EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso City Council approved developing a safety inspection plan on Tuesday after multiple incidents of debris falling from downtown El Paso buildings, including one earlier this month that injured a person.
During Tuesday’s meeting, City Council leaders approved developing a plan to inspect downtown buildings taller than two stories for potential safety hazards, prioritizing eight properties for initial review.
According to officials, eight specific properties will get initial attention during the first 30 days, and city staff has 45 days to report back with findings and recommendations.
City Rep. Alejandra Chavez, who represents West El Paso and the Upper Valley, said the goal is to be proactive.
“So we just want to make sure that we’re being proactive, that the community knows that we’re creating policy to protect them,” Chavez said.
The approval comes after part of a vacant building near San Antonio Avenue and Mesa Street came crashing down earlier this month, injuring one person.
Another collapse happened in March, when part of a building fell on South El Paso Street.
Downtown Management District Executive Director Joe Gudenrath said property owners who allow buildings to deteriorate put others at risk.
“What they’re doing is posing a problem to everybody else, to the general public, to the taxpayers, the community at large,” Gudenrath said.
Gudenrath said the concerns extend beyond the recent incidents, noting that some properties have been deteriorating for years.
“But a lot of those properties that were deteriorating when I arrived here 12 years ago for this position are still there, 12 years or more of deterioration,” he said.
El Paso Code Enforcement Director Steve Alvarado said inspections are largely complaint-driven, but he believes additional inspections can help.
“Yeah. Our main goal is public safety. We want to protect the public, to make sure that they have a safe experience when they come downtown to visit,” Alvarado said.
However, getting inside buildings can be challenging because inspectors need permission from the property owner or a court order.
Downtown and West El Paso city Rep. Chris Canales said that process could take time given the number of buildings involved.
“At the scale that we’re talking about, you know, potentially a few hundred buildings downtown, that would be a huge amount of time to go through the court process for all of this,” Canales said.
The plan will also consider whether property owners should pay for professional inspections and how to require repairs within 30 days of notification.
Gudenrath said the city already has tools to enforce building codes and wants consistent enforcement.
“For those people who don’t want to improve their properties and maintain the basic standards of code, they need to be held accountable,” he said.
Alvarado said the city first issues a corrective notice to property owners. If the problem is not fixed within the required time, the owner can be summoned to court.
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