Unanimous Reaffirmation

Photo by proud grandfather, Tommy Young

Thanks to Rep. Ann Lilly an item was placed on today's City Council agenda reaffirming the Northwest Master Plan and its use of SmartCode development. Sticking to that comprehensive plan and a SmartCode regulating plan for development means that a Conservation Easement, at least for now, just isn't necessary. Thanks to efforts between the EPWU and City Planning, under the direction of Matthew McElroy, an additional adjustment to how an "adjustment" can be made on the code further tightens the fact that SmartCode will be the way to go. Council voted unanimously to approve.

One thing that has become clear to me over the past two weeks of dealing with this issue is this: so many people above and beyond the original petitioners are invested in seeing that the legal, binding agreement which includes the NW Master Plan gets realized. It's not just petitioners. It's City staff and EPWU officials and Council representatives and, at the top, Mayor Leeser. We are all invested. So, once again a positive note has been struck through the collaborative efforts of petitioners, the Mayor, City Council, City and EPWU staff. Reaching this kind of collaborative understanding over the past two weeks has been draining in many ways. Nevertheless, we did it - collaboratively. 

Certainly those of us responsible for the original petition will keep a watchful eye and certainly re-doing the old petition or doing a new one calling for an easement isn't off the table. But who likes to scratch until he itches? The number of people invested in the success of the NW Master Plan, our mutual collaboration, and today's Council vote means that there isn't an itch.

Of those petitioners who met together over a week ago to respond to "threats" of removing SmartCode, I spoke personally with several last week, two more yesterday, and several more prior to the meeting. (Personal conversations not emails.) I mentioned before the Mayor's reassurances in a meeting. Some of us worked with EPWU and City persons. All of us plus I'm sure several more persons in separate meetings, collaboratively together, made sure that the City would get on record a reaffirmation of the NW Master Plan. That unanimous reaffirmation came today - collaboratively. 

Petition Update Concerns Many

People are keeping an eye on what is happening with the petition and with preserving the Scenic Corridor in perpetuity. Yesterday was the first meeting of City Council beyond sixty days from the September 20^th meeting when an update was promised. Board members of Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition, Judy Ackerman and Raul Amaya, spoke to the issue during the Call to the Public. City Planning Staff will give an update next Tuesday, December 6. They will report that Dover Kohl will begin work on the Northwest Master Plan that includes the Scenic Corridor and that they should begin in late January following their completion of the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Public charrettes will be scheduled around that time. Petition organizers are meeting with attorneys regarding any question about any deadline by law to proceed to a petition for a ballot referendum if necessary. The crux of the matter is trust. When all is said and done, people want to see the Scenic Corridor preserved forever.

The real question is whether SmartCode can guarantee preservation. Currently the City is sponsoring a three day workshop about SmartCode. There are about 118 people in attendance – many from the City and one that I know about from PSB. 19% of the attendees are developers. The workshop is being conducted by the Placemakers, a collection of professionals (“planners, designers, architects, an attorney, an MBA, a journalist and a marketing communications veteran”) who are city planners who promote the principles of New Urbanism – the design of walkable, diverse, compact communities.

I’ll report more about the workshop tomorrow at elpasonaturally. I was able to hear keynoter, Jeff Speck, yesterday at the workshop and at his public lecture last evening. What I heard about neighborhoods, community, walkability, health, and more is exciting and promising. It’s good news that they are here and that the City is adopting SmartCode.

You can follow Placemaker Hazel Borys on Twitter and pick-up some of the key concepts of the workshop or go to http://tweetchat.com/room/smartcode and follow the conversation about the workshop.

Of course, a huge cloud over preservation is just what TxDOT plans to do. Elpasonaturally has learned that they are already making changes that will preclude much of the landscaping with trees as previously promised to the public. It also appears that the intersection at proposed Paseo del Norte will eat up quite a bit of the corridor which will give excuse to some to go ahead with plans to plow through the natural landscape of the Scenic Corridor. These machinations may precipitate a need to proceed to a ballot.

Although he did not touch on specific highway projects such as Transmountain, Jeff Speck in his lecture last evening did give some hard evidence how such road projects have caused greater congestion and are a greater harm to the public health, safety and welfare. Adopting SmartCode and allowing TxDOT to continue these behemoth projects in El Paso are contradictions.

The time has come and gone for applications for an upcoming vacancy on the Public Service Board. I decided to apply and you can read my cover letter submitted with my resume.

Since the last e-letter promoting buying locally for the holidays, many more suggestions have been emailed to me. Check out the right hand column at elpasonaturally for new ideas for shopping including Hyundai Sun Bowl tickets, the Unitarian Universalist Community of El Paso annual Christmas bazaar, the upcoming gem and mineral show, and the Happy Hawaiian Holidaze Open Hut Arts & Crafts Fair at the Hal Marcus Gallery.

Finally, give yourself a real holiday treat this weekend on either Friday or Saturday evening. Go to Keystone Heritage Park and enjoy Luminarias by the Lake. Details here.

