Past comes back to haunt Rio Rancho

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) - A 1960s marketing campaign and recent changes to state law have merged into one big headache for Rio Rancho city officials.

Half a century ago, splashy advertisements in newspapers and magazines touted rolling, green, grassy estates next to the Rio Grande in the city for only $10 a month. The ads lured thousands of people from around the globe to buy property.

And while the ads were a far cry from reality, the buying boom then continues to exert a negative impact on the city’s efforts now at master planning and measured development.

“(We’re) now trying to figure out how to deal with this antiquated platting – platting that doesn’t meet community standards anymore,” said Rio Rancho Mayor Tom Swisstack.

City officials used to have an easy fix for large developments that ran into problems because a few landowners who didn’t want to sell created a patchwork of the plans. The tool was called “eminent domain,” and it allowed the city to forcibly buy those remaining parcels of land at market rates, thereby handing a developer a solid chunk of land on which to build.

The Cabezon housing development, built on 1,000 acres between Golf Course Road and Unser Boulevard just north of the Bernalillo County line, was fully acquired through eminent domain, Swisstack said. That’s because the developers, Curb North Inc., had a difficult time tracking down all the property owners within that 1,000 acres.

“We negotiated with the 1,400 property owners,” said Charles Hagelin, Curb North’s president. “Eight went to court and, of course, we ended up with all of them.”

Hagelin wanted to use eminent domain to develop another parcel of land, to be known as Cabezon West, into a neighboring master-planned community. However, changes to a state law dashed those hopes.

Lawmakers and landowners felt that governments could abuse eminent domain for economic development. So, in 2007, the New Mexico Legislature passed a law forbidding the practice.

Today, because the developers, can’t obtain all the land parcels they need for Cabezon West, they have put the 600 acres they own up for sale. The most likely outcome for the property is that private owners will build individual homes on the half-acre lots.

Swisstack said that raises an environmental concern.

“All those people could put in each individual parcel a well and a septic tank,” he said.

In a master-planned community, a developer would install infrastructure like water and sewer lines that would alleviate pollution concerns and haphazard development.

Swisstack has previously tried to get state lawmakers to allow Rio Rancho to use eminent domain to right the city’s development wrongs to no avail. He told KRQE News 13 he will be back in a year or two to try again.