Los Lunas working to expand affordable housing options

LOS LUNAS —By many measures, Los Lunas and Valencia County are booming — but not everyone can find a place to live.

If you’ve been wondering why new houses keep going up but apartments or affordable options seem impossible to find, you’re not alone.

The answer to the question isn’t an easy one.

Even addressing the question of how to address the lack of apartments isn’t an easy one, said Victoria Archuleta, senior economic developer for the village of Los Lunas.

“So, for example, we went out to (request for proposals) back in August, on a study,” Archuleta said of the village’s desire to have a study on high-density, income-moderated housing. “We got two proposals. One, unfortunately, was disqualified. The other, we ultimately chose in the housing RFP to not issue.”

Archuleta said the village has since gone back to the drawing board and will be reissuing the request for proposals.

Archuleta and Alex Ochoa, community development director for the village, both stated that there are complex challenges to growing the housing market in Los Lunas — a mix of financing hurdles, unique zoning issues and neighborhood concerns that are slowing progress.

One factor is financing.

“We do get quite a bit of inquiries about apartments, duplexes, et cetera. Part of our issue, though, is that we just don’t have any comps in the village — comparable projects,” Ochoa said. “So the private developers are having a really hard time financing their projects because, unless they have the money to self-fund themselves and build the developments, it’s almost impossible for them.”

At the same time, the housing crisis in Albuquerque appears to be pushing new residents to Los Lunas. While this brings growth, it creates a crucial gap in the market — the “missing middle” of housing.

“And a lot of millennials are getting priced out of Albuquerque, right?” Archuleta said. “So, not everyone can afford a $350,000, three or four-bedroom home. That’s not ideal for a single professional or a young couple, who maybe need one or two bedrooms.

“It’s definitely a challenge to try to get apartments and condos built because we still have a rural designation.”

Ochoa said a few projects are on the horizon that are helpful, including a senior workforce housing development which includes 45-56 units. The project is going through the permitting process currently.

Another project, which he said is a “little bit of a different model that we have within the village, although it’s pretty popular in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho right now,” is a Cavam development near Huning Ranch West and Main Street, west of Interstate 25. Ochoa called it a horizontal multifamily detach.

“Basically what that means is it’s one ownership over the parcel, but they are developing detached units,” he said. “It’s basically apartments, but with a detached end.”

Ochoa said the development will be about 276 units in a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units.

“We haven’t heard from them for a little bit, but we hopefully do expect for them to actually break ground at some time soon,” he said.

Archuleta said she recently talked to the developers of the Cavam development and said they had secured financing.

“This was a developer that was really struggling with their national lender to get financing, again because of our rural designation,” she said. “I had to put together a pretty extensive housing analysis to help them. Just like, what are the projections? How long are homes on the market?

“I was able to just kind of pull that because they want to make sure that it’s a solid investment. And again, to Alex’s point, there’s no comparable market rate of prices,” she said. “You need market rate to get a park. You need the market rate to get the market rate, and this issue, in particular, we brought it to our legislators.”

Another issue is the misconception that residents hold about multi-family dwellings.

“As Victoria kind of alluded to, as well as a lot of people have a misconception about apartments … the type of people that potentially live there, et cetera. Where they’re just normal people, you know, just like everybody else,” Ochoa said.

“So we do get a lot of push back from the community regarding these developments in general.”

On top of all these problems, Archuleta mentioned that building costs have gone up in the last few years, and builders pass those costs on to tenants and buyers. At the same time, she said, communities have to continue evolving and planning.

“What I like to relate to the community, whenever I give presentations, is that if we don’t grow, we die,” she said. “I mean, you see so many places that have not been open to new housing, to industry, to development in general. The mayor and council have been very pro-business, pro-development.

“I think that’s really important — having that big picture mindset of what we need to keep growing as a community.”