Rio Rancho council approves Ask Academy gym site plan after neighbors raise siting, height concerns

The Rio Rancho City Council approved a site plan for a new gymnasium at Ask Academy, concluding a discussion in which nearby homeowners urged the city to require changes to the building’s placement and scale.

Amy Rincon, director of development services, told the council the proposed gym is sited west of NM‑528 and includes 101 required parking spaces, shared parking with existing school buildings, and a building height of 34 feet—about 2 feet above the typical 32‑foot standard but within a 10% administrative variance. Staff recommended approval.

Neighbors Joseph Curreri and Patrick and Manuelita Wolf said the plan, as submitted, conflicts with the city’s comprehensive plan and special‑use conditions and creates avoidable impacts on adjacent residences. Curreri said the school’s student population is capped at 600 and “has not demonstrated a need for a 1,600‑square‑foot facility,” and he asked the council to require the applicant to relocate the building nearer the school and reduce the facility to a scaled student gym and two locker rooms. The Wolfs asked the council to move the building to the southern portion of the parcel to minimize visual impacts and create opportunity for improved internal traffic circulation.

The applicant’s agent, representing Community Design Solutions, said the design locates the gym next to existing basketball courts to provide access on all sides for emergency apparatus and to avoid an easement area. He said design choices are driven by play‑area, circulation and regulation distances for basketball trusses, and indicated the project team was willing to consider modest adjustments. “We’ve minimized the height relative to maintaining a regulation basketball gym,” the agent said.

Councilors debated attaching a condition to approval requiring staff and the applicant to evaluate shifting the building. Councillor Weimer proposed, and the council supported, a site‑plan condition to consider relocating the gymnasium approximately 30 feet to the east or otherwise reconfiguring adjacent open‑space features to increase separation from residences while avoiding a full rework of completed design work. Council members also discussed tradeoffs including fire‑access circulation, costs of redesign, and potential noise impacts from moving a proposed movie‑night area.

The council approved D71 by roll call. Following the vote, Rincon said staff will review any administrative variance for building height as part of the site‑plan approval process.

Next steps: staff will complete final administrative reviews and any conditioned adjustments before issuing final site‑plan approvals and building‑permit processing.