matt did to kind of lay out some of the underlying policy process that will happen before and after so that's helpful even though the framework is the same every Community is unique and our process tries to respect and to reflect that some of the qualities of the Central Albuquerque area that are special are the large number of historic neighborhoods and historic places and City landmarks um a large number of city-wide Community venues museums and the the Galleries and the bio Park and related to that is that many times community events would be hosted in Central Albuquerque that would attract people from all over the city as well as all over the region and and tourists as well we try to capture that we try to take advantage of that as an opportunity while still managing the the process to make sure that we're really reflecting the local community uh next slide thank you um I've laid out the the four stages of the engagement process that really frame the overall effort so these phases are designed to reflect the nature of input that we're seeking from the perspective of the member of the community so in phase one it's very similar to what Matt already went over but we go out and we ask people what they consider the strongest assets in the community and what are the areas that need help wide open you tell us everything in phase two we go and loop back and confirm which is just what it sounds like did we get it right um we are asking people to respond to the information that we collected in phase one but we are also asking for new information new input phase three Builds on what we learned in those in phases one and two bringing together members of the community with service providers from other departments at the City of Albuquerque uh other Regional agencies and non-governmental organizations that might provide services to respond to and Elevate the priorities in the community and then phase four is where we are now which is the public process of taking this through the environmental Planning Commission bringing it to you and ultimately hoping for acceptance by the full city council all of these are different parts of the community input process opportunities for the community to weigh in so I'll go into a little bit more detail now thank you again phase one we went out into the community this was basically the second half of 2022 it actually started right before I got to the the city there was a kickoff in late June we went I joined in August uh we went out to a lot of different uh meetings I've met a couple of you in those events neighborhood associations laundry love uh the P&M resource Fair which was amazing a thousand people coming through that was a good example of a city-wide event where we actually just laid out a map of the city with all the CPAs took their input and let them tell us what part of the community they live in so we could share that with our colleagues but also focus on the Central Area um over the course of those 30 weeks we collected more than 1,000 individual comments which is what all those little poits are that you might be able to recognize we synthesize those comments uh into what we call draft Community priority statements and that whole process is detailed in your appendix in the uh phase one engagement report next we did phase two again loot back and confirm this slide illustrates the approach we took it's basically a survey using walkability as an example but we took all of those Community priority statements and said did we get it right do you agree or disagree tell us more what you mean by that and did we miss anything this is just the concept we used this framework when we went and we're doing in-person engagement at events or just places where a lot of people already were or online surveys we complete we received over a thousand completed surveys through this process we promoted it through our email distribution um which grew our list Grew From during the process from under 400 names to over 800 names which meant people were growing in their interest in our work which was good uh Council Benton's newsletter all the neighborhood associations uh Community School coordinators helped us we had a Facebook advertisement and we really appreciate the help of the downtown Albuquerque news in promoting our activities as well uh the findings of that Outreach showed us that we did get it pretty right people generally agreed the orange bar reflects agreement and walkability is at the top about almost 95% of members of the community said we agree this is a priority for the community those are all of the topic areas that we asked about and all of them had at least 50% people could choose neutral and so with that nothing had more than nothing even reached 20% of disagreement we felt like we had done a pretty good job of synthesizing many many individual comments we had this is also um summarized in a report in your packet in the appendix so moving on phases one and two we then arranged focus groups just like Matt described we had five different focus groups um four of them were online and one was in person and the purpose of the focus groups is to invite members of the community to come and meet with service providers from the City of Albuquerque different departments people from the region people from Community groups of those in those five um focus groups we had breakout sessions anywhere from three to five maybe even more breakout sessions so people could could um learn about different topics but it was really just to be a way to help people share information help members of the community share directly with people who might have a solution help people strategize together and it was a great way also for agency partners to get a chance to talk to each other about what they are doing and what might help address the priorities in the community and finally in phase four we drafted this assessment report it includes the all that we learned in the focus groups as well as early research and coordination with our partners um we posted again being phased describing the public input it was posted on our website in early November we did a similar distribution to invite people to um take a look tell us what they think again councelor Benton's newsletter downtown Albuquerque news neighborhood meetings we hosted a community celebration around 200 people in total attendance there which was fantastic offering people an opportunity to both or inviting people to both review the report but to know that we will be at the EPC and then at Lut and then at council at last count we had more than 900 individual reviews of our online report next slide please so the table of contents is exactly the same as the East Gateway you have about 100 page Report with about 80 pages of appendices I'm not going to try to tell you everything that's in it but I want to do a quick overview of the approach so next slide please I want to focus on describing what's in the report and how our community engagement process led to the specific Community identity policies and action items that are in the report just like Matt described we do have Community identity policies that would be identified perhaps in chapter four of the comprehensive plan as well as those action it I'm using walkability as the example section four of the report summarizes existing programs and projects for walkability City of Albuquerque has many efforts that are underway uh