Assembly bill limiting growth hits snag in committee

Larry Henry

Tuesday, June 3, 1997 | 11:32 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A bill banning growth outside a "ring-around-the-valley" has gone in for a pit stop.

Assembly Bill 490 was delayed in committee after last-second complaints that development would come to a halt near a budding tourist attraction that straddles the boundary -- the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The measure seems certain to pass out of the Infrastructure Committee Thursday, but that wasn't enough to keep its sponsor, Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, from blasting North Las Vegas "bureaucrats" for trying tinker with the no-growth lines.

"Today, without talking to me, they come before you and say, 'We want to change the ring," Titus told the committee Monday. "There's no compromising with these people."

North Las Vegas officials said that $4 million in roads and other improvements near the speedway, as well as plans to construct hotel-casinos in the area, would have to be scrapped if the bill becomes law and developers can't build outside the ring.

"You have private property that somebody cannot develop," said Gary Holler, North Las Vegas director of public works. "If I were the owner of that, I would be upset and looking for legal action."

Titus said the bill allows current projects to be "grandfathered in." She then criticized "bureaucrats" throughout the Las Vegas Valley for not putting the brakes on construction.

"They have drawn the ring for so long in Clark County that we have runaway growth," she said.

The committee was prepared to approve the bill, but Titus agreed to postpone a vote until Thursday. Assemblywomen Merle Berman, R-Las Vegas, and Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, said they wanted more information from North Las Vegas officials.

Before adjourning the Infrastructure hearing, Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, said, "It's not the intent of the chairman to change the boundaries."

If the bill is approved, it'll move to the Assembly for a vote, and then, if successful, will go to the Senate for more hearings.