El Centro City Council votes yes to continue moratorium, stops transitional housing project

El Centro City Council members voted unanimously to continue the moratorium on the ordinance in the city’s downtown at Tuesday’s regular meeting.

Mayor Alex Cardenas said, “We’ll go ahead and vote. And that ordinance passes five – zero!”

This meant the halfway house project on Main street is still on hold for another ten months.

Council member Efrain Silva said, “We want a successful downtown. And I don’t see at this point in time mixed residential usage being part of that formula.”

Nearly 20 speakers, mostly merchants, shared their concerns in the crowded council chambers, saying their businesses would be adversely affected.

Heather Trapnell, District Attorney’s Office, said they believed crime would increase with the residential complex.

“And to add more of this type of residential activity to the downtown will increase the burden on the police department. It will decrease their ability to be both in the downtown and handle that, as well as other parts of the community,” Trapnell said.

Two representatives from Behavioral Systems Southwest, the company that wants to build the transitional house, promised to invest 2.5 million dollars per year in the area. They also threatened to sue the city if it continued the moratorium.

BSS Attorney Geofey K. Willis said, “If this is approved tonight, there will be a lawsuit filed against the city.”

El Centro’s city attorney advised the council to vote on the moratorium only as it affected the area, saying the company was not an issue at that point.

“This is not a hearing on the SS,” Elizabeth Martyn Evans said.