Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

Mhm.

Good afternoon everybody and welcome to the May 7th meeting of the City Plan Commission. My name is Lauren Hanson, chair of the commission, and I call this meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. It says planning stuff. Anyway, can we hear the statement from the Yes, the statement to the public. The City Plan Commission has sole and final approval authority over subdivision maps, which is statutorily limited to a ministerial examination of the applicant's conformance to all applicable code provisions. The staff report for an agenda item may include conditions, exceptions, or modifications. The commission may approve the item with all staff report conditions, exceptions, or modifications, including additional measures regarding the item as imposed by the commission. Otherwise, the staff report with all modifications, exceptions, and conditions is approved, and the applicant shall comply with all provisions of the staff report. Commissioners will consider all agenda items other than subdivision items in the form of a public hearing. The normal process is as follows. First, the commission will hear a staff report, followed by a statement from the applicant. Then, members of the public may speak, followed by any final statement from the applicant. Finally, the matter will be closed for further discussion or motion among the commission. The commission shall then make a recommendation that will be forwarded to city council. Thank you very much. Staff, are there any changes to the agenda today? Good afternoon, Madam Chair. No changes at this time. Thank you. Now, we will open it for a call to the public. Is there anybody here that would like to make a public comment? I have David Bogus on the list, but I think they're here to speak on an item already on the agenda. Is that correct? Is there anybody on the phone? Dial star six to unmute.

Again, that's star six to unmute. Madam Chair, if you could just speak into the microphone, please, to pick it up. Thank you. Star six to unmute for anybody that's on the phone for public comment. Okay. Thank you. Public comment is closed. We move on to the consent agenda. Can I entertain a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. On to the regular agenda, we have a resubdivision Good afternoon, chair and members of the commission. Myrna Aguilar with Planning and Inspections. Item number two on the agenda is Montecillo Unit 11, replat I, involving a resubdivision combination application. This development is within the city of El Paso limits and it's located north of Interstate 10 and west of Mesa Street and within the Montecillo development. The applicant proposes to resubdivide approximately 2.88 acres of vacant land to extend the property boundaries of two previously recorded lots by 0.06 acres each and establish a 32-ft wide private drive. This proposed development is being reviewed under the current subdivision. Here we have the preliminary plat. Here we have the final plat. And with that, staff recommends approval with condition of Unity Montecillo Unit 11 replat I and a resubdivision combination basis. Condition being as followed. That the Montecillo regulating plat be amended to match the proposed private drive cross-section prior to the recordation of the final plat.

And that concludes my presentation. Thank you. Any questions for staff? I do. Um This is all smart code. That whole area smart code zoning. Correct? Correct. Thank you. Does the smart code zoning affect what they're asking for today at all? No. Okay. Thank you. Any more questions? Thank you. Can we hear from the applicant? Good afternoon. I am David Boggs with Monoseal. Um Aaron from Brock and Bustillos couldn't be here today, so I got tapped. Uh been following your process for the last two decades, so very familiar with it. And yes, Monoseal is fully 100% smart code, a little over 300 acres. Um I've been there 20 years. I wish that I wish I could tell you that we're done. We're not. Uh we may be somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 65% through those 300 acres, but uh I've got several sets of plans in at the city right now, and I will answer any and all questions that you may have about this. Do you agree with staff comments? I do, ma'am. Okay. Can you explain what the smart code how you guys have implemented smart code in Monoseal?

I'm I'm sorry, but I am having trouble hearing. Can I explain what about smart code?

How y'all have implemented smart code in Monoseal? I'm just interested. It has nothing to do with this case. Well, implementation is tough. Um but we were involved on the front end with the city in the design of the code itself. Uh some of you may remember, you may not, but we hired Stefanos Polyzoides out of California, who is considered one of the uh foundation blocks of smart code around the country and around the world for that matter. And squeezing a project and a product to create an environment of walkability, to to create an environment of cohesiveness um is is much easier said than actually done. Because we still must comply with all other codes, building codes, electrical codes, PSBs codes. I mean, we don't just because we're smart code number one doesn't mean we're smart. But number two, it also doesn't relieve us from all the normal codes that need to be followed. So, it is a challenge day in and day out, especially when we start a new design of a project within Monticello. I have several I have six plans right now that are in concept only, meaning the owners haven't approved a final concept cuz once they do, then we hire a host of professionals ranging from civils to structurals to architects and down the line. And then we come together and put together an actual constructible plan that we submit to the city through the normal exceler process. I worked with most all of the gentlemen

