good evening everyone i call this meeting to order this is the land use planning and zoning committee of the city council all committee members are present today via zoom i believe that councilor pena will be joining us very soon this is a remote or online meeting where all participants will be on a video or audio conference we are holding this meeting remotely so that everyone can participate safely while we are conducting business this way we appreciate your patience members of the public will be able to address the committee if they have signed up for live public comment per the instructions published on the agenda and on our website friday speakers will be moved into the meeting and will remain muted with their camera off until they are called upon to speak at which point they can turn on their camera unmute themselves and will have two minutes to provide comments to the committee after that they will again be muted and returned to be an attendee of the zoom webinar members of the public were given the opportunity to address the committee with either live or written comments written comments were received and distributed to the committee members in advance of the meeting i understand that we have two individuals signed up this afternoon for live public comment members of the public city staff and the media have the ability to view this meeting live through youtube and zoom webinar the live stream can be accessed from most smartphones tablets or computers for those watching on the live stream thank you for joining us we'll now start with public comment go ahead hello to those joining us to provide public comment here are the public comment rules comments are to be addressed to the committee members only through the chair please keep your comments germaine to the topics on the agenda any disruptive conduct or non-germane commentary will result in removal from the zoom webinar each speaker will be given two minutes to provide public comment the timer will start once you begin speaking then the zoom moderator mr moya will let you know when your time is up mr moya would you please call the name of the first speaker thank you madam chair the first speaker is consuelo abeita please uh feel free to turn on your video unmute yourself and your time will begin when you start speaking so unfortunately at this time i don't have a video um however i'm hoping that you guys can hear me yes ma'am we can please proceed perfect so i am the general manager for the lepinka albuquerque midtown we are located at 2011 manal and a lot of the issues that we see in the area are going to be due to either the homeless or the drug use and crime in the area so we have had several vehicle break-ins on our property we have had guests who were moving from across country and their u-haul with all of their belongings were taken we have been affected by several break-ins not only to vehicles but to our property so we have had to try and chase away people that are in our property i think if we can push forward with the redevelopment i think that we can bring in people who are going to invest in our property or our area i think that we we should have the opportunity to do so there are people in this in this area who have committed their their life and their business to this area and we would love to see it brought back to its former glory thank you thank you madam chair we had one other person sign up to speak but they have not joined the meeting yet so that will conclude public comment thank you mr moyer madam chair madam chair excuse me yes counselor gibson oh i'm sorry i thought i had seen our other our other public commenter i'm sorry i was mistaken forgive me if you'll have just a little patience with us we'll see if we can help this happen thank you thank you everyone for your patience i think we're going to try to keep this rolling so we would ask miss morris miss petra morris please to begin the staff presentation and then one hour one other person who was signed up to speak uh if she can get online we will come back to her after this presentation so miss morris if you would please madam chairs council madam chair counselors uh thank you so um here's a quick um sort of overview of this study um this is the kind of the big picture study for for the area um so for this study the the plan boundaries are san mateo i-40 i25 and uh candelaria on the on the northern edge uh this uh larger area study is kind of the 3000 foot view of you know what are the what are the conditions on the ground today what are the needs for the area and really focus very closely on the commercial properties and business owners in the in the area um the study found that this is an area that is uh significant very significant from an economic development perspective um this is uh the gateway for many people to the the city uh they many visitors come and stay in places like uh la quinta um hotel and and the crown plaza um and there are a number of very uh long-standing businesses in the area business owners that have operated out of the same property for 40 plus years however this is also an area as our public speaker consuelo just mentioned that is plagued by crime and disinvestment i think the poster child perhaps for the disinvestments in the area is the when the range cafe moved out of its location on manola it had been there for um over 20 years um and i believe in that location and decided to move out of the area and so in order to look at the study we worked with consensus planning as our consultant and they um did a lot of research into the area they did a retail and business analysis they did a survey with business owners um they uh had a swot strengths weaknesses and opportunity opportunities and threats analysis and there were two public meetings as well held and through all of this research and analysis that was done um the the plan came up with a series of recommendations to try and support the existing economic development in the area and to try and address some of the concerns about this investment in the area and the study came up with a series of recommendations um and and at this stage the this is uh very much a high level study and so these recommendations and report are something uh that it's basically a laundry list of