Planning group endorses strategy to handle Southern Nevada growth

Scott Reeder

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 11:22 a.m.

After 18 months, 192 meetings and a lot of criticism, the Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority endorsed a plan for dealing with the effects of growth in the Las Vegas Valley.

The strategic plan was endorsed Thursday by the authority. Neal Siniakin of Boulder City cast the only vote against its passage.

It will now be sent to the Nevada Legislature for consideration.

"This will really serve as the guidebook for how we handle some very important issues for many years to come," Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said. "We really have accomplished quite a bit. This will really be a spring board for lot of the things to be accomplished in the future."

The authority tackled issues ranging from the environment to health care to transportation.

There was a bit of debate over which areas of consideration should be denoted as the authority's greatest concerns.

Don Clark, a member of the authority, pushed for economic development to take the forefront.

"If you don't have a place to work, nothing else matters," he said.

Other authority members noted that the public expressed concerns about the environment.

In the end, the authority voted to present education, transportation, the environment and economic development as equal priorities to be addressed.

The authority consists of people from both the public and the private sector.

This Siniakin said caused problems.

"My primary concerns stems from the committee being composed of a number of members from gaming, construction, the Nevada Development Authority, the AFL-CIO and private business that very successfully put their interests over the general welfare of the public."

For example, Siniakin said some members of the authority are pushing for the maximum rate of growth even though there may be financial challenges to pay for things like more parks for the larger population.

"There was no addressing increasing the quality of education so that we could raise Nevada out of the very bottom of all the states," he said. "There wasn't a sincere look at the cost of growth to see if we were creating a Ponzi scheme for future generations to pay for."

But other authority members said the plan, which makes recommendations ranging requiring emissions tests for diesel vehicles to recruiting almost 4,500 new teachers, is a step in the right direction.

"This came out better than I first thought it would," Clark County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates said. "When we first started, I thought 'How will be able to get 21 people to agree on anything?' We got off to a very rocky road. But the end result is very positive.

"I think we have more unified elected officials now because of this. They are looking at things from a more broad-based perspective. I always think that is good."