Sometimes we chide City Council for taking time to hereby resolve something. A resolution? Big deal! The city's intent to be against the border fence is one. It did nothing to stop the fence.
Here's one that will also wind up in the "resolutions" folder in a file cabinet, but it's an example of how a resolution can get people to think.
This week, City Council gave a ditto to a bill in Congress that would protect thousands of acres of wilderness and scenic areas near Las Cruces.
The bill is meant to protect the outdoors, and our views of it, from becoming what it looks like when El Pasoans look at our mountains. Development has gone quite far up the foothills. There will be no scenic postcards printed for Crazy Cat Mountain.
Long ago, we sold mountain land to private investors. And in Texas the laws read that if you own it, you can probably build on it. The city is just now trying to update building codes, what with Storm 2006 having wreaked $200 million in damages. Part of the cause was development higher up messing with the natural flow of water to the Rio Grande. That flow, in some cases, wound up in somebody's kitchen down below.
This bill for New Mexico, introduced by Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, would designate 359,000 acres in Doña Ana County as wilderness or national conservation areas. Some of that land -- for hikers and such -- is closer to El Paso than it is to Las Cruces.
This bill would not stifle the much-needed, economy-boosting building industry. There is plenty of land around here on which to build new neighborhoods. Plenty. This bill will simply preserve the outdoors for everyone, not just those who can afford to live high on a mountain.
Good resolution, City Council.