we described in the report a summary of vision zero which had just been updated at that time the downtown walkability study the Silver street bike Boulevard and the rail trail we could have picked many more this was just an example of some of the efforts that the city already has underway then in section five we reviewed policies starting with a comprehensive plan to see whether we have policies that support or are in competition or conflict with the community priority of walkability we found very strong alignment with walkability as a priority in particular the centers and corridors framework emphasizes the walking environment especially in the downtown core and on main streets and in Central Albuquerque the main streets are Fourth Street South Broadway and Central Avenue and a section of bridge so there's quite a bit of area that is a main street that is prioritized for a walkable environment so I listed a couple of those um policies there under Section Five there could have been many more but these were the most directly applicable and that's what's in that report as long as well as a much bigger policy analysis section so those were sections four and five of the report but the output from the uh assessment process again is those Community identity policies and the action Matrix so specifically related to walkability we included an action excuse me a policy that says support I probably wouldn't have written it this way if I had read it out loud support public and private projects that prioritize safe inviting and convenient walking and biking we like the idea I wish there weren't as many P's in it but that is a policy to carry forward for Central aloc and then in the action Matrix on page 100 there is an action that we had close coordination with department and Municipal development to make sure they would be the ones that would need to take the lead and it is to analyze the pedestrian Crossing locations for compliance with the standards for designated centers and corridors especially Main Street corridors in the downtown Center because again the comprehensive plan identifies these centers to be walkable areas and then the development procedures manual puts in design standards that say how do you achieve this when you actually do development and projects and one of the ways to be achiev received is to make sure you have close Crossing opportunities for pedestrians this is the idea the idea here is to are we are we doing it next slide and that is um the example I wanted to share with you I hope that you and members of the community will find a clear connection and logical flow between what we heard in the community engagement and the policies and actions identified in the report thank you very much thank you very much for that presentation counselors any questions comments councelor Rogers thank you madam chair just wanted to say I got to work alongside this team during this time frame and they came to every single block party that we had we had 26 in a row and the CPA team was there along with parks and re and some other departments every single Saturday getting information from Community dispatch helping us dispatch resources not only the were they D doing this but I taught them how to do rental assistance applications and they were just helping us help the community so I'm so confident in the work that you all did during this time just as our counselor G grout said just wanted to Echo how awesome it was to work with your team during this time and that's the P&M Fair too is where I first met you so thank you so much for your for your work it was really awesome to see it in action thank you so much and I just have to give a shout out to my colleague who may still be on a zoom call because that was Rebecca prior to my arriving and that is very much uh something that is she's very motivated about yes and we're going to start definitely an excellent team effort councelor Baka thank you thank you madam chair M gr same thing you guys did fantastic work and went through the report great so highly recommend it urge everybody do pass all right thank you very much for that presentation the motion is for a receipt be noted and all those in favor uh say yes yes that passes unanimously moving on to agenda item c014 this is for councelor Sanchez 04 amending portions of the traffic code chapter 8 and the open space lands and Regional preserves chapter 5 of the code of ordinances to Define and regulate electric assisted bicycles known as ebikes and other personal Mo motorized modes of transportation I move a dup pass there's a a motion and a second from Council champine and grout and I do have a committee substitute that I would like to move but prior to going to that I think that we should hear from public comment please very good thank you Madame chair our first speaker is Bill pentler followed by Ruth prener good evening thank you for this opportunity it's my first time speaking in Chambers um my name is Bill pentler I'm recently retired as the resource management and visitor Services Supervisor of the open space division but I'm currently a board member of the 501c3 open space Alliance that works with the open space division um my main points are primarily consistency and safety when it comes down to this issue consistency in the fact that um the boundaries between open space and the forest service are not the clearest when it comes down to areas around the Elena gigos Forest Service stance on ebikes is they should be on hard pavement and not on natural surfaces open space my knowledge is backing that because we want consistency because we don't want questions as to where it's allowed and where it's not allowed so we would hold to the fact that ebike should be on pavement and not on natural surfaces or not on the trails there might be a few Trails where they could go but that would be discussed and I would leave that up to the experts the open space division the people who created the trails maintain the trails and monitor everything on the trails the limits on this and the definitions of ebikes you have down in in this statue that battery power seems to be the ticket it can't be more than this battery power for me it's really more of the class one class two class three class two class three are throttled in other words you have a throttle that controls the speed and it's not necessarily limited by the prowess of the person that's riding the bike um I'm not sure exactly what that is go ahead and finish your comment now and then your two minutes is safety safety really comes down to it in the fact that 20 mil an hour is a really huge speed especially when you're on trails that have lots of foliage blind curves and other things and there have already been multiple accidents on these trails and these are not walkway accidents these are rescues so through safety and other things I would go with the experts to limit um the that these bikes go on thank you very much Ruth prener followed by Aran preener good evening my name is Ruth penzer um I submitted comments uh to the committee and to the city council uh I won't repeat them all here because of time constraints but I ask that they be made part of the public record um as and I would ALS also like the comments of everyone who has made submitted comments to be made part of the public rec um I've reviewed the ordinance uh I've reviewed the Amendments and um and uh the various amendments the