Changes to land-use plan upset Seven Hill residents

Lisa Snedeker

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 11:03 a.m.

Some residents of the Seven Hills master-planned community are fuming about changes to Henderson's land-use plan.

They cite the potential for a traffic bottleneck on Seven Hills Drive, their main exit path. And they fear unsightly developments springing up within view of their homes after they thought they had bought property whose zoning protected them from such development.

At issue is the change in the city's comprehensive land-use plan for the Henderson Executive Airport Center, one of 13 employment centers created to increase the number of residents who live and work within Henderson.

The Henderson City Council unanimously changed the plan for that area at the request of Pageantry Development and the Alper Family Limited Partnership.

Changes include eliminating low-density residential uses and adding high-density residential, tourist commercial and light industrial business areas to the plan for the 2-square-mile airport center.

The airport and Levi Strauss currently are the only businesses in the center, which is bordered by Seven Hills on the east, Lake Mead Drive on the north, Bermuda Road on the west and the city limits on the south.

City officials said the zone change was made in part to prompt other development by landowners in the airport center as well as entice new businesses to the area.

Included in the change were zoning allowances for apartments or condominiums along Seven Hills Drive.

Ward II Councilman Andy Hafen, who represents Seven Hills, said such changes to the city's overall plan are inevitable.

"This is just a plan," he said. "It's not hard-fast zoning."

While residents complained that they bought property based upon the comprehensive plan for the surrounding area, Hafen said comprehensive plans are flexible by nature.

"This is kind of what we would like to see," Hafen said, describing comprehensive plans as flexible "big picture" guides for future development.

"It tells us what direction we should head," he said. "Then we make the actual zoning applications."

Residents Bill and Judy Humphrey live at 1211 Diamond Valley St. in Palermo, one of eight developments within Seven Hills. The couple's home backs up to land offering an unobstructed view. When they bought their lot, they said, they paid a $12,000 premium because of the open space behind them that was zoned for the airport, which they were led to believe would be permanent.

"We've been following what they (city officials) were planning to do because we live on a perimeter lot," he said. "What they are going to build behind me concerns me."

The Humphreys also are concerned about what is going to be built at the entrance to the development, where planners decided to change the density from low to high at the northwest corner of Seven Hills Drive and Maryland Parkway. The northeast corner already was zoned for high-density development such as apartments or townhomes.

"We spoke out against it at a Planning Commission meeting, but I guess all the developers have deeper pockets than I do," Bill Humphrey said.

Humphrey also spoke out at the most recent City Council meeting about his concerns over the density changes.

Humphrey is one voice among a number of residents who say they are concerned about future traffic congestion on Seven Hills Drive with the influx of apartments, townhomes and even an elementary school planned on the southwest corner of Maryland Parkway.

"They (planners) said they allowed for it, but if they didn't know there were going to be apartments there, how could they have allowed for it?" Humphrey asked.

Kim Schepner, spokesperson at the Seven Hills information center, said the community, when completed, will have about 3,600 homes. "Around a third have been completed at this time," she said.

Residents also are worried about overcrowding of the the six planned parks in Seven Hills, only two of which are now complete. The development also boasts a parks and trails system that current residents fear will be overrun by apartment dwellers.

Hafen said some of the residents' concerns are valid, including the worries about a future traffic logjam. He assured them, however, that before any of the property is formally rezoned, a traffic study would have to be submitted.

"We will not let Seven Hills Drive become overloaded," Hafen said.

Hafen, who has been on the council for nearly a dozen years, compared the present land-use plan to landscaping.

"This is what we think will fit, but sometimes the plan and reality are different," he said. "If you look at it in its totality, you will find it makes sense to look at it as a broad plan. All this is general. When we get to the next step -- the actual zoning -- it will get even better."

Pat Patten doesn't live in the Seven Hills development but also is concerned about the city's ever-changing master plan.

"It appears to us that they keep referring to this master plan that we are not terribly sure exists because it is changing all the time," said Patten, who lives at 1504 Emerald Peak Ave., in the Vista Ridge development.

The council also approved amending the master streets and highway plan on approximately 1,546 acres, located in the area between Lake Mead Drive between Bermuda Road and Seven Hills Drive, in the Westgate Planning Area.

Seven Hills is owned by Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland and American Nevada Corp. of Henderson, which manages the development. American Nevada is a subsidiary of Greenspun Inc., which publishes the Sun.

Phil Peckman, interim president of American Nevada, said the company is committed to completing all its projects, including the trail system and the green belts at Seven Hills.

"It is all on track and residents should see a large part of it completed by next summer," he said.