
Dear Friends of Los Ranchos,
We hope you’re enjoying the Spring! If your spring cleaning has uncovered items you no longer need, please consider donating them for sale by FOLR at the Community Yard Sale in the Village barn on April 27th from 8 am - 1:30 pm. In keeping with our mission to preserve Village land, wildlife, culture and heritage, all proceeds will be donated to the Village of Los Ranchos' Open Space Fund.
We welcome clean and workable donations of all kinds. We’re particularly interested in jewelry and art, but welcome books, clothing and other items.
To donate: Text or call us at 505-589-9803 or 978-578-6297 to arrange a drop-off.
Visit us at the Community Yard Sale! Stop by our table on April 27th, we’d love to catch up. We are also planning a spring get-together in the near future that will give us all a chance to get caught up on everything.
The past year was a busy one for FOLR. Despite a court ruling against them, Palindrome kept on building. The past Lopez administration was found in violation of the Open Meetings Act, and staff approval of the site plans was ruled illegal. The court’s remedy was to have Palindrome submit their site development plan for approval to the Village’s Planning and Zoning (P&Z) commission and to the Board of Trustees. P&Z Commission has since approved Palindrome’s site development plan with conditions.
The BOT will hold a special meeting on April 10th at 5pm at the Village Hall to discuss Palindrome’s application for approval. Please visit the Village web site for more detail about this and other upcoming meetings. We hope you will join us at this important meeting and voice your opinion!
Other upcoming meetings:
April 8, 6pm: Regular Planning & Zoning Meeting
April 15, 6pm: Regular Board of Trustees Meeting
Wishing all of you a Happy Spring!
Marsha Adams, President
Marcia Smiley, Vice President
Nancy Nangeroni, Secretary
Preserve the trees
don't be convinced
to cut one down
give it water
give it life
regrow the canopy
FOLR Settles Lawsuits with Village, Palindrome
Trustee approval 10/23 ends legal drain on Village coffers, saves Village over $85K in legal reimbursement, according to Village attorney
ABQ Journal: Parties in Palindrome dispute agree to settlement
FOLR Comments for October P&Z Meeting
We wrote the following letter/opinion to the ABQ Journal editor in response to Chad Rennaker’s propaganda the Journal published on July 12. To date, our letter remains unpublished.
Palindrome is NOT acting in good faith
In the July 12 Journal Opinion “Palindrome has acted in good faith on Village Center Project”, Chad Rennaker, Palindrome CEO, advances egregious untruths that need correction.
He starts by falsely claiming that Friends of Los Ranchos (FOLR) claims that he hasn’t met with us. That is untrue, we’ve never claimed that he wouldn’t or hasn’t met with us. He just never made a significant concession to residents’ interests.
His claim that FOLR walked out of the mediation is false. He was the only one that didn't show up in person, calling in via Zoom. He suggested that Friends raise $10 million to make modifications to his development. Talks quickly broke down. FOLR spent hours waiting, working towards a better result, departing only when lawyers for both sides agreed no progress was possible.
Rennaker claims that tearing down the illegal buildings would cost the village tens of millions. But in court he testified that it would cost his own company those monies, potentially putting him out of business. He knows that the Village will never be liable for the cost of curing the blight that he’s trying to impose on us. His development is illegal, product of a corrupt process that conspired to circumvent residents’ wishes.
He also claims that his development fulfills two decades of planning; again, false. The Village planned low-profile buildings housing community assets and senior-specific housing. Not the monstrosity.
Rennaker also claims, in an ongoing refrain, that residents and newly elected officials “do not want affordable housing in their community.” This is patently untrue. In fact, FOLR and most Village residents do not oppose affordable housing. We support assistance to people who are struggling to make ends meet. We have multiple apartments and trailer parks in our Village which are affordable housing that makes sense. They are low impact on the environment compared to developments like Rennaker’s. They don’t burden the local community with a sudden population increase. Indeed, a mobile home park was destroyed, residents evicted, as part of the machinations that brought us this monstrosity.
The problem with mobile homes and small-scale affordable apartments is that they don’t make anyone rich.
Rennaker claims that he is willing to make compromises, but in the two recent meetings with Villagers, he offered 10 “compromises” – meaningless overtures – that included things like choice of a paint color from three options, a banner of our choice hung on one of the buildings, and actually following the law for the final phases of the development.
On top of all this, Rennaker’s property management company, PacifiCap, has been called out by tenants at multiple sites for shoddy construction and unresponsive management. He’d saddle the Village with a deteriorating eyesore filled with unhappy tenants. We’d greatly prefer affordable housing that integrates people into the community instead of crowding, isolating and subjecting them to his mismanagement.
