Rio Rancho reviews strategic-plan progress, citizen survey and FY‑26 priorities; council asks staff to pursue property‑maintenance tools

Rio Rancho held its annual governing-body work session in July 2025 to review implementation of the 2023–2028 strategic plan, present results of the city’s biennial citizen survey and set proposed goals and priorities for fiscal year 2026.

"This is our annual strategic plan update for the 2023 through 2028 strategic plan," city staff presenter Ryan Chavez said as he opened the update. The review summarized implementation metrics across five service areas and identified several near-term projects and policy topics for the coming year.

Why it matters: The strategic-plan progress report, the citizen survey and the governing body’s guidance will shape next year’s budget, capital-improvement planning and ordinance work. Councilors asked staff to fold nuisance-related topics — including a property maintenance code, dust control and civil monetary penalties — into the planning calendar alongside projects such as utility revenue bonds and major road and public-safety investments.

Strategic-plan progress and metrics City staff reported implementation status on dozens of objectives drawn from the adopted 2023–2028 strategic plan. Highlights presented by Chavez included: - Campus Park Phase 2: 100% complete. - Broadmoor Senior Center Phase 2: about 70% complete. - Initial planning for a multigenerational recreation facility: about 70% complete. - Home repair assistance program: 100% complete for the tracked objective. - Library cardholders toward a 50,000 goal: about 45,000 registered. - College Boulevard Phase 1 construction: complete. - Utilities rate schedule: 100% finalized. - Computer-aided dispatch and records-management systems (CAD/RMS): implemented for public safety. - Multiyear staffing plan: roughly 85% complete. Staff also reported eight active facilities projects comprising about 15.32 miles in the long-range pipeline and recorded 272 new volunteers in fiscal year 2025.

Citizen survey: methodology and headline findings City staff presented results from the National Research Center and Polco survey instrument. The mailed, statistically valid sample invited 3,000 households; 329 mail-sample surveys were completed (an 11% response rate). One mail-sample response was completed in Spanish. The mail sample carried a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of ±5.4 percentage points. An open, self‑selected online version ran for two weeks and produced 296 additional responses that were reported separately from the representative sample.

Key, statistically valid findings cited by staff included: - Quality of life and willingness to recommend Rio Rancho: roughly nine in 10 respondents said they were very or somewhat likely to recommend living in Rio Rancho and planned to remain in the city for the next five years — both measures above national benchmarks. - Safety: 97% of respondents said they feel somewhat or very safe in their neighborhood during the day; 93% rated fire services excellent or good. - Mobility gaps: mobility showed the largest gap between importance and quality. While 78% rated mobility as essential or very important, only about 25% rated overall mobility quality as excellent or good. Ratings for ease of travel by bicycle and on foot were low (about three in 10 rated those positively) and trailed national averages; car travel ratings declined to about 60% excellent or good and were a statistically significant decline from the prior survey. - Parks and recreation: several parks-and-recreation measures (availability of paths and walking trails, fitness opportunities) fell below national averages. - Custom questions: respondents generally supported continuing proposed general-obligation bond questions for infrastructure, public safety and quality of life provided there would be no tax increase. Seventy percent of respondents said they would be somewhat or very supportive of changing to a plurality voting system. A majority indicated support for retaining the municipal code restriction that prohibits oversized vehicles from parking overnight on public streets.

Goals and planning calendar for FY‑26 City staff proposed five priority actions to guide FY‑26 work and the governing body’s direction to staff included the items below (staff presented these as proposals rather than formal votes): - Pursue utility revenue-bond issuance to support the utilities department’s five-year capital plan and related infrastructure. - Initiate construction of Unser Boulevard Phase 2 (reconstruction/widening of Unser from Cherry to PDV), including storm drainage and some utility adjustments tied to the corridor work. - Initiate construction of Fire Station 8 (staff noted the station buildout will require roughly 15 additional firefighters when fully operational). - Explore additional long-term leases or sales of cell‑tower assets to generate one-time proceeds for the city’s permanent fund (staff noted a prior long-term lease generated about $1.1 million in proceeds). - Initiate a pilot youth after‑school program aimed at quality‑of‑life and public‑safety outcomes.

Council direction on nuisance, code updates and financial planning During discussion, council members urged staff to add nuisance-related work to the planning calendar. City staff described the city’s existing nuisance language in chapter 91 of the municipal code (the transcript noted the chapter dates from the 1990s) and presented the International Code Council’s Property Maintenance Code as an example of a more prescriptive, modern code used by other jurisdictions. Councilors also raised dust control, front‑yard parking and weed maintenance as topics for review.

Staff framed civil monetary penalties as a tool that could operate in parallel with an updated property‑maintenance or nuisance code; several councilors expressed support for pursuing that workstream. City staff also recommended multi‑year sources-and-uses financial planning to account for expiring gross-receipts-tax pledges (staff noted the higher‑education gross receipts tax increment is set to expire June 30, 2027) and to model how recurring costs (for example, staffing Fire Station 8) will affect baseline budgets.

What’s next Staff said the items will be integrated into the city’s planning calendar and returned for more-detailed work sessions or draft legislation as appropriate. Staff also noted upcoming calendar items including revenue-bond and utility-rate work, development‑process manual updates and the municipal election calendar (staff cited candidate declarations and a March 3, 2026 municipal election date in the planning timeline). No formal ordinance votes or certified actions were taken at the work session; the items discussed were proposals and direction to staff to pursue planning and drafting work.

Sources: presentation and remarks at the Rio Rancho governing‑body work session by city staff and comments from governing‑body members.