ordinance should explicitly state that open space division is the mayor's permanent designate for ordinance decisions all ordinance decisions this should be in writing in the ordinance and not left to the whim of each successive Administration um I continue to think that this ordinance is premature and that the natural surface Trail should remain closed until such time as open space has had the chance to evaluate the trail system and make an informed decision about uh which trails should be open for multiple use I I agree with everything that the previous commenter had to say about concerns about the various kinds of ebikes um the ordinance as written does not address or sufficiently address pedestrian safety nor does it uh uh really uh include any teeth in its enforcement Provisions without the allocations of funds for enforcement there will be no enforcement the rapidity with which this ordinance has been pushed towards passage without wide publication and the opportunity for all open space users to be heard raises is for me a concern that it's politically motivated and that there may be some conflicts of interest here um I again urge you to open this uh ordinance up for broad public comment by all open space users and the careful analysis of the open space division before the trails are open to evi thank you thank you and just just a quick reminder on the rules in here is that there's no signs allowed bigger than an 8 by 10 or somewhere in there thank you Mr Cornelius signs no signage thank you ma'am go ahead Mr Cornelius thank you madam chair Aran paner followed by Dwayne Kinsley yes my name is Arian pinzer and I have been a volunteer with open space for more than 10 years uh I'm here to voice my opposition to the ordinance that would allow ebikes on open space Trails number one I think it violates the mission and the purpose of open space which is to preserve a natural environment for low impact uh Recreation including the ability to study nature and to experience Solitude um I enjoy this daily um number two I think it is highly premature there has been very little public input I found out about this in a very roundabout way the general public is not aware this affects most of the citizens of Albuquerque who enjoy open space they should all understand and they should all have an opportunity to give you your you their views there has been no study or any formal evaluation of the appropriateness on a space by space basis of this measure and finally I would say this committee really lacks the expertise to evaluate the impact of opening up these all the trails to electronic bicycles I think the open space division has that expertise they have Decades of planning and commitment behind them and I suggest they be tasked with performing and evaluation and bringing recommendations to this committee including how you might enforce the new regulations one last thing I also agree with the comments by previous speakers and suggest that the hastiness of this effort somehow means to me a possible conflict of interest thank you Dwayne Kinsley followed by Janette Rodriguez thank you for giving me the opportunity my name is Dwayne Kinsley I'm the owner of Sport Systems we are a store local store here that sells bikes traditional bikes ebikes we also sell stuff to Runners hikers dog walkers so I kind of represent all the different communities here but I'm here to talk about specifically the open space areas for uh ebikes there's a lot of misconceptions about what this might do to those spaces um I have a lot of experience with new sports being introduced to venues it was wind surfing of jet schemes back in the 90s or a BMX bike to a skate park or snowboarding more recently being introduced to ski areas and back then what the uh ski areas said was or all the skiers said is they're fast they're out of control they're going to ruin the trails they're uh they don't know the etiquette um so some of the same concerns now some of the solutions they were advocating was maybe we should ban them maybe we should segregate them to certain Trails on the mountain and what I'm saying is that we need to be educated on what does an eiker how fast do they go uh what's the impact that they have we've heard some people say that they go 20 miles an hour that's the max that they can go the average eiker in the Foothills this is uh uh information I got from stra which is an app that tracks all the speeds of every rider in the open space the average EB backer goes between eight and 11 miles hour all the e mountain bikes are class one no throttle they're not like motorcycles they don't go fast uh and they're regulated to 20 miles an hour um they also um the people that are buying ebikes are they buying them to go faster now most of them my most people that buy electric bikes are buying them they continue riding they're older they have a some kind of a handicap where they're not very they're not in great shape so I'm advocating for no bands and uh but to increase the capacity and different ways to make it safer for all users thank you jant Rodriguez followed by Alexander Bonham good evening Council my name is Janette Rodriguez um I have lived in Albuquerque my whole entire life um I have been riding mountain bikes for 16 plus years meaning I rode an analog bike prior to buying an electric bike um I am not new to the mountain bike Community I will be 55 this year and entering menopause it became a struggle for me to ride and keep up with u my years long riding friends and my partner um I purchased the ebike and the pedal assist that has given me allows me to ride at the speed I used to on my analog bike and with my friends and not be behind them as a ride leader with the Albuquerque mountain bike Association it is wonderful to see new faces and keep seeing the same faces the pedal assist bikes will allow people to have the confidence to continue riding or to start writing within the community um which will allow more open space users to Pro um participate in trail work days to help maintain the trails for everyone which is that's what the open space is there for for everyone to enjoy um the more writers the more participating in trail work um I don't utilize the trail any differently on my ebike than I did on my analog bike and I still admire the analog riders that are faster and stronger than me consistently on the open space Trails uh if you impose the ban on ebikes it will be detrimental the riders that utilize the pedal assists are able to continue enjoying the Open Spaces provided for their mental and physical health thank you for your time Alexander Bonham followed by Chris wish Chris wish followed by Ralph Ron thank you Council I appreciate the opportunity to speak here my name's Chris wish um I've been a mountain biker in the Albuquerque area for over 30 years I've been riding for over 40 5 years I've ridden analog bikes road bikes and now I have an ebike which I utilize not all the time but on some basis where I want to work a little harder on my my uh control my stamina my physical abilities and um I I second the the um statement made about riding a mountain bike or an ebike any faster or slower um um I ride my ebike probably a little bit slower than I ride my analog bike I'm a little more careful with it because I know there are many people on the trail sharing those trails with me and I believe that at this point a ban on ebikes would be a little premature