Photo: Brax - Valley Publishing Ricardo Dominguez

Photo: Brax - Valley Publishing

Interested residents from all parts of the region have been attending meetings which address their concerns on traffic issues. The Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) has recently convened several public meetings to allow residents and groups to discuss these issues.

One of the meetings was held in Sunland Park recently with another the following day near the Upper Valley. Turnout was light at the latter meeting.

Information was somewhat lacking as well. The MPO speaker, Ricardo Dominguez, was grilled on several issues that face the Upper Valley and the Westside of El Paso. Dominguez, when not creating interesting shadow figures on the wall, danced around many of the questions.

When asked why the recent plan called for a 4-lane Upper Valley Road after El Paso’s City Council had already voted to restrict it to 2-lanes with a bike path Dominguez could only point at the defects in the management of the planning process.

Likewise for even considering a 4-lane running into a 2-lane Country Club Road.

But Dominguez did his best performance when asked about the impending development on the West Mesa near the Mexican Border by the Verde Group. Dominguez went on several tangents and when asked to be specific Dominguez opted to search for another question from the attendees. At this point some left the meeting very disappointed.

Apparently, because the Verde Group had just provided a preliminary plan the MPO has not even incorporated the data from the 5,000-10,000 estimated homes that will saturate Upper Valley roads with traffic in the next 10 years. Traffic accidents and congestion has already increased exponentially in the last year from recent high-density housing, according to El Paso Traffic Data.

Carolyn McKee, an Upper Valley resident, thought that the MPO’s performance was not necessarily skirting the issue but rather more of “I think that the MPO has decided to give out the information "on a need to know basis" only. Some in attendance thought that they needed that information... but maybe the MPO didn’t think so.

McKee is also very concerned about the future of the Upper Valley because of the Verde Group’s proposed community. “My concerns were that the situation was as bleak as I thought it was and after the meeting I fully understood that those concerns were well founded.”

More information will be forthcoming as many Upper Valley residents are intent on pinning the MPO down on some of these traffic issues.

The MPO’s web site is www.elpasompo.org

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Editor, Upper Valley Beacon

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