ABC-7 XTRA: Tax increment reinvestment zones in NW El Paso
City Council approved a TIRZ, or a tax incentive reinvestiment zone in Northwest El Paso.Tonight on ABC-7 XTRA we discuss why homeowners in the area are opposed to the new development.
Officials say the TIRZ would help the city pay for waste water and drainage improvements.
The city’s plan could lead to the development of almost 9,000 homes.
The TIRZ, known as TIRZ 12, encompasses an area of more than 1,000 acres.
Jessica Herrera, Economic Development Director, said, “A lot of these costs are significant on the developer, they’re significant on the utility and they’re significant on the city.”
Opponents said these are usually cost the developer incurs when they want to build on the land, and they should not be shouldered by taxpayers.
However, the City said the geography makes this especially challenging to develop and a TIRZ, along with control of a master plan, will give the city more control over the entire area.
Developers already have to abide by SMART GROWTH principles.
Officials said they want to be strategic and identify how the area grows, with open space and mixed-use development.
The city wants to used the economic investment tool to develop where home owners don’t want it, specifically by the area called the Lost Dog Trail.
Homeowners who use the Lost Dog Trail are up in arms over the City’s use of tax dollars to help developers. Some have even started gathering signatures on petitions to try to stop the development , or at least get the city leaders to reconsider.
The petition, started by Zach Gonzalez, on Change.org has more than 9,000 signatures. The Change.org petition itself does not dictate what El Paso City Council discusses.
The City of El Paso has said the trail will be preserved, but altered.
“It will be shifted closer to the Franklin State Park so a little bit further North and East,” said Elizabeth Triggs, with the city’s economic development department. “It will still be there.”
The El Paso City Charter states that if petitioners get enough signatures from registered voters, they can bring up the issue of preserving this land as open space, back to city council.
City council will vote to finalize the financing plan for TIRZ No. 12 on June 26.
The use of a TIRZ gained popularity when the economic tool was used to spur reinvestment in blighted areas. The three oldest one -TIRZ five, six and seven- implemented between 2006 and 2014 were in rundown areas including, Downtown and Union Plaza, the Medical Center of the Americas and in the Northeast, the Northgate Transit Center on the site of the old Northgate Shopping Center.
