Alejandro Martínez returned to his homeland a couple of weeks ago, after having spent 15 years in the city of Benson, located in Woodford County in Illinois, but he never imagined that the city he left to go in search of better living conditions experienced rapid economic and population growth.
As he walked the streets and entered the new housing and commercial subdivisions, his admiration grew when he saw a city equipped with urban implements, provision of public services and wide, well-laid streets.
“I am very surprised and excited. I really felt proud to return to my land and see all this development and great change, ”said the man who lived his childhood and adolescence with his parents in one of the neighborhoods on Orchid Street.
He, like the rest of the residents of this town, said that the development is a sign that the taxes paid by its inhabitants are being invested in an effective way for the benefit of the community.
According to the authorities, Horizon, located in El Paso County, has experienced significant growth due to the presence of new residential and commercial developments along various urban corridors.
The local government, in conjunction with the County of El Paso and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), participated in the design of a series of projects aimed at the layout of urban, commercial and industrial development. The result is in sight.
A Corridor Master Plan was developed by TxDOT in the fall of 2017 for a 9.4-mile section of Horizon Boulevard and completed in the summer of 2020, from Alameda Avenue (SH 20) to Ascension Street in order to connect the communities of Socorro, Sparks, and Horizon City, as well as parks, schools, neighborhoods, and various businesses.
“A solid public participation process is a key step to obtain the necessary community contributions,” states a document from the state agency that promotes the aforementioned corridor. “Therefore, significant public participation was implemented from the very beginning of the planning effort,” he emphasizes.
According to the experts, the arrival of dozens of national, regional and local commercial firms in the last decade has allowed this economic boom to develop, including the construction of thousands of houses around the city.
For Eddie Garcia, executive director of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the city is currently witnessing a commercial boom with the establishment of businesses and the future construction of around eight thousand houses, at various points.
“We are going to see a lot more commerce, more residential areas. We have expansion plans to qualify our transit-oriented development here,” said Garcia, who anticipated that in the next five years at least 10,000 new residents will come to Horizon City.
And it is that the arrival of Amazon, the electronic commerce giant, based in the city of Seattle, Washington, on the outskirts of this city is a guarantee of the trigger for population and commercial growth.
Alejandro Martínez, who now intends to join the team of Amazon employees, believes that the fact that a city has diverse and attractive sources of employment represents a motivator for people to move to these growing places. “With attractive salaries and a better quality of life, this city will surely grow even more,” the father of three said proudly.
“The construction boom also means that the city will see more sales tax and property tax revenue,” say the authorities who are already planning new works such as the construction of a regional sports park whose land will have an area of 30 acres. .
According to the Horizon Chamber of Commerce, the city is considered a large town with a population of 20,048 and more than 200 businesses registered in the business directory, not counting those in the surrounding area, adjacent to the city of El Step and Relief.
The Eastlake commercial corridor, which connects to the city of Socorro, is another of the booming developments with the construction of housing, new buildings and commercial plazas that occupy specialized businesses in the sale of clothing, food preparation, spare parts and various services.
Horizon City’s economy employs 13,674 people and has an unemployment rate of 6.3%. Some of the largest industries in Horizon City are restaurants (16), insurance agencies (14), and wholesale of telecommunications equipment and systems (9). Access to high-quality healthcare services is also present.
Through the Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit chamber, the City of Horizon has bet on this financial tool to bring cutting-edge investments to the multi-state binational economy.