without the education of the community as well as officials and regard to the different situations that they may present um training learning Trail etiquette Trail safety and this is not only for Riders but for hikers and other people that use these spaces is I think imperative and the growth of the ability for everybody to share um you know the beautiful mountain biking the beautiful hiking and the spaces that we have in the Albuquerque metropolitan area I've been told they're world class and I believe that to be true and I would really be sad to see that there was Hast and made in a band before Education and Training or growth so that we can all use these Trails I really do appreciate your time thank you Ralph Ron followed by Dean Carroll hello uh thank you chair and members for the opportunity to comment on draft committee substitute 0 2414 my name is Ralph Ron and I've written extensively on the paved Trails as well as the unpaved trails in the Foothills open space over the last 15 plus years and as the previous person said I've been a bicyclist for 50 plus years um as I've written I've recognized and appreciate the multi-use purpose and the existing users of these unpaved trails and paved Trails before I forget I want to make make sure I say that I second the comments made by the original the the first few people up here that are opposed to this committee substitute um and I also I'm opposed to this idea of the other speakers saying this would be a ban on on mountain bikes this ordinance did not start out to be allowing uh ebikes on the trail the open space Trails okay this is a committee substit substitute by councelor basson so as a relative introduction to my comments I'm reminded of councelor Ban's comment at the April meeting uh we really need to be thinking where we want to be 5 years from now in my opinion we need to go slow on this ordinance at the outset not blasting into Parts Unknown such as powered skateboards or skates in the city's open space um or even uh you know class 3 ebikes if they you know should be allowed or even worse allowing them where they might infringe on the regional preserves as it seems councelor Ban's committee substitute proposes quickly recapping comments I made at April's committee meeting on 04 please hold off on allowing class 3 ebikes on the pave trails in the purview of the City of Albuquerque and please strongly consider a speed limit of 18 miles hour posted all entrances to the pave Trails um this this has been overcome by the uh by the committee substitute of an now of allowing um ebikes in the open space so this is in keeping with the multi-use purpose and character please also recall the comments made by Bob Pierce who rides e assist adaptive bikes and thinks 10 to 15 mph is a safe speed range at the April meeting I urge this committee I'll finish this up I urge this committee to stay with the spirit of the ordinance as introduced and not add allowing ebikes with possible exception of class one I think you heard the owner of sports systems say that it's just class one so please don't write it in that class two and class three would be allowed or powered micro micromobility vehicles in the city's open space Foothills or BS gate until parks and wreck has had a chance to fully the open space has a chance to fully consider it please strike the new section 7 beginning line 26 on page 4 thank you very much Dean Carroll followed by Fieri Gonzalez thank you excuse me thank you council members for allowing me to speak uh my name is Dean Carroll I'm 71y old grandfather I'm a senior citizen and I'm an avid bike rider I've had a complete hip replacement my uh right hip has been replaced my left knee has been replaced I've had a heart attack I have six stin in my heart I've been riding mountain bikes for over 35 years and I'm an advid member of the biking community at age 68 I reached a pivotal point in my life with faced with the possibility of having to stop my um exercise routine of writing at 68 I lacked the physical capabilities and strength to keep up at that point my physical limitations simply overtook my abilities to ride I then purchased my first ebike um I was it was a complete GameChanger in my life I am now able to continue my Regiment of riding every Wednesday typically Wednesday but not tonight and Sunday I frequently ride in the Foothills and the bosy trails on my ebike studies published in the Journal of medical internet research found that older adults who use ebikes reportedly improve mobility and increase physical activity compared to those who use traditional bikes and do not and and or do not ride bikes at all the study concluded that ebikes could be a valuable tool for improving active aging these Studies have shown that that regular exercise helps seniors maintain or improve their physical health it can help strengthen muscles improve balance and flexibility and increase cardiovascular health thus reducing the risk of Falls uh fractures and other injuries common among older adults these articles state that ebikes make cycling more accessible to individuals who have who have physical limitations the e-motors assist to help um older adults engage and physical activities that may otherwise have avoided uh and like and like traditional bike ebikes can have a positive effect on mental health by reducing stress improving moods and pro and and uh improving uh relaxation and enjoyment um and for these reasons and other reasons I ask I urge you extensively to not restrict the bike use in the Open Spaces thank you Gary Gonzalez follow by Scott Dean on Zoom hello everybody on be I'm Terry Gonzalez executive director of Warehouse 505 on behalf of Warehouse 505 and the community over there I want to say thanks to everybody for helping us out this past few months um I'm here to discuss uh the support of ebikes ebikes promote inclusivity right now I'm I'm 49 years old I ride a mountain bike in the bosi all the time one day I'm going to be as old as Dwayne back there and I'm going to need to ride an ebike and so I want to be able to have that right to be able to ride that ebike on the bosi another thing is that that really affects us at warehouse 505 is that we have been give donated 25 ebikes to create a social Enterprise at at the at the the the youth center as rentals if ebikes are banned in the bosi this would definitely affect our business and and our ability to rent out ebikes to the community to the community and so what what I'd like to really see is more research done on this before a decision is made to find out really what is the the biggest issue with the ebikes on these open space Trails because this would definitely affect our business our social Enterprise business at warehouse 505 just all I ask is that you guys we really look at do the research and find out before we make a final decision thanks Scott Dean on Zoom good afternoon can you hear me we can hear you thank you sorry it took me a second to turn this on appreciate the opportunity to speak um very quickly on this so quick question um currently as it stands right now today are motorized vehicles allowed in the Foothills in the South Foothills or North Foothills Mr Dean it's not a Q&A uh for public comment but you can go ahead and give us your comments for two minutes okay thank you um so basically as of today there are no motorized vehicles allowed in in the open space um I was going to speak at the last