Here’s the issue that is now bubbling up: some developers are asking City Council to amend the recent Landscape Ordinance arguing that the new ordinance will mean huge usages of water and, thus, undermine El Paso’s great conservation efforts. Mr. Richard Williams of Jerry Rubin’s River Oaks Properties has taken the lead on attacking the new ordinance. That new ordinance goes into effect on October 3. The Boards that reviewed the ordinance before (Open Space and Parks and Recreation Advisory Boards) are rushing to review the modifications and make recommendations to Council before September 27th. It would be best if there could be a 30 day review period.
No doubt, water conservation is key. However, more of the right kind of trees and the right kind of landscaping will reduce water usage, harvest rainwater, and minimize stormwater run-off and damage. When the PSB was first implementing conservation measures long ago, they recognized the fact that trees are critical to reduce urban islands of heat which require massive amounts of heat in a City that uses evaporative coolers – the most affordable cooling by a large segment of the El Paso population. In fact, EPWU’s Desert Plants List is one of the best resources for homeowners, builders and landscapers in El Paso. (Here in another month is a good time to plant and that list is very, very valuable.)
David Kania, the City’s Landscape Plan’s Examiner, reviewed Mr. Williams’ numbers and reported:
“River Oaks is miscalculating what an emitter is to what a drip hose is. Each emitter, whether it is a 2 gallon or 1 gallon per hour has only 6 outlets. So for every three shrubs you are using one emitter and for every tree you are using one and a half to one and three quarters of an emitter. I believe the way they calculated it was based on two full emitters per shrub and eight emitters per tree. In that case you would get four maybe even five hundred percent more.”
Williams has been described as being “very smart” and a “good developer”. But, says a keen observer, he “ just doesn’t ‘get it’, and will absolutely not try anything new. Ever.” You may recall his op-ed piece for the El Paso Times earlier this year in which he attributed high crime rates to Smart Growth/Smart Code. Huh? City Manager, Joyce Wilson, wrote a rebuttal.
Perhaps Mr. Williams has made some wrong assumptions: “we can’t use very low water plants, like natives”, and “We can’t afford to swale for water collection”, and “We can’t collect enough rainwater for cistern collection”, and “We can’t afford to incorporate organic matter into the soil prior to planting”. All of these are strategies that make smarter landscaping possible in a City keen on water conservation.
Still, it is worth seeing if there is some water “going down the drain” although it won’t be as much as Williams has calculated. Perhaps a good trade-off would be requiring a bit less landscaping in exchange for more landscaping whenever there is a request to upgrade an existing structure.
Thanks for posting this. I think too much of this is rushed.
ReplyDeleteDifferent concerns of retail people (viewsheds to signage) vs. industrial (screening) vs. schools (some mix of visibility and shade, depending on context) need to be added in on tree requirements. So does tree caliper - with present grower availability, it will be more of the same few species all over, since more xeric species are not counted by code as their precious 2" caliper x 8' x 3' tree size. The latter against many horticultural principles. Not to mention the need to require passive water harvesting and encourage active water harvesting.
We must talk on this more! I started a list of my concerns, and I need to finish it in light of the new ordinance. Should be workable for all, though prob not those who are unreasonable.