The El Paso Inc. published a great piece about the city changing the zoning of major pieces of town in its March 31, 2013 issue.
The city wants to rezone more than one thousand acres thus affecting thousands of homes and businesses in the Mission Valley and Five Points neighborhoods.
Items 5E and 5F on the April 16, 2013 city council agenda would change the zoning to “Smartcode zone”, whatever that means.
The property owners bought their property under one set of zoning. Now the city wants to change the rules thus restricting the actions of the owners differently than what they signed up for.
Is “Smartcode zone” a good idea? I don’t know.
What is missing here is respect for the voters. We have a city council whose membership is about to change taking the opportunity to force change on us as some of the council members slip into a well deserved state of public oblivion.
How much public discussion do you remember council promoting on this issue?
Why can’t the people vote on this?
Is council afraid that the voters would say no? Once again does council need to show that they are right and that the citizens are incompetent to manage their own lives? Is council better than the unwashed masses?
I don’t know how I would vote. I do know that I hold anything that this council does in suspicion.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Find out who benefits financially from the smart code zoning and you will have your answer as to why this is being done. My guess is that one or more developers want to re-develop the Five Points area not unlike the redevelopment play going on in downtown..
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