The El Paso City Council today approved the proposed master plan for a 140-acre Medical Center of the Americas around Thomason Hospital and the new Texas Tech four-year medical school.

The vote to approve the master plan was 5-2, with city Reps. Melina Castro and Eddie Holguin voting no after repeatedly raising the issue of eminent domain.

Other council members and city officials repeatedly sought to assure more than a dozen homeowners, only one or two of whom actually live within the master planned area, that the city would have no reason to use eminent domain for anything other than public improvements, such as a park, library or fire station.

However, that is no guarantee that one of the other government entities in the area, such as the county hospital district’s Thomason Hospital, would not use eminent domain to acquire property for their expansion.

But, it was said again and again today, that could happen in any case and would have nothing to do with the MCA master plan.

"Whether you adopt this plan today or no has no bearing on eminent domain," said County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, who represents the area for county government.

The plan amends the city’s Comprehensive Master Plan but is not a development plan that will involve the city. It is a land-use plan, a “vision” of how the area should develop in the next 50 years.

City Rep. Emma Acosta, who represents the area, offered the motion for approval, saying the plan for a future campus of medical facilities, the medical and nursing schools and related private development, is what El Paso needs.

She quoted a proverb from the Bible that says “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

“I want El Paso to know that we are not going to perish, but flourish in medical abundance that will provide our region with medical resources that we currently can only obtain outside of El Paso,” Acosta said. “We’re going to flourish with a new vision of economic development that is estimated at $1.2 billion in business revenue, and this is according to the Federal Reserve in Dallas. …

“It is a good plan, it is a good vision for El Paso. I only hope that I can see half of it.”

Mathew McElroy, deputy director for planning, said there are about five homes in the master planned area. At the three public meetings on the plan, he said, there was little opposition to the master plan but there were fears expressed about the use of eminent domain to take people’s property.

Holguin said a proposed resolution before the council that offered assurances against the use of eminent domain would provide no guarantees and urged that it be put in an ordinance.

City Attorney Charles McNabb said either would have the exact same effect and either could later be changed. In the end, the council did not act on the resolution, but Acosta included language in the motion requiring the city to respect people’s property rights.

Neighborhood fears about the potential use of eminent domain go back to 2002 when Mayor Ray Caballero proposed establishing a tax increment finance district in the same area to made it easier to develop and improve a future medical center area.

That proposal carried the possibility of the city acquiring property through eminent domain for public or private development, but the issue became so politically unpopular that the city never moved ahead with it. Similar problems have arisen with the city's Downtown redevelopment plan and potential use of eminent domain as a "last resort" to acquire property for private development there.

City Rep. Susie Byrd said while the master plan does not give the city authority to actively participate in development by using eminent domain, some of those who opposed it in 2002 are stirring up the same fears today.

“I think it’s a moot question unless we need to build a fire station in this area,” she said.

Holguin insisted there’s more to it than that, saying the city doesn’t need to act on a master plan if the area is going to develop as a medical area anyway.

“It’s just a vision,” Assistant City Attorney Lupe Cuellar said, adding that a master plan still has to be approved by City Council because it would come into play if future zoning changes are proposed.

Acosta added, however, that once the master plan is in place, it would become difficult to bring in, say, a new manufacturing plant or some other non-medical land use.

About a dozen residents addressed council about the their concerns, but only two of them own homes in the master plan boundaries. One of them said he didn’t want to be excluded while the other said he did.

Former city Rep. Vivian Rojas said her grandmother lives in the area and wants to be excluded from the plan as do some of her neighbors.

Jim Valenti, the CEO of the county’s Thomason Hospital, said the area around Thomason and the soon-to-open, four-year medical school and the coming children’s hospital will transform the area.

He noted that there were 1,900 applications for the first 40 seats for medical students.

One businessman, Ken Schillinger, owner of Modern Iron Works on Reynolds, said his metal fabricating plant is right in the middle of the master plan area, and he expressed one concern that no one successfully addressed.

“I’m aware that for the MCA plan to reach fruition, my business has to go somewhere else,” he said, adding that the cost of moving would be prohibitive.

The plant has been in his family since 1929 and Schillinger said he wants to pass it on to his son.

When he expressed a concern about the city taking the business through eminent domain, Mayor John Cook said the city would only use eminent domain for a public purpose, such as street improvements.

“You say it’s not about eminent domain, but a lot of people have concerns about it,” Rep. Castro said, addressing Cook.

After she and Holguin voted against the plan, they also voted against Acosta’s proposal to seek a Federal Railroad Administration grant to fund a study of how to reduce train noise along the railroad tracks through the area.

Holguin said he would vote no because the grant could come from a $12 million federal fund to look at relocating rail lines through El Paso, which he opposes.

The proposal passed on a 4-2 vote with city Rep. Rachel Quintana abstaining for reasons she did not explain.

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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605