Dear HCN,


I read with great interest your article about alternative housing, “Earthships’ in Taos County, N.M. (HCN, 9/1/97). The builder asserts he is not creating a subdivision because he is not selling parcels of land and so he refuses to abide by state and county subdivision laws.


Hogwash. This developer is circumventing important laws designed to protect the public and the future inhabitants of his Earthships. Time for him to come down to earth and wake up to the fact that the New Mexico Subdivision Act clearly applies to him.

Lora A. Lucero


Albuquerque, New Mexico

The writer is an attorney.

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A law is a law is a law

by Lora A. Lucero, High Country News
October 27, 1997

<h1>A law is a law is a law</h1> <p class="byline">by Lora A. Lucero, High Country News <br />October 27, 1997</p> <p>Dear HCN,</p> <p>I read with great<br /> interest your article about alternative housing, “Earthships’ in<br /> Taos County, N.M. (HCN, 9/1/97). The builder asserts he is not<br /> creating a subdivision because he is not selling parcels of land<br /> and so he refuses to abide by state and county subdivision<br /> laws.</p> <p>Hogwash. This developer is circumventing<br /> important laws designed to protect the public and the future<br /> inhabitants of his Earthships. Time for him to come down to earth<br /> and wake up to the fact that the New Mexico Subdivision Act clearly<br /> applies to him.</p> <p>Lora A.<br /> Lucero</p> <p>Albuquerque, New<br /> Mexico</p> <p>The writer is an<br /> attorney.</p> </p> <div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box"> <p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=187086">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">A law is a law is a law</span>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/issue-117/a-law-is-a-law-is-a-law/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=102414&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/issue-117/a-law-is-a-law-is-a-law/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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