Allegiance C Councillor Weimer, would you lead us please?

Individual.

Please remain standing.

Um as I uh recognize today as being September 11th.

And um I'm gonna go ahead and read the remembrance certificate as the as we take a moment of silence, uh remembering what happened in September 11, 2001.

Whereas 24 years ago, on the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners to bring harm upon our nation and its citizens.

And whereas these actions brought about the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, significant damage to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and destruction of one plane in the field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Whereas nearly 3,000 innocent lives were lost through these acts.

And whereas in the wake of these events in the years after the citizens of our country gathered together to support one another in a manner never seen before and have stood together resilient and steadfast to defend our way of life.

Now, therefore be it resolved that I Gregory D.

Hull, mayor for the city of Rio Rancho, do hereby ask that Rio Rancho citizens always remember the lives that were lost on September 11th, 2001.

And with that, we'll take a moment of silence.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

This time I'll uh call this meeting to order and ask uh for everyone to please silence all electronic devices while attending the governing body meeting.

And if you need to take a call, please either step outside or into the lobby.

And for the record, I will announce the names of the governing body members, and when I say your name, please acknowledge your presence by saying present.

Councilor Dabson.

Present.

Thank you.

Councilor Lentine, present.

Thank you.

Counselor Tyler, present.

Thank you.

Counselor Weimer.

Present.

Thank you.

Counselor Culberth.

President.

Thank you.

And Councillor List.

Present.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh moving on to public forum.

Uh Casey Robinson.

I'm actually moving.

Okay, thank you.

Uh moving on to comments by counselors.

Do we have any comments by counselors?

All right.

Hearing none.

I'll be moving.

Uh I will be moving items D 51 and R 102 to be heard before public hearings.

If there are no objections from the city council, I'd like to uh or if you would like to sign up to speak under public hearings, please ensure that you sign up now.

Um and so the first item uh we'll move on to the consent calendar.

I'll take a motion to approve the consent calendar.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Ms.

Davis on the consent calendar, please.

Thank you, Mayor Hall.

Counselor Colbreth.

Yes.

Counselor Lennon?

Yes.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

And Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

The consent calendar is approved.

Thank you.

All right, moving on to discussion and deliberation.

D 51, advice and consent of the governing body for a new collective bargaining agreement with Rio Rancho Police and Communications.

And uh Ms.

Loyola Martinez.

Would you to present?

There you are.

Sorry.

Good evening, Mr.

I'm putting it on two pages, so I'll tend to even Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, Loyola Martinez, Human Resources Director.

I'm presenting two items this evening, D51, seeking your advice and consent of the draft collective bargaining agreement between the City of Rio Rancho and the Rio Rancho Police and Communications Association.

And if approved, the companion item R 102, which is the budget adjustment needed to fund the changes in the collective bargaining agreement.

Beginning in January of this year, approximately 12 employees comprised.

I'm sorry, uh 12 10 employees and two outside members comprised of six representatives on behalf of city administration and six six representatives on behalf of the union began negotiating terms for a new agreement.

Negotiations between the parties concluded in August and the union facilitated a ratification vote with its membership, whereby they received a majority vote in favor of moving this draft CBA before you this evening.

The notable changes in this agreement reflect a balanced approach, uh enhancing benefits for bargaining unit members while regarding management rights and maintaining the city's uh fiscal responsibility.

Uh substantive changes include lowering the threshold for eligibility of overtime compensation from 43 hours to 40 hours per week, revising procedures for corrective action, modifications to promotion eligibility criteria, modification to annual fitness testing, and increase to corresponding incentives, revising light duty parameters, increasing on call compensatory time for specialty units, increasing uniform allowance, uh implementing uh contingent annual retention incentive, applying base pay increases of 4% to all tiers of the career progression models, uh except for dispatch supervisors who will receive a 5% adjustment uh to address compression uh and a new longevity plan for non-sworn MOS.

Many of the economic enhancements noted in the CBA have a recurring impact on the city's budget.

However, these added costs are ultimately designed to serve as an investment to the city's ability to sufficiently maintain public safety services for the citizens of Rio Rancho.

The anticipated total cost of the enhancements is approximately 1.4 million dollars in the remainder of FY26.

In this item, uh if this item is is approved tonight.

The next item on the agenda is a budget resolution for the city to recognize that this that there are recurring expenses associated with the agreement.

Accounting for the already budgeted 4% base pay adjustments uh in FY26, the approximate total of additional funding needed to support these changes is 950,389.

The source of this increase is the unreserved ending general fund balance.

Staff has analyzed the action to confirm that the recurring expenses can be funded through recurring sources.

If approved, the ratified CBA would take effect on the pay period beginning September 22nd, 2025.

Staff is recommending approval, and with that, I will stand for any questions.

Thank you.

And Lil Uh thanks for that presentation.

I forgot to mention um as we do the next as we do D51 and R102.

We'll take be taking all comments and presentations on D51 since those two are tied together.

Oh, I'm sorry.

There we go.

Uh, we'll be taking all comments on R 102.

Yes, it's on now.

Yeah.

Uh on D51, and then what we'll do is after that, we'll just uh after the vote on D51, we'll move straight into a vote on uh R 102.

So if we have anybody signed up to speak on R 102, we'd want to move that up to there.

Okay.

Alrighty.

So with that, um, we do have one person, one individual sent up to speak, but I need a motion and a second first.

So I'll take a motion to approve D51.

Make a motion to approve D51.

Second.

Thank you.

Uh Kevin Buchanan.

Mayor Kevin Buchanan, uh, 500 Quantum Road Northeast.

Um good evening, Mayor and Governing Body Members on behalf of the men and women of our association.

I would like to extend our sincere gratitude for the thoughtful and deliberate process that has brought us here tonight.

We recognize the time and effort and careful consideration invested by all involved, and we truly appreciate the fairness with which this matter was approached.

We are encouraged by the outcome of this process as an organization.

It acknowledges the daily sacrifices made by our officers and dispatchers, and it establishes a strong foundation for continuing to build both a great department and a thriving community.

Our commitment remains steadfast to provide the citizens of Rio Rancho with the highest quality of life through exceptional police services.

As our officers face a growing challenges of ensuring safety and protection, it is critical that we remain competitive with those around us.

Doing so allows us to retain experienced personnel and strengthen our recruitment.

And we recognize it its importance and the work that still needs to be done.

The citizens of Rio Rancho deserve nothing less than to feel safe in their own community, which they do.

And that safety is delivered each day by our officers and dispatchers who serve with courage and resilience, often a great personal risk, both physically and mentally.

With that, I wanted to take this time to thank each and every one of you for your dedication, your partnership, and your vision for the future.

This agreement between the City of Rio Rancho and the Rio Rancho Police and Communications Association represents meaningful progress.

And we look forward to building on this momentum together.

I'll leave it open for any questions.

Thank you.

All right, I have a motion and a second comments by council.

Mr.

Mayor, I have one.

Oh sorry.

Yolanda, what is the oh I'm sorry, we have a hand up.

Do we do have somebody online?

Sir, I'm handling the chat.

We're good.

I've reached out to them directly.

I've reached out to them directly.

Oh, okay.

I'll let you know.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Okay.

Comments by council, Mr.

Mayor.

Counselor Tyler.

What was the reoccurring cost?

Again, I know you said 1.5 and then an additional 900, but what was the total reoccurring?

Uh 1.4 million.

Total reoccurring.

Uh for the changes proposed.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

That's all I need to know.

Mr.

Buchanan, actually, thank you very much for your comments.

We appreciate you and and the and the officers and everything you guys do for the city of Rio Rancho.

So thank you very much for those kind words and the comments for city staff and yourself.

Appreciate it.

Mayor and Councillor Tower, thank you.

We really appreciate everything you guys do as well.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mr.

Thank you.

Counselors.

Mr.

Mayor.

Oh.

Counselor Lemon Time.

Yes, sir.

As you know, and and we've all seen, I know that you know Rio Rancho is a community that strongly supports this law enforcement, and we should.

And uh I I appreciate that.

I think it's evidenced by any type of uh remembrances or memorial different types of things that we do, and I I uh second that go to a lot of them, and I think that that's really healthy and strong.

And kind of looking at this whole uh contract here, I know you guys went back and forth to the city a whole bunch, and kind of with any public sector uh union contract, uh you kind of reach a point of equilibrium.

If you go back when I first started on city council probably six or seven years ago, uh we were underpaying in a lot of different positions, so it's hard to fill, and we kind of are going through that phase.

I would say that I feel like we're reaching a point of of equilibrium with this true up, and so I think that this is something that extends for I think three years or something.

And so um I just you know, for the next go around, I want us to to it.

This is a opinion of one counselor, but I think that we're probably reaching that point uh based on current you know ability to recruit, current retention rates, which are a lot better than that what they were going back five or ten years, as you well know, it's the same on the fire side.

And um, I think we have a strong council that supports, and we we've tried to show that in a lot of different ways, and we will continue to show that.

I do think that we're probably reaching a good balancing point, and I think that's good for the city, but it's also something to remember uh heading into the next round uh of negotiations.

But thank you so much for all of you guys do, and uh Rio Rancho will continue to support and uh love the relationship that we have with you guys and uh to the whole force from chief all the way down.

