Residents in the Sandia Airpark Estates remain divided on whether the roads are private or public — an argument that has led to a lawsuit currently pending in district court.
“There’s been a lot of discussion, words, anger among the residents of the air park, who owns the roads and who has the responsibility for maintaining them,” Nathaniel Bracken said during an Edgewood Town Commission meeting on Tuesday.
Bracken’s position is that the roads are public and that the town ought to maintain them.
The conflict stems from an announcement in 2021 that Edgewood would pave Rainbow Road. This led to a lawsuit filed last year, as some of the residents claimed that the roads were always intended to be private and to be maintained by fees collected by the homeowners association. The plaintiffs allege that the HOA, or property owners association, has “failed and refused to enforce its property rights to the roadways.”
The current HOA board, however, maintains that the roads are public. The HOA maintains that a vocal minority is behind the lawsuit and the HOA has joined the lawsuit to argue.
Jerry Powers, the vice president of the board, said mediation has been scheduled in the lawsuit.
“We were happy that the town agreed to pave Rainbow Road. It was a great boon to the community, but the small group of people have sued the town over these roads, and it has stopped that,” Powers said.
Edgewood has filed a notice with the court in April disclaiming its interest in the roads, meaning it will not be moving forward with paving them. Then, this week, the commission was scheduled to vote on a resolution supporting that filing and stating that it is neutral on the issue of public versus private ownership. The commission went into closed session to discuss the litigation and, when it emerged, Commissioner Mike Raridan motioned that the town remain neutral in the case. The other commissioners unanimously supported that position. The commission did not discuss the resolution that was included in the agenda packet before it took the vote.
Some of the residents are concerned if the roads are deemed private, it could lead to the community becoming gated and restricted access could impact emergency services, deliveries and even real estate transactions.
Mark Campbell, who is one of the plaintiffs, said the roads are private, but have public access and public use.
“There’s no talk about canceling the use of this by the public. This is just having the court decide whether these are actually public or private,” he said.
Kay Tanis, the owner of the Sandia Airpark, said she supports the notion that the roads are private and she believes that because of the unique way the community is set up, the HOA is the best suited for maintaining and making decisions about the roads. Her concerns are that the businesses and residents could lose the ability to taxi planes on the roads if they are considered public.
Many residents have hangars on their properties — either adjacent to or attached to their houses — and they use the runways to taxi their planes to the runways much in the same way that people living in golf course communities drive their golf carts on roads to get to the course.