East El Paso Super Growth Prompts Concern Over Urban Planning
EL PASO, TX. – East El Paso County is growing, and so are the area’s problems.
Heavy traffic is quickly becoming the norm on county roadways. More development means traffic will only get worse. And the county says it can’t keep up with the residential explosion. It’s private developers who are in some cases becoming road workers. Hunt Communities developers have offered to finish Darrington Road which in turn will allow the county to install a traffic signal at Eastlake and Darrington. Hunt wants to break ground on a new development slightly North of that intersection. One commissioner says that’s just compounding a growing problem.
The commissioner presiding over far east El Paso County says he knows the source of the population boom.CountyCommissioner Miguel Teran said,”the development that takes place is pretty much at the discretion of the developer.”What used to be rural roads are now constant flows and Terandoesn’t think a proposed traffic light at Eastlake and Earrington will help alleviate that problem. “All we’re doing is speeding up the process, or traffic, and moving it faster to Eastlake and I-10.”
Eastlake and Darrington may border Horizon City, but the Horizon’s Mayor Walter Miller tells ABC-7it is outside city limits, and he’s limited on how he can control traffic congestion there. Millersays he’s willing to do whatever he’s legally allowed to do to help ease congestion at this intersection. Teran says he’s going to keep trying to get roads built in this section of the county. But it will take time. And in that time,residents can expect the population boom to continue.
“If the county’s given land use authority, we could at least schedule development around the infrastructure we have,” Teran added.The commissioneralso points out he has around 600 square miles in his precinct that also need attention. And he can’t simply focus all the funding for roads in that small section of the county.
