Here’s some informed speculation about TIRZ 12, the Lost Dog TIRZ.
I think it has something to do with that Great Wolf Lodge, which is rumored to be built on TIRZ 10 and 10a, by the freeway. Someone let the cat out of the bag too early, which is why the El Paso Inc. ran the story in one of the Whispers columns in print but then omitted it from their online edition.
Maybe Great Wolf wanted an upscale neighborhood closeby. Maybe one of the developers wanted the City to sweeten the pot in exchange for some of the land for Great Wolf.
That Great Wolf Lodge project has been in the works for a long time. Look at this story that appeared on KFOXTV.com more than three years ago, on May 7, 2015.
KFOX14 Investigates obtained records which show in November, the city spent around $600 for [El Paso City Manager Tommy] Gonzalez to fly to Dallas to visit sites.
The trip included a meeting with the Cowboys and a tour of the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine
The Great Wolf Lodge is a large resort featuring an indoor water park, restaurants and other family centered attractions.
It’s the kind of place Gonzalez said, lends itself to staycations.
“To offer unique type of attractions that are unique to this area. So they don’t have to go eight hours or 10 hours somewhere else to enjoy those same types of features,” said Gonzalez.
See, developing those TIRZs, destroying our trails and open space, is to save you the trouble of driving all the way to Grapevine to visit a water park. You were going to do that, right? Now you’ll just have to drive an hour three or four or five times a week to ride your mountain bike.
Half our City Council wasn’t in office when this plan was hatched. This harebrained scheme was well past gestation when they took the oath of office.
However, half our City Council was in on it. Presumably they signed off on the idea without informing their constituents.
And therein lies the problem with the lack of transparency in city government. If you’re going to run around making deals behind closed doors, you better be right. You’d think that the City would have learned that after the ballpark debacle.
If private enterprise makes a mistake, they suffer the consequences. But if government makes a mistake, they just double down on it and keep feeding it money.
Actions have consequences. Unfortunately, in El Paso, the people who take the actions just pass the consequences on to the taxpayer.
And, once again, here we have it. In what kind of twisted world do people travel to an out of the way location for a “staycation,” for the purpose of spending all of that time at one place? Don’t people usually choose a destination where there are lots of options for things to do and places to see and visit? Our elected representatives need to get their noses rubbed into the reality that El Paso just ain’t one of those places.
What happen with the reports of a water shortage ?
Suddenly there is an explosion of water parks ! Is this really why the water rates were raised again ?
Then start the recall for the city reps and mayor.
As I told City Council and the mayor to their faces on Tuesday, July 10 , “lack of transparency is a recurring theme when citizens address you.”
Sam Morgan ( district 4) could not have been more cynical when he told us ” we make decisions based on information that you don’t have.” And then he refuses to tell us what that information is. This information affects all of our lives and City Council feels entitled to keep it from us.
I am all for starting a recall petition.
Another freaking water park. I am sick of these water parks popping up everywhere while we are expected to conserve water. What gives? Oh…our beautiful parcel of spectacular desert area and homes for wildlife and desert plants. Pfft ! I will sign that recall petition too.
Let’s get the recall petitions going. Anyone who understands the process and would be interested in guiding the effort?
WE THE PEOPLE are supposed to be the ultimate arbiter of what’s good for us and how our money is spent. Much like the fools in Washington, our city council think they know best how we should live. That is a democratic way, it’s communism and/or authoritarianism. Neither of which is acceptable in the America I took up arms to defend!