High Desert in Albuquerque, NM

High Desert is a 675-acre master-planned community in Albuquerque's far Northeast Heights, laid out on land that came down from the Elena Gallegos Land Grant to the Albuquerque Academy. The Academy's board formed High Desert Investment Corporation in 1991 to develop it. Tramway Boulevard runs along the west side, Simms Park Road the north, and the Cibola National Forest foothills the east, with the Bear Canyon and Embudito arroyos closing the south. Four major arroyos set the pattern of dedicated open space. Twenty-five villages sit inside the plan, eight of them behind gates, and one southwestern architectural style governs them all.

Chamisa Trail is one of the villages the association lists as open, while Enclave at High Desert and Legends at High Desert sit behind gates. The Canyons, Chaco Ridge, Trillium and West Highlands are among the rest, and all of them turn up in listing paperwork under the High Desert name.

The residential owners association looks after common areas, common walls, entrances, pocket parks and open space; HOAMCO runs day-to-day operations. The posted speed limit is 20 mph, and pets stay leashed everywhere, High Desert Park included.

High Desert Park carries tennis courts, and three walking trails thread the open space: the Spain Trail along Spain Road, the Academy Trail along Academy Road, and the Blue Grama Trail, which reaches east to Pino Pond and Pino Park. A water harvesting garden at Spain and Imperata, finished in 2003, gathers storm flow into a circular stone-clad pond. Nine acres around another pond on the Pino Arroyo form Lauda Miles Medara Memorial Park. The Michial M. Emery Trailhead opens onto Forest Service land at the eastern edge, and Albert G. Simms Park and the Elena Gallegos picnic ground lie just beyond.

The city council's roster of approved public improvement districts covers ten Albuquerque developments, and High Desert is not one of them.