Growth the biggest issue on the minds of Las Vegans

Friday, April 30, 1999 | 12:24 p.m.

A new poll shows six in 10 Las Vegas residents want growth managed better. But only three in 10 support lower growth.

The issue has been prominent in the current campaign for mayor, with attorney Oscar Goodman calling for developers to pay impact fees to support services and all the candidates blaming each other for traffic and other problems.

Las Vegans who plan to vote Tuesday say their top issue in the mayoral race is growth and development, but even without a poll, the three contenders are wooing voters with different views on how to best manage growth.

Sixty percent of those polled for the Review-Journal and KTNV-TV, Channel 13 said they want more done to manage growth, while 31 percent support slower growth. Only 7 percent want city leaders to do more to encourage growth.

Goodman, who has emerged as the front-runner, wants home builders to pay an additional fee of at least $2,000 per home, a fee likely to be passed on to people buying the new homes.

Mark Fine, a self-employed planning consultant for large-scale developments, said a lot of builders already are paying their fair share. He believes his skills honed in developing the Summerlin and Green Valley areas of Las Vegas and Henderson, respectively, can be used to develop the older parts of town to make them more livable.

Arnie Adamsen, a councilman for the past 12 years and vice president of Stewart Title, believes his consistent votes through the years to stick with master plans have helped manage growth.

Brad Coker, president of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., the company that did the poll, said Goodman's call for higher impact fees "would be a plus with a big slice of them (voters). It comes out a winner because people who pay it are new residents, not the old residents."

But the pollster also said Fine's quality work helping develop and plan Summerlin and Green Valley "gives him some good standing."

Three-fourths of those asked also said it was unfair that city residents pay higher property taxes than other Clark County residents do. County township residents pay about $113 less each year on a $140,000 home than city residents do.

Goodman contended the City Council made a mistake in 1997 when it rejected a negotiated plan with the county that would have given the city more gaming revenues if the city would agree to surrender control of the Municipal Court system and spend $5 million to lower property taxes. Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones rejected the plan as inadequate.

Poll respondents listed education and crime as their second and third issues in the mayoral race, even though a mayor doesn't have jurisdiction over education. l