Council targets two 7-Elevens

Panel voted unanimously to declare stores public nuisance properties

Heeding pleas from neighbors, the Albuquerque City Council on Monday voted unanimously to declare two local convenience stores public nuisance properties and put them on the clock to work toward fixes.

Councilor Pat Davis — who proposed the nuisance designation for the two businesses inside his district — called it an unusual but necessary step given the magnitude of the problems at the 7-Eleven stores located at 3801 Central NE and 5401 Kathryn SE.

“It’s extraordinary,” he said. “If it happened in your neighborhood, you wouldn’t want to live near it.”

According to Davis’ legislation, police responded to the Central Avenue store 437 times and the fire department responded 119 times in one recent 16-month period. The calls included one stabbing, 18 additional assaults and 246 disturbances such as fights and shots fired.

During the same period, police answered 296 calls regarding the Kathryn store, including one shooting, two stabbings, 11 additional assaults and 195 disturbances.

Under the nuisance designation, the stores’ owner has 15 days to enter into an abatement agreement with the city or file an objection with the City Clerk. If the company does not comply, the city can take it to court.

Mark Rhodes, attorney for the stores’ ownership, said the company had asked the city several times prior to Monday’s meeting to provide a draft of a nuisance agreement but never received one. The city, meanwhile, said it wanted a chance to first inspect the stores, which the company has not permitted.

Rhodes said he did not know yet whether the company would choose to fight the designations, but said the 15-day window provides little time to work toward any plans.

“We’d be lucky to get the inspection done in 15 days — we’re now in a position where it’s almost guaranteed it’s going to go to court,” he told the Journal after the vote. “If that was the objective, that doesn’t seem to solve what the concerns of the neighbors are.”

Several residents told the Council on Monday about ongoing trouble at the Central store.

Sandra Aumiller said the problem has intensified in the past 10 years, adding that people are drinking on the premises and then wreaking havoc in the surrounding neighborhoods.

“They’re doing things like property damage, they’re taking off their clothes, they’re urinating on my lawn, they’re taking their small liquor bottles (and littering),” she said. “It’s become a quality of life issue.”

While Rhodes noted some recent improvements at the stores, neighbor Jill Frawley said they were only “cosmetic” in nature.

“Somebody has to force the owner to make real changes,” she told the Council.