2019 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 3 - Municipalities
Article 19 - Planning and Platting
Section 3-19-9 - Master plan; purposes.

A. The planning commission shall prepare and adopt a master plan for the physical development of the municipality and the area within the planning and platting jurisdiction of the municipality which in the planning commission's judgment bears a relationship to the planning of the municipality. The planning commission may amend, extend or add to the plan or carry any part or subject matter into greater detail. In preparing the master plan, the planning commission shall make careful and comprehensive surveys and studies of existing conditions and probable future growth of the municipality and its environs. The plan shall be made with the general purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development of the municipality which will, in accordance with existing and future needs, best promote health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity or the general welfare as well as efficiency and economy in the process of development.

B. Among other things, the master plan with accompanying maps, plats and charts; descriptive and explanatory matter; and recommendations of the planning commission for the physical development of the municipality, and for its planning jurisdiction, may include:

(1) the general location, character and extent of streets, bridges, viaducts and parkways; parks and playgrounds, floodways, waterways and waterfront development, airports and other ways, grounds, places and spaces;

(2) the general location of public schools, public buildings and other public property;

(3) the general location and extent of public utilities and terminals, whether publicly or privately owned;

(4) the general location, character, layout and extent of community centers and neighborhood units and the replanning of blighted districts and slum areas; and

(5) the acceptance, widening, removal, extension, relocation, narrowing, vacation, abandonment or change of use of any of the foregoing public ways, grounds, places, spaces, buildings, properties, utilities or terminals.

C. Copies of the master plan shall be available at the office of the municipal clerk and may be purchased at a reasonable price.

History: 1953 Comp., § 14-18-9, enacted by Laws 1965, ch. 300; 1970, ch. 52, § 1.

Comprehensive planning. — A county zoning ordinance was valid where the county had a comprehensive plan in substance if not form at the time the ordinance was enacted. Bogan v. Sandoval Cnty. Planning and Zoning Comm'n, 1994-NMCA-157, 119 N.M. 334, 890 P.2d 395, cert. denied, 119 N.M. 168, 889 P.2d 203.

A comprehensive plan need not be contained in one document. It may be comprised of several or no documents. It may be found within the ordinance itself where the zoning authority has not enacted a prior comprehensive plan and that absence of a formally adopted comprehensive plan does substantially weaken the presumption of regularity of any zoning ordinance enacted without it. Watson v. Town Council of Town of Bernalillo, 1991-NMCA-009, 111 N.M. 374, 805 P.2d 641.

Advisory nature of master plan. — The New Mexico legislature intended any master plan adopted by a municipality to be advisory in nature. Dugger v. City of Santa Fe, 1992-NMCA-022, 114 N.M. 47, 834 P.2d 424, cert. denied, 113 N.M. 744, 832 P.2d 1223.

The master plan, being only a resolution, does not bind the city that adopts the plan to any specific procedures as would an ordinance. Dugger v. City of Santa Fe, 1992-NMCA-022, 114 N.M. 47, 834 P.2d 424, cert. denied, 113 N.M. 744, 832 P.2d 1223.

The legislature has assigned to the master plan the role of guide, enabling municipal planning commissions to use reasonable discretion in applying its provisions to the actual decision-making processes involved in municipal development; the plan does not carry the weight of law, as do ordinances, and has not regulatory effect. West Bluff Neighborhood Ass'n v. City of Albuquerque, 2002-NMCA-075, 132 N.M. 433, 50 P.3d 182, cert. denied, 132 N.M. 484, 51 P.3d 527, overruled by Rio Grande Chapter of Sierra Club v. N.M. Mining Comm'n, 2003-NMSC-005, 133 N.M. 97, 61 P.3d 806.

A city has no zoning authority beyond its corporate limits. City of Carlsbad v. Caviness, 1959-NMSC-089, 66 N.M. 230, 346 P.2d 310 (1959).

Law reviews. — For article, "Creating Effective Land Use Regulations Through Concurrency", see 43 Nat. Resouces J. 753 (2003).

For comment, "Land Use Planning - New Mexico's Green Belt Law," see 8 Nat. Resources J. 190 (1968).

For note, "County Regulation of Land Use and Development," see 9 Nat. Resources J. 266 (1969).

For article, "Existing Legislation and Proposed Model Flood Plain Ordinance for New Mexico Municipalities," see 9 Nat. Resources J. 629 (1969).