100 Diamond Tail Rd |
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Light on the land So inky black are the night skies at Diamond Tail Ranch that the community's first park has been designed for stargazers. Residents hike the short pathway to the Shooting Star Corral, where they'll find permanent pads installed for private telescopes. Conversations with neighbors flow easily under the old-fashioned ramada, its shady roof crisscrossed with oak branches. Here, where foothills and canyons merge into the Sandia Mountains northeast of Placitas, New Mexico, there are no street lights. Hiking trails take the place of grassy parks and basketball courts. Hilltops and ridgelines sprout trees and boulders instead of brightly lit homes. Open space is abundant, as is wildlife. "We're building a community -- a lifestyle, not a subdivision," is what Diamond Tail Ranch manager Dan Dennison tells the empty nesters and professionals who come here to buy and build in this exclusive high desert community, where the price of the average home is expected to be in the high six figures. Diamond Tail Ranch, a master planned community, is the first Signature Community to debut at the annual Homes of Enchantment Parade sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico. During the Parade weekends, the gated community will be accessible to the public, with open houses at two homes. Visitors can tour Phase I of Diamond Tail Ranch, 59 home sites on 231 acres dotted with pinon and juniper. In all, about 300 homes are planned for the 1,800-acre development to be built in five phases by owner/developer Joe Matthews. The Diamond Tail Ranch community impacts less than 10 percent of the vast 20,000-acre ranch owned by the Matthews family, a canyon-studded land with an Old West pedigree. The property's rich history encompasses Pueblo Indian sites and Spanish land grant villages, Apache raids, and mining camps. The land has been in the Matthews family since 1958, when it was purchased by Joe Matthews' grandmother. The ranch's vibrant historical context made it an attractive choice for the Parade's first featured Signature Community, says Jim Folkman, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico. "We plan to feature a community each year," he says. "It is a recognition of stellar work in laying out a new subdivision." Nestled into the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, Diamond Tail Ranch is beginning to bustle a decade after development was proposed. Two years ago, when Dennison came on board as project manager, 6 of 59 Phase I lots had been sold. Two homes had been completed. Today, nearly 40 home sites have been purchased or reserved, and 8 homes are under construction. "It's a magical, special place," concedes Dennison, who has established an onsite management office and realty company known as Ristra Realty, LLC. Dennison, its president, brings 25 years of master planned community management experience to the mix and oversees the venture from the site, along with an administrative assistant, Marian Lucero-Barner. "From the start, Diamond Tail has been about sensitive development," he says. "By that we mean low density, voluntarily preserving the historic archeological sites on the property, and encouraging extreme water conservation." With 300 home sites spread over 1,800 acres, Diamond Tail will average about one home every 6 acres, according to Dennison. Common open space will account for about 40 percent of the development's land mass, he ads, and most private home lots are a minimum of 2 acres. A shared well system managed by the homeowners' association will provide water, with each well shared by up to 6 homes. "Higher density would require more earth moving," he says. "And that's what we're trying to avoid." With elevations at Diamond Tail ranging from 5,800 to 6,800 feet, vistas are 360 degrees and include sweeping views of Jemez, Sandia, Ortiz, and Sangre de Christo mountain ranges. Nonetheless, no homes will be perched atop hills, ridgelines, or prominent canyon outcroppings. Instead, houses follow hillside contours or are nestled into canyons. Underground utilities -- natural gas, electricity, and telephone service -- are provided to each lot, and high-speed wireless Internet service is available. Phase I lots range in size between two and three acres and range in price from $105,000 to $250,000. "We've taken extreme care with site preparation," says Dennison. "We're very persnickety. A builder can't just obliterate the site." Although buyers may choose their own builders, each home plan is subject to Diamond Tail's extensive covenants. An architectural design committee reviews each plan to ensure a high quality of design and construction, according to Dennison. Among the covenant stipulations are home size (a minimum of 2,400 square feet), height restrictions, color, and a ban on front-facing garages. All home designs must adhere to a Southwestern style, be it Pueblo, Territorial, or northern New Mexican. "But that doesn't mean we won't have some very contemporary homes in here," says Dennison. Indeed, builder Eric Merryman of ENM Homes will open his recently completed personal home during the Parade. Constructed of Perform Wall, a concrete form system produced from recycled polystyrene with a cement binder, the 3,300-square-foot home features many passive solar elements. Thick interior adobe walls have been added for thermal mass to store the heat coming in through south-facing windows and clerestories. Flagstone awnings assist with shading and cooling during the summer, as does a spray-foam insulated roof with R-values ranging from 44 to 51. A solar hot water system heats domestic water and powers the radiant infloor heating system. A mechanical night flushing system can push out warm indoor air, then pull in cooler outdoor breezes for summertime cooling. Diamond Tail's incredible vistas were an attraction to Merryman, who had previously lived in Albuquerque's university area and in Tijeras Canyon. "We wanted to get in a higher-end mountain community where I could build energy-efficient homes," he says. "I wanted to work in the community where we live." The rugged landscape of the Diamond Tail Ranch -- and the presence of water in nearby Las Huertas Creek -- has always attracted people, however. "This was an east-west trade route between the Pueblo and the Plains Indians," says Martha Liebert, an archivist with the Sandoval County Historical Society. "There is a tiny access through the mountains to the prairies. The Pueblo peoples came through here to trade corn for buffalo." By 1767, the area was settled by Spaniards after Juan Gutierres was awarded a parcel of land designated as the San Antonio de Las Huertas Land Grant. A handful of founding families established the walled village of Las Huertas, which eventually was disbanded in the 1820s because it could not be adequately protected from raiding Plains Indians. By 1840, the Spanish settlers were back, this time establishing three small villages in the area, of which modern-day Placitas (translated as "little plazas") is one, according to Liebert. Other historical sites on Diamond Tail Ranch include the ruins of the coal-mining community of Hagan and the little community of Tejon, which has all but vanished. By the 1880s, the Spanish land grant families, with little legal documentation to prove ownership of the land, were forced to trade the bulk of the communal grazing lands and the village of Tejon as payment for legal services to protect the remainder of the land grant. Since then, the property has been in various private hands. Many modern-day settlers at the gated Diamond Tail Ranch community are also coming from outside of New Mexico, according to Dennison. They're attracted to the stunning views, the large, open lots and privacy, and the opportunity to meet neighbors in a new community. "Highly educated, well-traveled, successful in their careers but anticipating retirement," is how Dennison explains the new demographics. "They don't want something off the shelf. This may be their last home or one of several homes. This extraordinary place is a gathering spot for their kids and grandkids." Even after buyers decide on a lot, they may wait two or three years to design and build a home, he adds. "Most are very involved in the decision-making process," he says. "They do their research and aren't afraid to disregard convention. We've found they're less concerned about resale values or the ratio of land to home. They may go with a smaller house, but with top-of-the-line amenities. This is where they come to nest, to cocoon." |