Albuquerque's Environmental Story
Albuquerque's Environmental StoryIn a state with a history and culture as rich and as old as New Mexico's, Rio Rancho is an anomaly. A city with no building older than 35 years in a state that can claim the Anasazi Indians and visits from Coronado makes for an interesting combination.
The city of Rio Rancho did not prosper because of ancient civilizations or because it was a trading center in the pioneer days. Rio Rancho was not developed because of its proximity to water or because it was good farming or grazing land. The early families in Rio Rancho cannot claim to come from generations of native New Mexicans.
Instead, the people of Rio Rancho have chosen to be residents of this young and emerging city. They want to live in this new community that calls itself the City of Vision. And perhaps for the very reason its beginnings are so different from the rest of New Mexico, it is achieving an identity different from traditional New Mexico cities.
Rio Rancho's history goes back only to the early 1960s. In the 1950, Chester Carrity and Henry Hoffman, young entrepreneurs, founded a mail-order business in New York selling roses, added other products through the years, and finally emerged as the American Real Estate and Petroleum corporation, AMREP.
Rio Rancho resident Irv Roth, who worked for AMREP for many years and knew both Carrity and Hoffman, gives much of the credit for AMREP's success to these two young men. He explains that they were smart enough to research a field before beginning to work in the area, smart enough to hire experts when needed and smart enough to move fast when action was required.
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When the AMREP Corporation purchased the Koontz Ranch in the early 1960s, the land northwest of Albuquerque was home to 500 head of cattle. Less than 35 years later, more than 45,000 people would call it home. The company began to market and develop the 90,000 acres --much of which had sold at 17 cents an acre at a 1919 tax sale--by selling homesites to people in the East and Midwest. It was one of the most widely marketed land development programs in the U.S.
Between 1961 and 1977, AMREP sold more than 75,000 lots to thousands of people in other parts of the country. The company marketed Rio Rancho and New Mexico intensely, not only with advertising, but with inducements such as free dinners, movies and slide shows. It offered people a dream of leaving the crowded city and coming to the spacious west with its dramatic views and endless opportunities. The development of Rio Rancho coincided with a national trend of migration to the Sunbelt areas of the country.
Model home construction began in 1962, and construction of the first home in 1963. Late that year, the first two permanent residents moved to Rio Rancho from New York City. In 1964, with a population between 75 and 100, the community formed a volunteer fire department, and by 1969, could boast 1,500 residents. In 1970 the Rio Rancho Golf and Country Club was built, and the 500th family moved to town. By 1971, the city had 2,500 residents, 904 homes, and its first shopping center.
By 1974, the population of Rio Rancho reached 5,377 and the community was beginning to feel like home to many of these people. They formed and joined organizations, churches were established, and the first elementary school opened.
Rio Rancho, however, was not an incorporated city. It had no local government, and AMREP was doing all of the building and developing. As a part of Sandoval County, the city received services from a county government accustomed to dealing primarily with rural issues. Services were minimal. Differences arose also because Rio Rancho was composed primarily of Anglos who were not native New Mexicans, while the rest of the county was primarily Hispanic, Native American, and rural.
There was also dissatisfaction among some of the residents and others who owned land in Rio Rancho but still lived in other parts of the country. They felt that AMREP had misled them because the land they bought for $795 per half acre had not increased in value as much as they had been led to believe. Lawsuits were filed. A grand jury charged AMREP with defrauding customers, indicting the company for selling land it bought for $180 an acre for $11,800 per residential acre and as much as $25,000 an acre for commercial use. Three executives of AMREP were indeed fined for mail fraud and served six months in jail.
AMREP responded that buyers had 30 days after the purchase to cancel and receive a full refund. They could also get a refund if they visited the area and changed their minds within six months and could exchange their property during the first five years. The court found for the plaintiffs, however, and appeals and other actions went on for several more years.
In the meantime the city continued to grow, in part because Albuquerque residents also began moving to Rio Rancho. Many people liked the less expensive land and lower taxes and convenience to Albuquerque. Soon the question of incorporation became the subject of lively debate. Those in favor believed that becoming a city would allow residents to receive better services; those opposed were concerned about increased taxes.
But in 1980, despite three years of controversy, 86% of the voters turned out to choose incorporation. At the time there were 10,208 residents; less than 10% of the land AMREP owned--slightly more than 18,000 of the 90,000 acres--was populated and incorporated into the city limits.
The city was ready to grow after the incorporation vote, although no one predicted the unprecedented expansion of the next decade. Between 1980 and 1990, the population more than tripled and business expanded to meet the growing demand. Many young families moved to Rio Rancho, and about 80% of those people came from Albuquerque, not from the East and the Midwest as the original residents had.
The new city council established a department of public safety, a library, and a planning and zoning commission and began developing park and recreation programs for the city.
Rio Rancho's citizens and elected officials--many of them young and untried--faced controversy along the way as they struggled to reach consensus in a community with no background, no history, and no "city fathers" to guide and direct them.