here. They're tired of me, I'm sure, but uh but but one thing I'll tell you about your staff, they are very knowledgeable and they are very fair. And I can't ask for anything more than that. We don't always get everything we want, but there's a lot of give and take and you all put a lot of faith and trust in them and of course, that's a tip of the cap to Philip over here. So, next question. Through the chair. Mr. Bogus, um can you explain why the private entrance or that private driveway? Well, yes, there's two reasons for that. Number one, it was originally part of the thoroughfare plan with the city, but if you go out there and stand at the Coyote roundabout and you look south, we don't own the land on the other side to the south. That's owned by Walmart and its conglomeration, but you you will never get a road through there, whether it's part of mass transit or not, cuz you'll have to climb almost 50 ft to the electrical easement at the top. And the electric company is they don't give out easements easily, but you'll never get a road up there and then down the other side. So, we went back and said, "Well, if we propose an alternate location." Had several meetings with Louis Zamora, one of the best, I will tell you right now, who will say, "David, what about this? What about that?" And we went through a myriad of things to try and figure out how to make that work. If we had not pursued replat I, you would have just had a stub road there that nobody could use. Anybody. Well, if you look at the plat as they

put it up, you if you're going south on that little stub road, we now have access to acreage that can be developed to the right and the land we do own to the left. So, we turned it into a more usable environment. We're changing the cross-section. I have a regulating plan adjustment that meeting in the morning with my professionals. And then we will present the new plan to Louis showing the new cross-section, but the number one reason is it was never going to be used for anything, cuz you couldn't continue it all the way to I-10. It just wasn't physically constructible. Thank you. You're welcome.

background, it doesn't show a big old hill or mountain there. Yeah, it's there. It is there.

It just us the map. Yeah, it is absolutely there and it's uh you better have more than a four-wheel drive to get up over that thing. The bottom that picture or right picture that Yeah, well, that bottom right picture up there shows where that hill just heads up. And that's where either Walmart or the city, somebody would have to have taken that road up and over that hill. You're not going to cut that hill down because of the high tension power lines at the top of it with the electric company. They would like that very much. We appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, sir. Anytime. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. My pleasure. I will entertain a motion. Move to approve item number two with conditions. Second. Second. Any discussion? Um I'll excuse me. I just want to chime in that uh my wife and I operate a business in this general area and the uh legal has advised me that I'm not uh obliged to recuse myself. I'm going to abstain from this vote just out of transparency. Understood. Thank you. Any other discussion? All right, we have a motion. All in favor? Aye.

Aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. We move on to number three, which is a reconsideration request. Good afternoon, chair and members of the commission. Myrna Aguilar with Planning and Inspections. Item number three on the agenda is a waiver reconsideration request for Vista del Norte Estates Unit 5. The plat for the proposed subdivision was approved by the city plan commission on March 12th of 2026. This development is within the city of El Paso limits and it's located south of Patriot Boulevard and west of Dyer Street. This reconsideration only pertains to the waiver request and the applicant is requesting a waiver from the city plan commission. And the reason for the reconsideration is the initial application, the applicant included a 5-ft sidewalk in the proposed cross-section for Patriot Boulevard, making it a binding element to the design and complying with applicable sidewalk design standards. Here we have the preliminary plat. Where the subdivision constitutes five single-family homes, park, two ponds. The applicant is requesting the following exception from the city plan commission and that is to waive the construction of a 5-ft sidewalk along Patriot Boulevard. Here is the proposed cross-section for Patriot Boulevard. And here we have the existing conditions for Patriot Boulevard. Those are from taken east and west and the bottom right is taken from Carlos Ramirez. Looking the other way. There's no sidewalk, but it's heavy traffic in the area. The exception request to waive the

required improvements meets the criteria under Title 19 of El Paso City Code ordinances. And with that, staff recommends approval of the reconsideration of waiver request for Vista del Norte Estates Unit 5. And that concludes my presentation. Staff recommendation of approval is because title 19 says if 50% of lots that are developed within a certain radius, they can like without that they can get approval based on that or why? Right. But that one and it has other development around it. It's not showing on the plat because it's even though it's dated, it's not outdated. But also top of graphic area that we use of the highway. And then on a text dot right away, it's only the 5-ft sidewalk. Okay. If I can add in Madam Chair. So even to be eligible to ask the city plan commission, sorry Kevin Smith for the record, to even to be eligible to has to meet that criteria. If it doesn't, it can't even come before even considering the city plan commission can consider it. When staff looked at this, there is nothing along 54. There, the speed is very high high traffic speed and staff didn't feel appropriate to encourage pedestrian activity along a major highway leading out of in or out of our city. So that that was I think the predominant reason. I'm not sure. Ismael, do you have anything to add on that? Ismael Segovia, Chief Planner for Subdivisions. Um not really. Again, 54 the biggest concern is the traffic and the safety concern of putting pedestrians along a high high speed roadway. Um we really don't want to encourage that and yes, this is a text dot right away. But again, the biggest thing is not to encourage pedestrians along high

