El Paso City Rep. Limón questions proposed Deck Plaza, Mayor Johnson says it’s a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson was absent during this week's City Council sessions and was not present for the vote to move forward with a memorandum of understanding with the County, TxDOT and with the Downtown Deck Plaza Foundation.

ABC-7 reached out to his office for comment and for an interview on Wednesday; in a written statement, he said:

"The Deck Plaza is a once in a lifetime opportunity to reconnect our downtown, and I support moving it forward in a responsible way. What Council acted on this week is not the full construction of the project. The focus right now is on preserving that opportunity while TxDOT rebuilds I 10. Future proofing means doing the key work now so the full vision can still move forward when funding becomes available.

At this stage, many of the details related to economic impact, job creation, and long term operations are still preliminary. Those are important questions, but they will depend on the final scope, design, and funding partnerships. Right now, our priority is working with state, federal, and private partners to identify funding opportunities and make sure we are positioned for success.

No final funding decision has been made, and any future investment will require City Council approval and strong partnerships.

At the end of the day, this is about protecting taxpayers, being responsible with public dollars, and keeping a once in a lifetime opportunity alive for future generations of El Pasoans."

ABC-7 also spoke with El Paso City Representative Lily Limón, who said the El Paso community has "resoundingly" said they don't want the Deck Plaza model.

"Regardless of who the operator's going to be, the city would always be responsible for that and the numbers are very fluid; some people will tell you it's $209 million and others are going to tell you it's $415 million and that's a great big gap," said City Rep. Limón. "The answer is the city (owning the proposed Deck Plaza), because the agreement with TxDOT is with the city, the agreement is not with the county and the agreement is now with the deck park, it's with the city, so ultimately, the city is the one that's responsible for it."

According to City Rep. Limón, people are telling them they don't want this project.

"Our community doesn't want the Deck Park, doesn't want the Meta's Data Center, doesn't want anything having to do with raising money, our utilities, they're adamant, this is enough, we can't hold it and we can't do it anymore," said City Rep. Limón.

He also told ABC-7 that he has been to the Deck Park in Dallas because he went there to attend a conference, but had it not been for that, he would not have driven or flown all the way there just to go to the Deck Park: "It's just not reasonable."

"I think this is a dream, I think it's a beautiful dream, but realistically and financially, we're not there," City Rep. Limón added.

According to Limón, the city has until October to come up with $6 million, but then, after that, the price could go up to $20 million just for the future proofing.

"Now comes the rest and my biggest concern is the maintenance, because just to put the layer on top, that's all, the maintenance is about $3.5 million a year and we don't have $3.5 million if we have to do it right now," City Rep. Limón added. "And then once it's completed, the maintenance cost could rise as much as $8 million; we just can't sustain it and I'm sorry to hear people say there's nothing to do in El Paso when there are incredible things to do in El Paso."

The City's Director of Strategic and Legislative Affairs, Stephen Ian Voglewede, says the ultimate goal is to build a park on top of I-10 through downtown and it's not a new idea since it has been tried before in other places like Dallas and throughout the country.

"To do it, we have to work together, to coordinate with TxDOT and to find the funds, the money to build this park," said director Voglewede. "We've already been working together with the county and with the Downtown Deck Plaza Foundation to find this money for the project and the MOU formalizes that relationship that says we're all going to work together to plan and to find money for this project."

"So when this park gets built, the city will own the park as an asset, so what we're doing is we are coordinating with TxDOT, because they obviously will own the freeway underneath to make sure that we're coordinating on that construction effort," director Voglewede added. "Once the park structure is built, there will be amenities on top, you can think of things like grass, trees, park benches, etc; those are also things that we're working together to figure out how that gets paid for."

According to director Voglewede, the project has three phases:

• Phase one: Design the park
• Phase two: Build the concrete pan that would support the park
• Phase three: Amenities

Right now, the city is in phase one of the project, meaning they have already agreed with TxDOT for the design piece of that plan and are working on something called the "future proofing," which is what will make the construction work that happens underneath the park that will be able to support the weight of the park.

"It's really important that we do this work as they (TxDOT) begin construction for I-10, because if we try to do this portion at a later point, we would have to redo some of the work that TxDOT did and that would make it much more expensive," director Voglewede also said.

According to him, the city estimates that future-proofing measures will cost approximately $43 million, based on discussions with TxDOT and is currently working to secure the necessary funds.

To date, the city has identified $22.5 million that can be allocated to this project, and it still needs to secure an additional $20.5 million to complete this phase.

"One thing that's really important for the public to understand is that the city is only focused on finding state and federal funds right now and we have not committed local money outside of participation from entities that do not impact the general fund," director Voglewede added.