Officials join forces on committee to plan growth

Jeff Schweers

Thursday, Feb. 12, 1998 | 10:39 a.m.

A little-known committee of elected officials from Clark County and the five cities within its borders may soon be taking on a larger, more active role in helping plan Southern Nevada's growth.

The Government Efficiency Committee resolved Wednesday to reorganize itself as the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition, a board that would make non-binding recommendations on master planning and development.

"That's more democratic," Commissioner Lorraine Hunt said.

"If we start voting on things, politics would come into it," said North Las Vegas Councilwoman Stephanie Smith, who also chairs the government efficiency committee.

The group will be making presentations before the various municipal bodies next month to adopt resolutions approving the creation of the new panel and draft interlocal agreements outlining its specific duties.

Committee members hope the new regional board could have its first meeting as early as April and be prepared to give a report to the 21-member Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority in May.

The group's action comes after Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones this week called for better growth management in her state of the city address. But the idea of creating a regional planning board is at least three years old and has been recommended by the Urban Land Institute and the Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority.

It also comes as state legislators like Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani call for stronger growth management measures. Giunchigliani said a non-binding regional board would lack the power needed to mandate growth controls.

"I would rather have us determine the face of our community than some people in Carson City who only meet every two years," County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates said.

Government efficiency committee members stressed that they don't want to create another level of bureaucracy or pave the way toward consolidation.

"We have to make it part of our resolution that no one is here to gobble up the smaller cities," Hunt said.

Clark County Assistant Manager Bonnie Rinaldi said the government efficiency comes closest to providing a forum for regional issues because it is made up of elected officials from each local government.

The group would make recommendations on broad master planning issues and not specific zoning cases, Rinaldi said. Also, she said, it would provide a forum for coordinating growth boundaries and providing government services, sharing information and creating regional databases.

"This group comes closest to creating a forum for a wide variety of growth issues," Rinaldi said.