Photo by Michael J. GallegosTribune

Tribune

City Councilor Michael Cadigan boards a city bus at Lomas Boulevard and Fourth Street Northwest after a five-block walk from his office. Cadigan, who has emerged as a vocal opponent to certain new developments says he tries to ride the bus to his West Side home at least twice a week.

Photo by Michael J. GallegosTribune

Tribune

Michael Cadigan recites the Pledge of Allegiance with his son's Cub Scout troop at the start of a meeting at his home. Cadigan, who was a guest speaker at the meeting answered "No comment" Wednesday when son Mason asked him if he was going to run for mayor.

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City Councilor Michael Cadigan hasn't decided whether to run for mayor in 2009.

But in recent months the West Side councilor has set himself up with a managed-growth platform that could mark a distinct contrast from incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez.

Cadigan, a lawyer, has held firm on issues such as tax breaks for developers and suggested the region's water utility wield its power by restricting extensions to some developments.

It's a message he believes has resonated with the public, and it comes at a time when Cadigan, 40 and in the middle of his second four-year term, is considered a serious mayoral contender in 2009.

"I'm not doing it because I want to run for mayor," Cadigan said last week from his law firm's third-floor office at Lomas and Broadway avenues Downtown. "If I do run for mayor, I think the philosophy of managed growth is one that hits home with a lot of people."

This crusade emerged most recently with a mundane policy issue.

Cadigan in February introduced a bill to restrict the creation of Tax Increment Development Districts from greenfields, or areas not already serviced by city water.

TIDDs allow a developer to retain portions of some city taxes generated within the district to offset infrastructure costs.

It's a dry and colorless subject that might otherwise spark a public yawn. But to all involved, it's an important issue.

For developers — in this case SunCal Cos., holders of 55,000 acres on the West Side — TIDDs help facilitate developments they believe will generate high-paying jobs for the area.

For Cadigan and other detractors, TIDDs are nothing more than a subsidy for big-money developers, and one that should be restricted to infill projects or blighted areas.

"When I first developed the TIDD bill, I assumed it would be like most pieces of dry legislation — nobody would pay too much attention," Cadigan said. "But I do think there is a groundswell of support from regular people, people who aren't elected officials or who hang out with the Chamber of Commerce."

That played itself out over two City Council votes last month.

In the first, Cadigan's bill prevailed on a 4-1 vote, thanks largely to a boycott of the meeting by four councilors. Mayor Martin Chavez vetoed the bill, and Cadigan's subsequent override effort failed.

But the process engendered public debates on the merits of TIDDs, and Cadigan managed to draw support from all corners. Neighborhoods in the Northeast Heights and West Side supported his bill, as well as politically diverse policy organizations such as the right-leaning Rio Grande Foundation and the more liberal smart-growth advocates 1,000 Friends of New Mexico.

"I've been super-impressed with the public's ability to grasp this complex tax-driven issue," he said.

Further, Cadigan pushed the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority to use its power to help regulate growth. He said he fought the extension of water service to the future site of Tesla Motors' West Mesa manufacturing plant, seeing no guarantees that the electric car-maker will follow through with its plans.

"I didn't want that water line to be an excuse to build a lot of housing," Cadigan said. "You've got to link the extension of water lines to an area and a leisurely pace of growth."

That effort, too, failed. But in the process Cadigan might have laid the groundwork for a managed growth platform that has proven successful in other parts of the southwest.

In November, Las Cruces City Councilor Ken Miyagishima prevailed in his third attempt at unseating incumbent Mayor William Mattiace by criticizing the city's rapid growth rate.

Mattiace had said Las Cruces was growing at an appropriate pace, while Miyagishima sought to require developers to set aside land for things such as parks and schools.

Miyagishima's growth concerns were sparked by the city's approval of the Sierra Norte subdivision, a 2,200 acre development projected to one day be home to 30,000 people.

"I thought, Las Cruces is being transformed without any say," he said. The city "was basically having developers tell you where and when and how their city was going to grow without the public having a say."

In a similar fashion, Cadigan's recent initiatives have been sparked by SunCal, saying, in part, that the Irvine, Calif., company can afford to develop its project without help from taxpayers.

"This wasn't so much planned by me as a reaction to a heavy-handed approach by a giant project that doesn't need any entitlements," he said.

SunCal officials don't see Cadigan as an adversary, but as a councilor with strong feelings about the city's growth.

"We clearly have a difference of opinion with Councilor Cadigan when it comes to TIDD policy and the smart growth benefits TIDDs offer," Will Steadman, president of SunCal's New Mexico division, said via e-mail. "In fact, the qualities that Councilor Cadigan seems to want with regard to smart growth exist in our proposed project — environmental sustainability, planned communities and job growth, to name a few. SunCal's proposal is smart growth."

Cadigan said his recent crusade isn't new; he's pushed for smart, managed growth for six years. He's also careful not to paint himself into the no-growth category.

Growth, Cadigan says, should bring high-paying jobs and wealth into a community, enough to help provide for cultural amenities like an improved symphony, or offer justification for a new retailer like Nordstrom to enter the market.

"Bad growth is a predominance of housing which is located far away from where people work and is publicly subsidized," Cadigan said. "Some people support growth at any cost."

Jim Folkman, executive vice president at the Home Builders Association of New Mexico, says Cadigan has "positioned himself wisely with the right constituencies."

But the policies he supports will inevitably create a no-growth endgame, Folkman said.

He said many council policies such as impact fees on developers — something Cadigan supports — drive up the cost of housing at a time when the city is seeking more affordable housing alternatives.

"There's a lot of pent-up (housing) demand here. What happens when the City Council gets too draconian in their measures, is that it forces people outside the city of Albuquerque, which just exacerbates the sprawl issue they're trying to address," Folkman said. "It's a sad irony the City Council has taken steps to address urban sprawl and, in the process, are enhancing it."

By contrast, Mayor Chavez recently said he would consider reexamining impact fees to see whether they are a factor in driving business out of the city.

Chavez, a politician who has received support from the development community, is restricted from seeking reelection by city term limit laws. While he's challenging those laws in court, he has yet to decide whether he wants another term.

Cadigan, though, says many politicians in the area have spent too much time among developers and not enough time with the rest of the population.

He says that not as an accusation, but as a means of illustrating what he sees as a growing frustration among his constituents with the city's growth policies.

"They raise a valid question," he said. "Why should we keep building homes and supplying water to more and more projects when I'm told to only flush my toilet three times a day and take shorter showers?

"People have realized you want us to conserve water but you, as a city, want to give more and more to home builders to compete with my house."