City Council OKs zone change for hotel-casino

Valerie Miller

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1999 | 11:37 a.m.

The Henderson City Council on Tuesday voted to approve plans for a zone change that will pave the way for a hotel-casino on the corner of Sunset and Gibson roads.

The project, known as Gibson Plaza, is designed to be similar to the McCarran Center, according to developer the Thomas and Mack Co. The project will consist of a 210-room hotel and a 15,000-square-foot casino.

The approval Tuesday was for a zoning change to allow gaming on 9.6 acres of the 62-acre project.

The change was the first allowed by the city since Senate Bill 208 went into effect on Jan. 1. The bill was designed to stem the spread of new neighborhood casinos and limit gaming to already established gaming corridors.

The bill also eliminated the gaming overlay district, now requiring casinos that didn't have zoning and use permits in place by Jan. 1 to go before their local governmental bodies for permission on each project.

Gibson Plaza was scheduled to be reviewed last December, but was pulled from the agenda by Thomas and Mack officials after some planning commissioners expressed concerns over plans over another casino in the neighborhood.

This time around the project was approved without much discussion by the council. The one major question concerned the size of the casino. There was confusion on the council as to whether it would be 15,000 or 30,000 square feet.

"We are adding a condition that the casino cannot exceed 15,000 square feet," Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said.

At past meetings planning consultant George Garcia, representing the developer, had said he feels that the Gibson Plaza will attract a business clientele and that gaming was a secondary aspect of it.