The Truth or Consequences City Commission will decide whether to swap nearly 20 acres of city land between the city golf course and I-25 for 17.25 acres owned by Randy Ashbaugh that are located catty-corner across the highway and south of the city land. Ashbaugh will pay $86,500 in the exchange, if it goes through.
The city must have the property appraised, hold a public hearing and pass an ordinance to comply with state law. Appraisals have been done, and the public hearing will be on the agenda of the city commission’s Dec. 16 meeting.
None of the city commissioners responded to a request for an explanation of why the city is contemplating the exchange.
However, City Manager Morris Madrid offered the following justification in a Dec. 2 email to the Sun:
“The City is considering the land exchange with Mr. Ashbaugh primarily for three reasons:
1. It provides the City an opportunity to expand and develop the area around the old race track into a similar recreational facility.
2. It also provides an economic development opportunity for the establishment of a possible RV park.
3. The exchange provides funding for sidewalk improvements on Marie Street.
“At the present time, neither property serves any purpose.”
During the Nov. 18 city commission meeting, Madrid asked commissioners to approve the publication of the land-sale ordinance and notice of the public hearing. Madrid told commissioners Ashbaugh’s 17.25 acres was near what had been a racetrack, but said nothing about the city’s developing a racetrack.
An online search uncovered a discussion on the forum “race-dezert.com” about the first “jeep derby” in the country, held in 1956 in what was then Hot Springs, New Mexico.
Ashbaugh, in a Dec. 2 phone call, said he initiated the exchange because, “I want my property back.” He sold the 20 acres (comprised of three parcels) to the city about 20 years ago “so the city could build nine more holes for the golf course and a road, but that never happened.”
Ashbaugh wants the land in order to extend H. R. Ashbaugh Drive from Walmart south to Kopra Street “someday. Not now, but in the future.” To ensure he has control over the road project, Ashbaugh has to buy the entire 20 acres, he said.
“I’ve been working on it for four years,” Ashbaugh said, referring to the land exchange.
Ashbaugh owned the land on which Walmart is built and still owns the surrounding acreage. He also owns several Fast Stop gas stations/convenience stores in the area and a construction company, among other businesses.
Materials presenting the land exchange in the packet for the Nov. 18 city commission meeting made it appear the city initiated the sale of the three public parcels. A memo from City Zoning Administrator Traci Alvarez stated the parcels “were advertised in a non-legal ad February 2020.” Ashbaugh alone responded.
During the Nov. 18 meeting, Madrid explained it would not be an outright sale but an exchange of land, with Ashbaugh paying $86,500, since his land appraised for that much less than the city’s land.
The city properties were appraised by Eric Van Pelt of Van Pelt Appraisal Group of Las Cruces in June and August 2019.
The city-owned 19.9 acres is divided into three parcels of 7.059 acres, 2.312 acres and 10.536 acres, appraised at $71,000, $18,500 and $133,000, respectively, or $222,500 altogether. They are zoned R-1, denoting a single-family home residential area.
Van Pelt noted in his appraisal the 2.312-acre parcel is almost entirely in a flood zone.
“It’s the ditch,” Ashbaugh said. “I’m paying about $20,000 for the ditch.”
Kopra Street touches only tangentially on the 2.312 acre parcel, Van Pelt stated, and it is not paved. Road access to that parcel is limited. Much of it and the 7.059-acre lot is “transitional slopes” and “erodible soils.” Furthermore, I-25 runs overhead.
The 10-acre parcel has a “city water main running north to south” across it; otherwise no utilities exist on the three properties.
G. Vincent Barrett of Barrett Appraisal Services of Elephant Butte appraised Ashbaugh’s 17.25 acres in July 2019.
Barrett describes the lot as an “L shaped site,” at the “southwest corner of Kopra Road [sic] and Gun Club Road, west of I-25, within city limits.” The area is zoned T-1 or “transitional.”
The roads are “dirt tracts,” Barrett said, and there are no utilities on the property.
City commission approval of the land exchange at its Dec. 16 meeting will constitute an endorsement of Madrid’s envisioned usage of the acquired Ashbaugh property for a racetrack and RV park.