RIO RANCHO — A former Santa Fe deputy police chief recently convinced the Rio Rancho Planning and Zoning Board to let him move forward with turning his winemaking hobby into a business.
The board unanimously voted on April 14 to provide Matthew Champlin with a zoning statement to permit winemaking from his Northern Meadows property under home occupation permitting conditions. The board did so after finding that in November 2025, the city made an error in determining the permissibility of winemaking and that a home business for that purpose would “not have a negative impact on the neighborhood.”
The decision reverses another made Feb. 13 by Rio Rancho City Manager Matt Geisel, who found that the city did not err and that a winegrower’s license on Champlin’s property would be “contrary to the public interest.”
In an interview, Champlin said he is “graciously thankful” that all the board members voted in his favor…