The mountains, the desert, the river - El Paso wouldn’t be the same without them. Yet as the city grows, the special places are disappearing one by one.
The El Paso Open Space Plan (adopted March of 2007) gives the opportunity to choose which natural areas are most important. Through the Plan process the City will work with the community to identify and preserve these special places for future generations to enjoy.
This type of plan is sometimes called a Green Infrastructure Plan. The idea is to look at all the open-spaces, parks, trails, greenways, and natural undeveloped land, not as individual, discrete items, but rather to integrate them into an organized system. Thinking this way helps us to deal with open spaces as an interconnected system, recognizing that each component can affect other parts or the system itself. Just as a network of roadways, utilities, buildings and parking lots forms the urban or “gray” infrastructure of a community, the green infrastructure network weaves together a web of recreational and nature areas that add to our quality of life. It also aids in the land-development process by proactively identifying areas that should be left undisturbed or used as open space, and also identifying areas for development.
For more information about the El Paso Open Space Master Plan, see Related Links at bottom right of page.
The Community of Practice is a virtual hub of knowledge and ideas – shared among peers – to promote the application of green infrastructure concepts and principles to the nation’s conservation priorities. Learn more »
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