Hot air balloons illegal in Albuquerque?

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque is the hot air ballooning capitol of the world.

So it came as a surprise to the city’s Zoning Department that ballooning, technically, isn’t allowed anywhere in the city.

That’s one of the things City Councilors talked about changing at Monday night’s meeting, making it clear that taking off and landing hot air balloons are allowed anywhere in the city.

A local ballooning group says this all started because one homeowner started complaining about the balloons and finally called the Zoning Department. 

That’s when the Department discovered there’s no mention of hot air balloons in the city’s zoning code and if something’s not listed, it’s not allowed.

As a result, hot air ballooning technically is prohibited everywhere in the city.

Hot air balloonists are pushing for the change in the city’s code.

"For the issue of zoning to come up is just so unusual; it's never come up anywhere else in the entire country,” said Elizabeth Wright-Smith, spokesperson for the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association. “For it to come up in the balloon capitol of the world is just very strange. But now since it's been brought up it needs to be addressed."

So what does the new code change? Not a lot, but now people can’t claim hot air balloons don’t belong in the city because the city isn’t zoned for it.

The new zoning code makes it so that every area of the city is zoned for launching and landing.

That doesn’t mean a hot air balloon can launch from your property without your permission.

There are already noise, nuisance and trespassing laws on the books and those still apply.

“If they were saying, no you can only launch and land in this one area- that's a safety issue. We have to go where the wind goes and sometimes we can't always end up where we expect to because things change,” Wright-Smith said. “Still, we’re trying to not upset anyone and avoid livestock and people who don't like balloons for whatever reason.”