tasks for um council services staff to continue to work on and to find funding for to study in further detail and to work with the appropriate departments and bodies to to pursue and so perhaps the the most notable of these recommendations is that there is a recommendation for a designation of a sub-area within this study as a metropolitan redevelopment area this study would not make anything a redevelopment area that would definitely be something we'd have to pursue separately and outside of this study doing a metropolitan redevelopment area is is controlled by state legislation and so has to go to the adc and and uh go through a very uh particular and important process for adoption but the the sub area that this study is looking at would be basically the properties fronting manual between i25 and the north diversion channel the study also identifies three opportunity sites the idea behind opportunity sites being that if these sites were redeveloped they could have a catalytic impact on on the area redevelopment could be anything from um industrial uses uh through commercial through multi-family mixed use you know it's it's really about you know having a use go in on a vacant site that could really you know catalyze the area um study also encourages the city to continue uh dialogue with business owners and then makes uh also some recommendations for improvements to street lighting trails transit stops landscaping buildings and sidewalks um a big part of what we heard from mississippi and so there are a number of recommendations in the study as well about public safety improvement measures and that includes um overhead mobile cameras and key locations um the installation of emergency the code blue stations along the trails i think most people might be familiar with those from unm campus um to conduct regular field briefings and then also the idea of establishing a police substation in the area uh the the study suggests considering one of the existing um restaurants that have have recently been um uh about not abandonment but have become vacant um that that would be a potential location for a police dub state substation um and so uh that's kind of a big uh sort of overview of of the study and its recommendations um and so perhaps we might be able to go back to public comment if uh um uh our second public speaker is signed up or or i'm available for questions if if not thank you miss morris i think it says our second speaker is here if you would like to join us and and uh we'd like to hear what you say and we'll go back for questions if there are any thank you uh thank you madam chair miss jones if you want to go ahead and unmute yourself and then your two minutes will begin when you start speaking am i muted yes ma'am please proceed okay thank you um the midtown um the midtown area has thrived prior to the big eye renovation project which took place at the beginning of june of 2000 um and it ever since the the big eye project was finished it seems like there was no contingency plan from the midtown area after that project was finished um it's hard to get off on manal via i25 or i-40 that the exits are very very hard if you miss the exits you do have to go down and turn around and it's extremely confusing exits off manal on for i-40 are the university exit heading west with dead trees homeless camps and trash along that north side of the exit and then heading east you have to exit fourth second um and university when you exit that way coming towards menaul and university you pass the coordinated coronado state park which is known as a homeless camp on your right-hand side the beautification it seems as though um exists along i-40 from tramway all the way to coors um with renovations with some type of southwest artwork midtown is in the heart of albuquerque and is in this concentrated area we have over 2 000 guest rooms for visitors to stay in my hotel house houses 450 of those guest rooms and we are on 14 acres we spend approximately 20 000 a month on security which isn't enough the car break-ins and the panhandlings in our parking lot is a constant struggle for our security guards it is a threat to our employees and definitely our guests that come in and stay at our hotel with all the vacant buildings at the university of mall university in menaul there's constant pop-ups of campsites going on and people walking down university and congregating in all of these empty buildings for me it breaks my heart to see this because a lot of times this is the lasting impression of guests driving through albuquerque to stop in one of our 2000 guest rooms in this concentrated area thank you miss jones years time okay excuse me madam chair yes counselor gibson if if you wouldn't mind this is the only thing that we have on the on the agenda today and miss jones represents the uh uh like the largest uh hospitality uh business over there so i would if you wouldn't mind could she possibly be allowed to finish her thoughts on this please that would be fine miss jones would you hold try to hold it down to another minute absolutely thank you man this area has thrived and there is we have lost a lot of restaurants in this area due to the crime and the homelessness and the business owners just not being able to keep on top of their restaurants and there's almost nowhere for our guests to eat we have to send them to uptown areas whips and old town we have to send them basically out of town to get something to eat because it's hard to get on and off these freeways there is seven full-service properties in albuquerque mine being one of them out of these seven every single hotel or convention hotel like mine has something to talk about in their neighborhood that the only thing i have to talk about is my 14 acre part of the city resort feel hotel and that's all i have to talk about and i cannot talk about the surrounding area and that's always one of the first things they see when they drive up to my underneath my portico shear and i haven't opened the ranchers club which used to thrive because people are scared to come down to this area because of what they hear on the news happening at university in menaul but the shootings and all the things that have happened in the panhandling and homelessness it's just