Albuquerque IDO Adopted by City Council!

On November 13, the Albuquerque City Council approved a new citywide Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) and a new citywide zoning map, capping three years of hard work by the Albuquerque Planning Department staff and a Clarion-led consulting team. Clarion’s team included Fregonese Associates, Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, Tim Karpoff Associates, Kimley-Horn, Leland Consulting, and Urban Interactive Studios. The “ABC-Z” project began in early 2015 with a thorough update of the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County “Centers and Corridors” plan led by Fregonese Associates. The update made significant refinements to the menu of center and corridor growth priority areas and menu of road and street types appropriate for those areas. In addition, the plan update incorporated hundreds of neighborhood and site-specific policies from 70 different Sector Development Plans adopted since 1970. Work on the IDO proceeded simultaneously, greatly simplified the city’s menu of zone districts, and aligned those districts and their permitted and conditional uses with place types called for in the comprehensive plan. In addition, the IDO incorporated the comprehensive plan map of “Areas of Consistency” and “Areas of Change” to guide future growth more effectively. Contextual standards were added to ensure that future infill development respects the varied existing fabric of different neighborhoods in this 400 year old community. The IDO also incorporated scores of neighborhood-specific maps and standards gleaned from 40 different Sector Development Plans that contained zoning regulations. Throughout 2016 and 2017, residents of Albuquerque were able to compare the new and proposed zoning for their properties side-by-side using an on-line conversion map, and to suggest changes to make that map more accurate. The resulting comprehensive plan and IDO integrate all of Albuquerque’s development policy guidance into one document, and all of its regulatory land use controls into a second document, both of which carry forward neighborhood-specific character and scale controls. None of this would have been possible without the sustained hard work of the Albuquerque Planning Department and GIS staff and exceptional teamwork among the city staff and the Clarion consulting team. Kudos to all involved.