As the Albuquerque City Council prepares to vote on a proposal to allow all e-bikes on Open Space trails, a few hundred residents say they want councilors to table the proposal until it gets more public input.
At their upcoming meeting, councilors will discuss an ordinance to allow electric bikes on both paved and unpaved trails — with some restrictions.
Albuquerque resident Terry Storch sent a petition with 455 signatures to the council asking councilors to hold off on the proposal until more people can voice their opinions.
Storch said it “needs public input, and I think it needs planning, and that’s a very important ingredient missing in this.”
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
WHEN: 5 p.m. Aug. 5
WHERE: Vincent E. Griego Chambers in the Albuquerque Government Center, 1 Civic Plaza NW
VIRTUAL: GOV-TV or on the city’s YouTube channel
Councilor Brook Bassan, who is a co-sponsor of the ordinance, said she believes it has gone through enough public input and if it is passed, it will go into immediate effect.
“I don’t really support a longer deferral,” Bassan said. “I know that it went through several months of process and public input and compromise. I personally think it’s ready, and I hope that it passes as is.”
Storch first heard about the ordinance after it passed the Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee June 12 meeting.
Read more about the ordinance here.
After the committee meeting, Storch and other residents began to contact organizations and communities and hang flyers to alert Open Space trail users about the proposed change.
In a letter to the council, the Near North Valley Neighborhood Association asked councilors “to step back and engage its citizens fully before voting on the proposed ordinance,” because “no effort has been made to gather public input through the city’s neighborhood groups or otherwise reach out to citizens throughout the city.”
The ordinance would allow class one, two and three e-bikes in the city’s Open Space lands that permit bicycles.