“Upzoning” is a land-use planning tool that changes existing zoning regulations to permit and increase population density in specific areas already zoned and developed. Zoning laws govern how property can be used, including housing density, minimum lot sizes, building heights, and parking requirements. Upzoning alters these rules to increase permitted density or intensity of use, allowing more units per acre, taller buildings, or different uses like commercial establishments in residential zones. This process does not directly create new housing but removes regulatory barriers, incentivizing new construction.
https://legalclarity.org/what-is-upzoning-and-how-does-the-legal-process-work/
CITY AND STATE EFFORTS TO ENACT UPZONING
On February 18, 2026 the Albuquerque City Council voted 5 to 4 to reject a series of sweeping amendments that Mayor Tim Keller sought to the city’s zoning laws known as the Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) mandating upzoning in all established residential areas of the city. Voting NO were Democrat City Counselor Klarissa Peña and Republicans Councilors Dan Lewis, Renée Grout, Dan Champine and Brook Bassan. Voting YES were Democrat Progressive Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn, Nichole Rogers, Joaquín Baca and Stephanie Telles.
Residential zoning covers 27% of Albuquerque’s land with 68% of the city’s existing housing being single-family detached homes with 120,000 existing residential lots having already built homes. The goal of the amendments was to double or triple housing density in established neighborhoods by allowing duplex, condominium or apartment development in all 120,000 residential lots in established and built out neighborhoods. The mandatory upzoning would allow for the development of apartment or commercial use, such as bodegas, on all corner lots in residential areas bordering main thorough fares. The proposed amendments to the IDO included a mandate for “upzoning” to double or triple density in established neighborhoods as a permissive use requiring no city applications with no rights to contest nor appeal the upgrading by adjoining property owners.
During the 30-day session of the 2026 New Mexico Legislature, Senate Bill 131 was introduced that would have repealed and eliminated all real property zoning authority and regulation authority from local governments, including all municipal governments and county governments and initiate uniform statewide zoning to allow for more residential development in an effort to increase affordable housing. The legislation was sponsored by Democrat Senators Antonio “Moe” Maestas and Heather Berghmans. The legislation was voted down in committee. Albuquerque Democrat City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn testified during the legislative committee hearing that she “strongly” supported SB-131 that would have repealed and eliminated all zoning authority of the city, prompting one legislator to express dismay that and elected city official was advocating repealing the city’s zoning authority and laws.
STEVEN HOLMAN GUEST OPINION COLUMN
Steven Holman is a resident of City Council District 7 which the mid heights city council district. The district includes the uptown retail business district including the Commons, Winrock and Coronado Shopping Center. The District boundaries are generally Montgomery Boulevard on the North, I-25 on the West, Lomas on the South and Eubank on the East.
Steven and his husband Jesus decided to permanently set their roots in Albuquerque in 2023 and purchased their first home in the Bel-Air neighborhood. They are both everyday working-class citizens who have overcome obstacles like poverty and homelessness to achieve their home ownership.
Steven is a strong believer in accountability in government, having been involved in progressive marches in Washington DC against the Iraq War, for Women’s reproductive rights, for Marriage Equality, and with the Occupy and BLM Movements. In writing this piece Steven and Jesus want the voices of local communities and their advocates to not be suppressed or silenced.
Steven Holman submitted the below guest column to be published on www.PeteDinelli.com. He was not compensated for it and his column is being published as a public service to promote discussion:
ALBUQUERQUE AND NEW MEXICO ARE UP FOR SALE TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER
There is a lot going on in our state that many are unaware is happening. To put it simply, New Mexico is up for sale to the highest bidder, and many prominent State Democrats are largely okay with allowing it to happen.
In January and February, we had Albuquerque City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn, in conjunction with Mayor Tim Keller, State Senator Moe Maestas, and State House Representative Heather Berghmans, all tried to legislate upzoning. The idea behind upzoning is to deregulate the housing industry by removing almost all zoning rules in the hopes that developers will densify and hopefully lower housing costs. In every city where upzoning has happened, it has led to gentrification, displacement, and at most a 3% price impact on housing. This is touted as a free market solution to the housing crisis, but it is essentially Reagan-era policies hoping the free market will trickle down affordability. Additionally, it would have allowed for massive property tax increases that would have displaced and unhoused many.
