Alamogordo commissioners discuss auctioning city-owned lots, options for affordable housing

Alamogordo City Commission members and staff discussed how to dispose of vacant city-owned parcels and whether the city can use those lots for housing or community projects, with staff saying foreclosed properties must be sold per state law and officials aiming to present an auction plan to the commission within weeks.

The discussion matters because the disposition of small, infill parcels affects the city’s ability to encourage housing development, support nonprofit projects and reduce blight on narrow lots where private builders have said profit margins are low. City staff said they will research legal steps and return to an open meeting with options for selling or otherwise using the properties.

City staff described two legal classes of property at issue. Parcels the city acquired through foreclosure must be sold “on the courthouse steps,” staff said, citing state statute; land the city acquired by other means — for example by donation or through collateral for a special assessment district — can be retained and may be transferred under different terms, including memoranda of understanding with nonprofits. A staff member told commissioners, “we can absolutely do something like that” for non-foreclosed parcels, but added that foreclosed properties “we have to sell it per state statute.”

Commissioners and staff discussed…