Priorities cont...
What is the city doing to manage this growth? It appears not much. There seems to be no real thought going into the problem of sprawl and uncontrolled growth issues. For instance, in most towns, when a big developer comes in to build a neighborhood of 2000 + homes, there is more required of that developer than just paving a few roads and putting in a couple of parks. Schools must be built to support those added families, and outside support infrastructure is required to supply roadways to those neighborhoods, city services such as police and fire, and other needed elements. Very often developers will provide, or help to provide these services.
A good example of the general support infrastructure blindness of our city officials is the expansion of Unser road leading to the new sports arena. Anyone who has tried to attend an event at the Santa Ana Star Center should be able to testify to the mass confusion and general cluster slam that develops at the intersection of Northern and Unser, not to mention the three mile long line that connects Unser to the complex every time and event is held there. It’s so bad police assistance is needed to direct traffic – it’s unbelievable. Either no prior thought was put into this, or the city officials were in such a hurry to construct a stadium before Albuquerque did that they decided to ignore it. It’s embarrassing. Because Rio Rancho is so starved for gross receipts revenue, we see silly things transpire like the new sports facility being named after the local Indian interests, and home developers telling our city officials how it’s gonna be. Why aren’t development requirements designed to support the housing developments required of the builders themselves? They are inviting more people out here to live, they should help out with the related costs to support them. The next big problem will be the water issues that the new Mariposa home development is already starting to face– wait and see. You and I will probably have to foot the bill on that one too.
Colinas School in North Hills is supporting several neighborhoods and is bulging at the seams. The library expansion bond for the school that was passed in 2003 still hasn’t transpired, and only $385 thousand dollars was allocated. But don’t worry folks, the Mayor is pushing for a train that will pick you up in the middle of nowhere, and drop you off where no one wants to go – so what if your kids can’t read.
There are good things happening though. The new city library located on Loma Colorado is nice; but was it put in by developers that have increased the need for such things, or did we pay for it to support their expansion? Things like libraries are nice, but so much more can be done with the wasted dollars being spent on new government buildings, sports arenas and now - “real fast trains.”
*opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily the opinions of Rio Rancho In Focus