|
|
 |
Texas
Developer Withdraws from El Paso Smart Growth Project
Last September, when Hunt Communities LLC won its $131 million purchase bid for 4,833 acres of El Paso Water Public Service Board (PSB) land to create a master-planned, mixed-use community in El Paso's northeast, Hunt officials obviously counted on housing market improvement and the city's adoption of a promised smart-growth ordinance that fall, but since neither materialized and the City Council declined to extend the sale deadline for 90 days, they withdrew from the deal.
Disappointed Mayor John Cook, reports the El Paso Times writer, said he has been working on better area development since 1999 and regrets that the council gave the company an excuse to drop the project.
''The agreement requires the successful bidder to design, develop and construct the community using smart growth principles and in accordance with the city's master plan vision for the property,'' the mayoral statement reads. ''Without clearly defined subdivision regulations that support the city's development outcome, there is no legal way to successfully implement the city's vision for the community.''
The smart-growth principles, the writer notes, were to allow developers ''more flexibility in establishing pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods,'' with narrower streets, more parks and a mix of single-family homes, apartments and businesses, but the subdivision ordinance rewrite remains ''bogged down'' due to disagreements among city staff, council members and builders over its details.
An El Paso Times editorial after the denial of the extension for the land-sale deal chided the City Council for its delays on smart growth, stressing, ''This city needs updated codes enacted for what developers can do and cannot do . . . must do and darn sure better not do.''
So, the editorial asked, ''Where are the codes?'' -- El Paso Times 3/6/2008
Click here or here to view the source article or
here to view the source publication.
|
|
E-mail
to a Friend
View
Printer-friendly page 
