## Facts

- A landowner held a leasehold interest in property in Albuquerque’s Uptown area, zoned SU-3 for high-intensity mixed uses and governed by the 1981 Uptown Sector Plan.
- A proposed purchaser planned a low-density, “big-box” retail development and submitted site plans in 1994; one plan was withdrawn after public opposition.
- The City initiated review of the sector plan and, in February 1995, imposed a four-month moratorium on Uptown development while moving to revise the plan.
- Proposed revisions created an “intense-core” subarea where free-standing retail was prohibited and retail was limited as a share of new development, with an exemption for redevelopment of existing space.
- The City deferred consideration of the landowner’s site plan and adopted the revised 1995 Uptown Sector Plan after a City Council hearing with limited participation rights.
- The intense-core designation covered only three vacant parcels, and the landowner’s property constituted about two-thirds of the intense-core area.
- After adoption of the 1995 plan, a City commission deferred or rejected the site plan as noncompliant.

## Issues

1. Whether the City Council’s adoption of the 1995 Uptown Sector Plan was a legislative act or a quasi-judicial act.
2. If the action was quasi-judicial, whether the landowner was entitled to trial-type procedures (e.g., evidentiary hearing and cross-examination).
3. Whether the 1995 plan unlawfully “downzoned” the property or otherwise unlawfully impaired development rights.
4. Whether the 1995 plan was invalid as applied to the landowner’s property.

## Decision

- The court held the City Council’s adoption of the 1995 Uptown Sector Plan was legislative, not quasi-judicial.
- Because the action was legislative, the landowner was not entitled to quasi-judicial procedures during the Council’s plan-adoption process.
- The court held the 1995 plan did not constitute an unlawful “downzoning” as claimed.
- The court rejected the argument that the 1995 plan was enacted contrary to law as applied to the landowner and upheld the plan’s validity.
- The court affirmed the Court of Appeals’ reversal of the district court’s contrary ruling.

## Legal Principles

- A governmental action is legislative when it makes forward-looking land-use policy for an area; it is quasi-judicial when it applies existing standards to adjudicate specific parties’ rights.
- Disproportionate impact on a particular parcel does not, by itself, convert a legislative land-use plan amendment into a quasi-judicial action.
- For legislative land-use decisions, procedural due process generally requires notice and an opportunity to present views, not trial-type protections such as cross-examination.
- Refinements in a sector or comprehensive plan that limit particular development forms do not necessarily amount to a legally cognizable downzoning where the underlying zoning classification remains and the change serves planning objectives.

## Conclusion

The court treated the City Council’s adoption of the 1995 Uptown Sector Plan as a legislative land-use policy decision subject to legislative-level process, held the plan did not unlawfully downzone the property, and upheld the plan against an as-applied challenge.


Albuquerque Commons P'ship v. City Council of Albuquerque, 184 P.3d 411 (N.M. 2008)