EL PASO, Texas – (KFOX14/CBS4) — Business owners along Piedras Street in El Paso’s Five Points area are celebrating after City Council voted 7-1 to stop the Piedras Street reconstruction project from moving forward as it was planned.

The plan would have rebuilt Piedras between Yandell and Montana with wider sidewalks, new lighting, landscaping and crosswalks. But business owners said the construction could have cut off access to their stores, restaurants and bars and created a disruption they could not afford.

“I think the biggest issue we had was just how our city rep went about it. This was kind of kind of forced down our throats,” said Rico Velez, owner and operator of Dewey’s Corner Pub. “We’re not against the growth. We’re not against the renovations. We’re just against how he went about it.”

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Fred Evans, president of the Five Points Development Association, said business owners still want improvements but not at the expense of existing businesses.

“Nobody’s going to sacrifice their business for these things,” Evans said.

Velez said small businesses along Piedras could not withstand a lengthy closure. “We work it daily. We’re all operators. We’re not corporate. We don’t have big funding. We can’t afford a closure like that,” he said.

City Rep. Art Fierro, who represents parts of East El Paso and the Lower Valley, was among the representatives who put the item on the agenda. He said he brought it forward after hearing from business owners who feared a long closure could force them to shut down.

“She goes, you know, I understand they’re going to close the street on both sides for a minimum of ten months, which we know will be longer. I can’t survive on that. I’ll have to close my restaurant. I’ll have to let my employees go. That’s what motivated me to put this on the agenda,” Fierro said.

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City Rep. Josh Acevedo, who represents the area where the project would have happened, voted against stopping the project. He said he understood business concerns but worried safety, lighting, ADA and infrastructure issues would remain.

“There have been a lot of safety issues that have happened in the area, particularly people have gotten hit by cars. The lighting isn’t great. People, I think they cannot access some of the buildings because they are not ADA compatible,” Acevedo said.

Business owners said they still want those issues addressed, but without putting businesses at risk. “We are all for progress. We definitely want beautification and safety in our area. It’s something we’ve been advocating for for quite a long time,” said Christina Munoz, owner and operator of Kinky’s Honky Tonk. “I don’t think this is the end of it. We just have to find a way that it’s going to continue to allow the businesses to be viable.”

Now that the project has been deprogrammed, the remaining money will be moved into the city’s unprogrammed project balances fund.

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