ABQ Council May Use Blight-Fighting Tool to Spread Urban Sprawl

From the New Mexico News Connection:
A financial tool meant for local governments to help revitalize run-down neighborhoods and blighted inner cities could be used instead to increase Albuquerque's urban sprawl. Developers have proposed using "tax-increment financing" to subsidize new developments on empty land near the edge of the city -- at the huge new Mesa Del Sol development near the Sunport and at an even bigger development on the West Mesa. The Albuquerque City Council will be taking final action on a related measure tomorrow (Wednesday).

The developers say their plans will boost the city's economy -- but Gabriel Nims with says they will take public funding away from where it's needed most. He said, "We should be focusing on re-investing in our core community. We've identified a over 1.7 billion dollar backlog in infrastructure costs or needs. Why should we be throwing the bank at further development on the fringe? "

The new developments could increase Albuquerque's population by over twenty percent. Nims says there needs to be more study of the impacts of such large developments on the local economy.

Eric Schmeider from the Southwest Organizing Project says the subsidies actually take money out of the state's general fund and away from more needy rural communities. He said, "Taxpayers from Clayton to Carlsbad are subsidizing development in the Albuquerque - Rio Grande corridor."

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