Controversial master plan headed back to governing body for consideration

• Montreal Mini Master Plan objections include traffic impact, elimination of open land and possible leveling of a hill

The controversial Montreal Mini Master Plan, which would sandwich 80 new single-family homes between the Lomas Encantadas and Enchanted Hills subdivisions and adjacent to Mountain View Middle School, will be reconsidered at the August 23 meeting of the Rio Rancho Governing Body.

The plan failed to be approved at the June 23 meeting when Councilor Jim Owen (District 1) voted against it. The proposal needed four votes in favor, but, as a result of Owen’s vote, received only three.

For the Montreal Plan to be reconsidered, the prevailing party — the one whose vote decided the outcome of the proposal — needed to submit the item to the Governing Body for further discussion and consideration.

Owen did so at the Body’s July 28 meeting. So now the plan, which had seemed dead, has another chance to be approved.

Residents in the Lomas Encantadas and Enchanted Hills subdivisions have been vocal about their opposition to the Montreal Mini Master Plan.

Although they have objected to the increased traffic the plan will bring and possible overcrowding of area schools, their primary objection is the elimination of what is now open land and the destruction of a fairly substantial hill that provides a panoramic view of Rio Rancho and Albuquerque.

The area’s residents, including Mary Gruber, consider the hill special and have suggested that it should be incorporated into the plan.

At the June 23 meeting, Ron Bohannon, president of Tierra West, LLC, agent for Lomas Encantadas Development, LLC, the Plan’s developer said, “We are doing everything we can to make it (the Montreal subdivision) part of the community.”

He also acknowledged that change is hard, but maintained, “We think it’s a good land use.”