No more mobile homes in Chaparral? Not in the 'town center,' county says

CHAPARRAL - Oscar and Cesar Espino want only to provide a home near family for their ailing grandmother, whose husband died last year.

They would like to put a mobile home for her on a small parcel Oscar acquired in 2015 one block west of McCombs Road, the main business street in this sprawling colonia that straddles the boundaries of Doña Ana and Otero counties, immediately north of the Texas line.

In Chaparral, 70 percent of all housing units are mobile homes, so such a plan would have been unlikely to draw notice or concern from neighbors.

But Doña Ana County’s Planning Department, remarkably, has told the Espino brothers that they can’t put a mobile home on the lot because it would violate zoning for the area.

There are mobile homes everywhere in Chaparral — on every street, nearly every block, often several per block. Even where there are nicer houses, they often sit side-by-side or across the street from mobile homes.

In Chaparral, nothing could be more natural, more fitting, more true to the place than a mobile home. To prohibit someone from putting up another mobile home would be like banning adobe structures in Santa Fe or skyscrapers in New York City.

“To me, it’s just wrong,” said Rick Little, state representative for the area. “In Chaparral, that’s who we are. It should be allowed.”

Zoning code

Doña Ana County adopted a new zoning code in December 2016 and implemented the zoning for Espino’s property in February of last year. Because the parcel is near Chaparral’s main commercial area, it was designated as part of a “Town Center” zone, which restricts development to “higher-density” mixed-use buildings, such as retail, offices or apartments.

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Oscar Espino is appealing the decision and will have a hearing before the Doña Ana County Planning and Zoning Commission at 9 a.m. on Thursday at the Doña Ana County Government Center, 845 N. Motel Blvd.

Espino, 25, who has lived in Chaparral since he was 8 years old, has already invested nearly $10,000 in the property — to level the site, extend electric and water service to it, and build a septic tank. His grandmother purchased a three-year-old, double-wide mobile home for $43,000 from Big Value Homes in Las Cruces.

He says he was never informed about the zoning change and doesn’t understand why nobody from the county told him about that when he applied for permits for the septic tank and did all the other work to prepare the site for occupation.

“They could have notified us before we set up all the utilities,” he said.

To appreciate how unexpected the zoning decision seems, it helps to go to Chaparral. It is the largest colonia in the state, with a population of 25,000 people, according to Little.

Chaparral first developed in the 1960s, when John Colquitt began subdividing his land in the area and selling home lots. It became a bedroom community for El Paso, particularly for people who couldn’t afford homes in the Texas city.

It is a poor, immigrant community. At least one-third of the population are foreign-born, most of them from Mexico. The median household income is less than $26,000 a year. Nearly half of the population has incomes below the federally designated poverty level.

For many Chaparral residents, their only hope of owning their own home is to buy a mobile home, which are much more affordable than conventional houses.

Chaparral looks like the unincorporated community that it is. It shows what happens when a community develops purely in response to economic forces, with little if any government oversight. It is a chaotic mix of land uses. The old adage “everything in its place” does not apply here.

Many streets are still unpaved. Businesses are scattered throughout the community. Residences sit next door to car repair shops and light industry. Vacant lots, overgrown with weeds and littered with abandoned vehicles and other junk, are common.

Zoning, which regulates how any parcel of land can be used, is meant to nurture orderly development and prevent communities from growing in the helter-skelter way that Chaparral has, but it is impossible to reverse a half-century of anarchic development overnight.

'Town center'

The zoning Doña Ana County has imposed on Chaparral clearly envisions a different future for the community and nowhere is that more apparent than in the area where the Espino brothers want to erect a mobile home for their grandmother.

The lot is on Chaparral Drive, which was once the main road in the community, though it is still a dirt road. It parallels McCombs Road, which is paved and over time became the main business street in the community.

McCombs is home to a supermarket, feed store, a Mexican bakery, a preschool, a public health center, auto repair shops and convenience stores, insurance agents and a video store. But business development isn’t continuous. There are numerous vacant lots. Businesses alternate with residences.

