By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Nearly 300 Lomas Encantadas residents have signed a petition against The Luxe, and their homeowners association has filed a formal protest. Tonight, the Rio Rancho Planning and Zoning Board decides whether to recommend the rezoning anyway.
The board meets at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers to hear Case 26-100-00005. PG Properties LLC wants to rezone 1.79 acres at Camino Encantadas and Camino Venada NE for 55 apartments and 1,851 square feet of retail. The site includes 0.56 acres of Camino Encantadas Park that the City Council sold the company for $17,500 in July. City staff recommends approval with conditions, according to the agenda packet.
A pile of opposition
The city’s record holds 229 pages of opposition filed before the board’s Sept. 22 meeting. Those pages include 297 petition signatures, 46 form letters, dozens of individual emails and a protest signed by 49 property owners. Six more letters have come in since, all opposed. None of the comments in the city’s record support the project.
The Lomas Encantadas Master Association board filed its own protest. It cited “the absence of a publicly available comprehensive traffic study” and asked the board to recommend denial. The association owns a landscaped lot across Camino Venada, within 100 feet of the site.
Traffic
Modulus Architects, the developer’s agent, asked for last month’s delay to address what it called misinformation. Its new presentation, posted with the agenda last week, includes a Lee Engineering estimate. It says the apartments and shops would add 74 vehicle trips across the morning and evening rush hours combined. A gas station on the same lot, which current zoning already allows, would add 469, the firm said.
That estimate covers only new trips from the project, not traffic already on the road. Regional traffic counts cited by the developer show up to 382 vehicles an hour heading south on Camino Encantadas during the evening peak.
How we got here
The board postponed its Sept. 22 hearing at the developer’s request. As residents left, Board Chairman Scottie Richardson told Vice Chair Robert Gabaldon, “They wouldn’t have liked the votes.” District 3 Councilor Bob Tyler later apologized to residents for the chairman’s comments.
The board only makes a recommendation. The City Council has the final say, and a draft ordinance lists a council hearing for Oct. 22.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 297: petition signatures opposing the rezoning
- 49: property owners who signed a formal protest under state law
- 0: public comments in the city’s record supporting the project
- 55: apartments proposed
- $17,500: what PG Properties paid the city for 0.56 acres of park land
Planning and Zoning Board, Case 26-100-00005
- When: 6 p.m. tonight, Oct. 13
- Where: City Council Chambers, 3200 Civic Center Circle NE
- Watch live: rrnm.gov/2303/Watch-and-Download-City-Meetings
- Zoom: Meeting ID 851 8074 1871, passcode 026819
- Speak: Register in person with city staff at the meeting. Public comment is capped at two hours per item unless the board votes to extend it.
- Write: Comments received by 4 p.m. today go into the record. Send them to planner Tim Dvorak or the City Clerk at Clerk@rrnm.gov. Planning Division: 505-891-5005.
- Next step: A City Council hearing is tentatively set for Oct. 22.
Correction: An earlier version of this story undercounted public opposition, put the nearest home 238 feet from the proposed buildings and said one roof would sit 13 feet above a neighboring home. The city’s record includes nearly 300 petition signatures against the project. The developer’s own exhibit shows a home 204 feet away, and its view study shows the tallest roof 20 feet above a neighboring home. The story also did not make clear that the developer’s 74-trip figure estimates new traffic from the project, not traffic already on the road.