ALBUQUERQUE, NM – There are no Albuquerque City Council seats up for election this year, but that doesn’t mean our city leaders aren’t busy Monday night.

Their meeting is just getting started, and the council will have to decide the fate of the new Dunkin’ Donuts in one of Albuquerque’s oldest neighborhoods.

Barelas neighborhood leaders say they welcome the coffee and donuts, but they’re not too happy with the incoming traffic and how developers plan to manage all those extra cars.

Albuquerque city planners have already approved a zoning change and a proposal to build a new Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru at the intersection of Avenida Cesar Chavez and Third Street.

The intersection is right at the foot of the bridge that crosses the railroad tracks. Much of the road is already prone to accidents and other traffic incidents.

According to city documents, developers want all Dunkin’ traffic to enter on eastbound Cesar Chavez and exit at the lights to the Third Street curve. This is where neighborhood leaders have their feet.

“You’re going to have a lot of people aggressively cutting across multiple lanes right before the intersection, or you’re going to have them cut across a really tight curve, like a 90-degree curve, as they’re turning to go elsewhere. Now people are going out, crossing the street, moving traffic to get to the other side. And unfortunately, their current plan for how to handle this is ‘Good luck,'” Barelas Neighborhood Association board member Sean Potter said.

Developers plan to add stop signs, according to city documents. But community leaders say that’s not enough and they believe their concerns are being ignored.

“I think they need to do an updated traffic study. Because we live in the neighborhood, we drive through those streets every day, and we see firsthand what’s going on. So yeah, it’s not going to be safe at all,” said Joann Garcia, president of the Barelas Neighborhood Association.

Neighborhood leaders are not against the project, they just want developers and city leaders to take their concerns seriously.

Albuquerque city council members are expected to decide whether to accept the neighborhood association’s objection, which would either allow the project to move forward as is or force it back into the planning process.