El Paso City Council Approves New Landscaping Ordinance

Tuesday, city council approved an ordinance requiring new businesses to add more trees and shrubbery to their property. Now, the business community’s upset about how much green it’s going to cost them.

In a 6 to 2 vote, city council approved a landscaping ordinance requiring new business developments to plant trees and plants on their property.

City representative, Carl Robinson and Eddie Holguin voted against it, “I think that people right now are pretty strained in their finances and we shouldn’t be creating extra costs for businesses that rae then going to be passing those costs on,” said Holguin.

Representatives from both chambers of commerce, speaking on behalf of the the business community made passionate pleas against the ordinance.

“The ultimate burden for complying with this ordinance will not fall on the developers, it will fall on the small business owners…who rent from the new shopping centers coming in, the new buildings that are coming in because they’re going to be paying higher rents because of this,” said Alexandra Swann, Chair for the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“A number of the proposed requirements run the risk of making such development impossible from a business stand point,” said a representative from the El Paso Greater Chamber of Commerce.

But City councilman, Beto O’rourke wasn’t convinced, ” Frankly, I expect more out of our business leadership than these reactive responses to proposals to improve the look of the city by saying every new proposal from the city’s going to put people out of business.”

Council voting against the city staff’s original recommendation of requiring a minimum of 9-percent of property landscaping.

“I know that if Tucson and Albuquerque can do this without putting small businesses out of business then I know we can do the same,” said O’rourke.

Instead, approving recommendations made by open space and parks and rec committees. A minimum of 15 -percent must be landscaped by all new and re-developed properties.

“Small businesses generate jobs for our community and it’s very expensive for small businesses to stay open,” said Swann.

Property owners can be charged with a class C misdemeanor if they don’t comply. The ordinance goes into effect early October.//