Jewish Center permanently postponed from city council as owners demolish it

The owners of the Jewish Center, damaged by multiple fires, have begun demolition of the building, prompting new action during the Jan.11 Rio Rancho Governing Body meeting.

Mayor Gregg Hull moved to indefinitely postpone an agenda item at that city council meeting that would require the owners of the Jewish Center to either demolish or rework the property.

“I am going to recommend a permanent postponement because the demolition has begun on this building,” Hull said.

The agenda item had been postponed a few times already, which left some uncertainty with residents. Hull says the owners have tractors working on the property now and that they asked for the demolition permit prior to the Dec. 14 governing body meeting.

“There’s also been remediation of the asbestos,” Hull added.

Asbestos is the name given to a group of naturally occurring fibrous minerals that are resistant to heat and corrosion. Because of these properties, asbestos has been used in commercial products such as insulation and fireproofing materials, automotive brakes, and wallboard materials. However, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled in 1989 that asbestos be banned because of its toxic nature. Asbestos was linked to certain diseases, including mesothelioma and lung cancer.

The Rio Rancho building was constructed in 1965 as the Rio Rancho Estates Building before it became the Jewish Center later, so asbestos would have been used during its construction.

At the Nov. 16 governing body meeting, resident Casey Robinson spoke about the need for a synagogue in Rio Rancho as part of public comment. He called the Jewish Center “disgusting.”

“This is one of the most disgusting properties in the city. It’s been a problem for a very long time. You have less than 450 Jews in this city, and I am one of them,” he said.

He added that the Jewish Center is the only building that says it’s a “Jewish Center … but what it is is the biggest blight on our city. I could not believe driving past it the first day I moved here,” he said.

He went on to say that the Jewish community that has more hate crimes happen to them than any other religion in the country.

According to Statista data, 2022 anti-Jewish hate crimes came in first place with a total of 1,122 cases in the United States.

“There is not a single temple of synagogue in this city,” he said.

Robinson requested that the city move forward and demolish the property.

The Jewish Center was dubbed an unsafe structure last March due to serious damage done by multiple fires from the last two years. The Rio Rancho Police Department responded to calls for service 47 times and dispatched 82 officers to the property from December 2022 through October 2023. Those calls for service consisted of a structure fire, area checks, suspicious activity, criminal damage and public nuisance calls.

According to the resolution, Rio Rancho Fire Rescue code enforcement found the property to be so damaged that the building and surrounding area constituted a problem to the public, finding that removal and/or repair of the building was warranted.

The governing body voted unanimously to indefinitely postpone the item.