speed right aways without any type of barrier and 54 is what it is, so. I guess I was asking, was it more a default recommendation of approval because it met that standard of 50% of developed lots within a certain radius did not meet that standard or was it also you guys recommend it on the basis Do you guys have discretion to recommend it outside of the 50% of lots within a certain radius? So, it is not an automatic approval for any of these applications. We take each one on its merits, and we as as uh the reviewing staff are recommending approval of this. It does meet the criteria, so that's why it is before you today um to reconsider. But, um this here is a staff evaluation that um we do feel appropriate to waive these requirements along with US 54. And again, it is on along US 54 only. The interior lots are in the tier roadways will all have the required um right-of-way cross sections, which include sidewalks. It's just along US 54. Thank you. Any other questions? I do. That whole area is being developed. And it will get developed eventually. We already have a a neighborhood that exists on the other side, and more uh development's going to be happening in that area. More residential development's going to happen. And again, I don't know why we uh don't want sidewalks. I understand of the speeds, but eventually those speeds will come down once the area's developed. When the area's not developed, well, you know, people fly by there, and speeds are higher. But, eventually those speeds will have to come by because of those residential areas. You know, and again, uh as everybody

knows, I'm all for sidewalks. We need to have sidewalks. Eventually, sidewalks are going to come in there. Once that place starts being developed, so why not start now? Any other questions? Thank you. Can we hear from the applicant? Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Commissioners. Conrad Candel with Candel Incorporated. First, we do concur with staff's comments and thank them for the recommendation. Second, we humbly request you all to understand the safety issues that are involved here. And we hope you can't just say, "No matter what, you have to have sidewalks." No, in this case in the still north there, we have the also Railroad Drive, which is state highway. We're putting sidewalks because there's sidewalks all along Railroad. Railroad's a different beast compared to US 54. So, there's several things. A, you won't find any sidewalks in US 54 for miles in this area. There's a reason for that. It's a hazardous cargo route. But, this is also in the long run, supposed to be access roads. So, in a nutshell, TxDOT has gotten with us the last 2 months and has told us some very disturbing bad news. Cuz we met with TxDOT 2006 when this master plan was being done and said, "We need to start planning this far out." They notified us that the main lanes on US 54 are going to be built from Donahue from McCombs to to Shawn Haggerty. Can I please interrupt you real quick? Is that beeping coming from inside the room? Yes, ma'am. Okay, is it an emergency?

they're doing some I think window cleaning or painting on the outside and they've got a scissor lift and as it moves, it's beeping.

wanted to make sure. Cool. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay. So, that is all and that's going to start taking place at the end of this year. The main lanes. It'll take two or three years to be completed from McCombs through all this area to the state line. They let us know they do not have a study. If you don't have a study, you can't even look at schematics or even designing of building anything. To give you all the understanding of federal funding, that's 20 years out. They haven't even commissioned a study yet. So, they've let they've already let us know there's not going to be any improvements in this area for the minimum next 20 years. That is huge. The third thing is we can't ask pedestrians to walk on a sidewalk. We've got significant amount of runoff from a text out drain structure. That is where where this is in place. So, we're receiving over 20 200 acres of watershed area from a Paso Water Utilities land that crosses text out drainage structures and they're wide, over 20 ft wide. There's a concrete spillway where this is at. You'd basically have to build a bridge to walk that. That is extremely unsafe. So, with these those three factors, we're humbly requesting you to approve this waiver for the safety and well-being of this neighborhood. And the preliminary [snorts] plat does have the detail of that drainage structure that text out currently has. IT, can you share the presentation, please? It's not on the

screen. And if I believe uh the commission would like to see the preliminary plat. Blanca, if If go to slide 24. There you go. Can you blow that up? Cuz you can you we were we blew up that drainage structure as you can see there on the far I don't know if it's your left or your right. That structures that are from the frontage road through this property to our pond. That's why that pond is there is to actually receive all the offsite watershed. This subdivision itself maybe one block is drained to that pond. This pond is for El Paso Water Utilities offsite water. That's a huge structure with a lot of CFS coming across. That's why we're depicting that on the preliminary plat to explain why this is important. Any questions for the applicant? I do. So then, if we approve this plan in March, why wasn't this brought up back then? That was my mistake and I apologize. That is all completely my error, my personal error. Because we had the cross section on there, because we had on Railroad, I didn't realize it was on this one. That is on me and I apologize for that. Okay. The other thing I want to say is that for over [clears throat] a year I've been asking staff to bring in TxDOT. I contacted TxDOT, they said, "Hey, we got all kinds of information, statistics to give you guys. Whenever you guys want us to come in there, come on in." And me as this commissioner, I have a lot of questions for TxDOT particularly

on these type of issues. Montana, the Patriot Highway, Dyer and whatnot. And again, I'm going to ask staff to bring them in. I've been asking for this for over a year to come in, you know, and uh let us know what's going on so that uh in the future we can make um better decisions. Mainly on sidewalks. We'll follow up with deck stop, sir. So I think the parkway is 20 ft wide right now? Is that what's on the plan?

