City holds public meeting for proposed expansion of Resler near Transmountain

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The City of El Paso held a public meeting today, discussing the proposed expansion of Resler Drive from Transmountain to Dewberry Drive.

The plan to expand the street has been requested by the neighborhood of Enchanted Hills for some time. There are only two entrances to the neighborhood which has over 600 homes and a large church. During rush hour, the traffic will bottleneck near Highway 375.

Residents at the meeting were happy about the progress made.

"Connecting Resler is really, truly going to be that major solution to give us that accessibility, to give us the opportunity to kind of move away from the residential access point that we're all on," said Christian Lopez, the President for the neighborhood's association.

"The traffic poses an issue. It's caused some really unfortunate accidents in the past."

Lopez said he and his neighbors have been waiting for upgrades for nearly 10 years, and they hope it can add to more than just the road.

"To really be able to invest in the walkability and just general mobility of my neighbors and I, to be able to come in and out of our neighborhood on such a busy arterial road like Resler, I think that's a beautiful thing."

The project is funded by the 2022 Community Progress Bond that was passed by El Paso voters. The project has an allotted fund of $19 million, but City Representative Alejandra Chavez said they believe it would cost around $16 million.

"We need to create this street as soon as possible so that they can have faster response by our first responders, but also so that they can improve their quality of life," said Chavez.

Chavez has been pushing for this project since she was elected. She says there's already planned growth for the neighborhood, and adding this expansion will help for the expected increase in traffic.

"This project is very much anticipated by my constituents, by the people that live in Enchanted Hills. Again, there is a lack of access that is at that neighborhood."

Chavez said that the design for the project is about 60% complete and expects the project to be finished by Fall of 2027. She hopes the community can give the city time to figure out the next steps.

"We hope that the community is just patient with us as we finish the design and a few other details to get this project completed and going."