meeting um I did a ride in the South Foothills I've been riding in the South Foothills for 28 plus years living in the South Foothills um I got back to my house 10 minutes before the meeting started got on I passed through three ebikes in the South Foothills um which right now today are illegal right there's no motorized vehicles in the South Foothills um but everyone seems to think that it's okay um the owner of Sport Systems got up and talked about Z or sorry um straa and how you can see ebikes all over the South Foothills and North Foothills and you can see the times which that's illegal as of today right I mean there's no motorized vehicles allowed in the open space in the Foothills that is considered a motorized vehicle so trying to propose a speed limit that is going to be enforced by no one is the same as right now today there are no motorized vehicles allowed in the Foothills and there are ebikes all over the Foothills so this is not about trying to prevent people from riding bicycles there are places in the East mountains where you can ride all the motorized vehicles you would like right now today so you can take your ebike over there and ride but not in the open space I'd love to ride in the wilderness um but there will never bikes allowed in the wilderness because that is for hikers and non-motorized vehicles only so I think there is a conversation to be had it's not about trying to exclude people from doing things it's about being reasonable with what that is and really pragmatic about it so I think that was for me thank you for your time Madam chair our last speaker Cody Murray is not available in Zoom so that does end public comment on 02 2414 thank you thank you Mr Cornelius I'm going to I'm going to make a motion to move Community substitute that's in your iPads uh and then we will go ahead and I'd like to talk about a few things second okay there's a motion in a second from a couple people you can take your pick I saw councelor Rogers counselor grout and councelor champag and counselor Baka that's good okay so thank you for that counselors hey I just want to talk about a couple things in the process and then I do want to hear from director Simon as well I know that we have been working and collaborating together but I do want to make sure to be very clear on on some of what the indication is and what my reasoning was to get involved in this this is councelor Sanchez's bill but when it came across and it was introduced for the committee to review I think that it was something that it does speak to me I have three different ebikes three different types I have at my house I have a class one a class two and a mount um a motorized dirt bike I wanted to bring them all in here but I I didn't so sorry director he suggested I ride one in here but that was going to be even worse so anyway anyway I just want to make sure to talk about a couple things I also talked to somebody recently that said you know they were they were out and they asked somebody about the ebike that they were riding and that person indicated that they didn't have an ebike you can't tell the difference between analog bikes and all ebikes just by looking at them my intention with this this substitute is to say that if a bicycle is allowed at this location at what whatever location that is in the City of Albuquerque that an ebike should be allowed there within the definitions of the class one 2 and three not including the powered micromobility vehicles as evidenced in and in this committee substitute as well um because to somebody else's point they're already writing in these places I don't want to criminalize people for doing something that is enjoying our environment uh how how they want to and how they have every right to as well uh it is something that they're not as destructive the dirt bike would be and that's not what we're talking about we're not trying to allow that I can tell you our little dirt bike that we have that's electric would be destructive and that should not be allowed on any of these lands um I've met with the open space Advisory Board and while we did not agree on on everything I think that we did end up coming to some compromises in the committee substitute there's been a couple additional changes um since then but I promise you that I'm hoping the director will also talk to some of these when we when we get to that point but you know I think that we've had some compromise on making sure to allow ebikes to be able to ride on open space lands that do not have a joint Powers agreement that are not Regional preserves and protected they're not um United States Forest Service lands we still respecting the agreements that we have I also met with the mrgcd the mid R Grand Conservancy district and I think it went really well they asked me what my intention was by meeting with them and I said really my intention is to make make sure to communicate with you and to let you know that we're not trying to disrespect any joint Powers agreements that that that ebikes however they may look in the City of Albuquerque and when the joint Powers agreement does get updated should be part of that conversation they did say that it was premature for them to say that they support my committee substitute but they did go on the record of saying that they are not opposed to it and that to me is a win um again it was about having that um communication and transparency with all of our partners in this and making sure that we do protect the safety of pedestrians habitats cyclists and everyone involved and that we also make sure to maintain speed where we can although I agree with a lot of people too I don't I don't see how we're going to enforce some of this but we did put teeth into this substitute so that it does literally say that you have responsibility to ride safely if God forbid there's an accident or some kind of damaging event and there's Witnesses or whatnot that would end up being able to verify that this person was riding recklessly uh then that that would give APD and the authorities the ability to be able to have some kind of uh a bigger ability to be able to enforce some of it I don't want signage everywhere I'm not trying to say that we need to sign all of our open space trails and so I don't nobody wants that we want it to be beautiful that's the the whole argument here is beautiful and enjoyable for everyone um there's a constituent that did offer to give an education class to you know certain ebike purchasers and I think that's part of the collaboration that we're talking about um I want to make sure that there's this and I'm happy I mean gosh you guys this is what we've been working on in the last month for all the different Renditions of this substitute to make sure that we hear from people and that we try to find compromise so that we don't penalize one portion of the community in order to protect another portion of the community this is something that we can achieve right now together and in all fairness they're already writing so for the people that have argued to me and said we should start small and then open up that we're already open we're already open whe and it's illegal in the state of New Mexico um until we pass this ordinance which is what our goal is is to make this legal for Riders but right now pretty much everyone is riding whatever kind of bicycle wherever however I mean for the most part and they don't a lot of them