Gallup council decides Monday on a rezoning for 69 apartments and townhomes on Mark Avenue

The Gallup City Council will decide Monday whether to clear the way for a 69-unit apartment complex on Mark Avenue, four years after it declared a housing emergency.

The owner, Ahmad Ayesh, is asking to rezone 1605 through 1623 Mark Avenue — five lots covering about 6.1870 acres in the Sunrise Subdivision — from Single-Family Residential C to Multi-Family Residential High. The agenda says the change would allow a multi-family apartment complex of 69 units, 10 townhomes and 59 apartments, and that the apartments will be marketed as market rate housing, not low income or subsidized housing.

The Planning and Zoning Commission took up the request on Aug. 12 and split, three votes to approve and three to deny. The action died for lack of a majority vote, and the request was automatically denied as a result.

Ayesh is now appealing that decision to the council, which reaches it as Resolution No. R2026-35. The council hears the appeal de novo and may reverse, affirm or modify the commission's action.

The applicant argues the request meets one of the city's grounds for amending the zoning map: that the social, economic or environmental interests of the public good would be better served by the proposed district than the existing one. The Gallup Task Force has reviewed the request, and its comments are in the agenda packet.

Also in the packet is Resolution No. R2022-13, which the council adopted on May 24, 2022, declaring a housing emergency in the City of Gallup. The agenda says that resolution recognized the shortage of available housing units in the city and set out minimum strategies to help increase the city's housing stock.

Staff find that Ayesh submitted the required appeal application and provided all the information needed to testify before the council. The memorandum is from Clyde (C.B.) Strain, the planning and development director, who is listed as the speaker. Staff list no fiscal impact and recommend that the council decide whether to reverse, affirm or modify the commission's decision.

If the council approves the amendment, the rezoned properties would be subject to the regulations of the Multi-Family Residential High zone district.

After roll call and the Pledge of Allegiance, the appeal is the only item on the agenda before the motion to adjourn.

Two other appeals were originally scheduled for the same meeting and have been postponed to a date and time to be determined, the city clerk said in an amended legal notice. Both concern a conditional use permit the commission approved to allow heavy manufacturing in the Industrial zone about 5.19 miles west of U.S. 491, along and north of Carbon Coal Road, while deleting the non-glass Phase 2 operations of that use.

Patricia Sheely and others are appealing the approval. Hari Achuthan requested the permit for Convalt Manufacturing, LLC, on behalf of the property owner, Gallup Land Partners, LLC. Convalt is also appealing that decision. The notice says the postponement is because individuals involved with the case are unable to attend the Sept. 21 meeting, and that the public will be given proper notice when it is rescheduled.

What

A special meeting of the Gallup City Council on the Mark Avenue rezoning appeal

When

6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21

Where

The city council chambers at Gallup City Hall, 110 West Aztec AvenueDirections

Contact

For auxiliary aids, call the city clerk, Alfred Abeita, at (505) 863-1254 at least a week before the meeting or as soon as possible