ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The City of Albuquerque is opening up a new program called Lots Reimagined, for people to rent out vacant city-owned lots. It’s all in an effort to clean up unused areas, which are commonly known to draw crime.
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There are nine lots spread across the city. In areas downtown, in the southeast, and in the Sawmill area. The city hopes these areas will draw pop-up markets, performances, art installations, and more!
The application for Lots Reimagined has various categories for what kind of event or activity will be held at the space. Some examples of the things the city hopes will happen are neighborhood and nonprofit events. “We’d expect people to apply to see if they’d want to put on a fall festival, some sort of concert, or block party type event,” Metropolitan Redevelopment Agency Director Terry Brunner said. “Making it available for different types of uses so these lots don’t just sit there.”
Currently, the vacant lots are either being used for various city-wide parking or they’re fenced off from old businesses that closed down. Some of the lots have vacant structures on them as well, which can be used for the events.
It’s something that has been in the works for a while in an effort to clean up crime that tends to happen in vacant spaces. “We’ve been thinking about it for a few months, really trying to make sure our city lots stay active and used,” Brunner said.
Three of the properties are located downtown at 1st St. SW and Silver Ave., 3rd St. NW, and Mountain Rd. NW, and 229 Broadway Blvd. NE. One is in the Sawmill Park area, located at 1701 Mountain Rd. NW, and five are located in the southeast at 12201 Central Ave. NE, 119 Burma Dr. NE, 400 Mesilla St. SE, 404 Mesilla St. SE, and 1100 San Mateo Blvd. SE.
“It sends the message to people in the community that we value these properties,” Brunner said. “We want to see good activities and positive activities on them, and let people know they can come up with some creative uses for these spaces.”
The city saud if this goes well and the demand is there, they’ll open up more locations.
There is a free webinar October 17 at noon, which will go over the details on application requirements. The permit process will open up following that. The city hopes the events will start taking place in the next couple of months.
