Another Vampire That Just Won't Die

You know how vampires work. They flee the least hint of sunlight and hide in their sarcophagi until it is pitch black again and their victims will be caught unawares.

Such it is with the collection station next to Keystone Park.

It appears now that the project is dead at least for now. (Read David Crowder's excellent article in this week's El Paso Inc.) With pressure mounting, Rep. Cortney Niland has said "no" to the expansion. She has said that before and then the project mysteriously rises again. It is dark and nobody is looking. Count Dracula rises again from the dead.

According to Ellen Smyth, the Environmental Director, the construction of an expanded collection station next to a precious wetlands, bird habitat and archaeological site is not going to happen for the foreseeable future. But she also tells us that the land was purchased just for such an expansion so it may come up again in the future.

The Open Space Master Plan makes it clear that "Keystone Heritage Park is a key cultural site as well as the remnant of a unique wetlands zone. Preservation of undeveloped lands around the park should be a high priority of the city in the near future." The strategy for preservation is the acquisition of land around the park. ". . . without the acquisition of the remaining 20 acres around the park," states the Master Plan, "the facility will be a mere shadow of what it could have been." (Towards a Bright Future: A Green Infrastructure Plan for El Paso, Texas - the Open Space Master Plan - page 5-32)

What should be done? Land for a collection station away from Keystone should be identified. The current land next to Keystone should be a dedicated park site to complement the wetlands park. Until there is a firm alternative plan, the City will green light the collection station next to Keystone when nobody is looking. We will wake up one day and discover that a bulldozer has begun to scrape and shape the land. We don't want to be caught unawares.

For now, the project is off. But until the land is preserved and another site faraway is chosen for the ugly, noisy collection station, then the bulldozers will come and the City will tell us that there is nothing to see.



Please keep signing the online petition and spread the word.

Let's make sure that this vampire never wakes up again.

Jobe To Host El Paso Fundraiser for Jerry Patterson

Tonight Stanley Jobe will host a fundraiser for pal, Jerry Patterson, the rootin' tootin' gun-totin' Texas Land Commissioner. It will be at the War Eagles Air Museum.

One industry insider told me that Jobe and Patterson are buddies and that is why Jobe doesn't have to go through the usual channels to get leases. I don't know if that is true but one wonders how ethical it is for Patterson to take money from the man who comes looking for State property to lease for quarrying. Certainly Jobe's raising money for Patterson and Patterson taking it is a big conflict at best. It's a win-win for these two folks. Meanwhile, our community has several of our greatest natural assets slowly taken from us.

This blog has recently pointed out that Jobe has been a big contributor to Patterson's campaigns and has even flown Patterson and an entourage to his ranch to discuss leases.

It is not surprising that Patterson's GLO leased property to Stanley Jobe's company that abuts the Franklin Mountains State Park and contains critical mountain to river corridors previously identified by the City of El Paso as part of its Open Space Master Plan. Patterson, along with Governor Rick Perry, continues to back offshore drilling even as the now infamous BP oil spill turns toward Texas. (Perry, by the way, packs a .380 pistol while jogging and recently killed a coyote within the Austin City Limits. He's rootin' tootin' gun totin' too.)

Patterson's opponent for Land Commissioner is Hector Uribe who has a solid record of public service and environmental advocacy. In fact, he wants the General Land Office to "become a major catalyst in moving Texas into the 21st Century renewable energy economy, by aggressively promoting wind and solar energy." He wants to provide incentives to private interests to lease state lands to develop renewable energy sources. Such a plan he suggests "will bring additional revenue to our cash-strapped neighborhood public schools, spur economic activity in Texas, and contribute to the production of more clean energy."

Apparently rootin' tootin' Jerry heard about Uribe's plan and adopted it as his own . . . sort of.

When I learn more about the fundraiser this evening, I'll let you know. In the meantime, I suggest that you go to Uribe's campaign web site, read through it, get on his e-mailing list and contribute.

Parks & Recreation Gets a Progress Report

There is a Parks and Recreation Master Plan (adopted September 16, 2006) and an Open Space Master Plan (March 17, 2007). Today El Paso's Parks & Recreation Department got a progress report from Jim Carrillo of Halff Associates, Inc, the consulting firm that guided citizens through the master plan processes.