Another problem was the perception many people in Albuquerque and the rest of the state had of Rio Rancho. A survey completed in 1980 showed that most people outside of Rio Rancho had a negative perception of the city, that it was a community of retired New Yorkers who clashed frequently. Yet ironically, the survey showed that those same people believed Rio Rancho residents had a "high level of satisfaction" and a good quality of life.
While the city was growing and striving to become an area residents would be proud to call home, most of them still had to commute to Albuquerque to work. In the mid-1980s AMREP established an economic development department and began working with the city to actively recruit businesses and industries.
By 1990, Rio Rancho had 35,000 residents and became the state's sixth-largest city. Its economic development group, according to an article in The Economist magazine in 1994, had "succeeded beyond its wildest dreams" in recruiting business and industry to the area.
Rio Rancho's businesses now include Intel (which employs more than 4,000 people), J. C. Penney's Telemarketing Center, Applied Materials, Air Products and Chemicals, Bergen Brunswig, Olympus Medical Corporation, Taco Bell Corporation's accounting division, and Intuit, the software company that produces Quicken.
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Intel's recent $2 billion local expansion makes the facility the largest chip-manufacturing plant in the world. The city, county, and the state have all benefitted from the increased revenue Intel brings to the state and the high-paying jobs it provides.
Although Intel's expansion was in part financed with tax-free bonds from the county, the money the company contributes to the state is substantial. Intel's gross receipts revenues provided $25 million toward the state's $2 billion budget in 1994. This figure does not include revenues the state receives from employees' taxes and from spin-off businesses Intel's presence has generated.
AMREP's ability to work with the city, the chamber of commerce, and state and area agencies is a major factor in attracting business and providing jobs near home for Rio Rancho residents.
In 1992, voters approved a Home Rule Charter for Rio Rancho giving the city more ability to govern itself and make its own rules and regulations.
The city's rapid growth has contributed to both the success of the area and some growing pains. The community was no longer a retirement area; families with young children were moving in, and the city desperately needed more school buildings. By 1988, the three elementary schools and one middle school were severely overcrowded. Most of the city was part of the Albuquerque Public School District, whose building plans were not keeping up with the growth of Rio Rancho. The northern part of the city was served by the Jemez Valley Public Schools, a small district headquartered 40 miles away, which eventually built an elementary school and a middle school facility in Rio Rancho composed entirely of portable buildings.
The residents of Rio Rancho were frustrated and concerned because they seemed to have little say in the education of their children. For about five years, they struggled to get their own school district. Local control, they felt, could provide more school buildings and a better education for their children.
The 1990 census showed 30% of Rio Rancho residents were under 18, debunking the perception of Rio Rancho as a retirement community and showing why they were so concerned about quality education. In 1989, Rio Rancho became the state's 89th school district It then had five elementary schools and two middle schools. It needed five new schools almost immediately.
The taxpayers elected a school board, hired a superintendent, and overwhelmingly passed a bond issue to pay for the new schools. But residents were not able to tax themselves enough to build all the schools needed. Intel, however, offered to build a $30 million high school for Rio Rancho to keep pace with the growing enrollments. One new elementary school opened in the fall of 1995, two new middle schools are scheduled to open in 1996, and the city's first high school will open its doors in 1997.
Rio Rancho has joined with the Village of Corrales, the Albuquerque metropolitan area, and southern Sandoval County to address potential flooding problems in the area. It also encourages voluntary compliance with Bernalillo County's NO BURN nights and is considering automobile emission control regulations.
Water has become a volatile issue in the Albuquerque metropolitan area. A study released a few years ago contradicted the long-held perception that Albuquerque and its surrounding communities sit atop a limitless aquifer. People have become more conscious of water usage and are taking conservation measures. In 1995, after several years' consideration, Rio Rancho made the controversial purchase of its water utility from a private corporation.
Agriculture is the state's chief water consumer. In Rio Rancho, homeowners use most of the water; industry uses only 8%. Still, Intel has taken a lead position in reducing water use, agreeing to a 39% reduction through recycling and conservation. The company recycles much of its water and returns it to the Rio Grande after it is purified. This practice presently helps the people downstream from Rio Rancho, but Intel is also funding a study to determine ways to inject the purified water back into the aquifer.
The biggest problem facing the community today is traffic congestion caused by travel between Rio Rancho and Albuquerque. City agencies have been working with Albuquerque and state and federal agencies to overcome the traffic problems, but no long-term solutions have been reached.
Without a long history or an entrenched bureaucracy, Rio Rancho has been progressive in establishing a flood control authority, curbside recycling, and youth programs. It has the second-lowest crime rate in the state, a statistic important to the residents who want to raise their children in a safe environment.
The city is also becoming well known in the area for its special events including the Friends and Lovers Balloon Rally at Rio Rancho's balloon park, SpringFest, Rio Rancho Intel All-American Soap Box Derby, Country West July 4th Celebration, Oktoberfest, and the Twinkle Light Parade.
In 1995, Rio Rancho's population was estimated at 47,000. It is now the fourth-largest city in the state and growing at an average of 2,000 people a year. The Economist magazine predicted that within a decade it will be the second-largest city in the state. Rio Rancho's strengths lie in its job market, affordable housing, a quality of life, and hometown sense of community.
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