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By Jessica Dyer / Journal Staff Writer Thursday, July 7th, 2022 at 6:46PM

Safe outdoor spaces will become legal in Albuquerque on July 28.

The City Council could vote to make them illegal just a few weeks later.

But such a quick reversal would not necessarily preclude safe outdoor spaces from taking shape in New Mexico’s largest city. That’s because the zoning in place at the time of a land use application carries forward regardless of future zoning code changes. That potentially leaves 18 days to set safe outdoor spaces in motion, a window of opportunity at least one local businessman is watching closely.

Brad Day — who owns properties in various parts of Albuquerque and has spent months advocating for safe outdoor spaces — said he’s preparing documents, exploring possible locations and talking with nonprofit agencies interested in serving as potential operating partners on a safe outdoor space.

“My hope is we get at least two or three applications in there” (during whatever window exists), Day said Thursday.

Safe outdoor spaces — managed campsites where people who are homeless can sleep in tents or cars and access toilets and showers — sparked fierce debate as the Albuquerque City Council recently weighed updates to its zoning code. The council ultimately added them as a new use in the city’s Integrated Development Ordinance, or IDO, a change that takes effect July 28. But it was a narrow 5-4 vote, and one of the supporters — Councilor Brook Bassan — has since backtracked. She has introduced a bill to stop the city from accepting or approving safe outdoor space applications and another bill to eliminate them from the zoning code altogether. Some councilors even referenced the likelihood of a successful repeal when they last month rejected legislation that would have required the city staff to establish operating procedures for safe outdoor spaces.

But no council vote will occur on Bassan’s legislation until at least the Aug. 15 meeting.

That potentially leaves the door open for operators to legally submit applications to start safe outdoor spaces. And their applications need not earn full city approval in that window; they must merely be considered complete, according to the Planning Department.

“An application for (a safe outdoor space) locks in to the existing zoning laws when it is deemed complete,” Planning Department spokesman Tim Walsh said in response to Journal questions. “Therefore, if an application was completed in the interim between when the IDO goes into effect and when a provision was rescinded, the application can still be processed and approved.”

The IDO update already approved by the council would allow safe outdoor spaces in certain nonresidential and mixed-use zones. It would limit the sites to 40 spots for tents or vehicles and a total of 50 on-site residents. They would have to have toilets, showers and hand-washing stations.

Applications would require a review by the city’s Family and Community Services Department, which oversees city homelessness and housing programs.

Critics have argued the spots are inhumane and possibly damaging to surrounding neighborhoods, but supporters say they are a relatively low-cost solution that provide people who are homeless with some basic amenities and a safer place to sleep than the street.