The city-level fight against this was led by a coalition of neighborhoods and community activists who were both indigenous and local multigenerational Burqueños. Councilor Fiebelkorn tried to disparage them by crying racism and classism, demonstrating how truly out of touch she is. When the city-level fight appeared to not be going her way, she brought legislation to the state with Senator Maestas and Representative Berghmans headlining an attempt to leverage upzoning statewide. It was stopped at the state and city levels.
Local chapters of National organizations supporting upzoning, like StrongTowns, cried foul. Meanwhile, Strongtowns members themselves have attempted to stifle the voice of non-white community activists by showing up at their doorstep and attempting to dissuade opposition. Through all of this their local chapter founder, Brandi Thompson, as well as members were following a social media account making racially charged disparaging remarks about protecting the petroglyphs and insulting anyone else who stands in the way of urbanization efforts.
The Strongtowns local chapter are predominantly made up of white, upper-middle-class transplants to the city who want to shape it in their own image, without a care or concern for destroying history and communities. They are backed by business organizations and pro-developer groups and given a platform by politicians like Mayor Tim Keller. They’re the new yuppies, but with a false social justice narrative masking their pro-corporate agenda to ensure their white guilt can let them sleep at night. I guess that’s why Councilor Fiebelkorn defended Strongtowns, projecting her own racial and class insecurities on the opposition.
UPZONING LIE IS EVERYWHERE
These groups are still persisting and pushing because they don’t really want Albuquerque to have affordable housing (zoning doesn’t do that, and the legislation never guaranteed any). Even Mayor Tim Keller is still perpetuating the lie that types of housing are illegal because of zoning, recently stating this on a local social media influencer account. No type of housing is illegal as long as you follow the standards of how and where it is constructed. This isn’t about affordability; it’s about a handout to developers to build what they want, wherever they want it.
This is happening everywhere:
- Look at the great gentrification project that the state fairgrounds has become. New Mexico’s state fair is held in the most crime-ridden area of Albuquerque. The solution? Gentrify and possibly remove the State Fair from the location.
- Look at the new developments getting green lit right near the Petroglyphs.
- Look at the city taking land away from historic and consistently marginalized neighborhoods like Martineztown.
- Look at the rail trail project and how it adversely impacts and gentrifies communities in and around Old Town.
- Look at the old town hotel proposal.
- Look at private equity firms buying up our utilities and homes.
- Look at the push for data centers, with Senator Moe Maestas giving an impassioned speech last legislative session against data center utilities being regulated, asking if this was the 1800s and if we are fighting for water rights. News flash Moe, we are fighting for water rights.
- The city of Albuquerque says it has 68 acres near the Air Base it can annex for a data center and fast-track the zoning. The city can do that for a data center no problem, but they can’t do the same for permanently affordable housing?
In fact, the affordable housing being touted by our elected representatives consists of public-private partnerships and is in no way permanently affordable. Once the tax breaks and subsidies end, it’ll all be market-rate housing that will lead to further displacement and increase unhoused populations.
DEMOCRATS UNWILLING TO LEARN HARD LESSON OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Some within the New Mexico State Democratic Party have extremely hard lessons to learn, but seem unwilling to hold anyone accountable. The state legislative sessions feel like a Dickensian nightmare, with everyone running to Santa Fe asking for money or legislation like Tiny Tim. Successful governance should not look like this, but this proves how out of touch these people are.
For politicians, it is easy to use President Trump as the boogie man and stand with social justice causes to garner votes and support from various puppet organizations. But what meaningful legislation gets passed by these people that truly uplifts marginalized groups? So much of it is lip service. Sure, MAGA is infinitely worse, but what’s presented as the alternative is Neo-progressivism that is afraid to actually regulate and legislate.
What the public doesn’t see are the tactics behind the scenes majorly impacting the lives of working-class people. Many don’t know Senator Moe Maestas’s wife is one of the most powerful lobbyists in Santa Fe. Meanwhile, you have strategic power players like Neri Holquin, running political campaigns as a “strategist,” but she is widely known as a political kingmaker, having run Mayor Tim Keller’s campaigns as well as so many others in power. These so-called Democrats are calculated and ruthless to ensure their people hold the reins of power and special interests get what they want.
