(A) The Planning Department shall release draft maps for public review and comment in order to develop the concept designating activity centers and linking corridors which may be included in the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Comprehensive Plan as a key growth management policy.
(B) The policy objectives for defining and creating activity centers are:
(1) Mixed Use: For Major Centers, significant employment and relatively high floor area ratios; multi-unit housing; region serving as well as supporting retail/commercial uses. For Community Scale Centers, lower employment levels; smaller scale multi-unit housing.
(2) Buildings well connected to the street and pedestrian ways, with shade and seating. Relatively large, automobile-dominated retail/commercial buildings should not be in activity centers, but rather in other commercial areas easily accessible by major streets, unless designed to mitigate negative effects on pedestrian movement and community scale.
(3) Parking which is visually unobtrusive, supportive of pedestrian connections and shared among adjacent uses where possible.
(4) Convenient, visible, high-amenity transit service/facilities connected with pedestrian movement; pedestrian ways should be designed to attract and encourage pedestrian activity.
(5) Design of streets in Activity Centers, Major Transit and Enhanced Transit Corridors should emphasize transit and pedestrian access and safety. Convenient bicycle access should also be promoted, especially in Activity Centers, Major Transit and Enhanced Transit corridors.
(6) Transit Service. For Major Centers, should be highest level, especially during peak, and significant level off-peak through midnight as well. For Community Scale Centers, level of service should be less than for major centers but still a significant level, especially during peak
(C) The policy objectives for defining and creating corridors are:
(1) Express Corridor
- Full Access Control
- Faster travel speeds for auto and limited stop transit
- Development focused in activity nodes
(2) Major Transit Corridor
- Transit service with short headways
- Dedicated bus lane
- Development densities and form promote walking to transit
(3) Enhanced Transit Corridor
- Peak hour transit travel speeds competitive with automobile
- Priority treatments for buses at intersections
- Development densities and form promote use of transit, especially at activity nodes
(D) Opportunities for public review and response to the proposed study and policy concepts will be scheduled and organized by the City Planning Department, in cooperation with Bernalillo County Zoning/Building and Planning Department and the Public Works Policy Planning and Development Department and with other City departments, including the Office of Neighborhood Coordination as well as with Shared Vision, Inc. and its Comprehensive Plan Public Advisory Committee. Special effort shall be made to be inclusive in obtaining public comment.
(E) Design concepts developed for several locations along Central Avenue by charettes during the Shared Vision Town Hall November 12-13, 1999 should be used as more specific illustrations of possible infill and redevelopment associated with the centers and corridors policy objectives.
(F) Upon completion of the public review process, the Planning Department will assemble the results into proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Plan consistent with findings of the process. Any proposed amendments resulting from this process shall consider impacts to the entire Comprehensive Plan area and its residents. Working with Bernalillo County and other jurisdictions that may wish to participate, the City shall find ways of deciding how corridors and centers outside the City should be linked to the City's system of centers and corridors. The Comprehensive Plan may 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.
(Res. 66-2000, approved 6-27-00)