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Chaparral doesn’t have anything resembling a traditional downtown envisioned in the county’s zoning code.

Chaparral Drive is almost entirely residential and mobile homes outnumber houses. In the five-block stretch of Chaparral Drive that is part of the “Town Center” zone, there are 18 mobile homes, plus a trailer park. There are another 22 trailers fronting on McCombs.

Cleary, Espino’s mobile home would not be out of place.

Espino’s lot is just under three-quarters of an acre. It sits behind a Dollar General. Next door is a lot with two run-down houses and a tiny travel trailer where a couple live with a pack of barking dogs. On the opposite side is a property owned by a doctor that fronts on McCombs.

Across the street is undeveloped land — desert scrub with the Franklin Mountains rising in the distance.

The corridor that Doña Ana County has designated as Chaparral’s “Town Center” zone stretches for 1.5 miles along McCombs Road, from Hermosa Drive north to Lisa Drive. That zoning extends one block west to Chaparral Drive, and incorporates just the east side of Chaparral. It extends one property deep on the east side of McCombs.

Not all parcels in the “Town Center” corridor are zoned that way. Some are zoned for single-family residential. Four areas have been zoned as mobile home parks. But the entire area from Hermosa Drive to Red Sun Drive, which includes Espino’s parcel, has been designated “Town Center.”

“Town Center” zoning doesn’t permit single-family homes, such as the mobile home of the Espino’s grandmother, even though the two parcels adjacent to his contain single-family homes.

Staff analysis in documents on Espino’s appeal say the Town Center zone “is located in the historical commercial core of Chaparral,” though there’s nothing visibly historical about the area. It envisions “higher-density mixed-use buildings.”

“It should have a tight network of thoroughfares with wide sidewalks, regularly spaced street tree planting and buildings set close to the curb,” the zoning code says. Such a description sounds nothing like the district as it exists today.

Rep. Little, who owns property in the “Town Center” zone and operates a structure-moving business there, says the county never notified him that it was considering imposing new zoning on the area, nor was he notified that the zoning for the three parcels he owns was changed.

“I’m not sure how they came up with that, especially with no input from us out here,” Little said. “We don’t have a town center. I don’t think it’s right for this area.”

Espino parcel

The parcel Espino owns on Chaparral Drive was purchased in 2013 by his grandfather, who lived in El Paso. He transferred ownership to his grandson in 2015 when he began to have health problems. Espino’s grandfather died of cancer last year.

Espino, 25, who works the overnight shift as a stocker at Lowe’s in El Paso, then moved his grandmother to Chaparral to live with him in the trailer he rents on Edna Drive. But that was only meant to be temporary.

His grandmother, Maria, is 82 and her health is declining. She has a bad knee and uses a walker. She doesn’t drive. All three of her grandsons live in Chaparral, so they can transport her to shop, doctor’s appointments and the like.

The location of the parcel near businesses means she could also walk to the grocery and other nearby stores.

“My grandmother is going through a hard time in her life,” Cesar Espino, 30, wrote in a letter accompanying the appeal of the zoning decision. “Allowing her to place her home on this property would relieve her stress and anxiety. We are asking for your help.”

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Oscar Espino applied for a mobile home permit on June 20. It was rejected eight days later. He filed the appeal on Aug. 30. County planning staff have recommended that the Planning and Zoning Commission deny the appeal because single-family housing is not allowed in the Town Center zone, but also because he filed the appeal 33 days late.

County planning staff have told him he could resolve the issue by building a duplex on the site and allowing his grandmother to live in half.

“They keep asking, ‘Can’t you build a small duplex there?’” Espino said. “I said, ‘No, man, we bought the mobile home already. We don’t have the financing to build a duplex.’ He kept saying the decision is final. That has me worried.”

Blake Gumprecht may be reached at 575-541-5453, bgumprecht@lcsun-news.com or @blakegumprecht on Twitter.