A moot assignment to build a new police academy and chimney in El Paso in north Hills will be the subject of a virtual public assembly thursday.
The city proposes to build a $79. 1 million campus on vacant desert land next to Martin Luther King Boulevard at the north end of Officer Andrew Barcena Drive.
A virtual network assembly organized through the city’s capital improvement branch will take place at 6 p. m. on Thursday, July 1. To participate, stop by https://tinyurl. com/3mdezupa or call toll-free 833-664-9267 and enter the convention call ID: 810 233 425 #.
The proposed 50- to 100-acre site is located at the foot of the Franklin Mountains, at the northern end of the North Hills neighborhood, near the Roundhouse and Lazy Cow mountain and biking routes.
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The academy site would be close to the main arteries and app infrastructure and would keep the spaces open and have no effect on the trails, according to a presentation of the previous city allocation this month.
The planned academy, which will be built on land owned by El Paso Water, would be surrounded by more than 1,400 acres of committed open space as a noise buffer and views for trails and neighboring neighborhoods, according to information from the assignment.
The presentation noted that the academy’s car parks can only be used through trail users outside of business hours.
Environmentalist Judy Ackerman said in a letter that the proposed academy would usurp “massive amounts of the maximum pristine open area in Northeast El Paso. “
“There are many places needed to put this academy,” Ackerman said, calling the plan “an abomination” for the preservation of the mountains.
“The other folks of El Paso need grassy open space, especially next to Franklin Mountains State Park and our mountains,” he wrote.
El Paso police/fire academy’s new component of the $413 million public protection bond approved by electorate in 2019 Bail did not specify a location.
The proposed master plan campus would come with a police academy, an academy with a fireplace and a logistics center and the headquarters of the El Paso Fire Department.
The presentation that the joint campus of the academy would include:
The assignment is still inarray progression with the layout and structure running from July 2022 to January 2024.
The existing El Paso Police Academy is on the Scenic Route and the El Paso Fire Training Academy is in Ascarate Park.
Daniel Borunda can be reached at 915-546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes. com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.
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