“In the United States,
a homeowner association (HOA) is a private association formed by a real estate
developer for the purpose of marketing, managing, and selling homes and lots in
a residential subdivision. It grants the developer privileged voting rights in
governing the association, while allowing the developer to exit financial and
legal responsibility of the organization. Typically the developer will transfer
ownership of the association to the homeowners after selling a predetermined
number of lots. Generally any person who wants to buy a residence within the
area of a homeowners association must become a member, and therefore must obey
the governing documents including Articles of Incorporation, CC&Rs (Covenants,
Conditions and Restrictions) and By-Laws, which may limit the owner's choices.”
(Wikipedia.com)
In his
self-published memoir, Larry Meyer (one of the five original owners Rancho
Viejo Limited Partners – RVLP) writes, “Now that we had the ranch, we had to
decide what we were going to do with it.
There were a number of things that had to be done, and neither Leland
[Thompson] nor I really had the time or the knowledge.” So the partnership hired John Dendahl, a
third generation Santa Fean who had gone to college in Boulder Colorado with
Meyer’s daughter Sharon to head-up the development effort.
But before
that really got started however Meyer and Thompson became aware of the need for
land on which to locate the newly established Santa Fe Community College – and
they donated the 360 acres, which today is the institution’s campus. (See Santa Fe Community College chapter).
(Santa Fe Community College logo)
Meyer’s
memoir says, “Before donating the land, we had to extend the road and the water
and gas lines. Richards Avenue, a dirt
road at the time, stopped about a quarter of a mile from the north boundary of
the property that we were giving to the college. We had to improve Richards from Rodeo Road
south all the way to the site, 2 ½ miles, and bring it up to the city’s
specifications so they could pave it…We also had to put in drainage culverts
under the road, which should have been done by the property owners north of
us.”
John
Dendahl soon took a position as president of Santa Fe National Bank (at “four
times what we were paying him for a half-time position.”) Bob Lockwood, a general contractor with whom
Meyer had worked in the past, offered to advise on the development of Rancho
Viejo. Lockwood was a paid advisor until
1996.
“Meanwhile Fred Chambers [another RVLP partner] thought there
was a market for some small ranches down on the southwest corner of the
property on Highway 14.” RVLP allotted
1,600 acres for this “San Marcos” subdivision on which the Chapman Construction
Company developed 99 lots with private wells ranging in size from ten-acres to
one forty-acre tract. In 2002 when Meyer
published his memoir all but two of the original lots had been sold. The subdivision is about two and one-half
miles south of the Penitentiary of New Mexico on the west side of the Turquoise
Trail.
Another venture was not quite so successful.
“Leland Thompson’s son Warren was working in real estate,
and he found an investor who was interested in buying part of the ranch [3,000
acres] over near Eldorado.” The investor
was a Japanese firm called TSA – and in the late 80s and early 90s Japanese
venture capitalists were buying a large number of properties across the United
States. However the Japanese economy
began to deteriorate and the deal fell through.
“From that time on, plans to develop the ranch went from
bad to worse…Warren brought in a couple of fellows from Palo Alto,
California…who called themselves DOH International…They never mentioned any
figures under a million dollars, but in fact [they] didn’t have a dime,
figuratively.”
RVLP continued to donate land – nineteen acres to
Santa Maria de la Paz Roman Catholic Church and Santo Nino School, ninety acres
to the Institute of American Indian Arts, ten acres to The Academy for
Technology and the Classics (ATC), 14.7 acres acres to the Amy Biehl Community
School, 5 acres for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 6.7 acres to Santa Maria
El Mirador (Easter Seals), and a 2009 donation for the fire station on Rancho
Viejo Blvd
(Please see “The Non-HOAs for Rancho Viejo.)
Also in 1993/94, Santa Fe County decided they wanted to
put in their own water system for the whole county. “The county was willing to sell some of the
water, and Rancho Viejo and some of its neighbors agreed to buy these
rights.” Then the “neighbors” pulled out
of the agreement and RVLP agreed to purchase the original amount of water
(sixty-three acres) plus one hundred acre-feet more.
“Had we [RVLP] not done that, there probably wouldn’t be
a county water system today. We put up
51 percent of the total money they needed to get the county water system going
and acquire most of the rights-of-way.”
Larry Meyer knew real estate developer Duane Black from
work Black had done for Adeline and him in Mesa Arizona. They later became close friends. When the
real estate market collapsed in the late 80s, Duane Black had taken a job with
SunCor, a subsidiary of the Electric Power Company of Arizona. Around 1990 the two men had talked about
Rancho Viejo and in 1994 Black brought RVLP and SunCor (as the developer)
together and they put together a long-term plan to develop the entire Rancho in
increments. SunCor – a wholly owned
subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. and owner of Arizona Public Service
(formerly Electric Power Company of Arizona) – then formed Rancho Viejo de
Santa Fe Inc. to develop Rancho Viejo. In
1995, 2,500 acres were sold to SunCor Development Company, which began
developing the Village at Rancho Viejo under the name Rancho Viejo de Santa Fe,
Inc. Ultimately SunCor would build
approximately 1,200 new residences at Rancho Viejo in the Village, Windmill
Ridge, College Heights and the beginning of La Entrada. In 2009,
Pinnacle West’s board began a liquidation of SunCor, which ended in bankruptcy
proceedings in early 2013.
