ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It looks like it’s going to be a little easier for developers to build in the metro, thanks to a resolution the Albuquerque City Council recently passed.

“The shortage of housing is one of the biggest issues in the city,” District 2 Albuquerque City Councilor Joaquin Baca said. “Housing across all levels, you know, whether it’s affordable, market rate, we just don’t have enough.”

The city council approved a resolution Monday for a two-year pilot program that would incentivize developers to build housing in the metro.

“Any project that has new housing, it’ll fast track it,” Baca said. “So developers will have deadlines, have timelines that they won’t be paying any of the fees otherwise they would have to pay.”

Baca sponsored the bill because he says he’s seen the need for housing firsthand by living downtown.

“There’s about 1,200 people that live downtown and there’s no vacancy for residential, there’s, you know, so that has caused rent to go up, people not being able to live here at all,” Baca said.

The original resolution included the downtown center area, roughly covering Lead to Lomas and 1st through 10th Street. The resolution was amended Monday to include other districts as well.

“A couple of the other councilors were like, well, actually, we have an MRA zone and it would actually help us as well,” Baca said. “So that’s where they came in to kind of expand it. There was also a change to kind of shrink, you know, just clarify some of the definitions to make sure it’s not just anywhere in the city. I mean, if everybody can jump to the front of the line, then nobody’s at the front of the line anymore.”

MRA stands for the Metropolitan Redevelopment Area – designated parts of the city that work as kind of an economic development entity. Baca says as soon as Mayor Tim Keller signs off on the resolution, the program will go into place immediately.