County rejects proposed asthma, cerebral palsy center

Thursday, Aug. 19, 1999 | 11:03 a.m.

The County Commission on Wednesday rejected a request to open an asthma and cerebral palsy education center west of Pecos Road in southeastern Las Vegas.

The applicant for the zoning use permit was performer Olga Breeskin, who attended the commissioners' zoning meeting. The center would be named the Olga Breeskin Center for Conductive Education.

About a dozen neighbors attended the meeting to protest the planned center, which had received a recommendation for denial from the Paradise Town Board. The county Planning Commission on July 22 had denied the request to establish the center.

Neighbors and Jim Foreman, county Public Response officer, said the applicant had started work converting a residence near the corner of Oquendo and Pecos roads without getting the proper work permits. A construction company was twice "red-tagged," or issued stop-work orders, by the county because of the lack of building permits, Foreman said.

He also said the county had to evict laborers who were living in shacks at the site. Foreman said he had received a heavier than usual volume of calls from people protesting the proposed center.

Louis Palazzo, representing Breeskin, agreed that work had started without the necessary permits but said the problem had been corrected and was the result of over-enthusiastic backers for the project.

The center would be a good buffer between the neighbors, mostly on the north side of Oquendo in a rural-estates zone, and the south side of Oquendo, which is zoned commercial-low, Palazzo argued and county planning staff agreed.

The center would be a nonprofit operation to help children with cerebral palsy and asthma, Palazzo said. The asthma education part of the center would be operated by the New York-based Sorvino Asthma Foundation.

The applicant eliminated part of the proposal which would have created dormitories for about 20 patients, Palazzo said. He said the applicant also reduced the number of people who would work or use the center from 32 per hour to 12 per hour in an effort to appease the center's potential neighbors.

However, neighbors, including Linda Turner and Rodney Helm, said they believe the center will be used for commercial purposes. They said they also have concerns about traffic access to the proposed center, which according to the application plans would come off Oquendo instead of Pecos, the principal traffic artery for the area.

"No one objects to helping needy children," Turner said. "The usage has always been clearly commercial."

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates agreed with the opponents, who had come to the zoning meeting armed with 119 letters and 154 signatures on a petition against the center.

"There are some things that really bother me about this application," Gates said.

Gates submitted a motion to deny the appeal to the Planning Commission's July 22 denial. It passed 5-0.

However, center advocates promised they would be back. Palazzo said the application could go back before the Planning Commission, and if that didn't work, the center's backers would turn to the courts.

"We'll do what we need to do," Palazzo said.