(Updated) Tonight at ABQ City Council: Important Votes on TIDDs et al.

UPDATE: The measure to preclude TIDDs from being used to support sprawl development on Albuquerque's edges was defeated 5-4. All the Repubs voted against the change and only one Dem voted for it. Surprise, it was Marty Chavez's point guy, Ken Sanchez. See Coco for more on the story.
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I posted about this last week, but I wanted to give you another reminder: The Albuquerque City Council will be taking up a number of important items related to the environment and development at its meeting tonight at 5:00 PM at the Vincent Griego Chambers, Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Government Building, 1 Civic Plaza. We need to turn out in force to demonstrate our support for a number of important matters.

Besides bills related to toxic mining on public lands and conserving our limited water supply, tonight's agenda includes a critical item on those infamous TIDDs -- Tax Increment Development Districts. The measure to be discussed seeks to limit the use of such financing so that it does not subsidize sprawl growth at the city's edges. TIDDs were originally designed to encourage infill development in the city, not vast subdivisions far from our urban center.

You can learn more about TIDDs in an article by Marjorie Childress at the new online newspaper, The New Mexico Independent. (By the way, I expect that The Independent will quickly become a daily must-visit site for readers seeking aggressive -- but fair -- news coverge about everything from politics to the environment to poverty issues. Go see for yourself.)

Also, today's Albuquerque Journal features an op-ed about tonight's TIDD ordinance by ABQ City Councilors Isaac Benton, Michael Cadigan and Rey Garduño entitled, "Subsidizing Growth on Fringes of City Wrong Policy." Excerpts:

... Rapid development has increasingly occurred on the city's edges, contributing to New Mexico's rank as sixth in the nation for vehicle miles traveled per driver— about 18,500 miles per driver per year. Between 1980 and 2005, New Mexico's population grew by 48 percent, but our vehicle miles traveled grew by 112 percent. As a result, vehicle emissions are the fastest growing and second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the state.

Sprawling growth trends in Albuquerque also mean that the open space and working landscapes that we value in New Mexico are disappearing. Nationally, according to the American Farmland Trust, the United States loses 3,000 acres of farmland to sprawl every day.

Many other cities around the country have made decisions to increase affordable residential options in their urban centers and guide development toward vacant land within the city's core, where residents who need it most can access public transit to and from work.

... The city of Albuquerque, however, with the help of the state's Tax Increment Development District (TIDD) policy, has done the opposite by subsidizing sprawling "greenfield" development on the city's fringe.

Tonight, the Albuquerque City Council will consider an ordinance that would get us moving in the right direction by limiting the city's use of TIDDs.

Although originally used to incentivize urban infill development where revitalization efforts would not occur otherwise, TIDDs could fuel development on the outskirts, providing up to 75 percent of the district's incremental gross receipts and property tax revenues for up to 25 years.

By subsidizing the growth of development on the city's edges, state economists estimate that even more homebuyers and businesses will be lured out of the existing community and into the fringe developments, cannibalizing our urban core and increasing hazardous automobile emissions throughout our city.

... If we're going to reduce pollution and protect what we love about our community, we need to end incentives that drive development to our edges and instead promote smart, infill development and redevelopment. This ordinance will bring forward-thinking leadership to protecting Albuquerque's environment and quality of life.

Lauren Ketcham, director of Environment New Mexico, and Javier Benavidez of Conservation Voters New Mexico also contributed to this commentary.

Technorati Tags:TIDD, Tax Increment Development District, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque City Council, The New Mexico Independent