site development plan approved for big el paso residential project

A nearly 12-acre site in northeast El Paso is slated for the construction of 84 new single-family homes.

The project belongs to an El Paso-based group called the Northtowne Village Joint Venture, and will go up on vacant property in a section of the city populated with some residential and commercial growth.

In the spring of 2019, Northtowne Village Joint Venture submitted the winning bid for the property that was then owned by the utility El Paso Water.

That $6.9 million bid for a larger 73 acres was subsequently approved by the utility’s Public Service Board. Earlier reports indicated that it could take as long as seven years to fully develop the larger site, which could ultimately see the construction of up to 500 homes.

Earlier this year, the City Plan Commission approved the development plan for the 84-home project.

In making its decision, the commission said the plan protects the “best interest, health, safety, and welfare of the public in general.”

Northtowne Village Joint Venture, which is led by long-time El Paso builders Bob Bowling III and his son Greg Bowling, had asked in that development plan to reduce the city-imposed required lot area at the site from 4,000 square feet to 3,360 square feet.

The Plan Commission report on the project, which will go up off McCombs Street, south of Sean Haggerty Drive and west of Dyer Street, also said it would bring with it “no negative effect on the natural environment, social economic conditions, and property values in the vicinity and the city as a whole.”

Members of the El Paso City Council have now unanimously approved the site development plan for the project.
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City documents state that if no work is started at the site within the next 4 years, the official approval of the plan will no longer be valid.

​By Garry Boulard

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