Growth and development issues have become among the hottest hot button issues. While they play out locally all across the state, Albuquerque (and the surrounding metro area) seem to be especially affected by competing notions of planned growth, sprawl and, especially these days, the need to plan for development that isn’t doomed by the prospect of $4 and more for a gallon of gas.



NMI’s Marjorie Childress wrote about one of Albuquerque’s most controversial proposed developments last week. Just a block off of Central Avenue, due south of the University of New Mexico, the proposed 2000 Gold project would seem to be the ideal infill project.



Until you talk to some of the project’s would-be neighbors.



They argue that the proposal is just too big, too tall, and ultimately, too out of character with the surrounding historic neighborhood of tree-lined streets and single-family homes.



KNME’s New Mexico In Focus tackled the proposed development this weekend with three segments.



First, my co-host Gene Grant spent some time talking with neighbors who would be most impacted by the development, as well as the developer. Watch that video segment below.





 

 


Second, I got a chance to sit down with the Albuquerque planning director, the executive director of 1000 Friends of New Mexico, as well as two members of the Albuquerque Environmental Planning Commission. Watch that video segment below.

 

 





 

 


And lastly, Marjorie Childress was the guest panelist on The Line roundtable discussion, in which the group wrestled with the implications of the 2000 Gold project as well as other big stories of the week. Check that out, too.