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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Park

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/28/07

HB 349

SHORT TITLE

Restoring Powers to Municipalities in Class A

Counties with more than Three Hundred Thousand

Persons

SB

ANALYST Propst

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

New Mexico Municipal League

New Mexico Association of Counties

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Restoring Powers to Municipalities in Class A counties with more than Three Hundred Thousand

Persons

House Bill 349 would remove the current requirement that the Bernalillo County Commission

approve any annexation by the City of Albuquerque; changes the population requirements

triggering these special annexation requirements from a municipality in a Class A county with a

population of less than 300,000 to a population of more than 200,000, thereby excluding smaller

municipalities located in Class A counties from these special annexation requirements; restores

Albuquerque’s planning and platting jurisdiction and authorizes it for the area within five miles

of the municipal boundary and not within the boundary of another municipality through the

extraterritorial land use commission that will make recommendations to the extraterritorial land

use authority; restores concurrent authority with the county to zone all or any portion of the ETZ

jurisdiction that is within three miles of the municipal boundary, provided it is not within another

municipality’s boundary; provides that concurrent extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction be

House Bill 349 – Page

2

determined by the Extraterritorial Land Use Authority; authorizes concurrent authority with the

county to zone within three miles of the municipal boundary for municipalities over 200,000.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

This bill restores the ability of larger municipalities, notably Albuquerque to annex into the

municipality, land located in the unincorporated county and not located within another

municipality. The bill eliminates the requirement that the board of county commissioners

approve annexations occurring in Class A Counties. The bill also restored the planning and

platting jurisdiction (within 5 miles) of municipalities with a population of over 200,000.

The New Mexico Association of Counties notes that, the current law is intended to protect the

interests of individuals residing outside the Albuquerque municipal boundaries and that there has

been no legal challenge to the current law or to annexation decisions made since the law took

effect. According to NMAC, the Bernalillo County Commission has approved nearly 90% of the

annexation applications.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The bill will require the establishment of an extraterritorial land use authority in the event a

municipality over 200,000 and a Class A County desire to establish extraterritorial zoning

jurisdiction of such a municipality.

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

If this bill were not enacted, large cities located in Class A Counties could be prevented from

annexing additional territory unless approval is secured from the board of county commissioners.

WEP/csd