We appreciate what you guys do.

Thank you.

Mayor Councillor Landon Time.

Thank you.

I couldn't agree more.

Um it's it's been a lot of progress over the years, like you said, and it's it's continuing to improve every day.

So thank you.

And just on behalf of myself, before we go to before I call the role, just want to say uh thank you to city staff and and the police union for all the work that you guys did together.

I know it's been a long process, but it took a lot of cooperation, a lot of collaboration.

Um, and in any negotiation, there's always a little give and take.

Um, and uh the fact that we've come to an agreement and and have a contract here that we can move forward with.

Uh it assures me that both the union and and staff are working well together to try to get to this agreement.

So I'm grateful for that, and I'm grateful that we have a contract in front of us that we can approve and or consider for approval, I should say.

Um, but um uh but that has the support of staff and and the union because we do absolutely value our law enforcement uh professionals, our public safety professionals, our first responders.

Um, you guys really do uh make the difference uh when it comes to Rio Rancho being the great city that it is.

So once again, I want to say thank you for everybody that worked very hard and diligently to try to come to this to get to this point.

Mayor, thank you.

Yeah, it was a very long process, and we it was definitely wasn't an easy one, and like you said, I'm I'm really glad that we came to an agreement that we are both happy with.

Um, but thank you, Mayor, and we thank you for your support.

Thank you.

All right, anything further?

Hearing none, I have a motion and a second D51.

Davis.

Thank you, sir.

Counselor Lynn Tyne.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Counselor Cobrath.

Yes.

D51 is approved.

Thank you.

I'll take a motion to approve R102.

Move to approve R 102.

Second.

I have a motion to second R102.

Ms.

Davis.

Thank you, sir.

Counselor Colbrith.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

Councillor Lennon Time?

Yes.

Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

R102 is approved.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Appreciate everybody there.

Now moving on to public hearings.

Anybody, anyone with a pecuniary interest on an item under public hearing wishing to address the governing body shall register with the city clerk.

Each comment will be limited to two minutes.

This hearing will be handled in accordance with the rules or procedures.

Section 3.4 and strict decorum will be maintained.

And public comment will be heard in the order with which the speakers registered.

The order of speakers tonight will be city staff, presentation, applicant and proponent, opponents, and aggrieved persons.

R 47 and 014 will be presented together and public comment will be taken for both items at the same time.

There will be a two-minute time limit for each speaker.

We ask that everyone follow this to ensure that each speaker is heard.

So rules of decorum for tonight, no signs, no booing, no applause, no verbal attacks.

Present the facts to the governing body.

Time cannot be shared with another person and address the governing body when speaking, please.

And only individuals that received official notice for have an address with the expanded proximity boundary will uh identified will be speaking.

And upon conclusion of all speakers, a vote will be held on R 47 and then O 14.

So with that, uh Director Rincone, uh would you please uh you have the floor uh on R 47?

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and members of the governing body.

Amy Rincone, Director of Development Services.

I also have uh with me tonight.

Did I is that better if I'm closer?

There we go.

Let me just move everything up a little bit.

Okay.

Uh good evening, Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body.

Amy Rincone, director with development services.

I also have uh here with me tonight, Brian Babia, the Plenty and Zoning Manager to help um answer any questions as we go through this process tonight.

So items number seven and eight on your agenda uh briefing memorandum are R 47, which is uh the resolution adopting the Chemisa Hill Master Plan, and then or O 14, which would be the accompanying zone map amendment, which would uh change the zoning as would be described in that master plan.

Uh so both of these items were originally heard on May 8th, postponed to August 8th, and then again postponed to tonight's meeting.

Um this is a location map, but I think everybody knows where we're talking about uh the the old golf course.

I did want to show tonight uh the existing zoning that was put in place in 2018.

Uh and so this zoning that's currently uh on in place is a special use district for a planned residential development.

And so what that means is it's an SU, and then inside of that SU there was uh specific areas set aside for residential and commercial uses.

Uh the applicant in uh their application that came in front of this board originally on in May of 2025 uh had this proposed zoning and acreage.

Um if you want later on, we can kind of go through the specific numbers, but um I also gave you a copy of of the handout with those numbers in place since uh the postponement of that meeting in May, they came back with additional information, and there was proposed changes to that zone map.

Um and so that's the slide that I have up now.

Uh those changes would include changes to the west nine uh to have open space zoning, uh changes to the east nine neighborhood commercial.

So instead of C1, uh we would have the um neighborhood commercial along high resort.

There was a reduction in the R1 shifting that uh acreage to open space, a decrease in R3 shifting to an increase in R2, and then um the there is also something important to note in the master plan that there are caps on the dwelling units specific to each of the subdivisions in the different uh different areas.

The posted agenda packet that you have has a series of new documents that were labeled new material, um, such as the governing body request from May uh tracking document that summarizes the responses, materials submitted by the applicant, including staff commentary and drafts of potential amendments if the governing body decides to integrate any of this new material that's discussed this evening.

Um I'm actually gonna ask to pause my presentation here and to allow the applicant to speak, present all of their new material, and then I have some additional information that I would like to add after they present if that's okay with the governing body.

Thank you.

Yes.

All right.

Uh thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, counselors.

My name is Jim Stroger, Principal with Consensus Planning, and it is my pleasure to be here this evening to present uh all the work that we've done since we were before you last time.

And um and I also want to thank staff, Amy, Brian, and their staff on all the work that was done.

It takes a lot of effort going back and forth.

You all gave us some uh some tasks to achieve, some of which uh we didn't know exactly what what was meant, so we worked together to figure out how to respond to those those requests, and I think uh we've we've addressed those, and I'm gonna go through my presentation this evening builds upon what we presented last time and is really gonna focus on those new items and the efforts that we've undertaken to address the council's comments and concerns.

All right, real quickly.

The project team, several of them are here in person uh today.

Steve Chavez, obviously, he's the rear rancho Mesa LLC.

He's the developer, the applicant with him is Jerome with his staff.

Um consensus planning, myself and Michael Wright are here.

Um FBT architects uh did a lot of work on the character uh studies and design guidelines for the various components of the master plan.

Harry Relkin and Kim Murphy are here, they are the uh resident experts on PIDs and TIFF and MR.

And so we'll get into that a little bit later in the presentation.

Um Tiara West, uh the traffic engineers uh did the transportation uh analysis that's included as part of the master plan, as well as um and not listed here is community design solutions, Sheldon Greer, who I believe is online, and they did the civil engineering for the project.

All right, oops, went backwards.

Um, real quickly, just as an overview when we as we get into talking about this, the purpose of master plan is to identify future land uses and zoning, provide a framework for access and circulation for not only cars but pedestrians and bicycles as well, define future parks and open space areas, uh provide a framework for implementation and financial tools, once again the PID and MR TIFF proposals that we've done a lot of work on since the last time we were here, and then it also provides design guidelines that ensure appropriate scale, height, buffer areas, and special standards.

So just real quick, we I think we're all familiar with the history, the golf course closures, uh the North Nine in 2013, the balance of the course in 2014, uh the clubhouse fire in 2019, and the subsequent uh demolition and clearing of that part of the site.

Uh there was a previous master plan that was brought forward in 2020.

That master plan was denied.

The ownership changed in 2022, and we've been working on this updated master plan since that time to get before you this evening.

Once again, real quickly, the city process, um application from August of 2024.

We went to the planning and zoning board in April of 2025.

Staff recommended approval at that time, as did the PCB.

We had a governing body hearing on May 8th.

Um, and you all gave us specific instructions with the remand to address, and now we're back here on September 11th for this hearing.

We did uh put some of these items together.

I think the original list was 11 items, but I'm gonna speak to them.

Um we've combined a few of these, so we got it down to seven uh items that we're gonna talk about uh this evening, master plan updates, um, the dewatering, uh, the closure of the NMED permit, the landscape development, rehabilitation and revegetation plan, the pedestrian access plan, implementation financial plan and tools, um, Calle Sueños and the desire for a cul-de-sac on that roadway and community outreach.

All right.

So we did provide an updated plan.

So right after the last governing body uh hearing, we provided a kind of a placeholder where we took all of the red lines and comments and we made changes to the master plan document and got that to staff.

We have since had a number of iterations of that document, and what you have before you in your packet, I believe, is a clean version of the master plan as proposed with um all of the additional materials incorporated in it.

Most many of those are appendices that were added to the document.

So you have that.

Um it also includes updated texts and graphics that address neighborhood concerns.

I'm gonna talk later about the community outreach in that dialogue, but there was a lot of back and forth where we got comments, we drafted potential changes to the master plan, both the text and the exhibits, and that went through an iterative process to get to what's included in the master plan uh that's presented this evening.

Um those drafts of the additional sections and the different different plans that were requested were provided to staff for review.

Um we updated the park design and reference to the DPM and the parks department staff review and approval of the design for the proposed park.

Um and then once again the final document that you all have is a clean version that incorporates all of that work into it, as well as I believe you have the various parts as well.

All right, I tried to go through these in kind of the order that they were originally presented.

So that first one was the updates to the master plan document, the NMED closure of DP 1629.