The El Paso Parks 2006-2009 Progress Report is well worth taking the time to read. Carrillo gives a detailed analysis of how well the City has done in the past three years with its Parks and Open Space master plans. Three major "progress indicators" were used to "grade" the City's efforts: Significant Progress, Ongoing Progress and No Major Progress.

Significant Progress was made in these areas:

• Parkland dedication as a tool to provide much needed parks
• Acquisition of smaller parks (excepting in parts of the City with slower growth
• Trail development in parks
• Use of stormwater fee to fund open space
• Core staff improvements, automation, fiscal accounting

Areas with Ongoing Progress:

• Parkland improvements
• Parkland acquisition in areas of City with slower growth
• Acquisition of non-stormwater related open space
• Open Space oversight structure
• Longer trail corridors
• Long term governance structure

And the areas with no Major Progress:

• Parkland acquisition to address community and regional park needs
• Regional park development
• Annual capital expenditure funding source for immediate park system needs
• Opportunity funding for open space and trails

Interestingly, no members of either the Open Space Advisory Board or the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board were alerted by Parks and Recreation staff that the report would be given to Council. You would think that many members (or, at least, the Chairman of these boards) would want to take the time to go to the Council meeting.

You have probably seen this popular advertisement on television:

When citizens work hard to help write master plans, their expectations are that the plans will be carried out. Little do they know that there are staff persons and others ready to limit their expectations to a very small space. "Well . . . you can't ride very far," the villain in the ad explains. Sound familiar?

Another Open Space Plan Moves Closer to Implementation

Click to enlarge

Another recommendation of the City Council approved Open Space plan is now closer to being implemented. Clearly stated in Chapter 6 (An Implementation Plan) is this: "The rezoning of all the currently undeveloped lands that do not have approved master plans or land studies to the Rural Farm (RF) zoning category should occur immediately." The Open Space Plan was adopted in 2007. It is now 2010. About time.

At the December 28, 2009 meeting of the Open Space Advisory Board, motions were made and passed unanimously to recommend the "down-zoning" to the Legislative Review Committee for Planning and Development as well as to the City Council.

The LRC met yesterday and heard presentations. Of course, staffer Pat Adauto, argued against the down-zoning. (Tell me again why there are staff members who oppose the vision and approved plans of City Council even working for the City.) The PSB also opposed down-zoning.

Representative O'Rourke moved and Representative Byrd seconded a motion to recommend down-zoning to the full City Council. The vote was 3 to 1 in favor and that 3 to 1 was something of a surprise: Representative Quintana's was the third affirmative vote whereas Representative Lilly's was the "no" vote.

The proposal now goes to City Council. It does not appear to be on the agenda for the upcoming February 2 meeting of Council.

Open Space Board Chairman, Charlie Wakeem, sent this message to board members following yesterday's LRC meeting:

"I went to the Planning LRC today for the item on down-zoning PSB land to R-F (Ranch-Farm) that the Board voted unanimously to recommend. This was the Chapter 6, A-1 recommendation in the Open Space Plan. In spite of opposition by staff and the water utilities, the Planning LRC voted 3-1 to recommend the downzoning with conditions to the full City Council. It may be on the Council agenda as soon as next Tuesday. I'll keep you posted."

PSB Votes to Purchase Palisades Canyon

Dr. Rick Bonart being sworn as new member of the Public Service Board

PSB CEO, Mr. Ed Archuleta, called Palisades Canyon "our central park in El Paso . . . our gateway to the Franklin Mountains . . . a jewel." In his review of the proposal to purchase the 202 acres for $2,465,000 ($12,203/acre), he stressed that time is of the essence and that the property should have been purchased decades ago. After an initial price of over $5million dollars five years ago, Archuleta agrees that the price is fair and he voiced confidence in the appraisal. He said that the purchase is one of the priorities of the City's Open Space Master Plan.

Avid hiker, Risher Gilbert, also expressed that time is of the essence. A commercial real estate attorney, she emphasized the need to work with the current 11 individuals who own the canyon rather than wait for their interests and estates to be scattered eventually among heirs - many who are out of town. She, along with Jack Maxon and others, have worked hard for the preservation of the Palisades for many years now.