probably don't even know they're writing illegally so it's already happening let's make sure to try to not penalize people in too much of a a larger Spectrum um a couple more things I do want to clarify the definitions of a class one two and three they're not throttled like a motorcycle a class one and a class three are both pedal assist you have to be pedaling in order to engage the assistance of having electric power provided by the motor a class one will go up to a maximum of 20 miles an hour a class three will go up to a maximum of 28 miles an hour but you have to be pedaling in order to get that and as soon as you get to that maximum speed the electric motor will disengage and now you're pedaling all by yourself and I imagine that's a break in and of itself depending on where you're at a class two is something that does have the ability to go not necessarily with a room vom throttle like a motorcycle but it can go up to 20 miles an hour without that pedal assist but that's not the one that's some of the evil evil bikes that we're talking about when we're talking about 28 miles an hour so I mean this is really truly about making sure that the mission and the purpose is to help people in Albuquerque of all needs and all levels um you know there have been studies and but again it's open right now people are doing this I don't want to penalize them and I don't want to belabor this any any further but I really do hope to get your support because I do really think that we should not be unfair to a large portion of our community and I do think that director Simon and his team and The Advisory Board and mrgcd and our staff have done a really good job of trying to find parameters to make sure that we can evaluate if need be um the ability to close off certain open space Trails which I will say for the third time because I'm not I'm not going to let this go I hope that the Parks and Recreation Department and I don't believe they would do this but I want to make sure that I am trusting parks and wreck that if there's an evaluation done and we do need to close Dr down a specific Open Space Trail because of legitimate reasons other than we don't want bicycles there you know then that that should be something that they do and they should be able to give us reasoning for that not just because we don't want bikes um so with that I would like to invite director Simon up to just if you if you don't mind to say a couple things about I guess our journey together on this in the last month or two and you know I think we've come to a good compromise I hope and that's what I've heard so I'm looking forward to hopefully garnering support for this substitute well good good evening uh Madam chair members of the committee thank you very much uh for your engagement on this issue you know uh it's been one year since the state of New Mexico passed a law related to ebike Statewide so um we would like to move toward a proactive uh structured uh system you know for managing ebikes in our community so uh the issues been coming toward us for quite a while it's not didn't just suddenly emerge you know out of thin air and our department has been studying and thinking about this issue for even even uh before the state law passed and we have taken the last uh year almost to look at uh the best practice uh best practices around the country for ebikes particularly in the Mountain West where we have cities that are you know similar in nature to our own similar uh uh natural resources similar Trail systems similar active outdoor population you know of all ages really uh using bikes so I think what we've tried to do is to take the best uh we can from the experiences uh that others have had and learned from those and try to apply those to our our Unique city and um therefore and and that involved a lot of consultation with stakeholder groups as we developed an ordinance too it was not I I just out of fairness to the council it did not just begin when a bill was introduced we were talking to stakeholders kind of leading up to formulating a proposal for you uh and then subsequent um public input of course since Bill's uh ordinance have been have been introduced has taken place and I think it's all been very positive productive and helped to improve uh the legislation now I want to just be clear for uh particularly for members of the public is that uh I appreciate the fact that the committee chairman has been open to all perspectives on this issue and that the measure that you I believe have uh on your desk in the nature of a substitute is not the same substitute that uh you were considering introducing um back in April and so the the current version of a committee substitute is one that uh our department uh is fully confident in will be a workable approach to managing uh bicycles and ebikes on our paved and unpaved trails uh we believe it's a it's a workable system that will protect the values on unpaved and in open space uh areas and I want to just clarify some of the most important parts of that I mean first of all uh I think we've got the pave trail part of this right you know we nailed that um we need we need systems on the pave trails and again Equity is a major driver for why we feel like ebikes should be permitted on paveed Trails um but subject to reasonable speed restrictions and I think we we've got that right in the substitute uh the major changes from prior discussions to the present uh measure that uh the chair has uh relating to open space What be very clear about this while it does open open space trails to unpaved Trails to ebikes as well it also preserves quite clearly the parks and wreck department and open space division's authority to close Trails for safety resource management or other uh Open Space Management purposes so that gives us the authority to understand how ebikes can and should be used in in on unpaved trail surfaces to study to monitor to have adaptive management and to take action and I appreciate the fact uh Madam chair that you in your measure will allow us to take action without delay because I think if there's a safety issue or resource management issue that we need to respond to we really need to be able to to to take action promptly you know without kind of uh lengthy periods there where we trying to decide what to do so um I'm I think those two things the the ability of open space to manage trails and the speed limit uh feature really make the uh updated version of The Substitute dramatically different and much improved and a very solid compromise between the bill is introduced and the measure you have uh on your desk uh the other things I think to point out that are important in the substitute we have sep we have uh clarified the maximum weight limit for what are micr Mobility devices and we made an important distinction by not calling those Vehicles their devices and I think there was some confusion about those two terms so I think we're we're improving the clarity of the measure by just referring to those micromobility things as devices we do not want to nor does your substitute allow micr Mobility devices on unpaved open space Trails period I think that was another two other very good changes um to the substitute and uh with that Madam chair I would uh you know I would stand for any questions again I I we feel like the provisions related to open space give us the authority to structure and manage and adaptively manage ebikes