So there's an extension from NMED to October 9th coming up.

Uh and that is somewhat because uh there was delays related to the monsoon rains that have happened, and but we have been consistently working on the closure of that permit since we were here last time and even before that.

That effort is over 80% complete.

Umce again, it was delayed due to monsoon rains.

We do have additional equipment that we've brought out, which includes a long reach excavator, which I don't even know what that looks like, but apparently it makes it so they don't have to get into the muddy areas uh from the rains, and they can do their work from a little bit further away to enable them to get that done.

We are in the final sample testing phase of that effort.

It's in progress.

So the complete final remediation testing hopefully results in NMED sign-off of that closure.

So that's an update on where we are with that.

All right, the land development and uh revegetation plan.

We have uh provided this as a separate document.

We have also, as a part of that, updated the text within the landscape uh design section of the master plan to make sure that those two things uh comport with one another and work together uh to achieve the goals.

Um I would like to mention that Megan uh Kormanick with Green Summit, who is the contractor that is responsible for the maintenance out there.

She is online, and so she's available if you have questions regarding the maintenance program and coordination with uh city code enforcement staff that's occurred over that.

So that addresses updated trail standards, um, soil stabilization, native seating.

We actually uh I think uh staff and we've we've worked with our landscape group and staff to come up with um basically some direction that ties to a really good um section in the city of Albuquerque's DPM related to native seeding and and how that works, um removal of dead trees and shrubs, um, the future transfer of ownership management and maintenance to the master hoa.

We'll talk about that a little bit more.

And also this ties directly to the PID and MR MRA TIFF financial mechanism in the future, which I'll also talk about in more detail later on.

Um, and the future rebrand of this area to the East Heights open space.

All right.

We also prepared a pedestrian access and management plan that addresses existing access walls, gates that people have adjacent to the golf former golf course and open space.

Um the master HOA access, as well as I would point out that in coordination with the adjacent neighborhoods and HOAs, that they will all also have access to the open space and the trails.

Um that's something that the developer has committed to them.

And then signage and access control issues are addressed in that as well as enforcement.

Obviously, it's I think we feel we feel strongly that one of the key aspects of the open space um access and management is that by getting more users, the kind of users we want to have in the open space, using the trails, walking their dogs, riding their bikes, getting through that area, that hopefully that puts more eyes on the open space, more eyes on the trail, and there's more folks that can report if there are bad behaviors going on.

There's more folks to help police that area and call it in and make sure that if there's an enforcement issue that it gets taken care of as quickly as possible.

So that's part of that.

I don't know if if many of you are familiar with the the village of Los Ranchos has a whole series of trails that run along the Asequias and the ditches, and they have some really nice signage that goes along with that that sort of sets those rules that lets people know that it is private property, but there are expectations if you're using those trails, and so this sign was something that we developed similar to that signage to um that would be placed at those entry points to the trail system.

All right, I'm going through this as as fast as I can.

Um this next section implementation and financing plan and tools.

I know that's been a very important part of this governing body's concerns about how what this looks like moving forward.

Once again, Kim Murphy and Harry Relkin are here and they're available to answer any questions.

I know enough to be slightly dangerous on this topic, so I'll go through this, but if you want to drill down deeper, they're here.

Um we're gonna talk a little bit.

So there's a master HOA, there's also a PID up.

Let's see, now I just just went right out of my head as to what the public improvement district and the MR Metropolitan Redevelopment Area, tax increment financing uh district that are proposed as mechanisms to help make this happen and make this a reality.

So the public improvement district, one of the questions I think that came up last time was was there going to be any impact from the PID to the existing residents in and around the golf the former golf course, and the answer to that is no.

There will be no tax increase, no HOA dues, responsibilities for them, and no special assessments would be imposed on on those folks.

Now the new development residents, that's not quite the case.

They will be subject to the new HOA structure, the master HOA as well as their HOA for their individual neighborhood, and they will have new property tax assessments as part of the PID that we would be applied to the new development areas.

But and here's a map.

So the PID is limited to the areas where development is going to occur.

So you will notice that the former North North Nine, the Eastview Heights open space is not included in the PID district, and that's because there is not development that's taking place there.

The other really, I think, really interesting and really cool tool that has just really become available with changes that were made at the state at the state level to allow metropolitan redevelopment areas to include this uh this TIFF.

They they basically expanded the tax increment financing rules to expand its role and make it much more uh I think we've when we looked at it, Harry, Kim and I and Steve and Jerome, we looked at this and said, you know, this might be written for like downtown Albuquerque, but really that this is a perfect application for that.

Um so there's several steps associated with that.

Um the existing residents will have no tax increase, no HOA dues increase or special assessments associated with the TIFF, and neither do the new residents, because it really is on the development itself and gross receipts that are generated from that development, as well as gross receipts that are that are generated from future restaurants stores, um, those types of things, offices that might be built within the district uh will generate uh the revenues that get fed back into the project.

The interesting thing about the new legislation is the old, if you think of the old TID, the tax increment development district, that was only for public infrastructure and was very limited as to how that money could be spent.

The new TIFF legislation for metropolitan redevelopment areas allows that money to be spent on both assisting to encourage development to happen in the first place for things that the city deems that it wants to support as part of the metropolitan redevelopment area, as well as operation and maintenance, and that's really key for this effort where we know we're gonna have a huge amount of open space that we've been struggling from day one to figure out how are we going to get generate revenues that can help offset the operation and maintenance costs for that those areas.

So that's why we really um we really like this area.

We've included in your packet uh a little handout that was prepared.

This was actually from the city of Albuquerque.

They've been looking at this effort quite a bit for their downtown and a couple of other metropolitan redevelopment areas, and um, and that's um so and then you will notice that the map for the MR TIF district is different from the PID in that it includes all of the area of of the property.

So it includes the Eastview Heights open space, the former North Nine.

All right.

I know there's a lot of commentary in the materials and the input that you've gotten from neighbors about Calle Sueños and the proposed cul de sac.

I think just um I'll just summarize where we are in that um the developer is committed to work with city staff and the neighbors to achieve this.

Um but we do want to make sure that it's it's clear that it is not a decision that can be made by the developer.

It's a decision that has to be made by the city.

And so what you see on the drawing there is a proposed cul de sac at the at the terminus of what would become the terminus of Calle Suenos and an emergency access that would connect out to the road, and that would limit through traffic through that area.

We've got a lot of requests to consider that.

Once again, we're committed to work with the neighbors to try and make that happen.

And if it does get approved, then it's on our nickel.

So that's a couple things on that.

All right.

Now I want to talk about the outreach effort.

Um there were four stakeholder meetings that have taken place.

Um this effort started in on June 26 of 2025.

Um meetings were held at the Rio Rancho Chamber of Commerce.

The purpose of those meetings was to engage in open communication, address community concerns, and agree on specific changes to address these concerns.

Once again, as I mentioned earlier with the master plan changes, some of those changes related to text in the master plan, some of those changes related to exhibits, and some of the new documents that were prepared as part of this.

So that was once again an iterative process that we got those concerns, we drafted up changes, we went back to the neighbors, we got input, we made, I think in some instances, we probably made three rounds of changes to make sure that we got it right.

Um that there's a list of the groups.

I've got another slide that goes into more detail that were part of those meetings.

Um there were three follow-up meetings: July 17th, August 6th, and August 26th to revisit and confirm what was discussed and the changes that were being proposed.

And at the final meeting, all the attendees at that meeting approved the meeting notes from each of those meetings, and as accurate and confirmed that all items had been addressed with no further outstanding issues.

So there was a lot of work that went into those.

I really appreciate Jerome and Steve for their efforts.

They led that effort and and did that as part of uh their efforts for this this master plan.

And I would also like to note that uh Steve Chavez uh the developer has agreed that he wants to see this process continue.

So if this plan is approved, the idea is that those meetings would continue on a quarterly basis as the project is being developed to make sure that there's uh constant communication as things are moving forward, and if there are issues that those can be addressed as they come up.

So want to keep that dialogue going moving forward.

This is a list of those the the various uh HOAs and associations that participated.

Um we documented here, so some of those uh every one of them showed up at the first meeting.

Not everyone attended all three of the subsequent meetings, but um there was good participation in that, and we have a number of letters of support that came in from that effort that are as part of your packet, and those are identified on this slide.

In some cases, we had an individual member writing as an individual.

They that the association maybe had not made a decision or had not made a decision yet as to supporting or opposing the the plan.

So that's all documented in in your materials as well.

And this slide is just a quick overview of some of the issues that were dealt with as a part of those meetings, um, drainage, uh emergency access and buffers, um, the improvement costs, traffic and safety issues, sidewalks, the trails, connections, those were all part of those conversations, future requirements, and I think you know, the at the planning commission, uh, planning and zoning board, we spent a lot of time talking about if this master plan is approved, what happens next?

And with those individual subdivision plats, grading and drainage plans, traffic studies, there's a lot of of effort that has to take place in order to take this from the master plan to implementation.

Um, and so we the those those future requirements.

There was discussion about zoning, and as uh Ms.

Rincone went through, there were a number of changes that were made to the proposed zoning that were a direct result of those conversations with the neighborhood associations, uh the open space maintenance and the master hoa were also part of that that conversation with them.

