Glenwood Hills in Albuquerque, NM

Glenwood Hills is a foothills neighborhood at Albuquerque's northeast edge, east of Tramway Boulevard and backing onto Cibola National Forest land in the Sandia Mountains. Lonnie Brown laid it out in the early 1960s; adjacent subdivisions, among them Glenwood Hills North, Tierra Amada Townhouses and Glenwood Hills Lofts, were added around the original plat over the following decades. Glenwood Hills Drive leads to the Embudito trailhead, where Trail 192 climbs six miles to the South Crest Trail. Residents formed a voluntary property owners association in 1971, and membership has stayed optional ever since.

The association incorporated in November 1972 and has no enforcement authority, so it works by showing up: block captains and a volunteer patrol keep neighbors in contact, a garden club keeps the common areas planted, and members turn out at city and county hearings on commercial and municipal projects. Spring cleanups, National Night Out and an Easter egg hunt at Sunset Canyon Park fill the year.

The original plat went in without sidewalks or street lights, with power lines overhead. When Glenwood Hills North came forward in 1977 and 1978, the association took it to the city Planning Department and came away with lower density and larger lots along the older subdivision's edge.

Elena Gallegos Open Space lies just north along Tramway Boulevard, 640 acres of piñon and juniper with picnic shelters and trails that connect into the Sandia Mountain Wilderness. The paved Tramway multi-use path runs about ten miles along the corridor below the neighborhood.