County fund may protect UNM golf course

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The University of New Mexico's North Golf Course has been at the center of controversy for years.

UNM has considered plans to build on the 80-acre property, but neighbors want it kept as open space.

Now Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins is proposing the county take out a 25-year easement on the property at a cost of $1.5 million. Those dollars would be used for a variety of improvements.

Tim Davis of the North Campus Neighborhood Association says the golf course isn't just used for golfers. People jog and they take their dogs out on walks, families use it for recreation and wildlife also thrives there.

The neighborhood association started to mobilize back in 2007 when the university proposed building a retirement village on the property located east of University Boulevard NE and south of Indian School Road.

Hart Stebbins has been talking with UNM regents for a couple of years now and proposed the county enter into an easement agreement with UNM.

Under the proposal, the university wouldn't develop the land for 25 years. In exchange, the county would make improvements to the golf course and surrounding property to the tune of $1.5 million.

The dollars would come from the county's open-space budget, which has secured 1,000 acres at 12 different sites around the county. A mill levy that expired in 2006 has funded the open-space budget.

The commission has continued to approve it since then, and it's up for approval again in May. Right now there is about $1.55 million left in that fund and this would just about clean it out.

Hart Stebbins considers this a vital and good investment.

Improvements to the course itself include walking and jogging paths and maybe a community garden. One of the biggest changes would be a new irrigation system to replace one that's been there for more than 80 years.

Hart Stebbins says that alone would save 30 million gallons of water a year.

UNM Regents President, Jack Fortner says the university has no plans to build on the property any time soon and sees this as a win-win even though he would prefer a 20-year agreement.

The proposal will be considered at the next commission meeting scheduled for March 13.