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Commission grants special permit for professional office at 509 E. Rio Grande, approves parking reduction after parking study; commissioners flag illegal 'no‑t]
Summary
The commission approved a special permit to allow a professional office in an A-2 apartment zone at 509 E. Rio Grande Avenue and granted a 100% parking reduction based on a parking study; commissioners raised enforcement concerns after finding signs reserving on-street spaces for private offices and asked staff to investigate.
The El Paso City Plan Commission approved a special permit and detailed site plan to allow a professional office at 509 East Rio Grande Avenue in an A-2 apartment zoning district and granted a 100% parking reduction based on a parking availability study, but commissioners raised enforcement concerns about private signs restricting on-street parking.
Andrew Saloom of Planning and Inspections described the application: the subject property is about 0.05 acres, contains a roughly 1,387-square-foot nonconforming professional office building, and requires three vehicular parking spaces and three bicycle spaces under the code. The applicant requested a full parking reduction; staff said a parking study showed an average of 73 available on-street spaces within a 300-foot radius and recommended approval of the special permit, the detailed site plan and the parking reduction under El Paso City Code section 20.04.032 and section 20.04.150.
Commissioner Carrillo pressed the record on the parking study and said photos show signs in place since January restricting on-street spaces for private office use ("parking for lawyer's office only"). Staff said field checks did not reveal such signs earlier but asked Commissioner Carrillo to forward his photos. Kevin Smith (Planning and Inspections) said if signs restrict public right-of-way parking, enforcement will be pursued through city channels and urged residents to call 311 for public-right-of-way issues; private property signage remains a private matter. Applicant representative Jorge Escarte (CA Group) said the parking-count methodology followed city requirements (hourly counts from early morning through afternoon on multiple days) and that counts treated the spaces as available.
After discussion and a public hearing with no speakers, commissioners voted to approve the special permit, detailed site plan and parking reduction on a voice vote.