Um this is the updated um illustrative master plan, and you can see can't probably can't read them all from on the screen, but there are a lot of little text boxes on there that actually documented some of those specific changes that were requested from the neighborhood associations, and those were added to the illustrative master plan in addition to the changes to the other exhibits and the text within the plan and I want to thank you for your time and uh once again thank staff for their work and assistance uh getting to this point, and also thank those community members that participated in in those meetings and the effort to uh bring those concerns up and allow us to uh go through the process to make those changes and make sure they they did what they wanted them to do.

And also thank those community members that participated in those meetings and the effort to bring those concerns up and allow us to go through the process to make those changes and make sure they they did what they wanted them to do.

So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Once again, we have a number of people on the call online as well as here in person that are happy to answer any questions either now or after Ms.

Rincone finishes her presentation and after you hear from the public, we're at your disposal.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Amy.

So Mr.

Mayor, to pick up uh where I left off on my presentation.

Um I do have a I've got my okay, thank you.

So uh the uh what I do of what the next two slides include all of the information that was requested at the May um planning and zone or I'm sorry, May 8th governing body meeting.

Um so if we want to come back to any of these specific items, uh we can talk about these.

Um this first slide has uh the first six items, which uh include updates uh to the exhibits, acreage, park design, information on closing out that NMED permit for the ponds, um a landscape development rehabilitation and revegetation plan, pedestrian access management plan, current and long-range property maintenance seven through eleven include um requests for additional information on financial plans uh for the proposed HOAs, reactions to the resident suggested amendments, uh the potential cul-de-sac on Calle de Sueños, and then information on the potential PID and community outreach.

Uh so we can always come back to these if there's any specific one of these items that we want to discuss tonight or if there's any questions.

Um I did want to briefly bring back a slide that I did have in the May 8th presentation.

Um, and so previously uh what we talked about is that uh master plans and zoning are really just the first step in development.

Um there is a lot of future steps as we go through.

There's going to be additional uh public hearings at the planning and zoning board, and there will also be additional um items that will be brought in front of the governing body for consideration in the future as well, attached to this specific development.

Um so uh things that uh we go into a deeper technical review of as we go through the development process, include drainage, traffic, um how the access points tie into existing neighborhoods.

All of this um happens uh during that preliminary process.

Um, an example when we talk about those further technical reviews and and deep dives that we do into the information uh will include the Caille de Swinos Cul de SAC.

Um, and so there was a lot of uh public comment that you'll see in your agenda briefing memorandum, all those written comments about this uh preliminary cul-de-sac.

And so I want to say in a preliminary review, staff thinks that the cul-de-sac will work.

Um, and so uh we don't see any major red flags with the location.

Um, but it is possible.

Um it is possible for it to be constructed, uh, but the master plan is not the best place uh to put in this specific cul-de-sac because of the fact that it doesn't meet other um standards.

Um and so we have other processes to move this forward in the future to have it um put constructed.

Uh so there is the need for a subdivision variance and then traffic homing.

So uh the subdivision variants would go in front of the planning planning and zoning board for approval because the city code actually limits the length of dead end streets in the city of Rio Rancho to 500 feet, so they shouldn't be longer than 500 feet.

In this case, we're talking close to 3,000 uh linear feet.

I said square feet, excuse me.

500 linear feet.

Um, in this case, this dead end street would be closer to 3,000.

Um, and so the planning and zoning board, um, because it's a standard in the code, would need to make a variance um approval to allow for that that deviation in that standard.

Um, there would also need to be an analysis on the cul de sac uh for the viability for that emergency access.

Um, and so uh looking at also the international fire code, making sure that those standards are met, um, and then also looking at the city's traffic calming policy.

So that's on the right hand side of this slide.

And what we look at with our traffic calming policy is that it requires a consensus for the property owners.

So there's 101 dwelling units in this area that if currently they have two access points, that's going down to one.

And so we do want to make sure that at least 50% plus one agree with that with that traffic calming process of having that cul-de-sac put in place.

And so those are reasons why we wouldn't want to put that currently in the master plan as something that is definitive and has to happen.

We want to make sure that we have those neighborhood conversations and go through our our process with the planning and zoning board and don't go around our current municipal standards.

Um is that special district financing.

So what I have on left hand side is the public improvement districts, which are PIDs.

That's something pretty common for the city.

We have a lot of those PIDs already.

Um and then we have I put on the right hand side metropolitan redevelopment with tax increment financing.

Very different from what the city has known for metropolitan redevelopment in the past.

Um so I think a lot of times when we think about metropolitan redevelopment, we think about Loma Colorado, we think about Cabazon.

This is a very different system than both of those metropolitan redevelopment areas.

When we're talking about that, um there is in your agenda briefing memorandum a couple of different areas where we talk about those special districts and those financing mechanisms.

Um so I'm gonna talk very briefly about them, but we can we can dig deeper into them if if you um have any specific questions on them.

Uh let me see.

I kind of got myself off of track here.

So a couple of places where we mentioned them.

Uh they're mentioned in the master plan by the applicant.

Uh there is additional information from the applicant, so that document that uh Mr.

Stroger described.

Uh staff also created a white paper uh describing what a metropolitan redevelopment area with that tax increment financing would look like and how it would function for this specific area.

So a couple of differences real quick.

PIDs generally are uh for in subdivision infrastructure, um, and they're for um or from the from property uh special assessment collected through the county assessor or treasurer, a metropolitan redevelopment tax increment financing can be used for re uh reinvestment, they can be used for maintenance.

Um both of these districts will require an application that will go back in front of the governing body.

Um metropolitan redevelopment also comes from a little bit different from the PIDs, they come from an incremental gross receipt tax and or incremental on top of the property tax, and it's it's based off that pre-development baseline, and they're uh put in place for 20 years.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body.

Amy, if I may clarify one thing there.

Um, the for the metropolitan redevelopment tax increment financing, it is based on the incremental revenue growth above the baseline.

So it's not an incremental tax, it's based on the incremental growth above that baseline.

So if it's at zero today and it goes to 10, then there's a just like a TID, there's a split between that extra ten dollars.

Uh I also want to point out that both of these uh special district boundaries would be inside of the Chemisa Hills Master Plan boundary area, um, and it would not include any of the existing neighborhoods that surround that area.

Okay, so this is where things start to get a little bit um complicated on the vote for tonight.

So there are two items that that are under presentation.

Um so I have up on this first slide just our our findings of fact and then our conditions for approval, but based on the new information that was presented, uh staff does have some amendments if the governing body is comfortable with that new material to add conditions to the adoption of R 47 that would add that new material to this specific master plan.

And then one of the conditions that we already have in place for for this master plan is that we would like to go through one more time and clean up anything.

We've had a lot of revisions and back and forth, and we think that we've have everything cleaned up, but we we would like to be able to make sure that all of the exhibits and all of the text matches up with any of the discussions and anything that's presented tonight.

And so that's R 47.

And then real quick, and I can come back to this as well if you would like.

For 014, back on May 8th, we actually had a couple of amendments that we were discussing.

So a couple of those, if you remember, we had some scribner errors that we found, and then we had some other amendments to the language for back in May 8th.

And what happened is because we postponed, we didn't actually adopt any of those amendments.

So we have two sets of amendments.

And those um are part of your agenda briefing memorandum, but you will see the May 8th uh proposed amendments, and then you'll have a second document, which are the September uh amendments to the ordinance itself.

Um, and and a lot of these are specific to those changes in the zone map request itself, um, and then just some some further clarifications on um uh putting in any of those scribner errors that we had found originally um and making sure that we addressed any of those with numbering and other items.

Okay.

Uh so with that, um, I I do want to remind the governing body that the planning and zoning board did review this item at their April 8th uh meeting and did recommend approval.

And with that, I will stand for any questions.

Okay.

So as we get started here, um, before I go into public comment, I need to get a motion and a second, and then we'll go into public comment.

So with that, I will take a motion to approve R 47.

Motion to approve R 47.

So I can have a motion and a second.

Okay.

Um let's see.

We've already uh we've already heard from uh Mr.

Stroger.

Um is uh Kim Kim Murphy with you.

Okay, and Harry.

Okay, so we're good for now.

Okay.

So I'm gonna move on to Jenna Burdick.

Good evening, Mayor, members of our city council.

My name is Janna Burdick.

I live at 546 East Lake Drive Southeast on the islands.

I'm the president of our small HOA board, and I have the rest of my board here and some of our residents to support me.

If you are not familiar with our small community, the islands is 101 town homes in the middle of what was once called the East Nine.

We're surrounded by the sad remains of the golf course and the ponds that used to define our community, what we're called the East Lakes.

For the nine years since the golf course closed in 2016, we've lived with uncertainty about the future.

We're worried about our property values, it's not exactly a scenic view from our backyards.

When Steve purchased the property in 2022, he immediately established a relationship with us.

We worked together through the destruction of the East Lakes, which is a very painful event for our residents, and a hard step for Steve to take, knowing how important those bodies of water were to our residents.

He has continually asked for our feedback, and he has made changes to the plan based on our feedback.

We attended all of the recent meetings hosted by Jerome and by Steve.

