Sign the Petition: Save the Land!

Get 1548 signatures! That’s the overwhelming message that came back after my last e-letter. I was inundated by email from people who want to preserve the natural open space of the Transmountain Scenic Corridor and they want to sign the petition. Many of them are willing to gather petitions stat!

Why:

1. People want an alternative to the Paseo del Norte overpass. That overpass will make development of the land possible and inevitable. They want an alternative that means saving the open space.

2. Only the petition has the potential to allow the citizens to vote on preserving the land around the proposed freeway. A board member of the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition said, "I thought the petition would put this on the ballot for voters to decide how they want the public land managed which would in turn requre the City Council to honor that directive from their constituents."

3. One petition gatherer remarked: “I love the mountains and conserving the beautiful things about El Paso and for those reasons I will not throw in the towel.”

There have been some misconceptions about the petition. Know two things:

1. The petition and its language are perfectly good.

2. There are other ways to preserve land as natural open space besides a Natural Open Space Zoning.

There is a reason for ONE petition being done TWICE: the first to go to Council and the second, should Council disapprove, to go to the voters. The petition out there now IS the same language as before because the petition used before never went to Council. It failed to have enough valid signatures because there were “amateurish mistakes” – incomplete birthdays, a different address than on the voter certificate. The Municipal Clerk and her staff worked honestly and deliberately. The gatherers of the petition made the mistakes and were unaware of what they could do to help validate signatures.

It is true that a zoning category of the city is Natural Open Space (NOS) – one way to preserve the land as natural open space. It is also true that Council can’t rezone the land NOS for a period of time since they voted recently against an ordinance to do just that. HOWEVER, the petition calls for preserving the land as natural open space which doesn’t necessarily need an NOS zoning category. The land can come under a conservation easement; it can be re-dedicated as park-land; it can be deed restricted. There are other ways to preserve it in perpetuity as natural open space. Thus, even though Council turned down an ordinance to re-zone the land as NOS and cannot re-consider that ordinance for a year, El Pasoans can still petition to preserve the land as natural open space (descriptive words in lower case not a Zoning title in all caps.) Again, there are at least 3 ways available to preserve the land: a conservation easement, dedication as parkland, deed restriction. (Sorry for the repetitiveness – but these misconceptions are still out there.)

The petition and directions are available at www.franklinmountains.org. Time is of the essence. Read the instructions before you sign and/or gather petitions. If you gather, be sure you are also a signer.

Finally, when representative democracy fails, there is the people’s choice of an election as it is written in the City Charter of the City of El Paso.