on on unpaved trails and with respect to any lands where open space shares jur dition or shares of management resp responsibility your current uh most recent version of The Substitute is again unequivocal that uh ebikes would not be permitted in these areas unless approved by that partnering agency or land owner in the case of some agencies where we actually manage on their lands so again we would have to go through a process of dialogue and Proposal with those partners and other land owners prior to any ebikes being permitted on unpaved Trails on their land so I think that's a good uh that's a very good Safeguard and as you said when you spoke to the mrgcd in particular I think that was a very critical piece for them to see and hear and the bill and it is there and I think it'll be a workable approach to appro uh to dealing with ebikes say on the on the bosy lands where they are currently prohibited so um with that Madam chair again I think the compromise is a good one it's M it'll be workable and uh we we support it thank you director and those locations currently don't allow bicycles anyway correct that is correct analog bicycles uh no they do allow uh analog bicycles they don't allow what anything would be called motorized and then this committee substitute says unless it gets to be agreed upon and then the signs are posted that's correct okay and I will say that although I am very encouraged by the compromise and for the Swift the resourcing and the the analyzing of these I do recognize too that you made sure to tell me as well that that would not be in good faith for open space to just go out and close alen gyos tomorrow or once this becomes enacted because I do I mean I do have family and friends that ride on these trails and they ride responsibly you know and that would be devastating and I can only imagine there's a whole bunch of other community members so I just want to make sure that everyone hears that the conversation we had are about some good faith in there but also some compromise to where we will enjoy and allow ebikes and bicycles to be in our environment but we also have a responsibility to protect people as well without just doing a giant blanket one way or the other and we do need to evaluate certain circumstances right Madam chair I think that's what we'll be doing we'll be conducting kind of an active meaningful uh Land Management experiment as we integrate ebikes officially and legally you know onto things like open space trails and we will hear and welcome the input of users about how well it's working uh where we may need to change or adapt and that'll be actually that's what we should do we should be uh we should learn we'll learn in this case we'll be learning a little bit as we go uh but it'll be quite natural for us to uh take a moment after we have some experience with that and adjust and fine-tune the system based on how we see it's working and how our users tell us uh it's working thank you director counselors questions comments grout thank you Madame chair um thank you director for working with counselor bassan to to get this to a workable place so that everybody can enjoy it I've had lots of people reach out like we all have um and I think um I think it's a good thing I think it's a great compromise I'm also pleased that um members of the open space Advisory Board also are are pleased and think it's a good compromise and that makes me happy that that I know that they have been included and and um are good with it um if we need to once this is passed and we find that there are things that need to be changed a little bit we can always change it we can always do that if we thank you C Baka thank you madam chair uh director Simon I just and thank you director Simon I actually am okay with the The Substitute has written um but I do I do want to make sure there's some clarity here for folks folks in the audience because you know um a I I I see both sides of this and and I really you know when I'm down on the BOS I definitely see where there's areas where ebikes are are probably shouldn't be there just because of how many people are walking um and and that and that Solitude does matter down there um and so I want folks you know having served on the Conservancy District um and I'm always a lot of folks don't understand that the city doesn't own the Bosa the Bosa is owned by mrgcd and so when I read section D and and as director Simon said they currently are not allowed in BOS even though folks are writing them and I know several folks that I wanted to keep riding electric blackes in the BOS and so so if this passes then um they're definitely not yeah they're definitely not allowed and so the the group you need speak to then to allow it would be mrgcd who hold their meetings once a month I think the second Monday of each month um yeah so yeah Clarity there for folks to know that they they currently are not allowed I personally am okay with them for the most part other than a few few spaces um but I definitely see both sides of it and and and I very much also believe that because it's a joint power uh uh situation that we have to engage our partner and folks need to know that you're going to have to talk to mrgcd as well as just us because it's not just us in this case thank you councilor champine yes Madam chair uh I just have two questions one uh horses I see horses in the BOS game obviously you said that MRG middle re Grand Conservancy District uh controls that are horses allowed in the Foothills Madam chair counselor yes okay so an 800 PB animal can romp and make his way through Trails up there you know provided that trail is signed for equestrian use yes um and my second question is do you guys consistently uh close down Trails for rehabilitation and regrowth I noticed it on the volcanoes when I used to go running up there some of them we shut down do you do that currently at the Foothills and obviously not the BOS because we don't control that uh Madam Sher ccer champine yes you know those Trails particularly in the Foothills get a lot of use they do require a lot of Trail maintenance and it's common for us to need to do temporary uh closures to rehab a section of Trail or in some cases close a trail that's developed what we might call a social Trail it's like really not where we intended people to go but it developed as a trail and we want to rev and and restore that so we have a consistent coherent trail system that's usually the objective so it's very common for trail managers ing agencies to have to do temporary closures sometimes reroutes Rehabilitation and a lot of times those are also safety driven where you may have a problem on the trail a wash out of you know something steep threatening you know user safety so we want to be able to respond quickly uh to address those things all right thank you for the points of clarification thank you m chair coun there's anything further all right so there is a motion uh to move the Comm substitute all those in favor of the committee substitute raise your hand and say yes yes that passes unanimously counselors were on the bill 04 as amended any additional comments or questions all right the motion now is 04 for a due pass as amended as substituted all those in favor raise your hand and say yes all right that passes unanimously thank you so much we will now move on to agenda item D 023 councelor Rogers thank you madam chair I'm moving 023 on behalf