Rio Rancho South in Rio Rancho, NM

Rio Rancho South is the south end of the city, the side that turns toward Albuquerque, and it works as a container for several separate developments rather than being one itself. The largest is Cabezon, a master plan begun in the early 2000s between Unser, Southern and Westside boulevards and Golf Course Road, where individual neighborhoods share a community center, a seasonal pool, parks and a trail system under HOA covenants. Newer subdivisions fill in around it, with Pulte, D.R. Horton and Richmond American all building there.

Three communities sit under this heading. Cabezon covers the most ground and holds the shared infrastructure; its interior neighborhoods, Astante among them, keep their own names and their own associations, and townhomes appear there alongside detached houses. Los Diamantes has moved through numbered phases rather than opening all at once. Vista Montebella is the newest of the three, built out with ranch and two-story floor plans.

The public improvement district belongs to Cabezon, not to the whole south end. It was formed in 2004 to finance a drainage channel and related public work, and covers roughly 700 acres. Its enhanced services line funds ongoing upkeep of the linear park and of landscaping in city rights-of-way along Cabezon Boulevard, Westside Boulevard, Western Hills Road, Trailside and the east side of Unser Boulevard.

The city operates Cabezon Community Center and Park at the heart of it. A Park Above opened there as New Mexico's first fully inclusive and accessible playground, and the grounds also hold a seasonal splash pad, an amphitheater, a labyrinth walking path, a dog park, a football field and play equipment scaled for ages three to twelve.

Southern Boulevard and Unser Boulevard carry the through traffic, and downtown Albuquerque is roughly twenty-five minutes away. Sabana Grande Recreation Center is the other city recreation facility serving this side of town.