Bernalillo County Route 66 plan balances growth and rural character

New development along East Route 66 is not supposed to look like a blank check for strip growth. Bernalillo County built the sector plan to give property owners a narrow commercial zoning option while holding onto the East Mountains’ rural feel, scenic views and neighborhood character.

What the plan allows

The original 2018 plan created an optional zoning category called SD-E66-CC for specific commercial uses along Route 66. County planning pages say that zoning was meant to serve East Mountain residents as well as tourists traveling the historic Mother Road, not to open the corridor to every possible land use.

The county drew the first version of the plan tightly. It covered only the eastern two miles of the roadway, from Dressage Road east to the County Line. In practical terms, that means the plan was designed to shape a narrow slice of land where roadside changes are most visible to people who live nearby and to drivers passing through.

The 2018 resolution also made clear what the county was trying to avoid. It said the goal was to protect rural characteristics and highly scenic natural features while still allowing neighborhood-scale commercial and light industrial uses along NM 333. County documents say the special zoning exists because the county’s other available zones did not provide enough control and coordination to achieve that balance.

Why the county wrote it that way

This was not a plan dropped into place without a local conversation. County documents say the process began in April 2013 at a public meeting that included property owners, business owners, community residents, Bernalillo County elected officials and staff, and a land-use consultant. That matters because the corridor sits at the point where daily life, tourism and development pressure all meet.

The East Route 66 plan also fits into a longer county planning framework for the East Mountains. Bernalillo County adopted the East Mountain Area Plan on April 25, 2006, and that broader plan describes the area as having scenic qualities and an existing rural character that are unique to Bernalillo County and vulnerable to change. The East Mountain Area Plan says a more detailed sector plan is the right tool when greater specificity is needed.

That is the role Route 66 now plays. County materials describe the East Mountain Area as a gateway between Albuquerque and the East Mountain Area via Historic Route 66 or I-40, which means land-use choices along this corridor affect more than one neighborhood. They shape what commuters see, what visitors experience and what kinds of services are likely to appear in the places people pass every day.

How the plan changed in 2020

Bernalillo County later expanded the framework. The Board of County Commissioners adopted a 2020 update on August 11, 2020, as Resolution No. AR 2020-71. The county says that update came after a year of research, public outreach and interdepartmental collaboration.

The 2020 amendment pushed the western boundary to the limits of the Village of Tijeras and expanded the plan area to about 7 miles. It also divided the corridor into four named segments: Zuzax, Scenic Vista, Sedillo Hill and Mountain Valley. That change gave the county a more detailed way to manage different stretches of the roadway instead of treating the whole corridor as one uniform strip.

Just as important, the zoning option is not available everywhere in the expanded area. Properties in all but the Scenic Vista segment are eligible to adopt the sector-plan-specific zoning. That leaves Scenic Vista as the one segment carved out from the special zoning path, which shows the county chose to treat that part of the corridor more conservatively than the others.

What the plan means for property owners

For people who own land along the corridor, the key point is that the county now has a more specific rulebook for what can be built and where. The East Route 66 Sector Development Plan is a Rank Three Sector Plan under the county’s Plan Ranking Ordinance #82-26, which places it among the more detailed planning tools Bernalillo County uses in unincorporated areas.

The 2023 zone-change application on county files says the plan is intended to create and support a desired mix of land uses with control and coordination of development, while encouraging local business and community services in an existing commercial corridor. That is the practical promise of the plan: allow useful commercial activity, but keep it compatible with the East Mountains rather than out of scale with them.

For homeowners, that means future changes are more likely to be filtered through corridor standards, segment boundaries and zoning eligibility. For business owners, it means there is a clearer path for uses the county considers appropriate for a Route 66 frontage area, especially where those uses support residents as well as through-traffic.

How to check your parcel

Bernalillo County now uses the Address Atlas, History Atlas and Zone Atlas for the unincorporated area of the county, and those tools were created in fall 2025. If your property is in the East Mountains, those maps are the quickest way to see whether your parcel falls inside the Route 66 sector area, and if so, which segment it sits in.

The county also warns residents that planning staff will never request fees by wire transfer. That warning matters because land-use questions often involve permits, zoning changes and map lookups, and scammers have impersonated county planning and zoning staff. If a message asks for payment through wire transfer, it is not coming from Bernalillo County.

City properties are handled through separate Albuquerque maps, so the county tools apply to unincorporated land rather than every address in the region. That distinction matters along the corridor because Route 66 sits near the line between county and city systems, and the rules change depending on which side of that line a parcel falls.

What stays protected as change moves in

The county’s own language shows the core tradeoff. The East Route 66 plan was built to make room for local commercial activity, but only in a way that preserves rural characteristics, highly scenic natural features and the East Mountains’ established neighborhood feel. The original 2018 plan, the 2020 expansion and the 2006 East Mountain Area Plan all point in the same direction: development is welcome when it fits the corridor, not when it overwhelms it.

That is why the plan still matters to residents long after adoption. It governs the edge where property rights, scenic protection, tourism and local service needs meet, and it gives Bernalillo County a way to decide what belongs on Route 66 before the wrong kind of growth becomes permanent.