Some residents opposed to new mountain development in Northeast

The foothills of the Franklin Mountains could soon see more development.

The City Plan Commission recently approved a land study for this area in Northeast El Paso, above Edgar Park and Magnetic streets.

The Open Space Advisory Committee received an update on the development, proposed by Palo Verde Properties, at a meeting Downtown Wednesday afternoon. Many, especially those who live in the area, are opposed to cutting deeper into the mountain.

“It’s a nice area,” said Billy Walls, who has lived in a home at the base of the beautiful mountains in Northeast El Paso for more than 20 years.

But a large new proposed development — called Sierra del Puerte — threatens to block that view.

“If things were done right, I wouldn’t mind it up here,” Walls told ABC-7. “But I know there’s a lot of objections.”

The Sierra del Puerte development calls for extending Edgar Park all the way along the base of the mountain to Hondo Pass. It would include 319 homes, most of them on less than a quarter acre.

“I’m sure that (a lot of residents) would be (opposed), because we don’t have anybody in front of us,” Walls said. “But what can you do? When they want to come, it’s just like the City tax, what can you do?”

“It’s a beautiful place and we should try and protect as much as we can,” added Judy Ackerman, secretary of the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition, who’d like to do something about it. “In this case the land is privately owned, so that pretty much dictates that the owner has certain rights. But maybe there are other options and it would be great if he could explore those because I understand there are many people that live nearby and are not happy about the idea of having homes going up the mountain.”

Ackerman said she is exploring options.

“Certainly we need to look at what options there are to protect land on the mountains,” she said. “That’s a key concern of the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition. “We need to protect land, not just for lands sake, but for the people’s sake.”

Members of the open space advisory committee said there’s little they can do, since the property is privately owned, except make the developer stick to code. Fifty-three-percent of the development will be open space and 50 percent is required.

A representative from Palo Verde Properties told ABC-7 they offered to sell the land as open space to the City, State and Public Service Board, but there were no takers.