March Meeting and Updates

Greetings friends! The spring winds are here. 

Meeting on March 20

Please attend our monthly meeting on March 20 at 6:00pm at Humble Coffee downtown (505 Central). County assessor Damien Lara will be presenting on how he is using tax policy to help support healthy development for our city. Social hour after the meeting. 

Park Clean-Up event on March 31st

Strong Towns ABQ will be gathering to make our community a little better on March 31 from 9-11am. We will be at Luecking South Park. Trash bags and gloves will be provided. Please dress appropriately. This is a great opportunity to get to know each other better and have a small but important impact on our community. If you would like to help out, please RSVP to strongtownsabq@gmail.com, and you will get more details closer to the event. 

Downtown Redevelopment Plan - Public Input wanted!

On Wednesday, March 20 (yes, right before our Strong Towns ABQ meeting), the city is hosting an open house to gather the public's input in updating the downtown redevelopment plan. The current plan is from 2004, and you can read it here. It is long but worth browsing, to see what the priorities are currently, and to see where we can update it to better align with Strong Towns values. Please drop in and help shape the future of the downtown area. Check out the redevelopment team's website here. 

4:30-6:30pm at the Flue @ Railyards on March 20. 

Strong Towns National Gathering in Ohio May 14-15

We would love to send a group to the national gathering to represent New Mexico! One of our group members has a home and has offered it to be available to us! Please complete this survey if you are interested and we will connect you all. 

IDO Updates and Next Steps

At our last meeting we mentioned that we will be supporting a proposal to the IDO (the local zoning codes) to support duplex construction in more parts of the city. We are still working with our city councilors to see if they will be supporting this proposal. So stay tuned! We hope to have an update by our meeting on Wednesday. 

If you are a planning/development guru and have expertise in this area, we would love for you to consider joining our Duplex Working Group (if it happens). More to come on this, but we will need help from professionals in the field who can offer data driven support for this proposal. 

Dublin Banning Through Traffic in Downtown

Speaking of downtown visioning, here is an article about cars no longer being allowed to drive through the center of downtown Dublin, Ireland. Very interesting and something to strive for!

Feb 21 Meeting Summary and HOMEWORK

Hello friends, 

We had an amazing meeting on Feb 21. Thank you to Mikaela Renz-Whitmore for an enthralling presentation about the history of housing development and zoning in ABQ. We learned a ton! To see her presentation, visit here.  (This was powerful, highly encourage you to check it out). 

We also approved our mission statement (we had created drafts at our January meeting), talked about upcoming opportunities for participation in city decision making, and socialized. Shout out to Steve Pilon who stayed late and taught people about the Bridge Blvd redesign proposal. 

Homework from last meeting: Give your feedback about Bridge Blvd Redesign by 2/29! 

Here is the website where you can see the design. 

Send your input to info@bridginglosvecinos.com.  

The last day to comment is Thursday, Feb 29. 

Homework from last meeting: Meet a new person in your neighborhood

Part of the Strong Towns philosophy is creating connection with neighbors to foster closer community ties. We challenge all our members to try and connect with a new person in your neighborhood this month. Let's lead by example. 

Check out this article from Strong Towns about why we love our neighbors. 

Homework from last meeting: Share your input on the proposed Rail Trail by March 8!

Please review the proposed rail trail. See the report here. 

Give your feedback here. 

Openings on the Impact Fee Committee - Please apply!

The impact fee committee will start meeting soon. There are currently openings for almost every district! 

The impact fee committee is housed under the planning department and reviews impact fees for new development. Every time a new development happens in the city, it has to pay impact fees (pay a share of the cost to support the infrastructure of the development, so it's not all on the city to pay). This committee helps manage that process and provides citizen guidance. 

AKA a GREAT opportunity to have an impact in the future development of the city. This has Strong Towns written all over it. Let's get our people on the committee!

Check out the full description and how to apply here. 

Strong Towns National Gathering May 14-15

What an amazing opportunity! It would be great if we could send a group to represent us in Ohio this spring. 

Fill out this form if you are interested in attending, and we can connect you all. 

Leadership Team Updates

The leadership team of ST ABQ has been gathering and working hard to get our team more organized, so we can have a broader impact. We are working on getting a better website, expanding our social media efforts, and getting a more effective email management system. We have been meeting with community members to learn more about changes to the IDO and how can we help advocate for change that will lead to a more people-focused city. And we are planning some fun events. Stay tuned for more changes. We are dedicated to the Strong Towns model of incremental growth, and that includes this group, but also DAMN there is a lot of energy in this community and we want to respect that and harness it for positive change. Thank you to all who have trusted us to get this done! We hope to prove you right.