impossible thank you ma'am thank you for joining us this evening i believe that's our last speaker and with that are there any questions counselors then um counselor gibson if we will go to agenda item a r 207 okay i thought for a minute you're gonna call for a vote councillor gibson i would never do that without giving you the opportunity to speak on your legislation uh well actually it's more important the people that we've heard so far and about to hear for are more important than what i have to say but i would like to move a do pass for r 207 this is adopting the minol redevelopment study and recommendations as city policy and i we madam chair we also have uh a representative of apd here sergeant dane sims who has um uh some work more than just working knowledge of this he is heads up the uh problem response team in that area thank you councillor gibson i think councillor benton wanted to second this motion or speak that's correct second thank you so there's a motion in a second now and uh mr sergeant sims would you like to speak with us hello good evening good evening good afternoon i guess we do this in the afternoons now that is correct yes um counselor gibson you wanted me just to speak on kind of what my team has experienced in the menaul corridor area is that correct yes i i would appreciate that and how you believe that you know improving that area what improvements would help get rid of some of the crime going on you know from from a law enforcement perspective absolutely yeah my team consists of four officers we spend probably about eighty percent of our time down in the menaul and university area uh we're very familiar um with this area and it is plagued by a lot of um burglaries and and um narcotics violations um in terms of what would help um this area i think most recently the improvement of um the maverick gas station being built at man allen university was definitely an improvement from the vacant building that was there it's definitely helped out but it hasn't been enough i would agree that adding more infrastructure incentivizing businesses to to set up shop here in the area would be beneficial for all involved uh within the area uh just within the past month we caught somebody breaking into a vehicle in the laquinta parking lot which i'm currently at right now um and uh and today we we caught um somebody distributing narcotics over at manhattan university um but it seems like a monthly occurrence for their business is closing down and more and more vacant buildings in the area um i i believe if um if businesses were incentivized to to set up shop here and it was an appeal appealing area that would definitely help push some of that criminal element out in the menaul and university area thank you thank you sergeant and thank you for everything that you do on the prt team um i really appreciate it and i know so many so many of the businesses in that area uh appreciate all of your efforts thank you counselor thank you council gibson thank you councillor sergeant sims um counselor gibson are there any any other counselors who would have questions or would like to comment and counselor gibson i'm sorry kelsey i didn't see your hand counselor benjamin thank you if okay counselor gibson she might want to do a bigger introduction before we start with questions it's up up to her mountain chair bye would you like to do a bigger introduction or say anything before we start with questions well actually what i i i'd like to hear from miss fishman from consensus planning they did a a uh a pretty deep dive into the research and and uh have put put their findings into a a report that's available to us now so i'll i'll go ahead and kick it over to jackie fishman and she can thank you councillor thank you councillor uh miss fishman thank you um uh counselor and and uh other counselors and and um councilor jones um jackie fishman here with consensus planning um this has been a pleasure working on this project for uh council services as some of you know i'm i'm a long time resident of of the valley and menaul is one of my main east west travel corridors i'm intimately familiar with the area and i've seen it deteriorate over the last 45 years i've lived here to the point where restaurants are closing buildings are boarded up i've seen all kinds of criminal activity just being stopped at that intersection um so i i'm i'm really pleased that the city is is taking this step to improve the area as petra explained we we came up with a variety of different recommendations including uh doing an mra for one of the you know a small sub area but we also have recommendations that don't require uh that designation and they extend throughout the the study area that uh petra described um and involve other community partners like nmdot and apd and dmd and you know all those acronyms so we we did try to take a a very broad look at the area and found that the area would greatly benefit from some assistance and some partnering with uh you know other agencies and um just very pleased to to get to this point in the project thank you miss fishman uh any questions to mrs fishman before we call in councillor borrego councillor borrego thank you madam chair um i just i i was really my comment was more for apd um i just wanted to thank abc apd for the work that they do in this area i know there's a lot of issues especially in our arroyos nearby where people have set up camp and part of the reason why i initiated the the arroyo safety ditch and water task force and i know that they're working on their recommendations and i would really like um you know as this study moves forward that whoever is i guess hired or whoever the consultant is that does the the planning for this and the redevelopment that they coordinate with the arroyo ditch water safety task force so that that's really my only comment but i want to thank ebd for working with you know i know it's a really tough area so um i just happy to see that something's been done to try to bring this area back to where it was at one time because it you know over the years we've all watched it deteriorate and unfortunately it's gotten to this point so um thank you for that sorry thank you counselor counselors any other comments uh i'm sorry jack miss fishman you