EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — City Council representatives approved a rezoning request for the Housing Authority for the City of El Paso, or HOME, to build a low-income apartment complex in West El Paso.
City representatives voted 6-2 in favor of the zoning change during its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24. The two dissenting representatives were Joe Molinar and Isabel Salcido.
The South Mesa Hills Apartments project would be built on land by Mesa Hills Drive that is northwest of Sunland Park Drive.
The project, however, has received backlash from some Westside residents who previously voiced their concerns in July about what they said would be an increase of traffic and pollution that the new development would bring to the community.
According to a document from the City Plan Commission, there were 41 phone calls, 60 emails, four petitions with 1,173 signatures, and one letter in opposition to rezoning. In contrast, as of Sept. 23, staff members received five phone calls, two emails and two letters in support of the affordable housing project.
“We’re just very disappointed that we are completely ignored, understanding that we are more than 1,100 protesters,” said Cristina Jimenez, president of the Coronado del Sol Neighborhood Association.
Jimenez said many of the neighbors’ frustrations lie with what they called a lack of transparency from HOME. She said the neighborhood association has reached out to the housing authority with several questions that have gone unanswered.
“The problem is that we are going to have to face all together the traffic conditions that we will be living. We will have to be facing, everyone, all of us together, the environmental impact that this will have on all of us. I don’t think City Council thought about that,” she said.
HOME’s new complex will feature 104 units, with one- to three-bedroom floorplans.
“We’ve had a lot of opposition and after we build our stuff and we’re a member of their community, it changes. We get along well with the people around us. We see ourselves as members of that community. We meld well with the members of that community and we look forward to bridging those relationships,” said Gerald Cichon, CEO of HOME.
Cichon said the housing authority chose the location due to the availability of resources in the area including food, employment and school options – giving low-income El Pasoans the opportunity to find success.
“If you’re going to look for somebody who’s going to try to pull themselves up and up by their bootstraps, you put them in a good location so they can do just that,” Cichon said.
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