Socorro council approves motion to re-inspect homes on Coker Road

Socorro City Council members discussed legal consultation regarding properties on Coker Road Thursday.

Council members voted to approve the re-inspection of dilapidated structures on Coker Road.

In January, residents living on the road were sent letters condemning their homes and giving them three months to move out.

The letter came after residents in the area suffered from severe flooding every year since 2011.

Thursday’s vote allows residents to go to the planning and zoning commission individually and state their case.

Depending on the stability of the structure, the commission will then decide how much time residents will have to move out.

Council members were scheduled to discuss a long-term plan to help fight the flooding but that item was removed from the agenda two weeks ago and the plan wasn’t discussed during Thursday’s meeting.

Socorro Mayor Elia Garcia told ABC-7 the city is looking at possible avenues including grants and researching construction retrofitting.

“We are working on a long-term plan to work with the flooding issues. However we’re not sure if we are going to follow a six-year plan or we are going to contact other municipalities to go ahead and take care of that,” Garcia said.

At a meeting held in the second week of February, city council members were set to take action on a proposed six-year plan, but some members argued six years was too long for a project.

Coker Road resident Rick Avalos told ABC-7 he felt the move was a delay tactic.

“At the end, they don’t want to help us because they already decided what they are going to do. They not only want to take our property but they want to charge us for the destruction of our own property. The city does not have our best interest,” Avalos said after the meeting.

City officials sent ABC-7 this statement:

“(The) city council has informed us that they are taking this issue very seriously, and they would like to stress that they are investing time to look at every opportunity available at this time, to avoid making any choice hastily. These efforts include investigating potential grant assistance programs, researching proposed construction retrofitting, and relocation outlets.”