City Rejects State Money Requested by Historic Commission

cabrera. and i’m estela cas. the city of el paso also under fire today for rejecting state money! the money was for a downtown survey that would have designated which buildings are historic. abc-7’s maria garcia is live with both sides. the el paso historic commission had been working to get the state grant for years. they say el paso is the last major texas city to have done this survey. and the state was willing to give the city 56- thousand dollars to do it. but the city says downtown property owners had concerns about how the survey would affect them: “this is not an indication that we will not be moving forward on a survey. this is an indication that we will not be moving forward at this time. because at this time the current environment that we’re in is an environment that we need to build trust.” downtown property owners were concerned the survey would later impact development. but supporters of the survey say it wouldn’t impose any restrictions – only recommendations to council. they’re especially disappointed that city council didn’t vote on whether to reject the funding. instead the city economic development department decided it was not the right time to get the matching funds because of the lack of support from property owners: “there’s a lot of peopl invested in el paso besides the property owners and we are more than willing to work with the property owners to make this a win win.” the city says it’ll reapply for the grant when there’s more consensus but those who pushed for it say rejecting the money shines a bad light on el paso.