City Council Creates new Open Space Advisory Board

At their regular meeting yesterday and by a 7 to 1 vote, the El Paso City Council created a new Open Space Advisory Board. Currently there is an Open Space sub-committee of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Beginning with a retreat attended by some committee members at the end of January, a proposal was slowly formed to create a separate advisory board appointed by the Mayor and Council in order to focus additional attention on open space.

The Open Space Master Plan (Toward a Bright Future) is now over two years old. It recommended that several items be implemented in the first six months after its acceptance by Council. Not until PSB began formulating a Stormwater Master Plan this past fall were any of these recommendations even discussed. Why the delay to implement? Open Space was a sub-committee of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and would report to that Board - a cumbersome group of 19 individuals most of whom were interested in neighborhood issues. If a suggestion did get out of the Advisory Board, it still had to go before a Legislative Review Committee of the City Council before reaching City Council itself. (By the way, Council also created yesterday a new nine-member Board of Parks and Recreation.)

Another reason for the delay has been the inability of the Open space sub-committee to overcome the departmental layers of the city bureaucracy: Developmental Services, Parks and Recreation, Planning, and so forth.

With a new Advisory Board that works within the Parks and Recreation Department and reports directly to City Council, the Master Plan can begin to be implemented in a more timely fashion. The creation of the new Board removes levels of bureaucracy - something Representative Holguin didn't understand in spite of a chart created by Dr. Rick Bonart that shows the simpler pathway from Board to Council. (Holguin was the lone "no" vote against the proposal.)

The new ordinance states clearly that one of the board's duties will be to "provide recommendations on the implementation of 'Towards a Bright Future: A Green Infrastructure Plan for El Paso, Texas', commonly referred to as the Open Space Master Plan."

A Stormwater Engineer of the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board shall be an ex-officio member of the Council - an important ingredient again in implementing the plan. Moreover, the Board will provide input to the Mayor and Council on "legislative matters pertaining to open space submitted to the board by the director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, the director of the Developmental Services Department, the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Service Board, the director of the Economic Development Department and the City Flood Plain Administrator or their designees."

Implementing the Open Space plan not only preserves and protects huge areas of the El Paso environment, it also will help to control sprawl. Similar to Boulder's decades old "blue line", the creation of open space will help the City better manage growth. Such management can lead to more infill so that developers will do more to improve not just vacant areas in El Paso but possibly the most blighted areas as well.

El Paso is certainly on the right path and that was further demonstrated by a Trail Master Plan Citizens' Group organized by Shamori Whitt, the City's Open Space, Trails and Parks Coordinator. The group met last night for three hours and helped to identify hike and bike trails around the City for preservation. Attending the meeting was Jared Mendoza of the Engineering Traffic Division. He is helping to make El Paso a more walkable community.

Open space, walkability, ecotourism, outdoor recreation - these are key terms for El Paso's future. City Council took a big step into that future by creating an independent Open Space Advisory Board.