Conservation Easement?

Last letter I reported a timeline for completing the necessary ordinance work for the NW Master Plan including the preservation of the Scenic Corridor. This followed the March 20^th City Council decision to select the Dover Kohl scenario that included development on both sides of Transmountain while preserving 837 acres which is slightly more than the 780 called for in the petition. The plan, however, did extend Paseo del Norte across Transmountain which is congruent with TxDOT’s plan to build an interchange at that intersection but not in keeping with the petition language. The timeline quickly evaporated.  Planning  tells me that it will take more time to review the smart code application before that application goes to CPC and, one would hope, OSAB. This may take up to 4 or 6 more weeks. Parallel to the smart code application is the City’s legal department’s drafting ordinance language that includes the conservation. Nothing devious here by the way and a good reason for delay. A smart code application does take time.  A conservation easement requires a correct metes and bounds survey.  Planning wants to hold stakeholder meetings to review that language and that may take time to be done right. Certainly information about stakeholder meeting will be something many of you will want.

The biggest concern is the conservation easement piece.  As of now the EPWU’s hired attorney, Risher Gilbert, is working with City attorneys to fashion some kind of in-house conservation strategy. At the special PSB meeting that considered the Dover Kohl proposals for the NW Master Plan, Ms. Gilbert made the following five points about conservation easements:

1.       Conservation easements were created by the IRS in the 1980s to provide tax incentives for private property owners.

2.       Conservation easements are for private property only.

3.       Land trusts cannot hold conservation easements on public land.

4.       Conservation easements are inflexible and the land being preserved cannot be altered or used in any way.

5.       A “Conservation Covenant” is a different mechanism than CEs that can be used to preserve public land in perpetuity.  It would be an internal mechanism created by the City and/or PSB controlling the land. 

All of these statements are untrue except 5 and the proof is in the pudding on that one. Why re-invent the wheel unless you are adding a gear to control the wheel?

Also adding to the concern about how the City plans to conserve the land is this:  to my knowledge there has not been any communication between the City and Frontera Land Alliance, the only land trust organization in El Paso. This lack of communication has not been because City officials are unaware of Frontera. The Vice-President of that organization, Richard Teschner, first publically mentioned Frontera 18 months ago at a City Council meeting where Planning brass was present.  Teschner then and subsequently has mentioned to City Council Frontera’s willingness and ability as the El Paso area’s only 501(c)3 land trust organization to deploy and then manage a conservation easement on whatever acreage Council voted to conserve.   I have also raised the matter time and again with Planning staff.

In terms of a timeline, know that City Council at their last regular meeting (April 3^rd) postponed action on the actual language of the petition for eight weeks.  So stay tuned.

From the grapevine there is talk about a new petition to preserve all of the City land on the west side including the land in the NW Master Plan and everything north of it. We are also keeping an eye on efforts to get National Monument status for the Organ Mountains.

Here’s big news and an event a number of you may want to attend: A Texas-New Mexico Watershed Steward Workshop on water quality issues related to the Paso del Norte watershed will be held from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. on May 9 at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, 1380 A&M Circle in El Paso.  (Map)

“The training is free and open to anyone interested in improving water quality in the Paso del Norte region, said program coordinators. Participants are encouraged to preregister at http://tws.tamu.edu.  The workshop is sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board as part of the Texas Watershed Steward program. It is being held in conjunction with the New Mexico Environment Department, New Mexico Cooperative Extension and Paso del Norte Watershed Council.

‘The workshop is designed to help watershed residents improve and protect their water resources and gain a better understanding of how water quality in the Rio Grande is managed in Texas and New Mexico,’ said Galen Roberts, AgriLife Extension program specialist and coordinator for the Texas Watershed Steward Program.”

Read the full press release about the workshop.

You also may be interested in the efforts of Wild Earth Guardians for the Rio Grande.

Big issue: crops that consume lots of water such as alfalfa, cotton and pecans. Are large growers more interested in water rights with the aim of eventually “cornering the market” by controlling the supply of this precious commodity? This seems to be the motive behind the policy of Chuy Reyes, the General Manager of El Paso County Water Improvement District #1, his brother, Rep. Silvestre Reyes with the unwitting help of Senator Rodriguez of El Paso – the forces behind a new Texas State law that disenfranchised 75,000 voters, and made voter registration in the water district more onerous than many laws that once sought or now seek to deprive people of their civil right to vote.

Finally, Rick Lobello, the Education Curator at the El Paso Zoo, gave a talk recently to the new class of Texas Master Naturalists. One concept that is critical to urban planning is that of ecosystems services – the benefits that we derive from the ecosystem in which we live such as cleaner air, healthier soil, carbon sequestration, etc.. Learn more about it. Also, read a primer about ecosystem services from the United Nations Environment Program.