LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR:
Mi casa es su casa. At least until your casa starts getting all up in my casa's junk. Then it's on like Donkey Kong. Which is why the Casa Linda Neighborhood Association hasn't rolled out the welcome mat for its new neighbor.
Instead the CLNA filed an appeal with the City Planning and Land Use Department May 24 after the city decided not to halt construction of a building at 1348 Pacheco St. despite what the CLNA calls numerous violations.
In addition to concerns about traffic flow, view obstruction and trash maintenance, the CLNA alleges the building's plans don't meet the city's "open space" requirements nor do they provide adequate handicap access or necessary landscape buffers.
"Nobody wants to stop their construction, but there are regulations that they need to follow," says Rosemary Romero, a CLNA spokesperson. "We believe that they are violating multiple zoning requirements. If they just did what they're supposed to do according to the zoning requirements, there wouldn't be a problem."
Erem Birkan of Birkani Architects-the project's architect and builder-did not return calls from SFR prior to presstime.
Romero also says construction began prior to posting of the building permit May 8 and that Birkan misled the city by claiming the building was a remodeling project-which would make it exempt from some zoning requirements-even though virtually all of the existing structure has been demolished.
The building's planned 14,800 square feet also falls just under the 15,000 square feet that requires an early neighborhood notification, but Romero says it would have been neighborly-considering the scope of the new building-for the project's architects to inform the community.
The four-story building will purportedly include six office suites, six residential units and a rooftop terrace.
Neighborhood concerns over the project have led to the formation of the Pacheco Street Alliance, a fledgling organization that has been working on the appeal in conjunction with the CLNA. The neighborhood activism also has led to a July 20 review of the project-to be held at the downtown library-by the city's Development Review Committee.
"It's good that neighbors are finally paying attention to what's going on on their street," Romero says. "And there are a variety of things that [the project's builders] have done that the city is finally paying attention to." (ND)
TEXAS TEARS:
In recent years, the El Paso/Juárez area has been the locale of blockbuster films such as
Man on Fire
and
The Day After Tomorrow
. But now that a film is actually being made about the area-
Bordertown
-New Mexico has been chosen as the production site in lieu of West Texas or Chihuahua State. According to the New Mexico Film Office, the closest production will get to the El Paso/Juárez border is Las Cruces, located about 40 miles away. Susie Gaines, film commissioner for the El Paso Film Commission, a division of the Conventions and Visitors Bureau, says El Pasoans are disappointed
Bordertown
is being shot in New Mexico. She believes New Mexico's film incentives played a role in the situation. "I'm sure that's it, besides the fact that the director [Gregory Nava] just bought a home in Santa Fe," Gaines says. "That makes a huge difference in the selection." For Gaines, the loss of the film continues to smart. "I don't like that we could have had something and it went elsewhere because we don't have the incentives," she says.
Bordertown
concerns the slayings of an estimated 400 women in Juárez over the past decade or so. Diana Washington Valdez, a journalist who has covered the slayings for the El Paso Times and in her recently released book,
Cosecha de Mujeres: Safari en el Desierto Mexicano
(
Harvest of Women: A Mexican Safari
), offers another explanation for New Mexico's film coup. "They didn't want to come to Juárez. They were advised it wasn't safe," explains Valdez, who has been in contact with Mobius Entertainment, the company that is financing
Bordertown
. Valdez says the Mexican government could not guarantee the safety of the film crew, as many in Juárez resent the negative reflection the murders have had on the city. Also, "There's been this all-out drug cartel war in Juárez," Valdez says. "It's a combination." Mobius Entertainment has not returned several phone calls left by SFR, and the New Mexico Film Office said it could not discuss why the company chose New Mexico as the production site. (NK)
Send your tips, gossip, and news ideas to know@sfreporter.com.