Free City Planning Lecture Next Tuesday

Click to enlarge image.

As part of a three day workshop on SmartCode, Mr. Jeff Speck will be giving a free public lecture on Tuesday, November 29th, from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Main Public Library, 501 N. Oregon. (Map). Jeff will do a book signing after the lecture. He is the co-author of Suburban Nation and the Smart Growth Manual.

Bottom line: Don't miss this one!

For more information, contact City of El Paso Deputy Director of Planning, Matthew McElroy, at 915-541-4193 or mcelroymx@elpasotexas.gov.

Petitioners, Council and Others Will Work Together

Yesterday, the City Council considered the ordinance referred to them by petitioners to protect the Transmountain Scenic Corridor. The decision was to postpone a decision for 90 days during which time planning and discussion will take place. Even if Council had decided to support the entire petition ordinance (and the votes simply weren't there), there still would have had to have been time to determine the mechanism of preservation.

In my prepared remarks I made it clear that there was room to "compromise" in good faith:

Address About the Petition to Preserve the Scenic Corridor

The process for arriving at some kind of win/win solution was set forth by Matthew McElroy of the Planning and Development Department. It will include rezoning the Westside Master Plan to Smart Code, determining the essential area of the view shed of the Scenic Corridor for a conservation easement (or other instrument of permanent preservation) and taking a good look at Paseo del Norte. Slides 7 and 9 spell out the process:

Process for Conservation Discussion

The process does have the advantages of first and foremost establishing a permanent preservation for the Corridor (this is a HUGE win), moving to Smart Code for the entire Westside Master Plan which will mean more open space, and possibly finding a better solution to Paseo del Norte that everyone can live with.

To be sure, petitioners can now go out and pursue a petition to make their ordinance a referendum in a City election. So, if the process fails to meet the principles of the petition (as I mention in my remarks) or if some engage in the process in anything but good faith, then a new petition drive will be mounted immediately.

On the other hand, I saw just about every Council member wanting to find a good win/win solution. The process allows for a chance to preserve and do more. Dover Kohl has already been contacted to help with the process.

I will give more in depth information in my next blog post.

Maps

Here's a map that shows you the land which the petition has asked City Council to preserve:

You will have to click on it to enlarge. All the land within the purple land is what petitioners want preserved. This map also shows an earlier compromise proposal from Open Space Chairman Charlie Wakeem. His proposal is everything between the dotted blue lines. It preserves Arroyos, FEMA 40 and 39. Note also that he moves Paseo del Norte west out of the preserved land.

Now here is the PSB proposal which they adopted in Executive Session and proposed to the Open Space Board yesterday:

Again, click on the map to enlarge. It is the same map that I posted on September 1. Already it is erroneously being called the "Wakeem" map. Compare it to the map at the top of this post. Note however that it includes 22 acres (a resort/golf course) in the middle of the open space and cuts into FEMA 39 in the southwest corner - probably to move developable land closer to Transmountain so that the City picks up less of the burden of the cost of Paseo. Of course, note that Paseo is not moved in the PSB proposal whereas it was in the earlier Wakeem proposal.

Here's what we know about the PSB: they are opposed to a Conservation Easement as the means to preserve the land. They have stated such at OSAB. Their goal is to re-appropriate the land in a few years which a CE would make impossible because it would be forever. Also, when the City Council was ready to rezone all of the land in the Westside Master Plan as URD (Urban Reserve District) in lieu of re-planning it under Smart Code, Mr. Archuleta and the PSB reneged on their agreement to go along and supported Rural zoning. Bottom line: Mr. Archuleta and the PSB do not want any land conserved - they want it all to be sold for development. What does this mean for petitioners should City Council decide to seek some process to come up with an alternative to the petition plan rather than voting in favor of the petition plan?

The Open Space Advisory Board (the same Board that voted twice to preserve the same land as proposed by petitioners and, in fact, turned down the Wakeem "Compromise" shown in the map above) voted to recommend a process for conserving the land and finding common ground (no pun intended) with all stakeholders. This process will require about 90 days perhaps 120. It includes working with Dover Kohl, a review of the Comp plan, the use of charettes, the conversion of the Westside Plan to SmartCode and a conservation easement for land preserved.

It seems to me that this will be a good process for petitioners and all stakeholders. However, if it seems that there is no resolution, if it seems that some are not negotiating in good faith (as PSB has done with their stance regarding a conservation easement), then the petitioners have every right at any point to return to the voters and seek a referendum election. Since I was one of the chief petition organizers, I can tell you that getting the necessary signatures will take just weeks - not months - because we know where to find enough voters now.

What does this entire process teach us (if the lesson has not already been learned)? EPWU should just be a department of the City run by a Director not a CEO, the PSB should be abolished and City Council should assume total responsibility in reality and not just as a matter of fact. There is just too much power held by one man and it is used to thwart sustainable growth in the City of El Paso. Equals seek win/win. Autocrats do not.