Option Number One: No-Build - Protect ALL of the land.
Click on image to enlarge.
At the Works-in-Progress session this past Saturday, Dover Kohl representatives gave a summary of what they had learned from the Hands-on Session and meetings with various stakeholders throughout the week regarding the Westside (Northwest El Paso) Master Plan and the Scenic Transmountain Corridor issue. Here's what they learned:
Option Number One: Protect ALL of the land.
Option Number Two: Preserve as much as possible.
Preserve permanently.
Protect arroyos and habitats.
Create a new and safer entrance into the State Park.
The old PSB Westside Master Plan that nobody wants. (Nobody wanted it when it was first proposed but we got it anyway.) Note the commercial development along Transmountain.
Click on image to enlarge.
Dover Kohl did not come to "talk the public out of conservation efforts and initiatives" nor did they try to explain or defend the PSB. However, working back and forth between interested parties, they did provide a scenario for smart growth development that had a bit of both sides to it. Their scenario preserves 65% of the land versus the old PSB Westside Plan that only saves 32% and even the land defined in the petition initiative that preserves 55%. The scenario that they presented at the end of the week provides more homes for a larger population and accounts for more employment than the old plan of the PSB's that would put ugly commercial development along the Scenic Transmountain Corridor. If one were to live in the old PSB plan, they would walk 4,660 feet to the nearest shop or restaurant but only 1,182 feet in the new plan. Parks would only be 824 feet away versus 2,957 feet under the old PSB plan.
Nevertheless, people said that what they prefer is the No-Build Option. Begrudgingly, some said that a simpler scenario would be okay but with caveats: land (including arroyos) are preserved in perpetuity; no roads through the open space unless elevated ("no box culverts" one El Paso leader emphatically stated); preservation of the Scenic Corridor; protection of animals, habitat and animal corridors.
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The only scenario that some found begrudgingly acceptable.
Click on image to enlarge.
Dream Big: close Transmountain to car traffic and build a huge, multi-lane, straight road through Anthony Gap on government and NM land to handle Transmountain traffic. Transmountain is already a disaster. People living under Transmountain will breathe in carbon monoxide for breakfast, lunch and dinner.....as well as smell the northern garbage dump on good warm days.
ReplyDeleteA large park--no build option-- is a "green belt" and will attract activity enthusiasts and visitors in their 30's with mucho disposable income! Younger adults do not want a highway in the middle of their wilderness. We all need escape from the body-to- body traffic and people jams now common in El Paso. Let's not become another LA....
Right now, these visitors trip over each other on many trails on weekends. We defintely do not need less land but more. The pyramid scheme of always adding more people to a community to keep it growing is dead. That is why I support saying NO to any growth.