A city plan to make Oregon a two-way street from Downtown to Glory Road and to eliminate parking and loading zones to make way for a new Sun Metro bus route has surprised businesses owners and has the Central Business Association concerned.

Because of the concern expressed at Tuesday's City Council meeting, city Rep. Beto O’Rourke asked for a week’s postponement of the proposal to hear from business and apartment owners after hearing from one Oregon Street apartment complex owner.

The proposed changes are part of Sun Metro’s plans for a new “Smart 101” express bus route from 7th Street in South El Paso to Glory Road to serve UTEP students, especially those coming from Juarez every day.

The route and the new buses that would serve it are to be the city’s first trial of “bus rapid transit,” a concept that adapts fast-moving subway or above-ground light rail transportation features to on-street bus service.

But Malcom McGregor, owner of The Alexandria apartment building on N. Oregon, said the city’s proposal was news to him and other apartment owners.

It’s also big trouble, he said.

“My tenants have no off-street parking, which may dramatically affect my occupancy if my tenants can’t find any place to park,” McGregor said.

McGregor said neither he nor other property owners were notified of the city’s plans to eliminate the parking along Oregon as part of the plan for the new Sun Metro express route.

Mike Breitinger, executive director of the Central Business Association, said the proposal to eliminate both parking and loading zones “is crazy for us Downtown.”

“Loading zones and parking are critical,” he said.

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In other action Tuesday, City Council:

-- Acknowledged boxer Antonio Escalante, 23, as the recipient of Mayor John Cook’s Star on the Mountain award for his Oct. 24 win over Mike Oliver that resulted in his being ranked No. 7 in the North American Boxing Organization. The 5’5”, 122-pound super bantam weight El Pasoan is also ranked 12th in the world by the World Boxing Organization.

-- Approved the submission to the Texas Department of Transportation of a city request to prohibit trucks and tractor-trailers with more than two axles from using the left lane of Interstate-10 from Zaragosa in the Lower Valley to Mesa Street on the West Side. City Traffic Director Ted Marquez said if TXDoT approves the request, the issue will come back to El Paso for at least one public meeting and action on an ordinance by City Council. Speaking in favor of the proposal for the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce, Eddie Miranda said the adoption of such a policy in Houston resulted in a 68 percent reduction in freeway accidents.

-- Approved a demographic study of El Paso Library users and the communities from which they come, the community’s awareness of library services and of individual library usage by UTEP’s Institute of Policy and Economic Development at no cost to the city. Library director Carol Brey-Casiano said the library system is interested in the study because it saw a 3 to 5 percent drop in library usage in the year ending Aug. 30.

-- May not have heard that while the closure of the Cielo Vista library reduced usage, the Downtown branch saw a 50 percent increase this summer that was apparently result of the temporary relocation of the terminal Sun Metro bus stops from San Jacinto Plaza to Franklin Street beside the Main Library, Brey-Casiano later said. She said an in-house poll of library users indicated that more than 50 percent of library users in El Paso have household incomes of less than $25,000 a year.

-- Postponed further discussions concerning the city’s possible acquisition of the county-owned Ascarate Park until after the new members of the El Paso County Commissioners take office in January. Among the areas of possible disagreement concerning a proposal that has been discussed for years was the county’s tentative offer to subsidize part of the city’s cost for just one year. City Rep. Eddie Holguin was the only council member to vote against the postponement.