el paso looking at comprehensive plan for growing east side of the city

A section of El Paso that is already the home to more than 150,000 people, out of a total city population of 683,000, is in need of a number of new public facilities.

According to City of El Paso officials, the city’s east side, which has seen its population more than double in the last two decades, requires the service of at least two more police stations, three more libraries, and eight more fire stations.

In response, El Paso has now posted an online survey asking for public input on what will be an East Side Master Plan that will not only look at the construction of those facilities, but the possibility of new senior citizen centers and parks as well.

A press release from the city says a master plan for the area is particularly needed to provide “tools and key policies to manage growth and development throughout the city.”

Such a plan, the release continues, will “help ensure that East El Paso is developed in an orderly, efficient, and cost-effective manner.”

Public input on the plan will be accepted until February 10.

The East Side Master Plan is being put together as officials with the nearby Medical Center of the Americas is updating its own campus master plan.

Introduced earlier this month to members of the El Paso City Council, the MCA plan is grappling with a daily campus population that has increased from 3,000 nearly two decades ago to more than 9,500 today.

During those years, the MCA campus, according to the council presentation, has been transformed from a “largely resident and light commercial/industrial neighborhood to a dense academic and medical campus.”

Because of that growth, the “utility and transportation infrastructure needs for the campus have changed significantly.”
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The intent of the updated campus master plan is to create a framework for “coordinating the anchor’s distinct development goals while responding to the needs of the nearby community and adjacent neighborhoods.”

By Garry Boulard​​

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