(A) The Final Report of the Transportation Evaluation Study is hereby received, along with the Findings and Recommendations of the Environmental Planning Commission regarding the report, recommending policy and strategies for the city's land use and transportation planning and development processes.
(B) The following policy framework establishes an overall direction for implementation of the city's growth policies.
(1) Through a public review process, the city, with input from Bernalillo County and the general public, shall fully develop the concept of community and regional centers and major transportation corridors city-wide that will serve as a basis for Comprehensive Plan amendments. Development of these concepts should also evaluate how the concepts relate to the current Comprehensive Plan area boundaries, the Planned Communities Criteria, the Sustainability Indicators Report, Long Range Transportation Plan, Regional Transit Authority Service Plan, and the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments Regional Transportation Plan.
(2) The city shall work with neighboring jurisdictions to establish a regional consensus regarding the nature and extent of urban growth and shall establish a coordinated response to regional planning efforts; this should include strengthening the city's relationship with the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments to develop continuous, comprehensive, and cooperative land use and transportation planning.
(3) The city shall structure its Capital Implementation Program, Community "Blueprints" and Long Range Transportation Plan to support the Centers and Corridors principles identified and prioritized through a public review process, both in long-range, city-wide planning and in short-range project planning. The city shall ensure that the decade plan for capital improvements is consistent with the goals and objectives of the Comprehensive Plan as it may be amended. Emphasis shall be placed on maintenance, enhancements and upgrades of roads and utilities in the core area, to prevent deterioration of existing communities and to encourage infill.
(4) The city shall establish a development impact fee system based on the actual costs of providing services and tied to the Comprehensive Plan's tiered system of development areas, with impact fees providing incentives for infill and development consistent with growth policies and the Capital Implementation Program.
(5) The city shall utilize its existing development incentives and create new incentives, including but not limited to density bonuses, lowered impact fees, and economic development incentives such as industrial development bonds and metropolitan redevelopment bonds, to facilitate appropriate development in community and regional centers and along major transportation corridors as identified by the city.
(6) The city shall restructure its development process to better meet the goals of the city's growth policies and shall ensure public participation in the planning process; all city departments, particularly Environmental Health, Planning,
Public Works, and Transit, shall work together toward accomplishing Comprehensive Plan goals and objectives.
(7) The city shall tie its Economic Development Program to the promotion, development and redevelopment of a Downtown Core and other major activity centers as identified by the city. These areas should be strong and functionally diverse as well as physically compact with a concentration of complementary uses.
(8) The city shall continue to enlist the assistance of the state, county, school district and other governmental entities to diversify the downtown land use mix with public facilities, hotels, office and retail development, more and higher density housing, through the use of joint powers agreements, memoranda of understanding, enhanced multi-modal opportunities and other formal instruments as appropriate.
(9) The city shall identify the most significant steps that can be taken to generate more activity and attract more private investment in the downtown area, while simultaneously continuing existing efforts to create complementary functions and relationships among existing and future uses in other community and regional activity centers.
(10) The city shall encourage increased densities and mixed uses in major community activity centers and corridors as identified by the city, and development of identifiable communities with facilities that meet the daily needs of residents closer to their homes or employment in order to decrease vehicle miles traveled and dependence on the private automobile.
(11) The city shall plan for the long-term development of high capacity corridors, through a process involving the affected communities and neighborhoods and should consider incorporating more outlying areas into the network of high capacity corridors.
(12) The city's growth policies shall be incorporated into the city's design standards and long-range facility plans.
(13) The city shall increase the level of transit service and provide related improvements to enhance performance of the transit system, consistent with the principles of a compact urban form and a network of centers and corridors, to improve the viability of transit as an alternative to the single-occupancy vehicle and to reduce vehicle miles traveled; the city should also consider increasing transportation demand management programs by supporting and enhancing the current Major Employer and Transportation Management programs. The city should coordinate such programs with the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments.
(14) To enhance the mode share, the city shall improve pedestrian mobility and the character of the pedestrian environment city-wide, with special attention to facilities and amenities for pedestrian and the mobility-impaired, as well as transit orientation and bicycle connections, within identified centers and corridors.
(15) The city shall plan the timing of road and utility construction to ensure orderly growth, and coordinate capacity increases and street extensions to areas of planned growth in the Comprehensive Plan. The city shall work cooperatively with Bernalillo County in planning the timing of road and utility construction.
(16) The city must carefully consider whether, within the context of an amended Comprehensive Plan, the concept of urban service areas is, on balance, beneficial to the quality of life in Albuquerque, and, if so, determine the most appropriate areas for urban services. Such a determination would be based on an accurate and publicly reviewed inventory of available and developable land and planned in conjunction with projections of the resources available for expansion.
(17) Any transportation improvement programs must recognize the significance of our irreplaceable natural, historic, and cultural resources and include strategies for minimizing adverse impacts on these resources.
(C) The Comprehensive Plan shall be amended in coordination with Bernalillo County to serve as the single planning document to address growth management issues for the Plan area, and to include city-wide planning for facility systems and long-range capital improvements programming; all other city-wide plans and policy statements, including facility plans and related initiatives must be integrated elements of the Comprehensive Plan.
(D) The Comprehensive Plan shall be amended to incorporate the most appropriate elements addressing matters of city-wide importance found in facility plans, area plans, and strategic plans; the system-level assumptions, projections, and networks used for city-wide planning must be consistent among all Comprehensive Plan elements.
(E) The city shall evaluate its Comprehensive Zoning Code and revise the Code to meet the goals of the city's growth policies.
(Res. 91-1998, approved 10-7-98)