Okay. So lot depth wouldn't have to be adjusted. I understand that it's in a swale or some sort of drainage structure, but there's no issue with lot depth if we do require sidewalks. Your plat wouldn't have to be adjusted is what I'm asking. Yeah. We would have to build a significant pedestrian structure to cross that. I'm I don't think we'd be asking you to build a drainage A pedestrian crossing over that structure. It's surface flow. And then we can start talking about proportionality. You talking about

going Then you can start talking about proportionality and state code 212 in terms proportionality on state highway. What's state code 212? Has to do with proportionality especially offsite improvements and this is offsite because it's not our right-of-way. It's deck stop. Right. Right. So you're talking about a bridge to let the flow You have You have to

and then the sidewalk on top. Right. Okay. You have to build a bridge. Understood. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Just a comment. I think part of our responsibility is to start somewhere when it comes to sidewalks and we've had this discussion multiple times that, you know, you have a sidewalk, you don't have a sidewalk and we do need to decide, you know, again, back to your comment to having text out here is, you know, we start somewhere and if we say no to a sidewalk here and we say later yes to a sidewalk, um we just need to have some consistency as to where we're going to have a sidewalk and where we're not. We will have discussion after we do a motion. I will entertain that motion. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I.

I. All opposed? Nay. Nay. Roll call, Ms. Elsa. Okay, this is going to be a roll call on item number three. Commissioner Badillo? Nay. Commissioner Commissioner Bryant? I. Commissioner Borrego? Nay. Commissioner Hanson? Nay. Commissioner Uribe? I. Commissioner Reagan? I. And Commissioner Dabrowski? I. Motion carries and I apologize I told you we were going to do discussion and then we did it. But motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. And now we will have a presentation on the history of planning. I'm so sorry. I can't believe I did that. So again, Kevin Smith for the record. So, this here was given a few years ago. Um just a brief overview and as we have a number of new commissioners, felt it relevant here as we um continue the the training of each of ourselves um in terms of how we got where we're at today as communities and uh a lot of this is focusing on um things that happened nationwide, but as we can see here in El Paso, we can see a lot of these uh illustrations. I'll try and point them out as we go through the presentation on how communities and cities have developed, how certain codes came to be and where we're at today. So, generally planning generally the the uh professional planning, we

started in the early 1900s. So, we're going to go a little bit before that. And a lot of the uh the communities and we're going to focus a lot of this will be United States related. Obviously, other communities such as those in in Asia or Europe um evolved differently, but we'll focus here in the United States. Um that's where we're at. So, a lot of the um the jobs, the opportunities were focused on farming. That's where a lot of the industry was and there were farms and they basically needed a farm workers and everything was spread out. Over time, there were advances to help as as we're all aware and we took history classes about some of the advances about items such as a reaper and items to you know, help with cotton harvesting that really helped with um with these um these occupations, but a lot of the the um the population, they were focused on agriculture. And over time, inventions started happening And we we started seeing a shift. And a lot of this is is shifts where we started seeing. So, again, when people living in rural situations, then the industry came about. There was mass production started happening. This created jobs, and often these jobs were located in cities. And so, what we saw is these farmers they shifted careers, or maybe, you know, the farmers maybe have died out, and the children then started working in cities, and they would immigrate into cities. And many of these farmers they would they they the former farmers moved to these cities, created a a lot of housing need. The the other the other item happened is that we started seeing a lot of immigration here to the United States. Other other um you know, they were escaping people were

escaping for various reasons, whether it's political or um various issues that were happening in other countries, and there was a large influx of immigrants here to the the United States. A lot of them ended up in cities. And so, we saw examples such as the city of New York. Between 1800 and 1880, the population doubled every 10 years. And if you think of that again, New York was a lot smaller then, but if you just think about the strain that they may put on a a city, just that rapid growth puts a strain on all the resources that a a city may have. And again, um obviously between 1800 and 1880, it didn't have a lot of the the the uh modern resources we have now. But, there there were the basic needs that that people had. You know, um housing is one of the preeminent ones. Where do I live? And so, former former cities that had a lot of single family, like, you know what, we need to have multi-family. Um and so, that's where the tenement housing came about is these were the the the low-rise apartment buildings. They didn't have plumbing, they didn't have ventilation, then we started seeing some issues start to creep in. This had a heavy impact. All this influx of people into these communities created problems with health, and that was one of the main items. You know, sewage, you know, running down the street, horse manure, there. Various diseases um, would would um, impact the community. Um, you would have tainted water. Um, this lack of ins- infrastructure really caused issues, you know, things that we take for granted. Also, another item that that took place was fires. Because of the the the increase in housing, a lot of people going to these

