Eva Ruth Moravec

El Paso Times

AUSTIN – The city of El Paso can construct the multipurpose entertainment center in Union Plaza Downtown, but may not use the voter-approved bond funds to build it as a sports arena, an Austin judge ruled Tuesday.

District Judge Amy Clark Meachum’s ruling came at the end of two days of testimony on the 2012 bond election and the city's developing plans for the $180 million arena slated for the Duranguito neighborhood. She skipped closing arguments, stating, “I’ve already made up my mind.”

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A temporary injunction that prohibits the city from demolishing or purchasing any more buildings in the proposed arena’s footprint remains in place until Aug. 1, when Meachum will call the lawsuit parties back to iron out details.

It was not immediately clear if the city may hold any sporting events in the center.

When a lawyer for the city asked Meachum if the multipurpose center can include sports, she replied, “I have said that you cannot build a sports arena, so no.”

Both sides claimed victory in the ruling Tuesday.

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“We couldn’t be happier. It’s everything we wanted,” said Scott Incerto, a lawyer for the city.

When asked if the city’s arena would still be built in the contested area, Incerto replied, “Absolutely.”

Harriet O’Neill, a lawyer for plaintiff and historian Max Grossman, said the ruling was a favorable one for taxpayers.

“This case was about the transparency of government, not a statement of whether sports are good or bad,” O’Neill said.

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While there are no approved plans or contracts for construction, Incerto said he expected the city to be “off and developing in two weeks,” after the Aug. 1 hearing.

City officials said they will wait for the final judgement to be handed down before determining any next steps.

“I think it is positive for the city, but I have not been fully briefed by the attorneys and further clarification will be determined at the August 1st hearing,” Mayor Dee Margo said.

Voters approved the bonds in 2012 for projects including a multipurpose performing arts and entertainment center in Downtown.

But after residents objected to the city’s plans to house it in Union Plaza, which includes the Duranguito neighborhood, the city asked for an expedited declaratory judgement that would validate its plans.

Opponents say that officials mislead voters by trying to spend bond money for an arena that would house sporting events.

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Brian Crowe, CEO and general manager of Destination El Paso, testified Tuesday that in documents prepared for the city before the bond election, it was estimated that there would be an average of 62 events a year at the new center, including two UTEP basketball events each year.

“We’re not talking about their full season. I think the thought here was UTEP may choose to play some of its larger exhibitions at the newer facility,” said Crowe, who is also an employee of SMG, which operates events at two other facilities in El Paso and has bid to manage the new center.

SMG in May 2012 presented a first-year proforma for the arena should it be approved by voters that listed several events that it could draw there, including family shows, concerts, theater, rodeos, graduations, boxing, motor sports, ice shows, UTEP basketball and high school basketball tournaments.

A Downtown master plan prepared by HKS Urban Planners in 2015 also listed those events, along with minor league sports, as possible events to be held at the “large-scale, indoor arena.”

Also testifying Tuesday was Leonard Goodman, who chaired a committee dedicated to passing the bond election in 2012. When asked about promotional materials that the committee distributed to voters leading up to the election, Goodman answered that four of the six pamphlets, brochures and flyers lacked the words “sporting events” in the center’s description.

After the ruling, State Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, said he hopes the legal battle ends here.

“The city should stop wasting taxpayer money on their attempts to build a sporting arena in Duranguito,” said Rodriguez, who joined the courtroom audience after the Senate adjourned on its first day of the special legislative session.

Rodriguez and several plaintiffs’ lawyers said they still worry about how the city will address the history of El Paso’s oldest neighborhood.

Now the area’s largest landowner, the city of El Paso now has 22 buildings – all but one in the proposed arena’s footprint – under contract. All but two of the tenants – one commercial and one residential – have moved out.

“I came away feeling very hopeful, but clearly, Duranguito is still on the table, and clearly it’s in jeopardy,” said University of Texas at El Paso Professor Yolanda Chavez Leyva. “This gives the city government a tremendous opportunity to prove itself to the citizens once again.”

Some of the remaining residents in Duranguito said they had mixed feelings on the ruling and are worried about their futures and that of the neighborhood.

Romelia Mendoza, who owns a home in Duranguito, said the city has said it will not purchase her property.

“I don’t know what they (the city) are thinking of doing now,” Mendoza said.

Hector Franco, 78, still believes the city cannot build the arena in his neighborhood.

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“The city cannot do anything here,” said Franco, who lives in one of the buildings on Chihuahua Street that was been granted a demolition permit.

Antonia Morales, 89, who lives in a one-bedroom apartment on Chihuahua Street, said she refused the $14,000 the city offered her to relocate and believes the fight is not over.

Morales is one of the residents being represented by the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid that was fighting against the city’s declaratory judgement.

“I will be more at peace tonight,” Morales said, adding that advocates will continue to fight to preserve the neighborhood and have it designated as a historic district.

Tuesday, Meachum denied the city’s request to keep residents from petitioning to turn the area into a historic preservation district.

Still, city lawyers were allowed to presented evidence in case her ruling is appealed.

That evidence included social media posts from the Paso Del Sur group and a letter from Grossman, one of its leaders, that Leyva read to the court. The documents hinted at a second petition for a historic district “until the will of the citizenry is respected,” Leyva said.

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The group has said it started a second petition after the City Council, on the advice of outside counsel, took no action on the first one in June.

Alex Hoffman, deputy director of planning for El Paso, said that historic districts are part of the city’s zoning ordinance. He said that building the arena “would definitely be challenging if a historic overlay were implemented in that area.”

After the ruling, historian David Romo said Paso Del Sur’s petition to designate the district as a historic one “is still valid, and it’s still going on.”

Eva Ruth Moravec is reporting for the El Paso Times from Austin. El Paso Times reporter Elida S. Perez contributed to this report.