In our view, he has put a lot of time and effort into outreach.

We strongly support the vision for Chemisa Hills.

We ask that you approve the master plan.

It is time to move forward and convert that 280-acre ISOR into something unique for the city of Rio Rancho.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Debbie Roberts.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and the governing body.

My name is Debbie Roberts, and I'm the HOA property manager for the Fairways condominiums.

Our community is located on Country Club Drive, just north of Southern Boulevard.

We're on 10 acres of land.

We have 170 individually owned condos.

Our main concern was the 65 foot buffer that's going to come up to the west side of our property in regards to our safety and privacy of the residents.

But we were given the opportunity to attend all four stakeholder meetings.

We discussed our concerns with our Mesa.

They came up with some solutions that we're both happy with.

So the Fairways offers our full support to have this master plan approved this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thomas Wright.

Smallest one there is.

A month ago I saw once again residents not notified concerning a planning meeting.

I would hope that databases get updated without going on from that point.

We work with Mr.

Chavez for meetings.

And we are willing to work with the planning zone for our department, whoever needs to be involved in order to get a better access and not destroy our entryway.

That being said, we are our 35 homes, we endorse moving forward with this and that you pass this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Michael Farrell.

And after uh Mr.

Farrell, we'll have uh Jason Foster.

Well, every you guys took care of everything.

You really did a great job, staff.

Mr.

Chavez, I told you before, I know I told Mr.

Chavez before thank you for going down and meeting uh with Amy at the city with two of our delegates and talking about the uh cold stack.

Um Ms.

Rancone, thank you tonight for explaining everything very well because there is a lot of now.

We know the next steps that need to take, and the city needs to take those next steps, and we appreciate that.

Um, I would ask one of the counselors to please ask the maintenance manager that is uh from Green Summit that is online if they are what their plans are to re to uh restabilize the area that was destabilized on the old North Line just recently.

Um we could just find out what's gonna happen with that, and um it's good to see the police here, the what you guys are doing for them.

Um is a lot safer, it'll be a lot safer with the cul-de-sac.

And the other thing about the safety is our neighborhood will be safe is safe from crime with our current with the RPD with the Ria Rancho Police Department, but some of our residents aren't gonna feel as safe walking outside with all the traffic that is gonna be used as a cut through.

So this culture sac is very important for children that are riding on the bikes, playing out front, uh, the people walking.

So really we appreciate everything that you can do for us to make that happen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jason Foster.

And then after that we have uh Wayne uh Picon.

I say that right.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, governing body.

My name is Jason Foster.

I live at 301 Spyglass Place.

Um I could take the standpoint that most of what's proposed isn't going to affect me.

Uh I do sit on the HOA board, and I do have to look at other residents, and one of those being is Cayus Wenos.

Um the major problem is what do you do with over 200 acres of uh what used to be golf course in the middle?

In the middle of established neighborhoods.

The roads were designed and things were planned and zoned around a golf course.

Now you want to put something high density in the middle of all of that.

1100 trips per day was what was uh the old golf course, which was what was uh estimated.

Now the master plan is showing 9621 trips per day.

It's almost nine times the amount of volume of traffic on roads that were designed for something else.

Uh I'd like to see if the city would actually come up with a plan for how they're going to maintain the already deplorable roads that are on there to begin with, uh, and how they're going to make it safer.

Uh I think that the only way that can this be done for for Cayaswenos is a cul-de-sac.

Um there's tons of children and and we have an aging population of elderly individuals who do like to walk.

I go on walks with my wife uh routinely all hours of the day, and there are people walking everywhere.

Uh throw 9,000 more cars on there, and what do you have?

Uh a recipe for disaster.

Uh I implore you to at least consider the master plan with what it says is in terms of uh putting a cul-de-sac there and make it happen.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Wayne P.

Cal Pican.

I'm sorry if I'm saying your name wrong, and then we next we have butchered all the time anyway.

Then we have Laura Laura Tabor after after you, sir.

Thank you.

Uh my name is Wayne Pishon.

I live on the North Nine, and I'm a member of that association.

I'd ask that you turn your attention to staff comments on pages four and five, wherein they reference the PZ, which found that, and I quote, that the depiction and future ownership of this area remains uncertain.

Likewise, P and Z was explicit in their concern over the long-term viability of a master HOA.

We have consistently had the same concerns.

To be clear, we're in complete agreement with the P and Z concerns.

Specifically, we have steadfastly held that we could not endorse this plan without a firm commitment to long-term ownership from the applicant.

I'm pleased to report that tonight we see we received such a commitment from Mr.

Gonzalez with Mr.

Chavez's staff.

However, we'd like to hear that commitment from Mr.

Chavez himself with all due respect.

Given he commits, we endorse.

So very simple.

He commits, we endorse the Laura Tabor.

And then after that we have Jack Autry.

Hello, uh Mayor and Counselors and everybody.

I'm Laura Tabor, and I live in um right on the big trap, one of the big big busy streets in uh this area Nicholas Drive.

And um I have a question for the developers.

Are we allowed to ask a question?

Well, what we'll do is have you ask the question and then we'll get the div we'll get the developer pres uh to come back and answer any questions that are presented during comment.

And I can ask my question now because we're making note of the comments and and some of the questions.

Okay, well, my question is about the um the commercial area and the restaurants that are that are um I mean I don't know if you know exactly which restaurants are going to be there, but I'm interested in whether they're going to be serving alcohol.

That's my question.

And my comment about that is similar to when I made at the last meeting, in that if they are serving alcohol, I don't think that's safe for um a residential area to have uh alcohol being served in a uh way that um gives access to as somebody was talking about teenagers, uh people who ride their bikes over there, people who mingle with those in the parking lot who may be um inebriated and uh not um functioning at their best, to put it nicely.

So uh that's one of my really big concerns.

And if that indeed is the case, then my desire, my proposal would be to do this over again one more time.

And to go ahead with the housing part, I think I'm I'm fine with building houses in the area.

I think I'm I'm fine with building houses in the area.

I think the golf course needs to be uh utilized, the land is just dirt now, as we all know, but not to have the um commercial area, at least not with restaurants or anybody, any other uh any other uh uh you know commercial whatever that's that's serving alcohol.

Thank thank you for listening.

Jack Autry, and then we have uh Harold Etler.

Governor Hall, members of the governing body, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Jack Autry.

I live at Cali Swanehouse for many years.

Uh before retiring to Rio Rancho, I spent 30 years in general contracting in West Los Angeles.

I've built some of the uh largest homes in the market and know what it takes to design streets and neighborhoods that last.

I've seen firsthand how damage how damage that comes when planners fail to include proper cul-de-sacks.

Streets deteriorate three times faster, safety is compromised, residents are left to deal with the consequences.

Our road is narrow, cracked, and already a challenge for residents, delivery trucks, and even school buses to navigate.

Emergency vehicles sometimes struggle to get through, and that's today, before construction traffic, and thousands of new daily trips from homes, retail, restaurants, and even begin without a cul-de-sac at the top of our street.

Cali Suenios will become a dangerous cut through corridor.

Families, children, and seniors will pay the price in daily risk, noise, dust, and con and congestion.

The truth is the road was never designed for that kind of burden.

The COVID sac is the most straightforward solution to protect the neighborhood, prevents accidents, ensures this project doesn't compromise.

Most importantly, now places the cause or loss of the development.

If this gets delayed and passed off to planning the zombie, taxpayers may end up putting the bill, and that is simply not right.

I'll also share a little bit about myself.

I thought 1972, I was like California.

I even had the honor of training of at one point, martial arts taught me to fight for what matters.

I will fight until the end to make sure the cul de sac is built for the safety of our neighbors and this community.

You were elected to make decisions to protect residents.

And certainly this is one of those decisions I urge you ask the cultus act tonight.

And it will be the last will not be the last time you see me until this is resolved.

I will continue to fight respectfully and relentlessly for the safety of Cali Cali Suenos and the people who live there.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Carol Etsler.

Good evening, Counselors and Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Carol Etsler, and I'm 80 years old.

That means 20 years from now, I'm not going to be around here, right?

But we're planning not for now, but we're planning for the future.

So what are the people going to say in 2045 about what you all decide?

Are they going to say, what on earth were these people thinking allowing people developers to jam a bunch of houses into a beautiful, what could be a beautiful green belt.

And other towns, other cities really don't have this opportunity.

These people are blithely talking about open space.

I'm not seeing a lot of open space here.

I'm on the left side of that map.

We're in that little narrow area where there's a lot of houses jammed in.

This is the city of vision, and I want us to have a vision for the future where we preserve that green belt, where people, I see people every day walking their dogs, parents walking their children.

It's a safe place for kids to ride their bikes.

Let's think ahead to 20 years from now.

Thanks.

Okay.

That concludes everybody signed up.

So that concludes everybody who was signed up to speak.

So I'm going to ask Mr.

Stroger if he can step back up and maybe address a few of those comments and concerns.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Counselors.

Once again, Jim Stroger with Consensus Planning.

I I want to start by thanking everyone who came out and everyone that spoke.

Hopefully you got the sense of the level of work that Mr.

Chavez put into that outreach and engagement.

