El Paso County to work with local military installations on land use planning

El Paso County Commissioners agreed on Monday to take part in a Joint Land Use planning committee with several military installations, Dona Ana County and five other New Mexico counties.

The planning, or policy, committee which will include Commissioner Sergio Lewis, will develop land usage strategies for Fort Bliss, Holloman Air Force Base, White Sands Missile Range and their surrounding communities.

The cost to the County will be $2,500. The money is a 5 percent match to a proposed $500,000 grant that will be sought by Dona Ana county from the federal government.

Money will be used to issue a study in coordination with the U.S. Department of Defense to determine the best practices and uses for land surrounding the military installations. Those strategies would then, theoretically, be used to create plans and resolutions for future land use.

According to County employees, El Paso County has already been involved in some of the preliminary costs, and will be sending one, or more, county employees to quarterly meetings that will include more technical discussions.