By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Lomas Encantadas neighbors want the city to slam the brakes on a plan for the city to sell a part of their neighborhood park to a developer who plans to build more than 50 apartments and shops. The Planning and Zoning Board is scheduled to take up the issue at 6 p.m. Tuesday night.
PG Properties LLC has applied to rezone 1.79 acres at Camino Encantadas and Camino Venada NE for apartments and shops, a city staff report says. The tract includes 0.56 acres of Camino Encantadas Park that the City Council voted 4-2 on July 23 to sell to the developer. Staff recommends approval. The board only recommends, and the council has the final say.
Neighbors say it’s too much
Twenty-two of the 26 comments in the packet posted through Sept. 18 oppose the rezoning. None supports it. Residents cite school-zone traffic, lost park land and a building they say is out of scale. Neighbor Helene Everhart ended her email in three words: “Please vote no!”
PG Properties’ Feb. 11 application described 35 apartments; staff now says about 55, and some residents say 58.
The developer’s letter, quoted by staff, pitches 55 “boutique luxury apartment homes.”
The $17,500 sale
A July 23 council resolution authorized selling the park land for $17,500. An appraisal, commissioned by the developer’s agent Modulus, valued the land at about $70,000 for commercial use, then cut that 75 percent because it was zoned for parks.
Corrine Rios, a former mayoral candidate who is suing the city in an unrelated case, says the low price reflects the park zoning and that “Rio Rancho residents deserve answers.” “Was this public property undervalued?,” Rios wrote in a social media post. “How much was already understood before the sale was approved?”
The city’s case
The city disputes the sequence Rios describes. It says the land sale and the zoning request were kept legally separate to avoid what’s known as “contract zoning,” tying a land deal to a promised zoning outcome, and that the corner lot’s access problem exists regardless of what gets built there. The city also says two state statutes, NMSA 3-54-1 and 13-6-2, require a formal ordinance or written determination only above $25,000 to $30,000; below that, a resolution can suffice, and staff used one anyway to be thorough. In a statement, the city said the sale “was statutorily compliant.”
Retail zoning already allows apartments above the first floor, staff says. The special use zone would allow them on the ground floor, tied to a site plan only the council can change.
The report says the plan fits the Lomas Encantadas Master Plan and meets city standards for parking, landscaping, building design and height. It says the corner lot is too short to meet state driveway-spacing rules alone, so park land supplies access and parking.
A draft ordinance lists Oct. 22 for the council hearing.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 1.79 acres: total site (1.23 acres retail commercial, 0.56 acres park land)
- 4-2: council vote July 23 authorizing the sale
- $17,500: price in the draft purchase agreement
- $70,000: appraised commercial value, before a 75% cut for park zoning
- 35 to about 55: apartments in the Feb. application vs. the staff report (residents say 58)
- 22 of 26: comments in the packet opposing the rezoning
- 0: comments in support
Weigh in on Case 26-100-00005:
- Meeting: Planning and Zoning Board, 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, City Council Chambers, 3200 Civic Center Circle NE
- Watch live: rrnm.gov or Sparklight channel 56
- Zoom: Meeting ID 851 8074 1871 (link and passcode are on the agenda)
- Speak: Register with city staff. Public hearing comment is capped at two hours total per item unless the board extends it.
- Written comments: Email Planning@rrnm.gov or tdvorak@rrnm.gov. Comments received before 4 p.m. Tuesday go into the record before the meeting.