Nearly 40 members of the environmental/conservation community were in attendance

The meeting was attended by over 40 members of the environmental and conservation community. Several of them spoke in favor of the purchase including Open Space Advisory Board Chairman, Charlie Wakeem, and Frontera Land Alliance President, Mike Gaglio.

Mr. Wakeem raised a concern that it would be better to amortize the loan over several years so that there is more money available should other needs arise before the PSB has another 10% of stormwater fees to use for purchasing open space that has stormwater needs. After this purchase there will be just $635,000 until 2011. Mr. Wakeem was concerned that there may be a need to act on other privately-held, ecologically sensitive properties in the meantime. However, he voiced his complete support for the purchase if done outright. CEO Archuleta prefers to pay no interest.

Sierra Club President Bill Addington had an additional concern. He believed that the sale price was too high especially since only 40% of the property could ever be developed. (Palisades Canyon is created by 3 arroyos and constitutes a major watershed.)

Mr. Archuleta told the board what needs to be done after approval of the proposal: a complete boundary ground survey, a complete Phase I Environmental survey, an environmental assessment. The sellers have agreed to pay for the surveys and the closing costs. Closing, he said, was expected in 60 days.

New board member, Dr. Rick Bonart, a long-time open space and environmental activist and recent past Chairman of the Open Space Advisory Board, moved that the PSB make the purchase. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Today's meeting was also attended by Elizabeth Ferguson who hiked this area with school children as early as 1929.

Is Sustainability a Goal or Just Words?

The City Council of El Paso recently approved a sustainability plan. The mission plan is:

"By 2014, El Paso will be a model of sustainability and smart growth by building on its roots as an international hub, promoting sustainable enterprises and wisely using natural resources."

2014 may be too far away. Judging by the overuse of rock and gravel in private and public landscapes all over the City, the possible overbuilding of public facilities and Jobe's plan to quarry next to the largest intra-urban State Park in the country, El Paso is far from wisely using natural resources.

One wonders whether master plans such as the Sustainability document are not just words. After all, Arroyo 41A was designated to be preserved as the Mountain to River corridor. Once the General Land Office leased property containing a portion of that arroyo to Jobe Materials, public officials acted much like ostriches with their heads in the ground. Now that Stanley Jobe has made it abundantly clear that he intends to quarry all 480 acres, City officials say that there is nothing that they can do - City zoning laws apparently do not apply to State of Texas land managed by the GLO even if that land is within the city's limits.

Recently, Public Service Board/EPWU officials proposed an Alternative route for the Mountain to River Trail. One of the top officials of the EPWU told me that they had decided on the route once they realized that Jobe intended to mine limestone in Arroyo 41A. The implication was that the realization was fairly recent. However, they must have known that he would do so when they gave him access to the land. By law you can't landlock someone else and so El Paso Water Utilities had to grant Jobe an easement through their property to the GLO land and did so on May 20, 2005.

It would appear that EPWU/PSB officials have known for a number of years now that a portion of the proposed Mountain to River corridor could very well be mined. If they knew, then shouldn't the City Council also have known? After all, Mayor Cook is a board member of the PSB. If City Council knew so early on, what was the point of accepting in its entirety the January 2007 Open Space plan ("Towards a Bright Future: A Green Infrastructure Plan for El Paso, Texas") that called for preserving all of Arroyo 41A?

Click on image to enlarge

The alternative route is the light blue line on the map above. Note that only a small - yet critical - portion of 41A goes through the very bottom of the GLO land leased to Jobe. One wonders why pressure cannot be applied from elected and other officials and the public at large to make Jobe forsake that small portion of land. If sustainability and the wise use of resources is the goal, why not start right here?

Of course, there is yet another threat to Arroyo 41A a bit west of the GLO/Jobe Quarry: the Desert Springs development currently plans reducing the 1200 foot arroyo to just 120 feet, concreting the sides and building some roads over it in several places. To say that the developer's plans may be grandfathered so that he doesn't have to comply to codes requiring keeping the arroyo to at least 300 feet, is still missing the larger point that El Paso envisions one thing and does another.