cities, built close together, and a lot of the um, the fire suppression that we have today did not exist. So, you had large fires in cities like San Francisco, like Baltimore, like Chicago that wiped out a huge amount of population and buildings um, because of of the situation. And here here are just some pictures, uh, historical pictures that show some of the uh, what what people were dealing with. Just horrible living conditions. You know, and that that translated not only the buildings too that maybe didn't meet any type of building codes, if any at the time, but obviously then you have the streets and the the lack of being able to to um, to maintain a a healthy walkable environment. You know, housing horrible where people are just crammed in there. Um, so with with this this situation, and obviously a lot of these things uh, and these items started coming about, we started seeing shifts. And so, as we shifted from the the the 1800s into the 20th century, um some some things started to change. So, just as we looked at the neighborhoods and a lot of these cities and here are just some El Paso examples, is the the cities were oriented towards people, pedestrians, horses, trolleys. Um the focus was still the city center. Downtown was the city center. Um there were commercial businesses, but they were within walking distance of of them. You may have a neighborhood, but then there would be a small, maybe a small corner store where people could could go. And a lot of the the other um centers were around parks and schools.

That's that's where a lot of the focus was and many of the um the desirable locations were around those um those uses. As we move forward to the 20th century, there started to be a change. Obviously, with the invention of the automobile, you know, we started seeing the shift. The people that used to use the the trolleys or or the or horseback, they're they started using the automobile. Um the the we started also seeing a separation of uses. So, now we we see often you have the residential zone, then you have the commercial over there. There was less of a mix of of uses. So, really started seeing a shift. As as we see here in El Paso, and if you do an aerial view of El Paso, if you look at the central area, it just has nice grid pattern that goes up through the central part, downtown, uh up in a little bit of going towards the northeast. But then as you go further out in the city, if you look at the all all all parts of the city, if you go the northeast, the west side, and east side, that changed from a grid pattern to a that hierarchy of streets that we often talk about with the local roadways, then the collectors, then your arterials, and then we'll get into here a moment, the highways. And so we really started seeing a shift in how we we live as a community. Um you saw other city things, alleys became less common. A lot of the central area has alleys. It's rare when we see alleys elsewhere. There was other items that may maybe used to be more prevalent, small schools are now shifting to be larger schools. Okay, and it forces people to to travel uh via

automobile or on the roadways. And as we're aware, right after World War II, a lot of the initiative was how do we get the soldiers a home? Live that American dream. I'm going to have my own house, my own car. Okay, again, a lot of housing focused on those single-family homes. With with a lot of this too is we started seeing migrations with the invention of other items such as air conditioning and such of employment, we started seeing shifts of some peoples, the a lot of the white population moved from maybe the north down to the south, some of the black population shift where there was employment centers, and so we started seeing shifts in where um where um peoples used to to live to to go to other parts of the the nation. One of the big items that really you can say it either helped us or harmed us because before it was really difficult to travel from one side of the country to the net to the other. And so with the invention or the the push for the highway system it it helped ease that, but as as we're aware and and it could be argued it impacted us here in El Paso with Interstate 10 going through the middle of some key areas of our city really disrupted um the city. But it does help move traffic along from one side of the nation to the other. And it was a rapid influx of of high-speed fast roadways to get people from one one side of the country to the other whether going east to west, north to south. And then this this impacted growth where the roadways say, you know what, I can maybe move farther out. But then what's that forcing me? I'm happy I'm having to drive everywhere. And so a lot that's where we get a lot

of the suburbs that started growing along these areas. Car ownership. A lot of us have one, maybe multiple cars. Um whereas before it was rare. And then it also introduced obviously commerce and industry. In the mid-20th century we started seeing shopping malls where instead of of small, you know, commercial activity away from city centers we're going to put them in a big box see a parking and um it really impacted us. It impacted our downtowns. It in increased the the need, if you will, to to drive. And you'd often as we're all aware you'd have a few anchor stores the large ones, and then supplemented by by smaller ones. And as we'll see right you know as as we're aware right now, the the a lot of the shopping malls are struggling right now, and there's a a shift that we're actually seeing right now. And we've seen that here in El Paso. As we look at the late 20th century, we see we see obviously see the um the push for being able to live further from the city center. A lot of us it may take a while to get um to the city center from where we live. And to be honest, El Paso doesn't have it bad. Okay? If you go to other larger cities, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, New York, you know, I know we sometimes complain about the traffic and how long it takes, but in the scheme of things we don't have a problem compared to some of these other cities. Um we needed freeways. Again, travel times. I need to get from my location

