Sunland Park, New Mexico

4 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 10 SUNLAND PARK , NEW MEX I CO State of New Mexico. “That has been creating a lot of new business for the city,” explains Perea. “Geographically, being located next to El Paso Texas, we have a market of about 800,000 people and then there’s another 1.2 to 1.4 million people on the other side of the border. We’re in a large metropolitan area, but we’re the only little niche where sales of legal cannabis can occur.” Ranking between fourth and fifth in the state for cannabis sales over the last several months, Sunland Park has four retail shops open for business, with several others in various stages of the permitting process. With monthly sales close to $1.4 million, the city receives 3% of the 12% tax collected on cannabis purchases. “So that’s creating additional revenues that right now that we had not included in our budget. That’s going to be extra windfall for our operations and hopefully, we’ll have a plan on how to spend those dollars, but we’re still trying to get a better sense of what we can count on into the future,” says Perea. Currently these cannabis shops are clustered into the southern part of the city, due to the fact that vacant buildings are hard to come by. Mayor Perea maintains, “We have a lot of vacant land and we hope that this business is going to help catalyze further development.” On the list for possible new development is an indoor/ outdoor entertainment venue, which will also feature a dispensary. Plans for attracting new retail shops and creating an anchor cannabis retail location are on the agenda. “That sort of ties into everything that we want to do, especially in the entertainment district, which is around the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino. We hope cannabis sales spur some economic development,” Perea adds. Funding to further develop the city’s portion of the Rio Grande trail, which follows New Mayor Javier Perea