CORPORATE DEMOCRATS PERPETUATING UNREGULATED FREE-MARKET CAPITALISM
Many of these New Mexico State Democrats are perpetuating unregulated free-market capitalism that keeps our state poor and struggling. If they had a backbone in any capacity, we would see regulatory action taken. Things like rent control, transparent statistics on Gateway Center contracts and their care outcomes, empowering communities instead of dictatorial top-down governing, revitalization of the millions of square feet of unused space along city corridors, permanent protection of sites like the petroglyphs, ending corporate investment from buying homes, permanently affordable housing, and regulation of real estate market pricing and speculation.
People are crying out for these things, but it falls on deaf ears with elected representatives like City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn insisting she “knows what’s best” for her constituents.
Unfortunately, what we have are many opportunists, looking to get their piece of the pie and put on a good show for the cameras. They’re too afraid to take regulatory action because it could cost them their political power. It is no coincidence that these things are all happening at once. They want this.
We need to send a strong message to our elected leaders they are public servants and demand accountability. The hypocrisy is ripe and it is real. Just because someone has a “D” next to their name on the ballot, that doesn’t mean they are always well intentioned. True progressivism and positive change starts with pragmatism, policy, and accountability instead of fear baiting while using progressive talking points to virtue signal and accomplishing nothing.
Unfortunately these corporate democrats have decided New Mexico is for sale, but we will be paying the price for many years to come.
DINELLI COMMENTATY AND ANALYSIS
It’s a real disappointment to find out that a number of Progressive Democrats on the Albuquerque City Council and in the New Mexico legislature are showing their true colors. On the city level, they will jump behind social justice causes but do the bare minimum in passing legislation against ICE, declaring the city an immigrant friendly city or vote for increasing the minimum wage. They leave us on our own to fight zoning changes that only help developers and investors and lead to gentrification. On the state level, they leave us on our own to fight against uranium mining near Mt. Taylor, to fight for water rights, to fight data centers, to fight missile test sites, and fight against the corporate buyout of PNM.
The two City Council Districts that would have been the most affected by the mandatory upzoning changes in city zoning laws would have been District 2 and District 6. District 2 is the city-center district encompassing downtown, old town, and includes the most historical areas of the city, part of the west mesa, and the entire valley east of the river and is represented by City Councilor Joaquin Baca. District 6 includes Albuquerque’s Southeast Heights encompassing the University of New Mexico, and the International District and is represented by City Councilor Nichole Rogers.
Both Districts 2 and 6 have the highest concentration of minorities and lower income residents. It is these two districts that would have been the biggest targets for upzoning development by investors, speculators and developers to buy up properties from generational family’s for redevelop leading to gentrification. Both City Councilors voted for the Mayor Keller’s up zoning changes believing the change in city zoning law would lead to “affordable housing” when in fact it would have resulted in the displacement of many of their constituents as investors sought to buy up residential properties for high end developments and not affordable or low income housing.
The proposed amendments by Mayor Tim Keller and the four Progressive Democrat City Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn, Nichole Rogers, Joaquín Baca and Stephanie Telles voting to mandating upzoning was a pathetic attempt to address the city’s “housing crisis.” They argued that “flooding the market” with more housing will result in making more affordable housing available for sale or rent. They argued existing property owners wanted and could afford to build on their own properties whether they own their home outright or if there is a mortgage. Their arguments were false or very misleading. They simply ignore market forces motivated by profits that will only benefit investment developers and that will lead to neighborhood gentrification and not lead to affordable housing.
Elected officials concerned about the impacts to their communities with the changing of laws are the true progressives. People like State Senators Cindy Nava and Senator Linda Lopez and City Councilor Klarissa Pena who essentially agree that yes, we need housing and ways to address affordability, but a developer handout and a power grab by city officials to mandate upzoning and change city zoning laws and the legislature to repeal zoning authority is not the way to achieve these goals. A true elected public servant listens to the will of their constituents and believes in empowering communities instead of taking away their ability to affect or determine their own future.
Links to previous Steven Holman columns and Dinelli related columns are here: