Residents moving into El Paso’s first smart code development will have to wait a little longer

Dozens of residents slated to move into El Paso’s first smart code development will have to live in temporary housing for more than a month.

The Venue at Montecillo officials confirmed 44 residents were scheduled to move in this month, but their units are not complete.

EPT Land Communities, the company in charge of Montecillo, is paying for the temporary housing of those residents in apartments the residents choose until mid-August, when the units are expected to be finished.

“The Venue at Montecillo wants to ensure that our residents have the best possible accommodations available to them as we work through our delays,” company officials said in a statement.

EPT is also paying for the residents moving costs and giving them more than a month-and-a-half free rent at Montecillo.

“It was stressful for like 10 seconds but they did a really good job in terms of giving me options and explaining the situation. It didn’t take too long to feel better,” said Jose Santiago, a Texas Tech medical student who just moved to El Paso from Dallas and a future resident of Montecillo.

Montecillo will receive $22 million in property tax rebates from the City of El Paso over the next 20 years and about $12 million from the County for using smart code.

A City spokeswoman said the delayed units are not part of the smart code application where the developer received incentives -only the rest of the community.