EL PASO, Texas -- A crowd of about 60 residents gathered at Mesita Elementary for a neighborhood meeting to save a part of Crazy Cat Mountain, which extends along the westside of the Franklin Mountains. And those residents are red hot about the potential development coming their way.

"Extreme anger. This is classic bungling at multiple levels," said Neil Lewis Levine, who lives under the mountain.

The Piedmont Group wants to develop 34 homes on Crazy Cat Mountain, and is going through the city's application process right now. One concern is traffic.

"Piedmont will be the only street in and out of there," Levine told KFOX.

But the bigger worry is drainage and water flow.

"This developer is proposing to basically take drainable land and turn it into an asphalt jungle that will probably directly affect all of our homes," he said.

Kelli Rocha came to the neighborhood meeting to support her neighbors. A former geologist teacher, she understands how the land in El Paso reacts to wet weather.

"All it takes is a little bit of rain, a little bit of jiggle, and the thing is going to slide," said Rocha.

She likens how the city has handled this development to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.

"When New Orleans was betrayed by City Council. 'Oh, everything's fine and boom, they're underwater,'" she said.

This group no doubt faces an uphill battle, but one Rocha believes they can win.

"If this community really gets organized, there is a chance that we can change it, that's why I'm here," Rocha told KFOX.

The city representative for the neighborhood, Ann Morgan Lilly, was invited to the meeting, but had a prior engagement. No one representing the city attended, and neither did anyone from the Piedmont Group.