And I think it was very effective and produced what we saw this evening.

I would like to address so once again.

Once again, I will reiterate our commitment to be a part of that process and work with both the neighbors and city staff to help move that process along.

And we too agree that we think that's the right solution, and we think it's it should be deemed acceptable.

There are some additional there's additional work that needs to happen, and I think it is appropriate that it goes through the planning and zoning board.

But I don't think that that is a death sentence to that project.

I think it's actually, I think is the right way to proceed.

Once again, we're going to help and assist however we can to make it make sure that it moves forward.

And our hope is that that that is the case, and planning and zoning agrees with the variance that's needed in order to make that happen.

And I know that from our past experience working on a number of projects that your fire department is going to be at the table, and we're going to make sure that that turnaround and that emergency access functions the way it needs to, in order to make sure that the end result is safe for those residents both in the neighborhoods around it as well as on Calle Swenus.

I talked last at the meeting in May about the town center, the activity center that's proposed.

That area becomes a vibrant gathering place for not just the new residents in Chemisa Hills, but the surrounding neighborhoods as well.

We're getting the parking off of those streets behind the buildings, making sure that that area is really a special place, and we want to have those types of uses and those types of activities that people are gonna want to want to go there, they're gonna want to socialize, and that we're gonna be part of the community.

So I don't I know that there's always a concern when there's alcohol involved in in the as parts of projects, but I think in this case, we really do.

I don't want to mislead anyone.

Our intent is that we do have restaurants, we do have those types of facilities along with offices and places for people to work and places for people to live, and there and the park will be next door.

We want people to come there, we want them to socialize, we want it to be uh the jewel of of the Chimisa Hills community.

So with that, I think I addressed all of the comments that were raised, and once again, really appreciate everybody's time and once again if there are deep more detailed questions, as I like to say, if there's hard questions, I've got people uh that can answer those.

I'm happy to take on more easy ones.

Okay, thank you.

And before we get started on counselor comments and questions, I'm gonna take a recess, but I'm going to ask that the counselors not speak with the this this isn't this is an item on the agenda, it's an open item, so refrain from conversations with residents or the applicants about this particular item.

So we'll go ahead and take a five-minute recess and we'll be back here uh at uh seven seven thirty.

Thank you.

They will include opportunities for all of you to to participate in those discussions as well.

Those, as I'm sure you're aware, primarily we heard a lot about traffic studies.

There's been concern about water and sewer availability, about school capacity, about police and fire.

Those are all legitimate concerns, and they are all on the list of items that will be addressed as this moves forward.

There are processes in place, and each step needs to follow the process.

That brings me to the issue of the cul-de-sac at Caius Wayneus.

It too has a process.

Let me say for the record, I am fully in support of that cul-de-sac.

That said, we need to get the buy-in of those who it impacts also, and that includes your your resident fellow residents of the neighborhood.

If not if 50 or fewer are only are the only ones that are in favor of it, then it's not fair to the others.

So I don't have a read as to how that vote is gonna go, uh, but I think that's the fair thing to do.

I think we need input from engineering, we need input from the fire department, police department.

So we will follow that process, and if everything falls into place, and I I'm cautiously optimistic that it will, we'll move it forward.

So with that, Mr.

Mayor, that's all the comments I have that weren't already addressed tonight.

I'll yield the floor to other counselors to hear their input and move from there.

Thank you.

Counselor Tyler.

Um I would like to compliment city staff and uh Mr.

Stroger, you know me.

I'm pretty hard about a lot of things.

And uh, you know, when you came up here last time, we kind of put it to you guys a little bit and made you uh answer the the citizens' uh questions and and get with them and work with them.

And so far I've seen phenomenal results.

Very pleasing.

I like hearing the citizens come up and actually be excited.

Well, I don't I don't want to say excited, but happy with the plan so far, and their enthusiasm of being able to say that they can work with you uh makes me very happy because it shows exactly what we want done in the city of Rio Rancho.

We want that partnership between developers and the residents.

It's important to us.

And I think it's also gonna be important to you in the future success of your group and the homes that are gonna be put in there.

Um I too had a lot of questions, and I think they've all been answered, and I do think I I concur with uh Councillor Weimer, um, there will be a lot of moving parts going forward, and it will allow the citizens an opportunity to come forward at that time and uh work with you all and work with city staff to answer any quick questions.

I do agree uh about the call de sac, but we'll wait and see how that goes in the future.

Um again, I want to thank you all.

I want to thank city staff and the residents for coming out and participating.

This is what makes uh Rio Rancho good and great is the partnership and and the communication between everyone.

So thank you, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Councilor Culbras.

Thank you.

Um I agree with my colleagues' comments.

Um thank you to the residents for voicing your concerns and continuing to show up as partners in all of this because all of this that we this is we we are all neighbors.

We all live together in this city, whether you know it's five minutes down the street or 15 minutes down the road, you all are really the the ones that that make Rio Rancho such such an amazing place to be.

Um, and so I'm grateful for um for you all voicing those concerns and thank you for city staff uh working uh with us to get get us to where we are today, and along with the developers, we appreciate your partnership.

I have um just a couple of questions, maybe Mr.

Strozier, if you wouldn't mind for the first question.

This is just on the the revegetation plan, um, and so I don't know if it's you or there'll be somebody else who would speak on it.

Um, but just with the status of the property, excuse me, the status of the property as it is now.

Um, there's some language about a revegetation plan and doing some seeding.

Um, but the residents have definitely spoken about the dust that's coming into their backyards, um, how it's impacting just that quality of life today.

And so while there may be a future where all of that is repaired, I'm wondering how soon that revegetation plan could start.

There's some comments about native plants, that's a wonderful thing.

Can that get started quickly?

How can that move forward?

Umor, uh, counselor culvert.

So, yeah, obviously that is that's the big challenge is as part of this.

Um, but I think what we've one of the things that we've been saying is that the key first step to to get to move forward on any of this is getting this master plan in place so that there's the confidence that there is the end goal in terms of and that gets addressed with the master plan and with the zoning in order to have the confidence to move forward with builders as well as um on the residential um subdivisions and and as well as the commercial areas, and so the easy answer is relative to when a subdivision comes in in one of those areas.

So we have the individual kind of we've referred to them as governance tracks.

So the governance tracks, so when that builder comes in and they buy that um bulk parcel that's gonna have its HOA, they're automatically going to be required to be a part of the master HOA umbrella umbrella structure, but as part of their subdivision design that they'll work with the city staff on, they will be doing the implementation for their portion of the open space.

So each of those subdivision areas includes a portion of that open space, and so that landscape plan that re-vegetation plan will be a part of what they bring forward with their individual subdivision plans.

The larger areas of open space like the the North Nine, um that is um really that's where that metropolitan redevelopment area and a lot of this is really made possible by that.

So I don't think there was a lot of information in your packet about how that works, but um our hope is that as we move from as I think uh manager geisel said uh that value of close to zero on on on that on that land and its present condition to incrementally adding value and adding both gross receipts tax and property taxes into that equation that we start to have the resources to move forward with that implementation, and that is so it's these things all work together.

I don't know that if I'm answering your question.

Our goal is to do it as quickly as possible.

Right.

Um, and some parts are gonna move quicker than others, but we really want to see that move forward with the development hand in hand.

So I'll I'll offer you a potential a potential answer.

Okay.

Um I think the the certainly that when a developer comes in and begins the subdivision, they would absolutely begin the revegetation plan.

Yes.

Um my hope would be that if this were to be passed, that there would be a level of commitment now by the property owners through various mechanisms to begin some of that revegetation process with native plants.

And I'm not talking about massive, you know, beautiful landscaping, but there are there are plenty of plants in New Mexico that you can get out there and start to ground that soil or that that that land again to just help to prevent some of the dirt and all of that that's happening because that's really impacting the residents.

So my hope would be that moving forward that we can have a commitment to just begin some of that re-vegetation.

And I I believe that that the additional materials that have been added to the master plan provide that commitment and and that is that is the intent.

Okay, independent of waiting for a new subdivision coming in.

Right.

Okay, all right.

Um and then I just um just uh sorry, one second.

Um question on the the um the metropolitan redevelopment TIFF, I think probably Mr.

Geisel.

Um that that TIFF, the resolution for that TIFF, that's another one of the items um that if we were to move forward with this master plan, that would come back to the governing body for review and approval.

That's correct.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the government body, uh Counselor Colbreth.

Umce that is a new process to us, um, I will tell you, I think it's probably gonna come back before you um a few times between adopting the enabling legislation, um, the initial steps uh on the uh the the blighting process, the redevelopment plan.

So there may be um don't quote me or hold me to it, but I think there'll be a couple items before you two or three.

Great, excellent.

And then and to just clarify on the use for that um uh the open space and everything that would be funded by it, that open space would be public space, it's not like HOA governed space or something that's specific specific just to the new residents community space.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the government body, uh Counselor Colbert, uh it would be privately privately maintained, owned, owned and operated uh the ONM expense uh covered by the uh by the master HOA, the TIFF provides a supplemental funding mechanism to the master HOA.

So whatever the due structure is that that generates, and then the TIFF provides uh a secondary or supplemental hobby, depending on you look at it, uh revenue source.

