By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Two new custom homes are headed to Northern Boulevard after the Rio Rancho Governing Body on Aug. 13 rejected a neighbor’s appeal and upheld a Planning and Zoning Board decision allowing single-family houses on lots 10 feet narrower than city code typically permits.
The council considered two nearly identical appeals — one for 700 Northern Blvd. NE, one for 704 Northern Blvd. NE — both filed by resident Rebecca Smith against variances P&Z approved June 9 letting builders construct on 50-foot-wide lots instead of the 60 feet normally required in R-1 zoning. District One Councilor Deborah Dapson cast the lone dissenting vote on the split decision; Deputy Mayor and District Five Councilor Karissa Culbreath was excused.
Smith didn’t dispute the city’s inability to block a land sale — she disputed whether losing a neighboring lot counts as the kind of hardship the ordinance requires.
“I am not asking the board to prevent anybody from buying or selling property … My question is what effect the city’s overlay ordinance had on these lots while they were under common ownership and whether the current applicant has actually established the hardship required for a variance,” Smith said.
The lots were bought together in 1973 and stayed under one owner until Dec. 4, 2025, according to city records — just months before both variance applications landed at the same minute on May 1. One lot lists CLI Properties as owner with Solano Builders & Construction as agent; on the other, Solano Builders is the applicant outright.
“This is not simply two unrelated applications involving two unrelated developers,” Smith argued.
Property representative Diana Rivera pushed back, saying the timing was about convenience, not coordination. “It has nothing to do with them being related or the same, or having common ownership of the lots,” Rivera said. “They were applied for at the same time because it was easier to do the process together.”
Neighbor Vera Utara framed it differently — as a builder choosing profit over a genuine hardship. “It’s not a hardship for this guy because he bought both the lots to begin with … he could build on the two; he has a big, expensive, lovely custom house … so he could still make money,” Utara said.