A new café may be on the way to the University area.
The Albuquerque City Council on Monday denied the University Heights Neighborhood Association’s appeal of Albuquerque property owner Augustine Grace’s plan to convert two adjacent residential properties into a café and community gathering space.
With plans to turn the two houses — 201 and 203 Harvard Drive, on the corner of Silver Avenue — into the “world’s greatest coffee shop,” Grace asked to change the houses’ residential designation to mixed-use.
The Environmental Planning Commission approved the zone change, but the neighborhood association appealed the decision, arguing the change would be detrimental to the area since it has been residential for more than 45 years.
Read more about the project here.
City councilors heard from Grace about why he wants to transform his properties into a café and Don Hancock, the neighborhood association’s secretary, about the association’s opposition toward it.
Grace told the council his “design goals” and “quality standards” will make it the “world’s greatest coffee shop.” Grace said the business will keep the residential feel “in response to the neighborhood association’s requirement.”
Hancock told the council that people in the neighborhood want to protect the history of the residential area and that the University Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Plan says properties such as houses should be preserved.
“I emphasize the need to strengthen the residential area, and that’s what has happened and the neighborhood has been really supportive of that issue,” Hancock said.
Mikaela Renz-Whitmore, the city’s Urban Design and Development Division manager, told councilors the University Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Plan is inappropriate to use in the zone because a restaurant “can be a complimentary and beneficial land use for surrounding residential uses.”
Councilors voted 6-3 to deny the appeal.
YES: Klarissa Peña, Dan Champine, Dan Lewis, Renée Grout, Louie Sanchez, Joaquín Baca
NO: Brook Bassan, Tammy Fiebelkorn, Nichole Rogers
The neighborhood association could still fight Grace’s plan in court.
Glad to see this decision, and sad to see Fiebelkorn and Rogers in opposition. This is natural, gentle density that adds to a good, dense university neighborhood and is part of why we love neighborhoods like this in other cities. This is a great example of the inappropriate power Neighborhood Associations have in Albuquerque and a good example of how they only reflect the views of those in the neighborhood that have the incredible amounts of extra free time to participate. May we continue to improve, densify, and make lively and affordable our Central Avenue neighborhoods, despite what rich NIMBYs have to say about it!