City of Rio Rancho Work Session - April 15, 2025: DPM, Roads, GO Bonds
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City of Rio Rancho Work Session - April 15, 2025: DPM, Roads, GO Bonds
This work session of the Rio Rancho Governing Body, held on April 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM, covered three major discussion items: an update on the Development Process Manual (DPM), a comprehensive roads update, and a presentation on potential General Obligation (GO) Bond questions for future ballots. No formal votes were taken; staff sought input and direction from the council. Councilors expressed broad support for moving the DPM forward, discussed challenges with road maintenance contracting, and considered bond proposals for public safety, quality of life, and roads.
Development Process Manual Update
Amy Rincon, Director of Development Services, reported that since the last work session, staff held 32 additional stakeholder meetings, two open houses (with two total attendees), and a DPM Committee meeting on April 3, 2025, which recommended approval. Changes added since February include a 75% ownership requirement for master plans and language encouraging traffic calming elements earlier in the development process. A public comment matrix tracking stakeholder feedback is being finalized. Next steps: launch website on April 16 for a 30-day public comment period; Planning & Zoning Board review on May 27; Governing Body review and vote on June 12; implementation targeted for July 7, 2025. Councilor Wymer noted the low open‑house attendance but affirmed sufficient outreach. Councilors Culbreath, List, and Mayor Hull commended the team and supported moving forward. Councilor Lenentine joined the meeting virtually.
Roads Update
BJ Gottlieb, Director of Public Works, presented an overview of the city’s road assets: 337 centerline miles of residential roads, 72 miles of collectors, 75 miles of arterials, and 373 miles of unmaintained dirt roads. Since 2016, 38% of arterial projects, 14% of collector projects, and 51% of residential projects have been completed. The Neighborhood Streets Improvement Program (NSIP) includes a patch‑and‑seal program (101 miles completed in‑house by November 2025) and a hybrid mill‑and‑inlay (HMI) program (18+ miles completed, with 41 miles remaining). Key challenge: four solicitations for contractor patch‑and‑seal received no responsive bidders due to labor shortages. Staff recommends pausing supplemental patch‑and‑seal contracting and HMI Phase 4 for one year, redirecting the $8.5 million (including $6.5M HMI funds and $2.3M from contracting) to GO bond projects to address collector and arterial roads. Councilor Wymer and Councilor Culbreath expressed concern about pausing residential road work, but acknowledged the labor constraints. Councilor List supported the “pause” framing. Councilor Lenentine asked whether conditions would improve; Gottlieb stated optimism that the market would return and that in‑house work would continue at 10 miles per year. Mayor Hull noted over $100 million has been invested in roads since 2016.
General Obligation Bond Questions
Ryan Chavez, Assistant to the City Manager, recapped that since 2016 voters have supported GO bonds, with a Quality of Life bond added in 2022. Staff recommends three bond questions for the ballot (November 2025 or March 2026) totaling $18 million with no property tax increase: Public Safety ($4,365,000), Quality of Life Facilities ($1,200,000), and Roads ($12,435,000). An alternative of $23 million would increase taxes by about $47 for a $300,000 home. If no bonds were issued, the tax rate would decrease by about $277 for a $300,000 home. Proposed road projects (leveraging additional funds for a total of $21.45 million) include Baltic Avenue (District 1), Springer Drive (District 3), Ridge Crest Drive (District 4), and Honduras Road (District 6). Councilor Culbreath inquired about alternative funding levels and contingency plans for District 5 TPF grant applications; Matt Geisel noted that if grants fail, cash or reserve funds would be considered. Councilors List and Dapson emphasized the need to balance equity across districts. Mayor Hull summarized that the selections are well‑considered, reaching five of six districts when including other projects. A citizen survey will be conducted in summer 2025, with a formal resolution expected in summer/fall.
Key Outcomes
- DPM Update: Staff will launch a 30‑day public comment period on April 16; the DPM and related text amendments are scheduled for Planning & Zoning Board review on May 27 and Governing Body vote on June 12, with implementation on July 7, 2025.
- Roads Program: Council consensus supported the staff’s recommendation to pause supplemental contractor patch‑and‑seal and HMI Phase 4 for one year, redirecting $8.5 million to GO bond projects, while continuing in‑house patch‑and‑seal at 10 miles per year. No formal vote was taken; direction was provided for future budget and bond planning.
- GO Bond Questions: Staff will refine the bond proposal based on council input, aiming for three questions totaling ~$18 million with no tax increase. A final decision on ballot placement is needed by August 2025 (November election) or November 2025 (March 2026 election). The 2025 citizen survey will test support for continued bonding cycles.
Meeting Transcript
Counselor Dabson, would you lead us please? And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Alrighty. So let me remind everybody to please silence your cell phones and all electronic devices while attending to the governing body meetings. I'm gonna take my same, take my own advice there. And for the record, I'll announce the names of the governing body members when I say your name, please acknowledge by saying present. Councillor Dabson present. Thank you. Let's see here. Counselor Weimer. Thank you. Counselor List. Present. Thank you. And is Counselor Tyler coming in on Zoom? Was no? So and Councillor Culbreth is stuck in traffic right now, so she'll be here shortly. So we'll go ahead and get started. And I think Councillor Lenintine is running behind as well. So that being said, we'll go ahead and get started. Virtual members, please activate your cameras during the meeting. If we do have governing body members, public comment will not be taken at this work session. Going on to our first item on the agenda this afternoon is the development process manual update. Director Rincone, how are you today? Doing good. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and other members of the governing body. Amy Rincohn, Director of Development Services. So this item uh we have come back before you multiple times at this work session to introduce where we are in the process. Um today I also have with me the planning and zoning manager Brian Babia and then municipal planner two, Michelle Casilla with us online. We do have our um consultants from Decker and our consultant from Bohan and Houston. So that's going to be uh Jessica Lawless and Liz Treat are both available for any questions as we come through the process as well. Um so for an update to talk about um I'm gonna talk about the um second half of this slide that's in kind of that teal color. Um so February through March, we continued our one on one meetings with the development community. Um on March 11th, we had an open house here at City Hall. Uh March 20th, we had an open house in the afternoon at the Decker offices in Albuquerque. And then uh on April 3rd, we had a DPM uh committee meeting where they had their final review and then they um voted to recommend that this um that the updated DPM go on to the next steps. Um also since February we have had uh four meetings since the last work session, um 32 in total, uh additional meetings since we have started this whole process. Um and that's not including uh probably another handful uh that we had internal meetings uh just on specific items with staff. Um so since February we have been working on refining stress testing and putting in any additional comments that we have received from uh the stakeholder meetings that we have had. Uh a couple of things that have um been added in since February have included a um that we've added in a line about 75% ownership uh for master plans, um, and then we have added in some language clarifying that and encouraging uh traffic calming elements early in the process instead of waiting for those to come later on after a subdivision has been uh created. Uh for our two open house meetings that I referenced earlier, uh we did have two attendees and of those attendees that came in uh their questions revolved one specifically around the process for payment in lieu of for the contractor's obligations to install off-site infrastructure. Uh so we do already have a process for that through our development agreements, um, but uh to add any additional language, we feel like that would actually be part of our impact fee ordinance. Um, and then we had a request for uh a comment uh comment matrix to track how the stakeholders' comments are being added into um the actual document. Um and so that is a draft item that we have been uh refining and that will be um coming out uh shortly. Um and then again we did the have that DPM meeting on April 3rd.
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