An insider recently informed me:

"Individual City staff may or may not be in favor of "economic development" as exemplified by Jobe and the homebuilders' style of growth. The staff is mainly concerned with staying out of trouble, and the developers can make big trouble if any legal boundaries are crossed.

"The zoning and subdivision codes are the legal tools that have to be followed. The developers worked very hard to ensure that those codes were "vetted" by their own lawyers, lobbyists and friends before they were adopted by the City. If the land is zoned for whatever the developer wants, the law allows them to do it. If it's not zoned for what they want the law allows them to request a zone change and the Council can grant it.

"The Open Space plan and the General Land Use Plan are legally just "guides" to decision making by the Council, so they can approve zoning that is not in conformity with the Plans. (There is actually some legal precedent for holding Councils more accountable to such plans, but it is rare in Texas. There may be some precedent on the GLO immunity issue as well, but of course not from Texas.)

"Botttom line- the developers have the law on their side in most cases and there is too much apathy to try to change the laws again. (Look at the all the fighting over the subdivision code rewrite last year that resulted in nothing more than some very minor changes.)"

If El Paso wants to make sustainability and the wise use of resources its goal, it must begin to stand up and, at the very least, use the bully pulpit, or even more, grow a backbone and start standing up legally to those who would destroy riparian corridors and thus cheapen all of our lives and fortunes.

City Council Creates new Open Space Advisory Board

At their regular meeting yesterday and by a 7 to 1 vote, the El Paso City Council created a new Open Space Advisory Board. Currently there is an Open Space sub-committee of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Beginning with a retreat attended by some committee members at the end of January, a proposal was slowly formed to create a separate advisory board appointed by the Mayor and Council in order to focus additional attention on open space.

The Open Space Master Plan (Toward a Bright Future) is now over two years old. It recommended that several items be implemented in the first six months after its acceptance by Council. Not until PSB began formulating a Stormwater Master Plan this past fall were any of these recommendations even discussed. Why the delay to implement? Open Space was a sub-committee of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and would report to that Board - a cumbersome group of 19 individuals most of whom were interested in neighborhood issues. If a suggestion did get out of the Advisory Board, it still had to go before a Legislative Review Committee of the City Council before reaching City Council itself. (By the way, Council also created yesterday a new nine-member Board of Parks and Recreation.)

Another reason for the delay has been the inability of the Open space sub-committee to overcome the departmental layers of the city bureaucracy: Developmental Services, Parks and Recreation, Planning, and so forth.

With a new Advisory Board that works within the Parks and Recreation Department and reports directly to City Council, the Master Plan can begin to be implemented in a more timely fashion. The creation of the new Board removes levels of bureaucracy - something Representative Holguin didn't understand in spite of a chart created by Dr. Rick Bonart that shows the simpler pathway from Board to Council. (Holguin was the lone "no" vote against the proposal.)

The new ordinance states clearly that one of the board's duties will be to "provide recommendations on the implementation of 'Towards a Bright Future: A Green Infrastructure Plan for El Paso, Texas', commonly referred to as the Open Space Master Plan."

A Stormwater Engineer of the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board shall be an ex-officio member of the Council - an important ingredient again in implementing the plan. Moreover, the Board will provide input to the Mayor and Council on "legislative matters pertaining to open space submitted to the board by the director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, the director of the Developmental Services Department, the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Service Board, the director of the Economic Development Department and the City Flood Plain Administrator or their designees."

Implementing the Open Space plan not only preserves and protects huge areas of the El Paso environment, it also will help to control sprawl. Similar to Boulder's decades old "blue line", the creation of open space will help the City better manage growth. Such management can lead to more infill so that developers will do more to improve not just vacant areas in El Paso but possibly the most blighted areas as well.

El Paso is certainly on the right path and that was further demonstrated by a Trail Master Plan Citizens' Group organized by Shamori Whitt, the City's Open Space, Trails and Parks Coordinator. The group met last night for three hours and helped to identify hike and bike trails around the City for preservation. Attending the meeting was Jared Mendoza of the Engineering Traffic Division. He is helping to make El Paso a more walkable community.

Open space, walkability, ecotourism, outdoor recreation - these are key terms for El Paso's future. City Council took a big step into that future by creating an independent Open Space Advisory Board.