It has started – the process to review and change the Westside (Northwest) Master Plan including preserving the Scenic Transmountain Corridor. Dover Kohl has their design studio set-up at the Canutillo Independent School District offices on Artcraft. Tonight is the public hands-on session in the Canutillo High School auditorium between Transmountain/Talbot and Artcraft. A schedule, addresses and maps can be found at elpasonaturally. Just be sure you click on the image to enlarge.
Everyone should participate. Simply all of us have much to
gain from being in the conversation this week. If you are at the hands-on
session then you will get to listen firsthand to citizens and technicians
instead of having to rely on mere gossip or someone else’s account of what
happened. It doesn’t help to be there “in spirit”. You’ve got to be there. If
you can’t the design studio is open all week waiting for your review and
comments.
Dover Kohl has already prepared some maps to help guide us
with our discussions at the hands on session. Also, already a number of good
ideas have been expressed by citizens. One of the more refreshing ideas is a
“No Build” option – simply leave the northwest land in question in its natural
state. One proponent firmly stated that she was “no luddite”. She believes in
development – just not there. Instead, encourage development in downtown El
Paso. The draft of the Plan El Paso (Comprehensive Plan) states clearly:
“Redevelopment is important throughout El Paso but nowhere more than Downtown”
(page 1.13). “What you do downtown, you don’t have to do out there [natural
open space in northwest El Paso],” someone else added.
You can read the complete draft of volume
1 and volume
2 of the Plan El Paso document online. (The Comprehensive Plan Community
Presentation is scheduled
for Thursday evening at the El Paso Community Foundation on Oregon.
Of course there are other plans that call for more or less
development in the northwest principally south of Transmountain. Bottom line is
that you need to be at the hands on session this evening beginning at 5 p.m.
For conservationists, for petitioners, for those who care
about the land and see the value of preserving it and holding it sacred, there
remain key points. Here are some that I keep hearing:
Land preserved in its natural state must be preserved
forever. Flexible conservation easements can be written to do just that –
flexible enough to make accommodations for utility additions such as water
tanks and service roads. I have heard that Ed Archuleta and EPWU are afraid
that their hands will be tied by an easement. However, its flexibility means
just the opposite. Frankly, they are very smart people and I bet they already
know that. What they are mainly afraid of is not being able to change things in
the future so that they can sell to builders. This is the biggest sticking
point for this whole process. If the land is not preserved in perpetuity, then
petitioners will ask for a ballot referendum and they have the numbers (which
are growing) to get it.
The preservation of the arroyos means that any roads over
them must be elevated.
Animal habitat and corridors must be preserved and created.
Keep the mountain biking/hiking trails natural that cost
nothing to maintain, but attract a growing biking community and eco-tourists.
Safe access to the State Park! (For animals too.)
Keep some other things in mind. Just as it is important for
each of us to be in right relationships with each other, we need to be in right
relationship with the land and the living things which inhabit it.
Conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote in the now classic 1949 book, A Sand
County Almanac: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity,
stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends
otherwise.”
No one may not be able to objectify it, but there is a
spirituality and a sacredness to places.
Finally, in this arid land under drought, preserving natural
space conserves water. The model of adding more rate payers (building and
metering more homes and businesses) means using up the little water that we
have more quickly. Passive rain water harvesting, green infrastructure/low
impact development need to be guiding principles. Retention ponds are built
upstream for one reason: to be able to build more and more houses and office
buildings and strip malls. The cost to the taxpayer for maintaining and
repairing infrastructure such as roads, schools, water lines, etc. is much
greater than any initial return on the sales of land. Land sales are not a
factor in the EPWU’s bond rating and land sales don’t really affect your rates.
When have your rates gone down as the result of selling land? You cannot build
to achieve lower taxes, lower utility rates or guarantee more water. It’s the
other way around.
Please come to the hands-on session from 5 to 9 p.m. this
evening at Canutillo High School. It may be a drive for most – but it is a
drive to make.
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