By Lauren Lifke
The Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners named a new fire chief at its meeting on Tuesday and voted in favor of three ordinances that will move the county toward acquiring more transitional and affordable housing.
Outgoing Bernalillo County Fire Rescue Chief Greg Perez welcomed Chief Zach Lardy to fill his shoes at the beginning of the meeting. Commissioners later approved $500,000 to go toward transitional housing and voted in favor of extending a timeline that will allow an affordable housing project to move forward.
Family Promise of Albuquerque, Inc. is a nonprofit that serves to help people affected by homelessness. Commissioners approved a $500,000 grant that will help with its plans to purchase two triplexes for transitional housing in Albuquerque’s International District. The project expects to nearly double the number of families that Family Promise can serve.
They also voted to extend the deadline for a Project Revenue Bond ordinance. PRBs are used to help affordable housing developers get funding at lower rates. They are required for multi-family affordable housing projects. The Casitas del Camino housing project in Albuquerque, which relies on PRBs, aims to create 88 affordable housing units overseen by the Albuquerque Housing Authority.
In March, the Bernalillo County Commission approved the PRB ordinance to allow the project to move forward, but it is still waiting on approvals from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The ordinance would have expired Sept. 21, and the County Commission voted to extend the ordinance until the end of December.
Commissioners also approved an ordinance that will streamline affordable housing assistance to align county rules with the state’s rules, removing the need for a separate ordinance for every project.
Commissioners also honored outgoing fire Chief Greg Perez, who announced in February that he would step down and continued to serve as acting fire chief while a nationwide search was conducted. They commended him for his career, which involved expanding the department and its training, expanding services to communities and guiding Bernalillo County through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t do this journey alone,” Perez said in a speech at the meeting. “Any good leader, how they hang their hat at the end of their career, is if they’ve been able to pass the torch on to somebody who grew up together with them. And Chief Zach Lardy has been by my side for six years.”
Lardy has served with BCFR for 19 years, and he officially assumed the role of chief on Wednesday. He was selected through a rigorous national search, earning the position over 27 other applicants from Hawaii to Florida, according to county manager Cindy Chavez said at the meeting.
“We deserve the best, and if our best comes from our ranks, even better,” Chavez said at the meeting.