May 21, 2020
Dear FPDA Members and Friends of Five Points,
Unless you are more than 100-years old, this message probably arrives during the worst period in your business life! Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, many of you have had to either close your stores or offices or severely curtail your services. The rest of us, your neighbors and customers, have had to curtail our shopping, dining and entertainment. We miss you! Now that the economy is beginning to gradually reopen, we want to lend our moral support and advocacy to your attempts to reopen safely.
For the last 34 years, the Five Points Development Assn. has worked to promote the economic vitality of the Five Points Business Area. It has been a formidable challenge; however, we have had enjoyed some important successes*
Meanwhile, in the background, there are some very important and worrisome City projects being planned for Five Points that you should know about.
First, the City plans to soon demolish the El Paso Police Dept. two-level parking garage. Hundreds of EPPD employees will be looking for parking spaces on our nearby streets for years! Do you want parking meters or would you prefer a new, larger public parking garage?*
Second, using already approved Certificates of Obligation (CO) totaling more than $1 million for the Sun City Lights project, the City is planning infrastructure improvements on Piedras Street as early as this summer! What improvements would you like to see?*
Third, is Five Points safe, inviting and accessible? We are preparing a survey to assess the need for updating and improving Five Points, beginning with Piedras Street.* Give us your contact information and we will ensure that you receive the survey.
Some of you have been responsible for the recent business resurgence and economic revitalization. We salute you and invite you to join us and your neighbors by becoming members. Please call our Association Manager Tony Labrado at 533-3777, or go on-line at fivepointselpaso.org. Thank you.
Sincerely,
James M. Erickson
President
Five Points Successes and Project Details
Past Successes. The Five Points Development Assn. was instrumental in suggesting in the mid-1980s that the EPPD Headquarters relocate to the old Sears Store at Montana and Raynor, and inviting Sun Metro to create the Five Points Transit Terminal and dedicating it to the memory of the late Robert E. McKee, who was at one time the largest independent general contractor in the world! More recently, we petitioned the City to create the Quiet Zone along the Union Pacific railroad tracks from Piedras to Rosewood streets. However, we were not in favor of closing four streets and erecting a continuous metal fence north of the tracks!! That was the Union Pacific Railroad’s idea, which the City agreed to in exchange for some land needed for the Downtown AAA ballpark! Remember?
EPPD Parking Garage. The City plans to demolish the deteriorating El Paso Police Dept. (EPPD) two-level, private, parking garage at Tularosa and Piedras reserved for their hundreds of employees and police vehicles. They plan to replace it with a ground-level parking lot. This is supposed to happen very soon. When they start, there will be several hundred EPPD employees looking for parking spaces on the surrounding streets! The City has offered to install parking meters in the area to control “all day” parking; but, once installed, the City may never remove the meters, and may grow to love their revenue (paid for primarily by your employees and customers)! Furthermore, a ground-level parking lot will not be able to hold all of the EPPD police and employee vehicles. Look for real parking problems for the foreseeable future! Our goal remains for the City to construct a much larger, public parking garage there, like the one at Glory Road and Oregon Street.
Sun City Lights Project. More than a year ago, the City Council approved a “Sun City Lights” project for Five Points, along the lines of the Cincinnati Street project in Kern Place. It is valued at more than $1 million, and will be funded using Certificates of Obligation (CO’s). We have been in consultation with the City through our District #2 Representative Annello about the scope and design of the project, but our discussions were interrupted in mid-March by COVID-19 restrictions. So far, the City has proposed erecting an arch over Piedras St. at Yandell Drive, shade structures, and perhaps some other features.
BUILD 2020. Recently, in March, the City added a far more expensive Piedras Street project for which they are seeking federal funding: widening the sidewalks, and converting the outer traffic lanes to parallel parking. The net effect will be to leave one traffic lane north, one south, and a center left-turn lane. The trade-off is: wider sidewalks, parallel parking, and 3 narrower lanes of traffic, or the current, wider 5 traffic lanes, no parking, and the same narrow sidewalk. Unlike the City staff, your Board of Directors prefers to defer that decision to you as to what Piedras Street sidewalks and traffic lanes should look like. And, if the sidewalks are widened, how about burying those ugly utility lines?
Five Points Survey. Many of you are the real Five Points stakeholders; your valuable stake in your business and/or property will either grow or shrink based on the economic success or failure of the City’s proposed infrastructure improvements. We are preparing a survey to capture your thoughts about the Five Points Business Area and changes to Piedras St., in particular. When you receive it, please take some time to complete and return it.