to to a destination. I need to go downtown. I need to go the east side. I need to go to to um go buy some groceries. Okay? It wasn't right next door. I have to go travel 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes to go even get there. Again, we have the hierarchical street pattern. A lot of these items became more common, cul-de-sacs. If you look at the central part of part of the city, there's not really too many cul-de-sacs around. You see a lot of alleys. In current development that we see or the ones that happened late 20th century, even early 21st century, we see the prevalence of cul-de-sacs. And limitations to how you get from one place to the other because is doesn't connect. And so when you connect, it gives you options to get from point A to point B. When you have a cul-de-sac, you're more forced to go to fewer points. That's whereas you look at the city, some parts of the city have better connections than than others. Granted, El Paso has to topographic issues and natural items we have to deal with such as a military installation, a a um a international border right next to us. So it sort of forces us to develop a little differently, but as we look at the areas of the city, sometimes it's easier to get from one um around one area to another. And then also in late 20th century and then this actually started mid mid um 20th 20th century is there were different acts put in put in by the government to um to try and improve blighted buildings, things that maybe as I talked about earlier, maybe they got dilapidated and they can be uh redeveloped. And so a lot

of it with the land was sold to developers to develop new housing. We lost a lot of historic structures as part of it. Um we see that here in El Paso, we see in other other parts of the uh the country too where a lot of historic structures um are are gone. And uh there was obviously um the uh the 1956 Highway Act that gave control of to the federal government over the highway system. And then as we saw here in El Paso, it really disrupted a lot of our neighborhoods and we see that here in central and as you look at um the uh when I I-10 was constructed, it really changed the makeup of how we interact even from between downtown and north of the freeway or as we look further east side as well as the west side was still developing at the time. And as we go into 21st century, obviously this is where we're at now and and this is where learning is new urbanism is one of the key elements that um has it started in the late 1980s, but really uh got a lot of movement here in the 21st century. It focus on movement about walkable design. Okay? And the walking distance as we heard about the Montecillo development smart code. Uh smart code is a way that we can implement new urbanism. How we can go from point A to point B without using a car. How we can have a corner store. How we can have other types of uses close by. And this is a little bit of callback to about a hundred years before how it used to be. You know, you used to be able to walk down to go get you know, go to down to the bakery. Go go get a a a a loaf of bread. Um whereas a lot of the way we were developed now as communities and El Paso's not different than some other cities, too. But, you know, it takes us

sometimes quite a while to go to the just simply the grocery store. Another item that that we often talk about is a complete streets. Again, but before it was looking at um various users. Um during the the after World War II, um a lot of the focus was on the automobile. Now, there's a callback to say let's focus on all users of these roadways. You know, yeah, cars are important factor in our lives, but there are other users, too. There's bicycle facility users. There's uh pedestrians. There's uh those that use transit. But, let's focus on all users and not just one one factor. And then finally, as as we're aware and and some of this is is impacting El Paso, is just a sustainability. Is how can we look out for future generations? How can we be good stewards of the land that we have? Um obviously as we're aware climate change and how that's impacting us, too. Um how can we increase or promote excuse me, multi-modal transportation? And just simply one of the basic needs is how do we have access to food? We all We all need it to survive. How can we have adequate access? And so there are different things here that we're we're grasping with. And the interesting thing about planning is it's one of the um the younger professions, if you will. But if you look at it, it's actually been around for a long time. It It just maybe in uh it never has properly been formed. But if you think about it, even before what I discussed here in the presentation, people had to plan. Where are the resources? How am I get to point A to point B? How can I have shelter? A lot of those were basics even before we started becoming modernized over the past

few hundred years. Um But with that, that is a very brief overview of of planning. Um obviously as we have other items um obviously for training, we're going to reach out to TxDOT for the sidewalk issue. But there are other things, too. But um thank you for your time on this presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions, comments. Um if not, I also have a mini staff here with me as well. How do we deal How do we incorporate new urbanism into sprawl? I know those are two completely like an- antonyms, but you know, it's kind of cost prohibitive to buy a an unoccupied building downtown because of all the asbestos, because of all the work you're going to have to do to bring it up to code. So, what we have available is, you know, something super far on the west side, on the east side, on the north. So, how do you build something like Montecito and entice people to come? You're like, "Hey, this is a whole community on its own." How do you How do you do that? I I I think for me there there a couple of items. Uh first of all, there has to be a desire from the community. Whether we like it or not, a lot of people love their cars. They They love living wherever they do and and you got to respect that, but a lot of people want to see a change. And I I I see that's where a lot of the the research, a lot of it is that that people want to see a change. One of the biggest things is right now, the codes almost encourage sprawl, you know, in terms of how we develop the land. Um that that is one issue. If the codes, if we were to promote new urbanism, and maybe it's not a full-on smart code like, but how can we promote more more walkable design? How can we promote um a mix of uses? So, we don't have to go drive 20 30 minutes to get to the destination. Maybe it's walking 10 minutes.