In late December 2010, Rancho Viejo Limited
Partnership joined with Univest to form Univest-Rancho Viejo LLC. The company
purchased the remaining land from SunCor, keeping the project out of
bankruptcy. Univest-Rancho Viejo
continues the development of the project today.
According to builderonline.com’s December, 2003 article
“Betting the Ranch” “’At the time SunCor entered into its agreement with the
original landowner, there were a lot of skeptics about development in Santa Fe
County,’ says Joe Porter, a principal at Design Workshop, a land planning,
landscape architecture, and urban design firm based in Denver. ‘There was
sprawl and a resource-consuming development pattern that nobody really liked,
and I don't think the city [of Santa Fe] or anyone trusted the county to come
up with a plan to manage this growth. Within the environmental community,
Rancho Viejo had become the poster child for sprawl, or at least that was the
fear.’”
Santa Fe residents in general rejected the idea of developing
vacant or under-used parcels within the city (“infill development”) – yet were
indifferent to suburban development in the area.
“In 1997, SunCor and Design Workshop began informal talks
with Santa Fe County planners about how to change the pattern of sprawl and
found that they had some principles in common. These included protecting the
visual and environmental values of the land; clustering development in
traditional New Mexican settlements or villages; offering affordable housing
and jobs for locals; providing adequate water; and helping establish an ongoing
community-development process that would provide an alternative to sprawl.”
Eighteen
months of talks involving county and city
government, SunCor officials, Design Workshop planners, landowners,
utilities,
and local institutions resulted in a 17,000 acre Community College
District
Plan that codified a number of these common principles including a
commitment to offer fifteen percent affordable houses to be integrated
within the communities.
“As a way to demonstrate its commitment to the region's
new land-use guidelines, SunCor created what was essentially a 350-unit
demonstration village at Rancho Viejo, which is located within the Community
College District. ‘The first village was designed to stand on its own if
everything fell apart and there were no long-term approvals,’ says Porter.
"We wanted to create more of a clustered village pattern that preserved
open space. It was a way to demonstrate that we could all walk our talk.”
According to builderonline.com, “Cutting-edge financial
considerations are also in play at Ranch Viejo. Rather than buying the land
outright, SunCor pays the original landowners (a group called the Rancho Viejo
Limited Partnership) a percentage of each unit that is constructed. When SunCor
closes on a home, a check is written to the Partnership; the amount of each
check is spelled out in the agreement and is based on land value. The new
homeowner then owns the land.”
The project was begun in 1998, and in the year 2000 The Village
was offering houses that began at $125,000 – In Larry Meyer’s words, ”a real
bargain compared with the prices of most houses in town.”
The 1999 “Rancho Viejo Landscape Vision – Home Owner’s
Manual” for The Village tells the reader:
“The vision for the open space and
built landscape for the Rancho Viejo community is one that embraces the
surrounding natural landscape as the foundation for design. Rancho Viejo’s vision is to synthesize key
principals of ecological planning and sustainable design. A significant effort has been made to reduce
Rancho Viejo’s footprint on the land and environment.”
And in the Portfolio section of their website Design
Workshop described the realization of that vision.
“The Rancho Viejo
Community in Santa Fe County, New Mexico demonstrates the application of
environmental, economic, community and aesthetic values. Recent development
trends in Santa Fe have strayed from the traditional settlement pattern
intrinsic to its character. In an effort to reduce suburban sprawl and preserve
the region’s beauty, the landscape architect worked in collaboration with
government, developer and citizens to produce this mixed-use community. This
clustered village applies low-impact design practices of water conservation,
preserves wildlife habitat and connects pedestrians to surrounding preserved
open space.”
As a result of this philosophy Design Workshop says that
Rancho Viejo:
“Sustains all
public landscaping through treated, seasonally stored grey water effluent
(approximately 140,000 gallons per day).
“Reduced irrigation water consumption by
50%. As a result, the community received an additional 184 lots of development
rights from the City of Santa Fe at a 20% increase in density beyond current
water rights, allowing an additional $3 million in development.
“50% of open space is conserved as
aquifer recharge through cluster development limited to high flat plains.
“Donated over 600 acres of community
land to support five private, strategically placed educational institutions:
Santo Nino Regional Catholic School (pre K-6), Amy Biehl Community School
(K-6), Academy for Technology and the Classics (7-12), Santa Fe Community
College, and the Institute of American Indian Art (Associates and Bachelor’s
degrees).
