Star Heights in Rio Rancho, NM

Star Heights is a Rio Rancho neighborhood northwest of the Southern Boulevard and Unser Boulevard intersection, reached by Wexford Road and Polaris Boulevard. Its houses went up in the late 1970s on ground AMREP platted as part of Rio Rancho Estates, the enormous subdivision that grew into the city. Star Heights Park anchors it, 3.7 acres the city pairs with the Star Heights Recreation Center: a skate park, playground, basketball courts and indoor space that hosts youth soccer and fitness classes. Ownership here comes without association dues.

The neighborhood's origins are AMREP Corporation's. The company bought 55,000 acres on the edge of Albuquerque in the early 1960s, platted the land as Rio Rancho Estates and marketed it to buyers in the Midwest and the eastern states. Home building started in 1962, and a second purchase in 1971 pushed the holding to roughly 92,000 acres, more ground than the city of Albuquerque covers. Star Heights is one of the later pieces of that grid to fill in.

The park adds volleyball and tetherball courts, picnic tables, a gazebo, drinking fountains, a grass field, a learning center and an accessible parking lot; dogs are welcome on the grounds. Unser Boulevard, just east, is the through route north into the rest of Rio Rancho and south toward Albuquerque's west side.