City imposes restrictions on salvage yard

Residents in a Central El Paso neighborhood are hoping new restrictions on a nearby business will improve their neighborhood. Ramos Court residents went before City Council for the second time on Tuesday urging the City Representatives to impose restrictions on a salvage yard owner.

The property in question is Flamingo Motors on the 7,000 block of Alameda, next to Ramos Court. Within that property is the owner’s home, a used car lot and what the city calls an auto parts salvage yard.

“Our residents have been living with this nightmare of having a neighbor who lacks respect for the ordinances and have repeatedly thumped his nose to city government,” Anna Es pinoza, a Spokeswoman for the residents, told City Council.

A court has found that under the current commercial zoning the salvage yard is not allowed in that property. The property owner, Francisco Ramirez, asked city council to change the zoning to something that’s called Industrial Mixed Use, a designation that would allow him to keep his remaining businesses and home but nothing else.

The city agreed but imposed restrictions on Ramirez. “He’ll be required to build a 7 foot rock wall around his property. He’ll have to have his parts five feet from the wall. He can’t stack them higher than six feet so no one can see them. And he will not have access to ramos court,” said City Rep. Emma Acosta.

Ramirez’s attorney said his client was willing to be a good neighbor. “He was very saddened that at the 11th hour they were putting additional conditions. We decided to go ahead and accept them,” said Ray Mancera.

While working on this, residents and City officials noticed all the properties in this area are zoned as commercial. The City city is working to rezone all the homes there as residential, as agreed to by the residents.