One of the things that will be part of, and this is discussed in the uh the two documents, uh we part of the the TIFF application will be showing those sources and uses in that pro forma budget to see what are the needs uh for capital, you know, capital improvements into the uh into that open space area, um, and and you know, and how much of that's being covered from the the TIFF and how much of that is being covered uh from the the master HOA privately owned and managed um but open and accessible to to the public.

Um Mr.

Stroger spoke a little bit about the pedestrian access management plan, it addresses that.

So the intent is it's available, but there are rules to be able to use that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Geisel.

Thank you, Mr.

Strausher.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Counselor List.

I just want to say thank you so much.

That the tone in this room tonight is so very different than it was in May.

I think there is such a decreased element of fear and anger and uncertainty, and I think that that speaks volumes to everyone involved.

I think the city staffers have done an excellent job helping navigate um the unresolved issues.

I think Mr.

Garcia and everybody on your team, I think you guys have done an exceptional job.

What I walked away with in May was just the unease of the residents, and I feel like there's so much more clarity and so much understanding that they're no longer afraid of the project.

So even if there are things that they don't like, they know exactly what it is they don't like and they know why, but most people have found, so we're hearing that there are things that that are a comfort level that they can move forward with, and I think that that is huge, and that was my biggest hope was that the um community would feel like they are heard and that you would hear them.

So I want to thank you for that.

I do believe that there was a gentleman, um, Mr.

I'm gonna butcher his name too.

Um Pichon, and he had asked a question about long-term ownership.

I don't know exactly what it is that he seems to think has been communicated, but would you mind clarifying that for us?

Mr.

Garcia, I believe that there's some sort of communication.

Oh, Mr.

Travis, I'm sorry, Mr.

Travis, that you um have made a comment regarding long-term ownership, and I I don't know what that was, but it would be wonderful if you'd clarify that thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you, members of the governing body.

Thank you for your time today.

I also want to thank the staff and the residents that are here today in support and making comments.

It's very, very important that we work together to get this uh master plan approved.

So with that the question was asked long-term ownership.

So R Mesa is committed on keeping that long-term ownership.

Thank you.

Is that it?

Thank you.

I'm I'm I'm finished, Mr.

Mayor.

Mr.

Mayor.

Counselor Dabson.

So I was actually going to have that exact same question because I felt like um it wasn't answered, and I appreciate Councillor Liz bringing it up.

And I have to say that I agree that things are so much better this time around.

I was kind of worried about how things were gonna go, and I I feel really positive about everything.

And I I want everybody to remember that this is just the beginning, and things don't are not set in concrete.

And so as we as things are moving forward, we something comes up that we don't think we want.

Citizens don't think they want we can make changes, and that's the beauty of this process.

Thank you.

Counselor Linantine.

Yes, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh thank you.

Uh if you would have uh told me five years ago that we would be here tonight with the first, you know, I don't know, six, seven uh different people up there um, you know, in agreement and wanting to move forward.

Um this is great.

This is really awesome.

And the very first speaker that got up there, uh, she said it's time to move forward, and I agree with that.

It's time to move forward because uh this is a plan that we can move forward with.

And I just wanted to say uh over the long history of this that you know even better than we do, um, there's been plans and discussions before that weren't the thing to move forward with.

And I want to just commend city staff, and uh this is not my district, thankfully, but uh councillor I'm just kidding, counselor Weimer uh has done a great job.

And I wanted to just commend him for a second because through a lot of these discussions, sometimes with very uh big emotions in the room, uh he has he's not withdrawn, he's not with recuse, he's not just going along, he's asked tough questions, he's been fair.

Uh he's stood by what he thought was right, even if it wasn't what people wanted to hear at the time, and he's pushed this all the way through to get here as well.

And obviously, city staff did a lot.

Mr.

Chavez, a lot of different people.

Uh, but you know, we passed on plans that were not going to be good for the whole city, were not going to be good for the residents.

And so to see how this has come together, I just want to commend Mr.

Chavez, you and all of your team here, Mr.

Strozier, city staff, and uh also Councillor Weimer for having just that uh courage of conviction to stand to see it all through.

And I do like what's in front of us here, and I like the plan.

There's a hundred and fifteen acres of open space, which is is is quite a lot, and I agree with Councillor Colbert that it'd be great to be able to uh you know have some revisit vegetation there.

And um, so I just wanted to say thank you to everyone in the process and uh excited to move forward.

Uh as has been said, this is kind of just a beginning point, uh, but at least we have a beginning point.

And I'm glad that we didn't jump on something earlier just because you know we didn't want to deal with it or we needed to move forward, or you know, people were upset about it.

Because there's been a lot of bad press about this over a lot of years.

Um but this is a I feel like this is a good plan, and I do agree that this is the time to move forward now.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Counselor Weimer, I had I had thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I had one more question.

It had to do with Mr.

Farrell's question about the and I think his question is specific to the condition of which the existing open space has been reseeded and has been, I think, cut low, or I might even use his word.

I I think he used scalped.

Um can I don't know if Mr.

Surzer, Mr.

Chavez, if the landscape company is is the appropriate folks to address that question.

I believe that we have we have representative from Green Summit who is the contractor who has been doing the maintenance and once and uh just sort of as a pre-limb to that to that conversation with her.

Um I would just say that you know, for the last couple years it's been kind of in this holding pattern, trying to maintain deal with code enforcement issues.

There's a lot of there's been vandalism, there's been a there's a lot of stuff that goes on and has gone on in this interim period, and I so I think I'm hopeful that moving forward we can get out of a maintenance strictly just maintenance keeping keeping things where they are and start move forward um with that reseeding revegetation actual transformation that we all want to see for that open space.

But with that, I will let um I think the representative from Green Summit is on the on the call.

And who's the representative's name?

And Mary Ann?

May Meg Ann Megan Megan.

Yep, Megan.

I saw her up there earlier.

We will meet the online code prior to testimony.

Right.

Yeah, if she is there, she's got to do an oath form.

Can you hear me?

Oh, there she is.

She's up the top, yeah.

Are you there?

Yeah, I'm trying to uh oh be quiet.

Uh yes.

Final is uh Steve Magarine.

Okay, could I get you to read that uh oath form there that's on the uh on the screen and the item number?

The item number is R 47.

Okay.

And what do I do next?

That's not there.

Oh, okay.

Oh no, that's I don't forward.

No, I'm sorry, that we're we're we're trying to get the person from the I'm sorry, Green Summit Landscaping.

Do I have anybody online from Green Summit Landscaping?

Fears not.

Okay.

They may have they may have dropped off.

Okay.

Um with that said, can we get an answer to that question so that we can better understand what the plan is going forward with that existing open space and how it will be either repaired or I think there were several options I read, including tac-fire, um, including reseeding with a certain seed mix.

So um I'm not in the loop, but I believe that there is a plan in place, and and I'm hearing from Mr.

Farrell that it's not been implemented.

I I just want to get that clarified.

I I think uh uh thank you, uh Mr.

Mayor, Councillor Weimer, and governing body.

So I think the main so we've once again Green Summit has been on a weekly rotating uh maintenance schedule that basically they've divided the property up into three zones, and every week they go out and they do bait basic maintenance, which is limited to removal of um, it's probably trash, probably part of this uh maintenance equation, as well as um cutting weeds and then any dead plant materials are removed.

Once again, I think the the hope is and uh I think what the plan says moving forward is to basically transition from a maintenance or treading water position into moving forward with those uh steps to actually take those areas that are identified as kind of the trailhead that were the connection points into the open space to uh beautify those areas, also um basically improve the trails through the open space and then also implement reseeding of natural vegetation and that I'm not the expert on that process, but I know that we've provided specific information and been working with staff on what that looks like in terms of those standards and protocols in order to move that forward.

It involves silk fencing for those areas that are being worked on so that the blowing dust is addressed, it involves temporary irrigation and watering of those areas to mitigate dust, and also then hopefully getting that seed mix to take hold and we ultimately see that transformation from what right now is pretty barren to hopefully something different from that.

Um so I think that's there is there is that a whole section that the staff and and you as the governing body asked us to prepare, which we did in collaboration with city staff, and that will become a part of this master plan moving forward if you choose to incorporate that.

And as I mentioned before, all of those additional parts have been included in the clean copy of the master plan document that you all have.

And they are basically implementing what staff has recommended in terms of conditions for those additional appendices.

That answer your question.

Um not directly, but I think I I I appreciate the discussion.

And I do I read through that section of the master plan as I did every page of the master plan.

And and I appreciate that, and I think those are good plans moving forward.

I think there's two issues.

One is long-term, one is immediate.

And I think that the issue is immediate.

How is a corrective measure going to be made to the immediate problem?

Or and I'm I'm saying, or I'm I'm hearing from Mr.

Farrell that there is an immediate problem.

I'm not the expert, so maybe there isn't.

I just think it needs to get resolved some way.

And since it was brought up here, I wanted to just bring it up for discussion.

I think uh once again, Mr.

Mayor, Council Weimer.

The we've we've heard we've heard those issues and concerns.

I think working with staff, we've we've prepared that additional element to the plan that hopefully provides guidance.

