If you've ever had a project approved in Albuquerque only to watch it get tied up in an appeal, this one's for you. The City Council has voted to make it more expensive to challenge a development decision, especially one that's already been approved.
As Jordan Honeycutt reported for KRQE, the fee increase cleared the council Monday evening, Oct. 19, on a 5-4 vote.
What Changed
Under the ordinance, the filing fee to appeal a development application that was denied goes to $300. The fee to appeal an approved project goes to $1,000. Councilors added an amendment allowing reduced fees for people with hardship, low income or indigent status.
For comparison, the ordinance itself notes that the city's current appeal fees range from $190 to $265, depending on the type of application. So the cost of challenging an approval jumps to roughly four to five times what it was, while the cost of challenging a denial goes up more modestly.
The city's fact sheet on the Better Neighborhoods package breaks the proposed fees down a little further: a $75 appeal notice fee, plus a $225 filing fee to appeal a denial or a $925 filing fee to appeal an approval. Add the notice fee and you land on the same $300 and $1,000 totals KRQE reported.
The city's legislative record lists the ordinance, O-26-60, as adopted on Oct. 19, with no effective date posted yet.
Why the Council Split the Fees
The ordinance lays out the reasoning. Processing appeals takes a lot of city staff time: notices, legal review, staff reports, hearings and more. Appeals of approvals, it says, make the city revisit decisions that have already been found consistent with city policy, and the delays "may postpone the implementation of projects." Appeals of denials, on the other hand, give applicants a chance to seek review of a decision that stopped their project.
Lewis put it this way to KRQE: "When something is approved, from site plans to EPC to land use hearing officer through DRB, it goes through a long process of following our city laws. And so, you know, the fees are related to the value on our laws."
The Rest of the Package
The fee change is one piece of Lewis' Better Neighborhoods package, which the city says includes two ordinances and two memorials to the New Mexico Legislature.
The other ordinance has already been signed. KRQE reported that Mayor Tim Keller signed the bill that bars neighborhood coalitions from having automatic standing to appeal development applications. The mayor said it removed the ability of coalitions to speak for people without their consent. According to the city, individual neighborhood associations remain recognized and can still appeal, after a documented vote.
The two memorials would ask state lawmakers for more changes. One would let cities define, by ordinance, who has enough of a connection to a project to count as "aggrieved" and file an appeal, such as being close by or directly affected. The other would let cities send certain zoning decisions straight to state district court. The city says the current extra local appeal step can add about two to three months, even when a case ends up in court anyway. Neither memorial changes state law on its own.
The city also lists what the package would not do, including eliminating neighborhood associations, keeping residents out of public hearings or ending judicial review.
Why it matters for Contractors
For contractors and builders in Albuquerque, appeals are a schedule problem first and a money problem second. Every month a project sits in limbo is a month your crews aren't on it, your bid may go stale and your client's financing clock keeps running.
A $1,000 fee isn't going to stop a determined opponent. But it does put a higher price on challenging projects that have already made it through site plan review, the Environmental Planning Commission, a land use hearing officer or the Development Review Board. Combined with the end of automatic coalition standing, the city is clearly trying to cut down on appeals of approved work.
Watch the effective date, since the ordinance hasn't posted one yet. And keep an eye on Santa Fe. If state lawmakers take up the two memorials, the bigger changes, like who can appeal and whether some cases can skip the local step, could shave months off contested projects.