have a comment yes um thank you madam chair i i just wanted to respond to uh counselor borrego that at our second public meeting brad bingham from amafka uh participated and we do have recommendations that that would impact amafka and the city of albuquerque so he seemed very supportive of the project and the recommendations that we came up with thank you thank you miss fishman councillor benton thank you um okay well with my hand get that out of the way um [Music] yeah um as a former resident of the netherwood park area this was my commercial corridor and it remains for many needs that i have my commercial order um and hearing about how things have gone you know it changing the access from the big eye that was monumental i mean we had it happen to lomas as well and you know i don't know how much discussion went on back then i wasn't here in the council or government at that time but but you wonder about what sort of discussions were conducted with bot at that time about the effects of these changes anyway my question i guess for miss fishman said you spoke to d.o.t i wonder if we could get d.o.t to do better way finding to renault uh to this part of menaul from the comanche exit which is basically the one that replacement all um and probably between i would think that between uh new mexico d.o.t and our own dmd that we could really help with the way finding to get people back under this corridor i'm sure a lot of people are googling to find some way to get to this corridor because of all the there are still many very viable important businesses there um and um that would help kind of bring it back you know but but uh uh chair jones i think you and i used to enjoy meeting from time to time over at that range and it was the best one by the way it was indeed thank you counselor anyway that was my question for administration and it's just an observation you know these interstate highways made such an impact on every city and there may have been some good my feeling is mostly bad in terms of losing our sense of place and and hurting neighborhoods the way they were shot through the center of our cities and um wow you know how can how can we look at that and alleviate that in places like more worldview certainly not observation thanks thank you councillor benjamin miss fishman did you want to answer the counselor's question sure i i would be happy to madam chair and counselor benton the recommendations that we had for nmdot had mostly to do with landscape strips that seemed to have been ignored when they did a lot of the improvements so we we highlighted on one of the pages three areas that we thought could be improved but i think it's a great recommendation to add to that uh the wayfinding aspect because i do think it you know i've experienced well i i know where i'm going when i'm over there but when i've had visitors um come it is a really confusing area when you're going off the the freeway so i i would be happy to to add that as a recommendation thank you mr schmidt good information thank you any other questions counselors councillor gibson i believe that you have an amendment madam chair counselor gibson would it be helpful for me to do a quick summary of this amendment for you yeah announcer gibson you're muted counselor gibson you're muted oh thank you it would be it would be very helpful if you would uh if you would do that for us thank you petra thank you councillor thank you petra so madam chair councillors so there is one amendment tonight um this uh amendment has some uh minor uh clarifications and and edits um we had a thorough read of the manual study done by some uh staff over at with transit and a fresh pair of eyes caught things that we hadn't caught internally um so the first item clarifies the other premium transit area designation um and when that kicks in um the second item uh uh some clarifications to the major transit uh corridors section um the third item uh uh fixes a typo in the non-residential um parks and open space uh categories um the fourth item uh corrects a caption on the there was a picture of the north diversion channel it's a multi-use trail um we don't normally say multi-use bike trail it's by definition a trail for multiple users not not just fights um the fifth item uh makes some corrections to the standard uh symbology and colors used for uh mapping of bike trails and facilities and then the sixth item uh in the transit improvement section uh makes some clarifications and additions to the recommended design changes um that are suggested for transit shelters including the adult-to-stop program which we had neglected to mention thank you patra uh councilor gibson do you have any comments on that i do see counselor benton would like to comment i have no comments counselor benton yeah i just wondered whether it could just be enrolled as a as a friendly amendment if i write with counselor gibson about the wayfinding aspect from i-40 councilor gibson are you all right with that and petra can we do that madam chair counselors uh yes if you could give me a moment to draft some language that i can read over then i can do that yes thank you thank you that's a a very helpful to uh to the study and to the report so thank you for that great sponsor thank you will we have just a minute here anyone else want to ask any other questions um counselor gibson if you would like to close it's up to you then we will have petra read in the amendment that she's going for so if you'd like to um close as to be amended i don't know however you'd like to sure yeah i just wanted to mention a couple of things um it's i think it's important for for for me to say and for all everyone here council administration uh uh staff everyone that um this is not an area that's you know just kind of given up there are business owners here and property owners who've been here for decades decades and decades and they're staying a lot of them the the initial survey went out asked for um so what do you like about the area what suits you what don't you like about the area what would you like to change and i would one of the things one of my takeaways that surprised me is that so many so many said that they really liked the area they liked the access so um you know we can make the access better you know we with wayfinding uh signage we we can't improve that um but but this is an area that really needs investment so i've been going to meetings over there for for a long long time uh uh in the big area right not just right on right on and all although have we've had meetings at la caneta several times that's how sergeant sims and i kind of got on the same page with this area there's a business district over there that does meet and that is somewhat active uh we met with them just very recently um even the areas that are more tangential to the area that that we believe is most affected they are very uh very much in favor of seeing the city taking a leadership role in re-energizing particularly menaul and and university intersection and and out from that along manal um so and we've already started we already started a little bit lighting is really an issue that was another thing that came up both in discussions as well as in the the uh i think in the the questionnaire that went out so we're already starting to put in um additional lighting on candelaria but that's like carlisle and going east which is really really has needed it we've had fatalities over there but we understand that in order to to serve the commercial business areas that we needed to go west from carlisle so we're doing a study now between i-25 and carlisle and uh you know we will make sure that that gets funded so that we can you know the next counselor can order lighting there um so there's there really are a lot of opportunities you know we're not starting with the desert you know this isn't scorched earth but the longer the longer we put this off you know the crappier the can i say crappy in a meeting the the worse the the earth is the more scorched it looks so let's not wait until it gets you know so bad that it's going to take a really really long time to to uh to renovate to to re-energize so that's my uh that's my pitch that's my counselor and and i will let you wrap up as soon as we hear from miss morris but i'd like to say something too since i've been since we have time i'm not i'm not talking sarah just wondered if that was a technical term or of course it was yes so i just want to see this is an excellent idea and i'm pleased to see it happening since i've moved here about uh 40 years ago this is this this was and should be again all of this manal area a very vibrant part of our city it was different it had great homegrown businesses national businesses all different kinds of uses and we need to we need to bring this part of our city and other part of our parts of our city facing the same thing we need to realize the entire city needs some help now and it's nice to see it going in several different places and hopefully more in the next few years so thank you councillor gibson i think ms morris is giving me the evil eye saying she is ready so miss morris you're next great the the friend madam chair counselor thank you so the um the friendly amendment uh to the amendment would read um this would be an action number seven um on page 38 in the section on landscape improvements uh there be two actions one revised title to read landscape and wayfinding improvements and the second action would be to make revisions within the body of the document so that the [Music] third sentence reads the recommendation is for council services in the department of municipal development to work with nmdot on wave finding improvements and landscape improvements for the currently unimproved areas within nmdot's right of way it then lists those areas and then there'll be a new sentence that reads wayfinding improvements should help to direct drivers from the interstate to the area thank you councillor gibson are you all right with that counselor benton everyone [Music] gibson did you would you move an amendment to the amendment yes i i am moving that amendment to and i will second that counselors are there any other comments or questions i think counselor gibson it is yours to close okay well i pretty much said what i wanted to say but i can't i can talk about this for hours if you wanted to but i i just heard your support thank you very much thank you councillor gibson and miss montoya would you take the vote please councillor benton yes councillor bordego yes councillor gibson yes councillor pena yes councillor jones yes and that passes on a 5-0 vote thank you counselors that was that was a good interesting discussion of things we need to talk about in our city and uh is there any further business from any of the counselors then madam chair it wasn't clear to me i thought that you have to call we have to count the problems i believe you made a uh amendment to the amendment vote um you will need to vote on the overall and then you'll need to vote on a recommendation to counsel okay so counselor gibson do you want to put forth the motions yeah well i had already moved for a do pass for resolution 207. and then i think i think counselor benton seconded yes he did yes yeah i think the point of order was i guess there was some confusion because as a friendly amendment i didn't think it had to be voted upon it was accepted by councillor gibson so maybe we do need to just revoke on the whole amendment as as amended with the friendly amendment and then vote on the bill right i think that would clarify the the record council but yes okay so let's take a vote please on the amendment to the amendment and then we'll move just the amendment and then we'll go back for the full vote councilor benton yes chancellor bodega yes councillor gibson yes councillor pena yes councillor jones yes and that passes on a 5-0 vote all right correct me if i'm wrong here now we are going to vote on the legislation as amended thank you councilor gibson do you want to ask for our support one more time i i certainly do i just urge your support thank you so much thank you if you'd call the role please councillor benton yes councillor yes counselor gibson yes counselor pena yes councillor jones yes pass us on a 50 vote thank you all that did pass it's a great piece of legislation to keep our city moving in the right direction thank you i see no further business unless someone raises their hand therefore this lups committee meeting is adjourned thank you all you