Redevelopment Planning: Strategizing, Improving and Changing for the Future

The Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency is a division of the City of Albuquerque’s Planning Department. The agency manages rank three plans developed for communities which are designated “slum and blighted” due to unhealthy, unsafe and overall perception of disinvestment in a community (MR Code 3-60A-2). In June, 2010, the Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency lost nearly all its staff due to retirements and a tight city budget, eight of the 10 employees of the division no longer worked for the city. That same year, four months later in October 2010, a ninth employee also retired, leaving one staff member for the entire division. Nearly, 135 years of experience in redevelopment planning was lost to the City of Albuquerque, and the 20 areas that the agency worked The Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency’s role in to manage an annual budget of nearly $10 million and use federal, state and local government monies to fund redevelopment projects indentified in redevelopment plans. The reason why the loss of experienced planning staff is so concerning is because the areas where redevelopment plans are trying to make a difference are areas of the city that have experienced significant neglect, and the private sector is unwilling to overlook the present conditions to reinvest in an older area. The Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency is able to identify catalyst projects in a plan and partner with private developers or non-profit agencies to work on potential projects that revitalize a community. The previous Manager of the Redevelopment Agency, Cynthia Borrego, said that for every $1 million dollars of public money invested in the community the agency expected $10 million in private dollar expense. This reinvestment makes a real difference to a community and makes a big difference in gross receipts for a municipality.Given this loss of nearly 135 years of combines staff experience in a four-month span, there is an opportunity to examine the agency and how it might try and improve, how it works with communities, and how it develops plans, identifies projects and measures the impact or the effectiveness of projects completed under a plan. By looking at a case study of a designated redevelopment area, East Gateway, I will answer many questions regarding how by improving strategies, changing some of the agency’s policies and planning for the future it can improve how it is doing business. East Gateway is trying to develop a plan for the area on East Central Avenue. The community is having to be educated on what tools can be used to address the conditions on East Central, and I will compare other similar redevelopment areas that have experienced similar conditions. The tools they used to achieve their outcomes also will be identified. These similar redevelopment areas have been shown to have stimulated economic growth, improved housing possibilities and overall strengthened their communities