Enterprise residents sue over urbanizing threat

Jace Radke

Wednesday, April 14, 1999 | 10:49 a.m.

Joey Lager has been an avid motorcycle rider since Santa Claus brought him a minibike for Christmas. The 6-year-old dons his helmet and moto-cross gear and rides in the desert areas near his home in Enterprise Township.

His mother, Sunday Lager, says that the rural lifestyle that allows her to keep a horse at her home and gives her son a place to kick up some dust is why she moved to Enterprise two years ago.

Protecting that rural lifestyle is why nearly 400 residents filed a lawsuit in District Court on Tuesday against the rezoning of a 10-acre parcel in their neighborhood for a new Metro Police union building and other offices, resident said.

The suit names the Clark County Commission and the Las Vegas Police Protective Association as defendants, and many Enterprise residents said that court action was the only option left to them after the commission approved the rezoning.

The commission voted 5-1 on March 17 to grant the union a zone change from ranch estates to commercial for the 10-acre parcel at the corner of Valley View Boulevard and Warm Springs Road.

About 100 residents gathered at the proposed site Tuesday night to protest the commission's decision, which they say is inconsistent with the Enterprise land use agreement, passed by the commission in February as the master plan for development in the area.

"Where's the logic in putting four office buildings in the middle of a rural residential area?" Enterprise resident John Swindell asked. "The Enterprise Town Board and the county Planning Commission both denied the zoning change that allows for these buildings.

"The commissioners must have had their heads in the dark on this one."

Even though the rezoning affects only 10 acres, Lager said it will open the door for other zone changes in the rest of Enterprise.

"It's going to be a snowball effect if we don't try to stop it now," Lager said. "I moved here to be in an area that was ranch estate homes so that there is room for my horse, and that is going to be taken away."