Albuquerque, NM Accessory Structures: Garage Conversions (2026)

Garage conversions are handled through the City of Albuquerque Planning Department, Building Safety Division. The City's official Garage Conversion handout requires a building permit with two sets of scaled plans (site plan, floor plan, wall section, and energy code checklist) that conform to the City's adopted technical codes, including the 2015 International Residential Code, 2015 Uniform Plumbing Code, 2015 Uniform Mechanical Code, 2009 International Energy Conservation Code, and 2017 National Electrical Code. The site plan must show the distance from the garage to property lines and all easements and setbacks. Where the converted space will be used as a bedroom, the handout requires an emergency-egress window: every sleeping room must have one window with a minimum 5.7 square feet net clear openable area, a minimum net clear opening height of 24 inches, a minimum net clear opening width of 20 inches, and a finished sill height not more than 44 inches above the floor. The permit is issued only to a homeowner or a New Mexico-licensed general contractor (GB-2 or GB-98) and expires if not issued within six months of submittal. If the conversion creates a separate dwelling with a kitchen, separate entrance, and no shared spaces, the IDO regulates it either as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) under Subsection 14-16-4-3(F)(6) or, for a renovation that adds a second unit within the original single-family dwelling, as a two-family detached dwelling in Table 4-2-1.