El Paso is at a crossroads in how our city grows. We can either choose to make thoughtful changes that keep our neighborhoods strong, or we can continue sprawling outward and watch the core of our city hollow out.
An immediate, important step we can take is updating our zoning code to eliminate outdated parking mandates in certain areas and to allow more flexible housing options like accessory dwelling units, more commonly known here as casitas. The City Council will consider adopting these changes in our meeting Tuesday, Aug. 19.
The urgency of this could not be clearer. El Paso faces a deficit of 18,000 housing units. On top of that, more than 100,000 people sit on the waitlist for the Housing Authority. These aren’t just statistics; they represent thousands of families, seniors, and young people who cannot find a place to live in their own community.
The scale of the crisis makes it irresponsible to keep outdated rules on the books that drive up costs and make it harder to build housing…