Rennaker’s not being honest with us. We cannot trust his words. But FOLR has been, and will continue to be, an honest representative of Village residents. Those residents who say they don’t want the illegal structure torn down are mostly saying so because they fear the financial ruin of the Village. But the Village is protected by an indemnification clause in the contract with Palindrome, the NM Risk Management Department, and the court’s judgment in our favor. Friends will not be the cause of the ruin of our Village. We hate wasting that construction expense. But if we can get that monstrosity torn down — as the law provides — then we will do so.
Marsha Adams, President, FOLR
Nancy Nangeroni, Secretary, FOLR

Public Meeting: Ordinance #299
(Conservation Development)
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
5-7 pm
6718 Rio Grande, Village Hall

Journal 7/24, Ollie Reed: Palindrome construction may go on
FOLR is disappointed to report that In court today, Judge Luhan ruled in favor of Palindrome in both matters before her, imposing a temporary restraining order (TRO) against trustee Jennifer Keuffer on Palindrome-related matters, and refusing to order the stoppage of Palindrome's continued construction on the Village Center project.
ABQ Journal OPINION 7/8/24: Palindrome's apartment complex was done illegally and should be torn down
Letter to the editor by FOLR President Marsha Adams and FOLR Secretary Nancy Nangeroni.
Other Buildings Torn Down Before Completion
Las Vegas, NV: 28-story hotel building torn down in 2015 (also Wikipedia: The Harmon)
Village Meetings with Palindrome
June 24, 2024
June 22, 2024
What do YOU want to see happen with the Village Center? Developer voices are being heard. What about yours? Email your trustees today:
Journal Letter to the editor (6/14): Palindrome Bears Responsibility
The Journal’s Ollie Reed (6/10): Now, the suits are involved: Los Ranchos and Village Center developer meeting in hopes of heading off litigation
KOB4 News (6/10): Legal battle brews over Village Center development in Los Ranchos
Journal Comes Out Swinging Against Us:
Congratulations FOLR Members
You showed up and successfully defended the rule of law in our Village on Wednesday, May 29 at the Trustees meeting. (video)
You helped defeat the motion to appeal the court’s ruling that the approvals for Palindrome’s development illegally excluded public participation in the planning process
You helped approve the filing of an injunction against Palindrome’s continued construction at 4th & Osuna
Letter to the Albuquerque Journal:
reprinted without permission
Joe Craig fought to preserve Los Ranchos
I want to thank the Journal, and especially staff writer Ollie Reed Jr., for several recent front-page columns about the determined fight in Los Ranchos to stop the massive, illegal, and hotly contested Palindrome development at Fourth and Osuna.
I especially commend you for (the May 22) article about the untimely death of Los Ranchos Mayor Joe Craig, one of the most adamant fighters against this offensive development and in defense of protecting and sustaining the village’s rural character against such intrusive developments that are imposed without villager approval.
I did not know Joe Craig until I joined hundreds of other Los Ranchos villagers in organizing to stop the Palindrome project, which Ollie’s article says is “popularly known as the Village Center,” though we in the village do not call it that.
Rather, it is an ugly, imposed construction that we had no voice in approving and now struggle to halt its offensive and illegal construction.
Joe Craig led us with passion in this fight. His sudden death is a great loss not only to his family, but also to this village whose rural nature he fought valiantly to protect, and to all the villagers who joined in the effort he led.
We join with his family in mourning his passing. In addition, I hope we have learned from his example and will continue this fight until the offensive Palindrome project, and any others like it, learn to respect our desire to grow and modernize in ways that respect our open spaces, our rural history, and our commitment to local voice and control.
LOIS MEYER
Los Ranchos
Arguments Against Guadalupe/Chavez
Equip yourself with our notes about why the Guadalupe/Chavez development is wrong for Los Ranchos.
New FOLR Leadership
With Joe Craig’s election as Mayor of Los Ranchos, and because of FOLR’s pending litigation against the Village for violations of local and state law, Joe has resigned from all involvement with the Friends of Los Ranchos. We thank Joe for his years of service to FOLR, and welcome his continuing service as our Mayor with great anticipation and our full support. Thanks, Joe, you’re the best!
FOLR’s Board has unanimously elected as our new President Marsha Adams. We also unanimously elected as our new Vice President Marcia Smiley.
Here’s the letter which was sent out by email to voting members of the FOLR Board.
Voting concluded on December 13 when the outcome was announced by phone to all voting members and posted here on the FOLR website.
Watch Trustee Meetings
Read Los Ranchos-related articles and Journal letters to the editor on our media page