Rio Rancho Council Backs Paseo del Volcan Completion

The Rio Rancho Governing Body has taken a stand in support of the effort to complete Paseo del Volcan, albeit on a split vote.
Governing body members voted 4-2 in favor of a resolution supporting construction of the road from Interstate 40 to Unser Boulevard. Currently, the only existing piece of PdV is in Rio Rancho.
Councilors Chuck Wilkins and Mark Scott cast the dissenting votes.
The resolution commits no money to the project.
Mayor Gregg Hull, who sponsored the measure, said the road would open tens of thousands of acres for development, attract jobs, improve traffic flow and provide another route to the area. City Manager Keith Riesberg said he knew of major employers looking at large tracts of land in the PdV corridor in the past two years.
Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Debbi Moore said the road was important for future generations of residents.
“This is crucial to who we will become,” she said.
Rio Rancho resident Carol Dooley spoke against the resolution, saying Southern Boulevard, Western Hills Drive and Idalia Road are falling apart, the city needs to widen Unser Boulevard and drainage is a problem.
“We need to take care of the roads that we have,” she said. “The future will take care of itself.”
Wilkins said PdV would be good for the city when it was built, but there were more immediate needs.
The city’s comprehensive plan advised developing land between existing subdivisions instead of beyond them, he said. Public services and infrastructure are spread thin because of scattered development.
Even with federal money, Wilkins continued, the city would have to provide matching funds for PdV, meaning more taxes.
“I am thinking about my children,” he said. “I am thinking about the debt I’m going to put on them.”
Scott said if Hull amended the resolution to specify the city wouldn’t strive for the completion of PdV within the next few years, the governing body would probably unanimously support the idea.
Hull said the immediacy was in Rio Rancho needing to take part in talks with other entities that want the road completed.
“That is immediate because the discussion is going on with or without us,” he said.
Councilor Lonnie Clayton said the resolution just concurred that, in the future, PdV would benefit everyone concerned.
“I think if we don’t look to the future, our job here as city councilors becomes just pretty silly,” he said.
By: Argen Duncan (Albuquerque Journal)
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