And I think the intention is to move forward with the adoption of this master plan on some of that implementation as quickly as possible.

I'm also not the expert on how all that works, but um it's I think that's the intent.

And that's the goal of of getting to this point this evening where the master plan can get put in place, and then we have something to work going forward with.

And it does provide us guidance um as to how that should happen.

And we're committed to do it.

And that's that's again all all good.

I think there needs to be more discussion, perhaps sidebar between Mr.

Farrell, the landscape company, and and maybe it's maybe it's Jerome.

I don't know who needs to have those discussions, but you all need to be on the same page.

It's been brought up here, so it's become an issue.

So and I think that's part of uh Mr.

Chavez's commitment to continue with that um the neighborhood associations and that working group uh moving forward so that there can be those opportunities to check in on if things aren't working moving forward with the implementation, then those issues can be addressed.

So I think that's also a going to be a really effective part of this process uh moving forward as well.

So there's a staff component component, there's a developer component, and there's uh dialogue with the community component to make sure that things are happening and they're getting done right and on schedule.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Sturzer.

Mr.

Mayor, yield the floor.

Thank you.

I do want to say thank you on the letters that we receive.

I want to say thank you.

Uh Paul, I no, no, I got it now.

I got it.

I got it, I got it.

Jeremy.

You know, yeah, gotta remember to push the button.

No, I'd like to thank say thank you to all the residents that have come out in the previous meeting when you came out, got all the letters, been reading through all the different letters, reading through the concerns, very thoughtful considerations that have been put into this.

But I also want to say uh uh not just to Mr.

Schrozer and and the team over here, but uh uh Mr.

Chavez, I want to say thank you because from the onset, you have said that you wanted to communicate, you wanted to work with the residents, you wanted to do something unique here as opposed to just leaving this blighted tumbleweed infested dust blowing area that something good could come out of this.

You had a vision for that, and you've I think you've done a really great job communicating that out through all the public meetings that you've done over at the chamber.

So I want to thank you for your investment and time.

I know you've met with staff and your team on multiple occasions.

This hasn't been an easy process by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it's been thoughtful in that it has incorporated a lot of comments, a lot of input, so that the community really feels involved in this decision.

So um I don't have any further comments other than um just thank you to everybody that has come out to really work on this because this is this has been difficult on everybody.

It it's not something we wished.

I mean, um, you know, when I when I first got elected back in 2014, I didn't, you know, I did never foresaw the closure of a golf course and something like this happening.

And so seeing that how the communities had to go through this for the last 12 years has been uh a real, you know, it's been a real dilemma.

And so there's I feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel, and it doesn't look like it's an oncoming train at this point.

So uh I'm looking forward to seeing how the next steps take place.

There's gonna be a lot more public meetings, a lot more input.

There's still a lot of planning and zoning decisions that have to be made.

There's still a lot of governing body decisions that have to be made.

Um as you noticed is was in this document.

We're still a couple years off before breaking dirt on any houses, you know, to get through all the process.

I too would be a big fan of the cul-de-sac at Calesuenos, but uh we want to make sure everybody's involved in that decision, and I'm sure that's not gonna be a hard task to just put put somebody on that street and go door to door and say, you know, what do you think about this and get the input either for or against and sending out notices and and communicating that out so that we can get all the traffic data and the studies and make sure that everybody's on board with with uh cul-de-sacking that street off?

I I think it's the right way to go, but that's my personal opinion at this point.

But with that being said, what we're what's about to ha happen now is we're gonna go through uh quite a few procedural votes here.

They're gonna move pretty rapidly because as I mentioned in the beginning of this, we're gonna take all commentary and all presentations on R 47.

Now I have a motion and a second on R 47, but Ms.

Rincone, you have a slate of amendments, and you've presented those in this packet, and I don't think we need to go through each amendment individually, unless I have a counselor that would like to pull one out for specific debate.

Um, I'm gonna treat the amendments as a consent uh uh as a consent bulk, uh one vote if that's if that procedural if that will work, Noelle.

I think we should take a motion on the amendments since there are so many of them instead of a consent just to make the question.

Well, that's what I'm having.

Yeah, a motion.

No, what I'm saying, a motion uh, you know, kind of like the consent calendar, they're all in there under one vote.

So that's as that's what I was trying to communicate.

The motions as documented as presented.

If you can display that slide, Amy, that you have.

So uh Mr.

Yes, that uh Mr.

Mayor, um, so that is gonna be the slide up that we have.

Um so for R 47 specifically, uh the motion would be to um amend the specific findings of facts and conditions of approval to add uh the following items, and so those would be uh seven through eleven as displayed on your screen or as displayed in the new materials uh that were provided to you for the amendments.

Okay, Amy, can we actually read those into the record?

Sure can.

Um so uh that would be uh number seven, pedestrian access plan shall be added uh as an appendix to the document.

Number eight would be that the landscape development rehabilitation and rehab revegetation plan shall be added as an appendix to the document.

Number nine, the special districts document shall be added as an appendix appendix to the document.

Number 10, all updated exhibits and language in the plan shall be updated to reflect the changes in the zoning districts and designations as dot designations as adopted by 014.

Number 11 references to approvals of the municipal code, fire code, engineering code, building code, and other development codes will need to be met, will need to meet all standards and regulations or necessary approvals of waivers or variances will be required.

Motion to approve those amendments.

I make a motion to approve the amendments.

Second.

Can I have a motion and a second?

Ums Davis on the amendments.

Thank you.

Counselor Weimer, yes.

Counselor Colbreth.

Yes.

Counselor Jabson.

Yes.

Counselor Lennon Time.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

And Counselor List.

Yes.

The amendments are approved.

Thank you.

Back to O4 R 47 as amended.

Um I have a motion and a second.

Ums Davis, call the roll, please.

R47 as amended.

Counselor List.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

Counselor Dabson.

Yes.

Counselor Lynn and Time.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

And Counselor Culpret.

Yes.

Thank you.

Moving on.

47 is approved.

Thank you.

Moving on to O 14.

Um I'll take a motion to approve O 14.

I'll make a motion to approve O 14.

I have a motion and a second.

We have some amendments on O 14.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body.

Um, so for this one, uh it's it's like two and a quarter pages worth of uh text amendments to that ordinance.

So luckily uh we drafted language, so I don't have to read those.

Um and so uh what we recommend um if you're comfortable with um the all of those amendments, including the May 8th amendments and then the amendments that um are being proposed tonight, uh we would recommend that the language be that uh there is a motion to amend 014 by adopting attachment number one, May 8th, 2025 proposed amendments to the governing body for 014, and um attachment two September 11th 2025 proposed amendments to the governing body for 014.

Uh we would recommend that the language be that uh there is a motion to amend 04 by adopting attachment number one, May 8th, 2025 proposed amendments to the governing body for 014 and um attachment two, September eleventh 2025 proposed amendments to the governing body for 014.

And so this would cover um all of those documents in that attachment.

Take a motion.

I'll take a motion as stated.

I'll take make a motion as stated.

Second motion on the amendments and a second, Miss Davis.

Thank you.

Councillor Colbrand, yes.

Councilor Weimer, yes, Councillor Lennon Time.

Yes, Councillor Jabson, yes, Councillor Tyler.

Yes.

And Councillor List.

Yes.

The amendments are approved.

Thank you.

Back to O fourteen as amended.

Ms.

Davis, uh fourteen is amended.

Councilor Weimer.

Yes.

Councilor List.

Yes.

Counselor Tyler.

Yes.

Councillor Lennon Time.

Yes.

Councillor Dabson.

Yes.

And Councillor Culpret.

Yes.

O fourteen is approved.

Thank you.

That concludes our regularly scheduled agenda.

Uh on to the uh city manager's report.

Mr.

City Manager.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the governing body, uh, good evening.

Um real briefly.

Um first of all, I'd like to uh thank the development services department, Amy, Brian, uh, Michelle, um, for their hard work over the last several months, uh, and also the uh coordination and the the communication with uh Mr.

Stroger and the applicant.

Uh just a couple quick things.

Um community activities happening here in the next few days.

Uh we have a local market at the Cavazon uh park at 10 a.m.

on Saturday.

Um we have coffee with a cop on Tuesday from nine a.m.

to eleven at the Starbucks at 1810 Southern Boulevard.

Um I believe that is the uncertaint in Southern Boulevard uh location.

Uh food truck fiesta also at Cabazon Park on uh Saturday the 20th at 10 a.m.

until 3 p.m.

We have some upcoming road work including Lima.

Uh so encourage everyone to that's gonna begin here in the next few days.

Um and I encourage everyone to follow the city's website, check the city website for for road projects because there's always seems to be something happening on the roads.

And then as discussed um at the last governing body meeting, the aquatic center will be closed um starting on the 15th, uh slated up to 1031.

Um hopefully the work's a little faster to complete a major upgrade, the first major upgrade and refurbishment uh to the center for the uh oxidization and the uh HVAC system the what they call the pool package um for heating ventilation organization.

With that, Mr.

Members of the governing body, um for any questions and uh also just like the point out uh rainbow pool will be open for lap swimming in that period of time.

So there's no opportunity.

So thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you very much.

With that, we are adjourned.