New Mexico city aims for a ‘welcoming’ border

Most of the action and rhetoric on the US-Mexico border has to do with building fences, tightening security, and preventing Mexicans from entering the US illegally. In the midst of all this, Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists has been quietly working since last February on a project for Sunland Park, New Mexico, that strives for a wholly different feeling.
The Pasadena, California, firm conducted a week-long charrette in March for the 14,250-population community, which shares the border with the 1.3 million-population city of Juarez, Mexico. From that has come the final rough draft of the proposed Downtown District, McNutt Corridor, and Border Crossing Master Plan.
Covering 3,000 acres, the plan “tries to create a welcoming atmosphere” at a vehicle and pedestrian border crossing that the city has proposed, says senior project manager Aseem Inam, who coordinated the multidisciplinary team of consultants. The plan also lays out a vision of neighborhoods, districts, and corridors,
Before planning got under way, Sunland Park had entertained hopes of creating a downtown at the future border crossing. The team, with Stefanos Polyzoides as lead principal, judged that unrealistic. “We convinced the city,” Inam explains, “that in this era of overly heightened sense of ‘security’ (to the point of militarization of the US-Mexico border, including tall fences, flood lights, ground motion sensors, National Guard with AK-47 guns, and heavy presence everywhere of the Border Patrol), it will not be possible for the free flow of people, goods, and services that are essential to a vibrant downtown.”
Nonetheless, smaller-scale development should be feasible at the crossing, he says. The draft calls for “a pedestrian-scale plaza, walkable retail, and native landscape as soon as one crosses from Mexico,” Inam notes. Immigration and customs processing facilities will be at the crossing, and a bus station will be nearby. Also in the vicinity will be small warehouses.
Sunland Park Mayor Ruben Segura has been pressing vigorously for the vehicle and pedestrian border crossing and for economic development that would support his rapidly growing city, just west of El Paso, Texas. The master plan foresees relatively affordable kinds of small-scale retail at the border, and more upscale retail farther north, in a proposed downtown district that would be near the Rio Grande and adjacent to a major artery, Sunland Park Drive. The downtown district would include civic, retail, entertainment, and residential development, with parks, plazas, and a walkable layout.
Inspired by local building traditions and native landscapes, the draft plan also includes:
• A civic center on the northern banks of the Rio Grande, which would include a new city hall, fire station, and police station, along with terraced gardens leading down to the river. The civic center and an adjacent stretch of Sunland Park Drive could accommodate large outdoor gatherings, including parades and speech-making.
•  An entertainment corridor, building on the momentum from an existing racetrack, casino, and amusement park.
• A short, lively main street, leading from the entertainment corridor and the main entrance of the racetrack and casino to a plaza and mercado building near the river.
• Parts of the 3,000-acre expanse, which includes Mount Cristo Rey and a portion of the Rio Grande, have been zoned as a preserve, with strict guidelines governing restoration of wetlands, introduction of a walking trail along the river, and development of a museum and amphitheater.
In the second week of October, a charrette is to be held on an overlay plan dealing with “colonias” — poor, mostly Hispanic settlements with minimal public services. The charrette will focus on housing unit design, layout, and urban design for these low-income neighborhoods and should produce a code and implementation strategies. The colonia plan and the rest of the master plan are expected to be adopted by City Council in November.