“Over 15 miles of paved community trails
that form critical transportation connections to established city and county
trails.
“Approved the master plan and enabled
the project to sell 9,000 acres successfully.
“Holistic
water conservation plan designates limited turf areas to high use public areas,
uses native plant materials, and preserves existing vegetation.
“Stormwater is managed through multiple
sustainable features including: micro retention berms in streetscape; gabions
for sediment control and increased percolation in drainage ways; check dams or
hay bale dams to increase water harvesting and reduce erosion in swales;
parallel swales within park areas to spread water catchment; and detention
basins with riparian plantings for sediment control.
“Strategically placed lots take
advantage of solar orientation and visual amenities.”
In 2003 Mountain Living Magazine ASLA, Colorado Chapter,
presented Design Workshop and Rancho Viejo with the Responsible Development
Award in Community Design, and Honor Award and Land Stewardship for Planning for “Respecting and
building upon concepts from traditional New Mexico towns and plazas,
integrating neighborhoods. The 21,000-acre development included a presence in
the village center planning process, urban and village design, streetscape
design down to residential design guidelines (empowering homeowners to
customize their property).”
Popular reaction to The Village was however not all
positive. A 2004 article by
George Johnson in “The Santa Fe Review
A Journal of Commentary and Reportage” copyright 2004 described “row after row
of brown stucco houses, packed cheek to jowl on a tight grid of tiny lots
crisscrossed by narrow streets…Islands of open space, Suncor promises, will
periodically interrupt the sprawl. But no matter how the copywriters describe
it, what is on the drawing boards is nothing less than another city, to be
grafted onto Santa Fe.”
However Ike
Pino, a former Santa Fe city manager and, at that time, Rancho Viejo's general
manager sees a different picture. "The
large areas of open space, landscape treatments, and architectural features are
things that Joe Six Pack is not even familiar with, but they've all been
calculated to make him feel good the minute he drives into the community.
Having those values translated into requirements of the College District has
served us well in terms of our ambiance and our ability to sell homes."
And demand for residences in The Village was high – as
reported by Tom Sharpe in the August 27, 2000 Santa Fe New Mexican, “A half
dozen people spent Friday night outside the sales office of The Village at
Rancho Viejo so they could be sure to get a crack at eight new homes for sale
at below-average prices.”
The eight
new “plaza homes” were priced from $125,000 to 156,000 – well below the Santa
Fe median.
“Sleeping
bags, pillows, lawn chairs and thermoses of coffee were left on the office’s
desks at midmorning while the campers toured the model homes.”
Patrick
Tomas, Qualified Broker said that 200 of the 300 units had been sold.
The article
closed by describing Rancho Viejo as “a sprawling ranch south of Santa Fe that,
if fully developed, could hold as many people [61,000] as Santa Fe does today.”
However, it
being the desert southwest, there was that water thing as the Santa Fe new
Mexican reported on August 1, 2001.
Rancho
Viejo’s ‘existing contract with Santa Fe County for 168 acre-feet of water
could support development of about 672 houses.
The company needs to find other sources for water for the more than
11,000 houses it intends to build” – 12,000 units on 11,000 acres in the next
forty years according to the New Mexican.
For which
Rancho Viejo had a partial solution as described four days later in an August
5, 2001 Santa Fe New Mexican Op Ed column.
“For years
Ranch Viejo meant little more than a name on a map of greater Santa Fe, a
30-square-mile stretch of cholla, grass and juniper south of Interstate 25 for
which its owners had increasingly well-crafted plans.
“Symbolic
of the growth-guiding challenges to our county government [Rancho Viejo
suggested a joint venture] injecting treated sewer water into the ground
raising the water table.”
State
Engineer Tom Turney declined the offer.
However as described in the chapter “Water and Housing”, things have
changed.
And on the
other side of the Viejo was water and housing problem, Rancho Viejo was being
accused by County Commissioner Jack Sullivan of not “having kept up with their
affordable housing agreements” as detailed in the Santa Fe Community College
District plan
RV “is required to devote 15
percent of the homes allowed within its master plan to affordable housing. Three income ranges are targeted and 5
percent of the required 15 percent of homes are devoted to each target
range. Affordable housing units are
required to be integrated through out the development to promote diverse
neighborhoods.”
Rancho Viejo contended that it
was only eleven units behind that mark but the commission expressed concern
that the developer might have to build “one large section of affordable houses
at once” rather than integrating them into the community as promised.
And Larry Meyer reflected, “sitting here 20 years after
we bought Rancho Viejo/, it finally looks like it’s going to be a prudent
investment. The bottom line about the
partnership? Yes, there was a lot of
anxiety. However that’s now behind us,
and we’re proceeding very nicely. As I
say, Rancho Viejo has been a real success, thanks to SunCor and their excellent
management team.”
