A city committee that has been working for nearly a year on rewriting subdivision regulations to include smart growth elements hurriedly approved the final changes Friday, but no one seems particularly satisfied with the results or the process.

Changes in the city’s subdivision and zoning codes could be in place by next month, and one city representative said City Council will expect developers to start incorporating those principles in their subdivisions.

“We want people to use them,” West-Central city Rep. Susie Byrd said. “We have the tools and the political will to change the way we develop in this community, so we’re going to expect the development community to respond.”

It was the lack of progress on the new subdivision regulations that Hunt Communities cited two weeks ago as their main reason for pulling out of the $131 million purchase of more than 4,800 acres of El Paso Public Service Board land in Northeast El Paso.

“I haven’t given up yet,” Cook said. “We’ve had some conversations with them and they were very positive in nature. My hope is we’ll still be able to save the deal.”

The issue of the PSB land sale will come up before City Council again at Tuesday’s regular meeting.

Two weeks ago, Hunt Community Vice President Justin Chapman told the council that his company couldn’t close on the sale because city had not approved new subdivision regulations containing the smart-growth principles that must be used in the 4,800-acre master planned development. [march 6, 2008 npt background]

City Manager Joyce Wilson had already ordered the city staff and subdivision code rewrite committee to its complete work on the new, proposed code by March 14, but that did not keep Hunt Communities from notifying Cook that the company was pulling out of the deal.

Cook and other council members have speculated that Hunt was looking for a reason to back out because the collapsing housing market would put the $131 million investment at risk if the company went through with the purchase.

Getting a suddenly fast-tracked subdivision ordinance with smart-growth elements approved next month would be “quite a feat,” said committee member Charlie Wakeem, president of the Coronado Neighborhood Association.

“But for me, there are still things I have concerns about,” he said. “By and large, the new code addresses most land uses – pedestrian friendly neighborhoods, walkable and sustainable communities and narrower streets that are safer.”

The newly proposed code would also require developers to provide more land for parks but would give them credit for hike and bike trails and for ponding areas that can be also used as parks.

During a break in Friday’s meeting of the ad hoc subdivision committee at the Main Library, engineer Wayne Grinnell of the CSA Design Group offered a firm “no” when asked if he was satisfied with the proposed ordinance the committee was about to send on the City Plan Commission and City Council for possible adoption. [see proposed code via link below the story]

Grinnell has been part of the subdivision code rewrite process from the beginning as a representative of the El Paso Association of Builders’ Land Use Council.

He was particularly displeased to learn that during his hour-long absence from the meeting, Deputy City Manager Pat Adauto had passed out a draft of an ordinance headed to City Council next month that would, if adopted, inject smart growth principles into the existing subdivision and zoning regulations.

“This is the first time I’ve seen it,” Grinnell said. “It will require community vetting and should be very carefully approached because smart growth is, by definition, what the community defines it to be.”

Scheduling the smart growth code for approval in April without allowing time for developers and builders to review it is an “aggressive agenda,” he said.

“The devil’s in the details, and there are an awful lot of details that have to be addressed,” Grinnell said.

Adauto told the committee that the measures to be added to the existing subdivision and zoning codes are scheduled to go to the City Plan Commission on March 27.

City Council should get the addition to the subdivision code April 1 and the addition to the zoning code on April 15.

The smart code measures are scheduled to go to City Council to be incorporated in the new subdivision regulations as part of a new smart code on April 29.

David Crowder may be reached at dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or by calling (915) 351-0605.

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