Um so, I think for one, the codes. Another thing I think there we can do all we want with the codes, but I think there other things that the city council probably would have to align as well. Because we can do everything with the codes, but there other entities that we probably also have to encourage um it to Right now, for example, the street designs, if you look at the way a lot of the streets are laid out, they promote cars. Okay? Yeah, they have a little sidewalk there for one pedestrian maybe to get by. But if we're if we're really serious about make some changes and promoting some of these things, we have to see some changes in terms of the way we're built. How and it the city can do all we want in terms of the um the public infrastructure, but it's the private side that has to come along, too. So, I think it's more people that advocate for a lot of these things and be um be champions as as they come about. There are a lot of initiatives to to encourage, you know, housing, to encourage better development. Um and uh as these come about, we encourage the input of yourselves and and others that also want to see changes um there, but I I think it starts with with having desire, and at the at the end of the day, the codes will have to change. Thank you. Any other questions? I do. Mr. Smith, thank you for the presentation. This is the second time I hear This one a little bit different now. But the city has for quite a while pushed for pedestrians and bicycles and connections here and connections there and uh safety here and safety there. I'm going to use two uh examples. The last one we had last time where a gentleman says and staff approved not doing sidewalks, "Oh, we don't want them in this part,

and they don't want us in their part." And I say, "Wow, you know, that that's wrong because we want to connect, no matter if uh they're neighborhoods, industrial parks, people are going to get out, especially on weekends and whatnot." The other thing is that um we talked about safety and just the case right before us. Um the gentleman says that we don't want a sidewalk because the speeds there are extremely high and safety, safety, and hazardous cargo, and this and that, but yet yet they're going to put a whole neighborhood right there. Heh. And say, "Whoa, what in the what gives, you know?" And um if I was planning that corridor right there on 54, I would say no neighborhoods within I don't know, 50 ft, 100 ft. Leave those for strip malls, for commercial. Okay? That's a good design. Then the sidewalks won't matter, the safety won't matter. Okay? The other thing uh that I noticed is that um um the city plan, not the city plan commission, the planning uh also years ago come by a major street and just designate both sides commercial, commercial three, commercial four. So, there's houses, there's residentials there. And uh they come and say, "Okay, we're going to blanket this whole thing because it's a major street." And uh the the people when they get to sell their house, they get to sell it for more, and then it goes commercial because it's already designated commercial. So, again uh we make a lot of mistakes I see in our city growing. Uh I'll give you another good example, the Saratoga

North from Montwood. Man, that's that's a bad highway. I mean, terrible. Even driving, for us to drive that area. You know, it's it's just terrible. You can't move around, much less the pedestrians or the bicycles. So, I just say that we need to do a better job on planning our city. I think it's important that uh we take everything into account. And the last thing I'll say is that um it's going to sound bad, but be that as it may is that a lot of times uh developers take advantage of these things and don't add the infrastructure needed on those streets and we the taxpayer through our tax dollars through our city dollars through our county dollars after they already built it we come in there and finish building what they did not build in the beginning. I mean just the the impact fees is another one that we living central have to subsidize for the people in the new neighborhoods. Just a few comments and concerns here. Thank you. Yeah, no thank you Mr. Brego. I think with each item is you know, I don't want to talk on on the former items but obviously we have to look at each one with their merits. Um you know, it it's a debate that is and often it's a political debate. You know, it had a debate for impact fees at city council. Um does it harm development? Does it help development? Is it too much on the developer? Is it too much on the rate payer? Um it's a debate that that occurs and obviously feel a lot of people feel passionately one way or the other. Um I think with with each of these you know, we're we're all learning we're all growing um as well but when we look at these applications, you know, for we we

promote sidewalks. I mean I I'm a big fan of walkability. But for me where appropriate and that that's where you know, frankly I don't want to a sidewalk on I-10. I don't I wouldn't feel safe there. There's some arterials here I don't feel safe walking me personally. But but that's for um staff makes the recommendation and then it's up to the CPC to decide. And that's the way the code's written and it's up to the plan commission and that's what council appointed you for is to make decisions on those type of items. And obviously on the zoning ones, that's a a recommendation that you all give to the um to the uh city council. I think one of the key elements is obviously, we have the codes that are in place and maybe sometimes some developers may take advantage of of the uh the code provisions. The codes are living documents. So, it's is here today. It could be changed tomorrow. Um again, so that's where as we've seen um items I I think one of the things that we we often see and is prevalent on the subdivision items are the waivers that come before you all. Um we're looking at ways to address that. Um to see how we the city can can um make sure we get the necessary assets to um promote good good street design uh right now. So, we're we're looking at that actively right now. Um so, we look forward to obviously bringing something in the future to address that item. Um I just got back from 12 days in Europe and to see the difference in different places that we're talking about now is like one of the places was Copenhagen where there's more bikes than there are cars. And you have a bike lot instead of a

