[nmlci] Re: BMX Response

As the city councilor who represents the Clayton Heights neighborhood where the City's BMX facility is located, it is my duty to speak on behalf of my constituents when their concerns have gone unaddressed by the Administration. My intent in introducing R-09-205 was not to stop activities at the BMX facility, which many youth in the Albuquerque community enjoy engaging in. As an avid cyclist myself, I have supported the Bicycle Park from the beginning and am not opposed to the track itself, Duke City BMX or BMX as a sport. The issues are the Planning Department's inappropriate change to approved plans for the park, and the need to alleviate the City's failure and resulting negative impacts on the neighbors.

Ask yourself how you would feel if this structure had been built directly across the street from your house when you were led to believe that it would be built much farther away. The only justification that was given by the Planning Director for why they changed the location of the park without properly notifying residents, which they had a legal obligation to do, is that they were up against an event deadline and it had to be built quickly. I feel fairly certain that you would not defend this action if it had happened in your neighborhood.

The story on TV news the other night inaccurately reported that the Council is asking for the facility to be torn down. In unanimously passing the bill, the Council simply asked the Administration to provide information about the park, including what it would take to relocate â not demolish â the existing structure to the approved site where it should have been built in the first place.

I believe there is a way to mitigate the negative impacts while still preserving the use of the facility, and that is the resolution I am seeking. Mitigation may mean creating more buffering, moving speakers, and controlling dust. Mitigation may mean relocating the facility to its proper approved site, west of where it currently sits. Upon receiving the information that has been requested from the Administration, I plan to ask the Council to support some sort of mitigation plan, which I believe it will. It will not be clear what path makes the most sense until the necessary information is received.

If the City had followed its own land use rules in the first place, all of this could have been avoided. Taxpayer money will be needed to fix this problem, but it was taxpayer money and willful disregard for the proper process that created the problem.