“With the whole process and the adventure we had getting this up and going, it felt really good to finally be 100 percent done with this building,” Neill said. “Now we are just here for the people of Rio Rancho.”
Neill said it has taken him four years along with city officials to get to this stage at his business.
“We had a lot of work getting through all of the zoning and everything else,” Neill said.
Rio Rancho Mayor, Gregg Hull, said the previous land owner, where the new U-Haul company currently resides, couldn’t sell the land unless they could get the zoning approved.
According to Hull, a site plan on the southern side of the property required the business to have a six foot wall, because it was proposed that the neighborhood across from the land was abutting the area.
“We came in an immediately worked to alter that restriction so that we could move this project forward,” Hull said. “So this was one of those regulations that we had to work on to change so this investment could be made here.”
Hull said the city was able to remedy the zone change and the site plan consecutively in the same zoning meeting in order to push forward for the new business.
“I asked the question ‘Is there any reason why these can’t be done in the same meeting,’” Hull said. “So we looked at the law and there was nothing restrictive that said we couldn’t do them in sale meeting, so boom, boom they got done.”
Hull said it was the first time anything like that had ever been done at the city level during a single meeting.
“That’s what we are talking about when we say we are business friendly, Hull said. “It’s taking steps to do stuff that reduces the time and the process that business developers have to go through to get a functional business up and running.”
The new U-Haul business was a $13 million investment for the city Hull said, that created 10 jobs and is projected to bring revenue of $11 million in a year’s time frame.
Neill also said that this U-Haul facility is the first two story climate controlled facility that offers 36 covered RV spaces and many other services.
By: Stephen Montoya (RR Observer)
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