parking lot. But, having said that you don't you don't have freeways around where you have bikes or pedestrians. That's why I agree with you totally. You don't want sidewalks by I-10. You don't want bike lanes by I-10. You have that getting to and from and then you go to your bike or you're walking or whatever, but I think the safety comes first every every time and in Europe, I saw it over and over and over again. You know, in the city center you couldn't go over 35 miles an hour. Or you got a $300 fine. Well, not dollars, but euros. And so, you know, you have to give and take. There's not an answer for everything. I I think it's what's what's interesting too is we look at Europe as an example. I was able to live there for a couple of years. And they developed obviously a lot differently. They're a lot older. An old building here in El Paso is new over there. And they obviously have a different way of life. They didn't have as much land. Again, from LA to New York is what roughly the same size from Lisbon over to Moscow. I mean and one country here is 30 obviously and and they're they're obviously different in how how they evolved. And um they have a different history than the United States. Um but but it's interesting, but they have some of the most They have they have a lot of people walk there. And sometimes some of the infrastructure there is very minimal. Too. And I think a lot of it is our mindsets need to change. You know, I'm not going to take my car today. I'm going to take the bus. It It's little shifts like that that we we either choose to do or choose not to do. Most of us choose to I'm just going to

get in my car. Okay? For whatever reason. Okay? And some of it may be valid. But a lot of it is is choices. And I think a lot of it as we look at multimodal, how can we promote a lot of these things? It's how can we improve it so that I'm comfortable using using a certain type of facility. Okay? You know, is it convenient for me? Do I have adequate um access? If I want to to bike from my house down to downtown, maybe a little difficult. Okay? Just because of the lack of infrastructure. And some people are fine with with it and they travel with the cars. But again, each person has a different level of comfort with whatever it is. My my son, he's learning how to drive. Right now, it's on local roadways. He hasn't tried the interstate yet because he's not comfortable yet. But the same thing is for each of us. Most of us are comfortable living a certain way or traveling a certain way. Okay? It's not until we have to change. But but it is doable. It is doable. It's just how can we create an atmosphere or an environment that encourages the type of things that we want to see. And that's the challenge we have before us, I think as as citizens here in El Paso. I think the biggest issue I have with any sidewalk exemption is that people don't really care if there's a sidewalk there in order to walk there if they're going to walk. And they need to get from A to B. They're going to do that whether or not there's a sidewalk there. And I think we have the choice. You and I have a car and that's great. That's amazing that when it's 100° outside, there's no question whether or not I am going to drive. I have that choice.

There are a lot of people who don't and it's an incredible disservice that when we're saying, "Yeah, I-10 54 54 is dangerous. We don't want you walking there." If they're going to walk they're going to walk. They're not going to be like, "Oh, there's no sidewalk there. I guess I'll have to figure something else out." No, they're going to walk. So, yes, I understand the argument that you know there's going to be periods of rain where excuse somewhere to proportion regardless of previous cases. But I understand that sometimes it is going to be dangerous. I understand that 54 is a dangerous road, but not having the sidewalk there is more dangerous because people are going to use it anyway. I would love to encourage by putting parkways, by putting park parking spaces so there is a physical barrier between the parking between the cars that are going 100 miles an hour because there's not a cop there and the people walking. I would love that. And I understand that it's a text start roadway. I just I have a problem with the concept of encouragement because people don't necessarily care about where they're encouraged to walk, where they're encouraged to bike if they only have one choice. That's that's my only my only comment about the encouragement part. So. Yeah. Yeah. No, understood. I also want to make sure we don't stray too far from the topic at hand. I know we're talking and it brought got brought up here at a pride them, but um Just just about the transportation. Yeah, just like and the concept of I had never thought about the cul-de-sacs, but that's interesting that if you cut off traffic, now you're stuck on that street. So, it's that's an interesting concept.

Yeah. Yeah. But uh again, as I mentioned before, I'll reach out to Text Dot again and uh arrange for them to have to come to a future meeting to present. Anybody else? No? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioners. Any other discussion before we end today? All right. Motion to adjourn? Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Aye. Thank you. Motion Motion carries. Y'all have a great afternoon.