of councelor fee cor amending the traffic code to implement minimum standards for shared active Transportation programs as they relate to the operation and maintenance of public RightWay setting permit fees and directing the city Administration to update operations for active Transportation registration processes I move a du pass there's a motion in a second from councelor grout Council Rogers do you want to open thank you um so uh this is uh we see micro Mobility options in other cities um and not here in Albuquerque um there is some feeling that the fees the the fees that we've set are too high to allow companies to come here with this service and this bill would simply set fees to a level that makes us competitive with other cities companies have indicated that this proposal will make our Market feasible to for them to be able to come here to Albuquerque and offer this service to our citizens um and so that is what this BS is doing Council has any comments questions Council gr thank you madam chair um we used to have these little scors around what happened to them anybody and uh thank you uh chair and and councelor grout uh I'm subbing by coin for the chief operating officer who was tied up in a meeting but uh as a planning director I can also answer that question yes we did have one uh and then that was just prior to covid the company was experiencing financial difficulties uh across its entire territory and then Co I think was a final nail on the coffin at that point for it however uh we have always allowed them we do have a permitting process uh which we actually revamped uh several months ago and went through and we have had uh we had one company inquire a few months back uh they decided to go elsewhere and we actually had another company contact the city two days ago and they're in active conversations with us about bringing their program here you um Madam chair um is theft a problem how how do we keep St from happening and uh Council Council chair committee chair and and counselor uh the challenges that the city faced and first of all I think that we had plenty of time between now and when this would actually go to council after the break to work through any questions or issues or improvements that we would have uh with the with a sponsor so we're confident of that so we want to make it real clear the city is not uh uh serving as an obstruction to some form of this bill eventually getting to the full Council uh CH challenges were due to I think um mismanagement by the company uh these scooters and these other items get dumped places and uh it's our understanding that technology has advanced since then so for example I was talking to somebody today who said they recently rode one in another city uh you have to use an app in order to get the thing going uh you the clock starts running so to speak and the meter is going as long as you're on that vehicle and in order to uh when you park that vehicle you have to shut off your app and uh they were informed to the app that you're parking in an unacceptable place and this app is not going to shut off you're going to continue to get built until you take this vehicle to an acceptable station and leave it there so that's something that we don't believe was in Place several years ago but that was probably the biggest challenge so we are confident that uh working with the counselor that we can um put some of that that new language into the bill and that we can work something out councelors any other comments councelor Baka thank you madam chair I missed the scooters I used to use them all the time let's get some back then let's do it uh Council Rogers I would wonder if you want to go ahead and move this without recommendation move it without um Madam chair move it without recommendation instead of for a due pass um Madam chair may ask for clarification on why we would do that and not a do pass I don't support it so I can just vote against it now or I know we have a we have speakers commenters okay um you know and so I'm wondering if because this is councelor feeel Corn's Bill too it would allow her the opportunity to be able to speak to it it would be you know I mean she would be able to she is online and can be brought on if we'd like to have her that's fine then I mean you can keep it as a d pass if you'd like I know that we do have uh two commenters two public oh one commenter okay so let's go ahead and hear from them and then we will move on to more questions and comments and conversation thank you madam chair our speaker is Robert Gardner good evening my name is Robert Gardner and uh I'm senior expansion director at lime and we are the global uh leader of micr Mobility largest operator in the world and we are one of the companies that was uh previously referenced um so nice to nice to see everyone apologize that I can't be there with you tonight I'm actually in Mexico City uh where we're building a new program in this vibrant City it is actually one of five uh five jurisdictions that we're launching here in this country in 2024 2025 um just for those folks that are unfamiliar lime is in 280 cities worldwide every large micr Mobility Market worldwide Austin Berlin Chicago uh um we do not currently operate in any jurisdiction in New Mexico but we're obviously excited about this opportunity and look forward to working with the city to build uh an active Transportation program um you know together uh so we support this measure to update the shared active Transportation ordinance uh with these changes uh so and acted line Looks forward to bringing our vehicles to the city to improve the quality of life Commerce obviously uh reducing vehicle miles traveled and hiring locally and supporting local organizations uh we have a strong team our technology as was previously referenced is incredibly strong our ability to to shape where the vehicles go um obviously you know change behavior when necessary uh we have years of experience and I think honestly the Gap uh between the 2019 um sort of experience with micromobility and today um it's it's night and day our ability to to bring that technology to to Bear is is incredibly strong um I'm very happy to discuss um how our organization Works how our app works how our programming Works how we work with local organizations um how we engage with the city um I I really am am an open book and very happy to to discuss with you how um all of this works what the new technology is um you know I I I do really apologize again for not being in person tonight but I look forward to meeting you all and if you have any questions please let me know um if you like to follow up I'm I'm really looking forward to doing so thank you counselors any other questions comments okay councelor Roger close thank you madam chair and I did sh check with the sponsor and she was okay with a no recommendation so I'd like to change my motion to move for no recommendation to to our larger Council M okay and councelor grout will second that I think you were the second before right yes okay so we're going to change to without recommendation any other closing comments Council Rogers no thank you thank you very much okay so with that the motion is now for a without recommendation to full councel all those in favor raise your hand and say yes yes that passes unanimously and there being no further business this lups committee meeting is adjourned have a good night [Music] [Music] you