Will El Paso City Council approve Union Depot as new arena site during upcoming meeting?
The El Paso City Council is again set to consider approving a new site for the long-delayed Multipurpose Cultural and Performing Arts Center.
The City Council is considering whether to approve a scaled-down, 8,000-seat venue — 4,000 indoor seats and an outside lawn area that could hold up to 4,000 additional spectators — to be built on the Union Depot site.
City Council members voted to postpone approval of the new site during their Feb. 15 meeting to give the community more time to weigh in on the proposal. Since then, the city has hosted three community meetings, one in person and another two online.
The meetings drew 117 people, including about 30 to the March 6 in-person meeting, which took place simultaneously with an online meeting, city Strategic Communications Director Laura Cruz-Acosta said in an email. No recording was made of the March 6 meeting, but a recording of the Feb. 28 online meeting is available on the city’s Elevate El Paso website.
While city Lead Architect Daniela Quesada hailed the proposed venue as a "one-of-a-kind entertainment venue in the country" during the last City Council meeting, others were not so convinced.
East Side city Rep. Art Fierro said El Pasoans "deserve a 14,000-seat arena," closer to what was approved over 10 years ago. However, while the current Union Depot proposal falls within the remaining $162 million budget from the 2012 Quality of Life bond, Quesada said a venue that size would cost around half a million dollars.
Former City Manager Joyce Wilson expressed a similar sentiment. In a letter to council members, Wilson said anything short of a 14,000-seat arena "is like flushing money down the toilet, which (City Council has) been good at frankly."
She says the city should look at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as an example of what El Paso residents deserve. The venue attracts top acts to the city of 411,401 residents.
If the City Council moves forward with the scaled-down plan on Tuesday, the city could have a final design plan by winter, but shovels won't hit the dirt until 2026.
The right to be heard
It had long been an informal practice of the City Council to read written public comments aloud during meetings, but that practice was recently halted.
Now, a proposal from South-West city Rep. Chris Canales aims to revive and formalize the practice.
"The purpose of this amendment is to enhance transparency and public participation in the city's decision-making process," Canales wrote in the explanation of the agenda item. "By providing a structured method for incorporating written comments into Council meetings, the proposal aims to ensure that all voices are heard and that the concerns and viewpoints of citizens are appropriately noted and considered by the Council."
"The inclusion of a written public comment option broadens accessibility to the public process," he continued, "enabling participation from individuals who may be working during City Council meetings or face challenges accessing proceedings due to a disability, thereby fostering greater inclusivity and engagement in civic affairs."
The proposed amendment to the City Council's Rules of Order states "that public comment received in writing ('letters') submitted to become part of the record in accordance with the already established procedure shall, upon request of the submitter, be read into the record by the City Clerk or staff designee; and that the duration of the reading of each submitted letter shall be limited to three minutes, after which point the reading will be truncated, but the entirety of the text will still be included as part of the record; and that the reading of such letters will occur during the public comment period but after all speakers participating either in-person or remotely/telephonically have had the opportunity to address the City Council."
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso City Council to once again consider Union Depot for arena site
