- Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) -

Since the dawn of civilization, man has looked at the stars and dreamt about their meaning.  There's a primal need for man to gaze at the night sky, and to wonder about his place in the universe.

Dark, night skies have been an essential element in the collective growth of mankind, influencing the very idea of what it means to be human.  Without protection of our night skies, it will be difficult, if not impossible for future generations to have, or even to imagine the experience that New Mexico Skies has to offer.

Without conscious action on our part, future generations will not experience the night sky as we, and our ancestors have known it.  For the first time in human history, the world's dark night skies have become a rare and ever vanishing asset. The star filled sky is a precious treasure for all of mankind, and we have a duty to preserve these skies.

M-33. - This is a SINGLE 5 MINUTE IMAGE
with a Takahashi 180 mm scope,
a "one-shot" Canon 20Da, DSLR Camera,
taken from New Mexico Skies
by a beginning imager.

Our Goal.

New Mexico Skies offers extraordinary sky conditions, found no where else in North America.  The exceptionally dark skies, the excellent seeing, the phenomenal transparency, the clean dry mountain air, and a micro-climate that's second to none makes New Mexico Skies so very remarkable.  

The purpose of these COVENANTS is to allow those uses that are compatible with and that will enhance New Mexico Skies distinction as North America’s premier location for amateur astronomy, and to prohibit those uses that would be incompatible with astronomy.

The New Mexico Skies community is dedicated to the preservation and protection of the dark night skies, and we choose to subject ourselves to these Covenants in order to promote the proper use, the appropriate development, and suitable improvement of the community.

Highlights of the Covenants

1. Single Family, residential land use only.  New Mexico Skies is an Owner-Occupied community, by amateur astronomers, for amateur astronomers. Time-Shares, Duplexes, Condo and Multi-Family homes are prohibited. You'll actually get to know your neighbors by name, and more importantly, you'll want to know your neighbors.
2. Each lot will have a designated use plan that lays out  the best place is for the Observatory(s) and your Home.  A portion of each lot will be set aside as a conservation area. - You'll also get to know the Deer, the Elk and the wild Turkeys by name.
3. Minimum of 1,400 to 1,800 sq. ft. for the home (depending upon the lot).  Maximum height restrictions apply to protect our excellent views.
4. The protection of our night skies is very important to us. So much so that we've dedicated over 6 pages of our CC&Rs to preventing the adverse effects of light pollution, light trespass, glare and sky glow.  Plus, New Mexico has some of the most stringent state laws in the nation regarding light pollution.
5. The Architectural Control Committee will review all proposed improvements for conformity with the CC&Rs prior to construction.
6. Up to 3 observatories will be permitted on each lot for a total of 700 sq. ft. of observatory area.  The tallest observatory may not exceed 35' in height.  The observatory and home will be situated such that each lot will have an EXCELLENT view of the day and night skies.
7. Additional structures, such as a storage building (shop or garage) and a Gazebo will be allowed.
8. Woodlands Preservation will provide protection for the native trees and for the local wildlife.  -  A limited amount of fenced in yard will be allowed, but a good portion of your lot will be accessible to the wildlife.  -  It's not unusual to find 25 Deer, or 35 wild Turkeys walking thru your yard on any given day.
9. House pets are welcome, but no farm animals.
10. Left, Right and Developer Resale Rule.  When it's time to sell your lot, you must first offer a 1st Right of Refusal to the neighbor on the Left, then the Right and finally to the Developer.  This way, the folks who live here will have an opportunity to let their friends know about the lot.  As we said before, we want to know our neighbors by name.
11. Wood burning fireplaces and other sources of undesirable thermal emissions or airborne pollutants are prohibited.
12. Off road vehicles are permitted on our roads (4-wheelers, golf carts, gators, etc.), but they are strictly regulated.
13. Rental of your home and observatory is permitted for up to 4 months during any 12 month period.  Pre-approval of all renters is required by the Home Owners Association (HOA).
14. The HOA will maintain the common areas, roads, and the shared water system, which includes 10,000 gallons of elevated water storage for fire protection use.  The HOA dues are $600 per year.
15. As a responsible community, we encourage the use of alternative energy, water recycling, and energy efficient homes.

We have over 50 pages of CC&Rs, all of which are designed to protect our night skies for generations to come.  We can't cover all the details here, but rest assured that between the CC&Rs, the HOA rules and bylaws, you'll be enjoying the DARK night skies for generations to come.

Why 50 pages?

Some folks have questioned why we need over 50 pages of CC&Rs, and the easy answer is:
"WE DON'T NEED THEM, WE WANT THEM."   

A somewhat more appropriate answer is:  
"WE WANT TO PROTECT OUR NIGHT SKIES FOR GENERATIONS TO COME."

We know that 99.999% of all amateur astronomers don't need the CC&Rs to tell them what to do. The honest and honorable amateur astronomers will read the CC&Rs once, they'll say to themselves: "That makes sense", and then file them away. Good neighbors will protect our night skies because it's the right thing to do, and they'll protect our night skies because they want to.

Decent people already know how to be good neighbors, and the CC&Rs won't impact them at all. But, unfortunately, there's always a chance we might get a "bad-apple". That's why we have 50+ pages of CC&Rs. If it ever becomes necessary to enforce the CC&Rs, we'll have the ability to do so.

Think of the CC&Rs as being the rules or the "laws" of our community. You've probably never read all of the Federal Laws, State Laws, County Laws and City Laws that apply to your present homesite. But when things go wrong, you're sure glad there in place. In all honesty, we're only interested in having neighbors who don't need rules, regulations and laws to tell them how to act.

Our developer, Tom Simstad, has personally developed over 600 residential lots, and numerous commercial properties. He's never filed a law suit to enforce the CC&Rs in any of his communities. Simply stated, good people want to live in a community that has good, common-sense rules that protect their common interests. Voluntary compliance is what makes good communities GREAT.

It's sad to say, but no one should seriously consider moving into any community without adequate CC&Rs. In many areas, the CC&Rs offer the only real protection for the common interests of the community.

Interesting Facts:

New Mexico Skies is located in the Sacramento Mountains, which is in a fairly remote part of south-east New Mexico. We're located on a privately owned mountain top, surrounded by the Lincoln National Forest. The valley immediately to our north is known as James Canyon and it's approximately 400' below our mountain. State highway 82 runs through James Canyon from Alamogordo, east to the Texas border.

Over 99% of the surrounding land is part of the Lincoln National Forest, so we're assured that our excellent dark skies will be around for a very, very long time....