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Wildwood Canyon Rescue in Limbo due to City.
Controversy over the Approval of Wildwood Canyon in North West El Paso has lead to a law suit being filed. Ric Schecter, past candidate for city representative and North West El Paso resident, has filed a law suit in order to clarify City Council’s standing on an issue which impacts Wildwood Canyon.
As early as March of 2005, the Upper Valley Beacon spoke with Ric Schecter about Wildwood Canyon. At that time, the developer was initiating testing on the premises and was gashing large areas of the canyon walls as well as grading a road through the canyon. 
At that time, Shecter, indicated that the City of El Paso should limit the amount of destruction during the soil testing phase and was concerned that both then City Representative Susan Austin and the various departments of the City were allowing the developer free rein.
“The developer has a right to test the soil” Schecter admitted, but there are limits on how much alteration is allowed before a plat is approve.
Schecter believes that the developer has obtained plat approval when in fact it should have been rejected.
According to Schecter, there are certain requirements concerning access that the project failed to meet. It may have been that one requirement was used as criteria instead of including a more comprehensive requirement being meet. 
City Council should determine if that was done, however, City Council wont act on the matter. Schecter indicated that City Attorney Charlie McNabb instructed the Council to not address nor vote on the matter of revoking the permit.
“He (McNabb) told them that [Council] was not the appropriate arena for resolving the matter, said Schecter. “He also indicated that the matter should be resolved in the courts”.
It is for this reason that Schecter hired former Chief Administrative Officer for the City of El Paso, James Martinez, and filed the suit. Shecter is seeking a determination by the court such that Council may address the issue and of the plat being approved due to fraud or if that is not proven... then by incompetence.
However, the suit states that the City Plan Commission approved a revised subdivision application based “in part on false statements made by the applicant developer”. The suit further suggests that “the applicant knew the statements were false when they were made”.
The basis for the suit is stated in the El Paso Comprehensive Plan and specifically designates “Arroyos” as areas of sensitive environmental balance that must be maintained. It includes the proposal that “arroyos” should be “maintained in as original state of alignment as possible” and that the City should “discourage new development in flood-prone areas. Thus the suit alleges that the approval of the developer’s application is “prohibited by Section 19.16.050 of the City of El Paso Municipal Code” as stated in Paragraph H of the section.
Since filing the law suit, Schecter indicates that not only is the developer challenging the suit and requesting that it be dismissed... but that the City of El Paso is also suggesting that Schecter has no standing in the matter and that the case should be thrown out.
Schecter, finds this quite unsettling. “This is the same City Attorney who told Council that the court is the appropriate forum to determine if the plat was approved due to fraudulent statements”.
“First they say that it has to go to court to be resolved and now they say that it should not be heard in court.” says Schecter.
The case recently went before a judge and the case was thrown out. In the verbal statements, according to Schecter, “the judge indicated that perhaps it should go back to City Council... but it isn’t written into the ruling by the court.
"We are still waiting to determine if we are going to appeal the courts ruling", indicate Schecter.
(Photos: Brax - Valley Publishing Company)
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Editor, Upper Valley Beacon
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