Car dealer drops bid for sites in northwest

Erin Neff

Thursday, Dec. 2, 1999 | 11:27 a.m.

A two-hour debate over future commercial development in fast-growing northwest Las Vegas ended Wednesday night with little solace for residents or developers.

Three proposed car dealerships were withdrawn by the applicant when it appeared the City Council was ready to strike down a requested General Plan amendment from suburban mixed use to general commercial on 63 acres near Buffalo Drive and the proposed Las Vegas Beltway around the Town Center.

By a 2-1 margin, the council voted to amend the General Plan to bring a rural residential area into Town Center's boundaries and to designate another portion from medium residential density to suburban mixed use.

Councilmen Larry Brown and Gary Reese voted for the amendments, while Councilman Michael McDonald voted against them. Mayor Oscar Goodman was told by the city attorney to abstain on the item because his law partner had presented a position against the requested amendments during a recent Planning Commission meeting.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald was absent.

Opponents argued changing the boundaries and land uses within the 2,000-acre northwest Town Center would at worst create little more than an auto mall and at best infringe upon the rural desert lifestyle residents hold dear.

Bill Curran, who represented the applicant, said the proposed three-car dealership development would "serve as a flagship for Town Center."

But attorney John Moran Jr., who represented several residents opposed to the change, objected to Curran's remarks in light of city staff and Planning Commission recommendations that the council reject the changes.

"Let's hope that in our Town Center the flagship isn't called Titanic," said Moran, who was at the meeting representing residents led by Janie Greenspun Gale and casino executive Michael Gaughan.

Gale is a member of the family that owns the Las Vegas Sun.

"We agree with staff's recommendations that the future is not now," Gale said.

Residents argued that while the land on the east side of the proposed beltway may someday be ripe for commercial development, it is too soon to set land uses for those parcels with only 3 percent of the 2,000-acre Town Center developed.

State Sen. Mark James also spoke for opponents, saying "It's fundamentally unfair to change in the middle of the stream."

Town Center standards and boundaries were approved in November 1998 as a means to corral commercial growth in the largest undeveloped area of Las Vegas into one master-planned area while preserving adjacent residential quality of life.

When it is built out in 20 or so years, Town Center will have 300,000 residents and an estimated 160,000 workers.

Activist Carol Leduc likened the changes to Town Center in the 13 months since its adoption to "Pinocchio's nose. It just grew and grew and grew."

Marsha Dunbar spoke on behalf of 134 homeowners in support of the proposal saying that neighbors who live immediately near the project favor the development.

Those remarks started a slight tit-for-tat between the established residents on half-acre or larger ranches to newer residents who live in condominiums.

Brown, who called the item one of the most-lobbied he's seen in his 2_frac1/2 years on the council, voted on the amendments after disclosing a personal relationship with Tom Skancke.

Skancke, whose company is working with developer Bob Shulman on the proposed development, was an unpaid volunteer on Brown's 1997 election campaign.

"I feel very comfortable that I can be independent in my decision today," Brown said.

After the vote Curran said withdrawing the car dealerships would send his clients "back to the drawing board."

"The developer and his partner are going to have to re-evaluate their plans," Curran said.

In a related item, Nevada Rainbow Limited Partnership won approval for a General Plan amendment to bring the north side of Centennial Parkway between Buffalo Drive and Tenaya Way into Town Center from its rural residential zoning.

The item also amended those 39 acres now within Town Center to suburban mixed use designation.

"This action is simply to bring it into Town Center under the strictest commercial zoning," Brown said. "It's best to get it now so we can control it."