Planned Growth Strategy

PGS Adopted Bills

• O-04-9, Adopting Land Use Assumptions (24k)
• O-03-132, Adopting an Infrastructure and Growth Plan (24k)
• F/S O-02-39, Adopting Elements of a Planned Growth Strategy (84k)
• F/S R-02-111, Receiving the Planned Growth Strategy (PGS) Report, (480k)

PGS Report

• PGS Summary Presentation (2.2 MB)

The City of Albuquerque and the County of Bernalillo issued a major new study, the Planned Growth Strategy, which has the potential to make important changes for the better in the quality of Albuquerque. This 750-page report is the product of 4 years work by a team of planning, engineering, legal, and finance consultants together with key City and County staff.

The starting point of the work is based on the wise direction given by concerned citizens in two Shared Vision Town Halls. We were guided by seven basic principles:

1. Local government should play a proactive role in managing growth. Growth should not be addressed in a piece-meal and reactive way, but should be guided by a plan based on well-considered principles. The plan should include the phasing and timing of growth by location.
2. The outcome of growth should be community, whether at the fringe or in existing neighborhoods. We should build new neighborhoods at the fringe, not just bedroom suburbs.
3. The existing community—its neighborhoods, school, and businesses—should be the priority in terms of "vitality and development".
4. The infrastructure (streets, water and sewer systems, storm drainage, schools, and other facilities) in existing neighborhoods should be maintained, rehabilitated and the deficiencies corrected as a high priority.
5. Urban growth should be supported in an efficient way. In other words, grow first where urban infrastructure already is in place.
6. Don't just plan – implement.
7. Recommit ourselves to good planning and keep the community involved in carrying out the growth plan.

The Planned Growth Strategy report indicates that these public preferences are being only partially met by current government action and trends of growth.

A critical finding of the study is that many of the "disconnects" between the public's preferences and what actually is taking place are caused by weak or non-existent implementation tools - rather than by inadequate policies, as contained in the City/County Comprehensive Plan and other already adopted legislation.

The major focus of the Planned Growth Strategy is effective implementation. Six chapters address an urban growth land use plan; zoning and design guidelines using Traditional Neighborhood Development principles; financial requirements for infrastructure to address rehabilitation, deficiencies and growth needs; development impact fees; concurrency approaches to insure that adequate infrastructure and other facilities, including parks and schools, are available to support new development; development and transportation linkages; housing affordability; legally-defined Planned Communities in the Comprehensive Plan Reserve and Rural Areas; joint City–County–APS coordination; regionalism; and so on.

The positive outcomes of implementing the Strategy can include:

• Growth and development are guided to achieve the community's vision for the future.
• Funds are provided to stay current with infrastructure rehabilitation needs and to catch up with the back-log.
• Residents in new homes are served in a timely way with adequate streets parks, schools, and other infrastructure.
• It is easier to get to work, school, shopping and recreation.
• Walking, biking and transit use increase.
• Neighborhoods are built at the urban fringe not just residential subdivisions.
• Older neighborhoods are stabilized and improved so that investments in homes and businesses are protected and increase.
• The people-resources needed to solve local problems are retained in older neighborhoods.
• Positive neighborhood solutions to community problems are encouraged through community based policing, community education, informal helping networks, and renewed local planning efforts.
• The natural environment is protected and incorporated into new developments through design standards.
• Our built environment becomes more attractive and provides a greater sense of neighborhood and southwestern identity.
• As a result of all the above, the local economy is stronger and more diversified with more and better paying jobs.
• There is greater public participation in determining the future of the urban area and the neighborhood where you live.

One key concept is that what is built at the urban fringe has a very important impact on existing neighborhoods. Another is that stabilizing and improving conditions in these neighborhoods, principally through the constructive actions of neighbors, is part of over-all urban growth management.

The Planned Growth Strategy can be viewed in two parts:

• Part 1 discusses development trends and infrastructure costs.
  • Part 1 - Findings Report (entire report) (45MB)
  • Chapter 1 - Introduction (3.6MB)
  • Chapter 2 - Development Trends (9.2MB)
  • Chapter 3 - Alternative Scenarios (4.7MB)
  • Chapter 4 - Infrastructure Costs (25.5MB)
  • Chapter 5 - Policy, Regulatory, & Plan Review (1.6MB)
  • Chapter 6 - Benefits of Growth (132k)
  • Chapter 7 - Social & Economic Consequences of Growth (56k)
• Part 2 discusses the process of developing and implementing the Preferred Alternative for Albuquerque's future and describes this future image.
  • Part 2 - Preferred Alternative (entire report) (5.2MB)
  • Chapter 1 - Introduction & Rationale Part 1 (22.2MB) and Part 2 (22MB)
  • Chapter 2 - Preferred Alternative - Subarea Definitions (4MB)
  • Chapter 3 - Preferred Alternative Summary (5.7MB)
  • Chapter 4 - Examples of Mixed-Use Redevelopment Projects in Other Cities (300k)
  • Chapter 5 - Level of Service Standards (1.6MB)
  • Chapter 6 - Financial Implementation (235k)
  • Chapter 7 - Planned Growth Regulatory Structure Approaches (288k)
  • Chapter 8 - Combining the Level of Service Standards & Financial Implementation (1.1MB)
  • Chapter 9 - City & County Financial & Planning Requirements (126k)
  • Chapter 10 - Growth Strategy Techniques Used in Other Locations (317k)
  • Chapter 11 - Planned Growth Regulatory Structure Outline (1MB)
  • Shared Vision Reports (2.1MB)

If you have difficulty opening the files above, right-mouse click on the file and save the file to your hard drive and then open it.