Albuquerque, NM Filming & Production: Location Permits (2026)

Albuquerque handles location filming as a permit the Mayor's Administration issues directly rather than folding it into the special event process. Section 7-3-5 of the Albuquerque Free Expression and Parade Ordinance (AFEPO), the article that otherwise requires a special event permit for any organized public gathering, parade or activity needing three or more prearranged city services, lists "activities for which the Administration issues a film permit" as one of six enumerated exceptions, alongside funeral processions, school activities, government-agency actions and most public assemblies. Under Section 7-3-3, ADMINISTRATION means the Mayor of the City of Albuquerque or the Mayor's designee, so the film permit itself is issued and administered by that office rather than by the special-events permitting desk that handles parades and festivals.

Once a film permit is in place, Section 14-8-2-7(D), part of the Office of Neighborhood Coordination (ONC) chapter, puts a location-specific notice duty on city government: the relevant city department must notify, via electronic notice, recognized neighborhood associations of filming on city streets within a 300-foot radius of the filming. That duty runs from the city department to the neighborhood association, not from the production company, but it means any street-level shoot triggers a mandatory heads-up to whichever recognized associations sit inside that 300-foot band.

Because film-permitted activity is carved out of Section 7-3-4's rule that no person shall conduct a special event without a permit, a production working under a film permit does not also need the parade or gathering-style special event permit, the Section 7-3-7 special-event insurance, or the Section 7-3-9 denial-grounds review that applies to parades and public assemblies.