Youth club angers residents

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, March 11, 1999 | 11:04 a.m.

Most valley residents embrace projects proposed by the Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas, but homeowners in eastern Clark County see the nonprofit group's latest endeavor as a bad sign.

Boys and Girls Club officials hope the zoning of their 1.6-acre parcel wedged between U.S. 95 and the Mesa Vista subdivision will be changed from rural estates residential to commercial.

Neighbors say the club is not being straightforward about its plans for the property and are pushing to have the zoning change denied.

The negotiations between the groups broke down Wednesday night, leaving it up to the Clark County Planning Commission to resolve the matter next Thursday.

While the club's application says a recreational vehicle and boat storage business would be built on the land, neighbors believe the proposal is a sneaky scheme to allow American Outdoor Advertising to construct a 60-foot-tall billboard.

Residents are accusing the nonprofit Boys and Girls Club of using its name to gain empathy from planning commissioners so it can collect money from the advertising firm and put it toward its new Green Valley facility.

"This is all about money and name recognition and the political power that the Boys and Girls Club has," said Craig Jondreau, whose mother lives in the Mesa Vista neighborhood near Orinda Avenue and U.S. 95.

Jondreau used a Feb. 18 county planning commission meeting to back his claim. At that meeting, the Paradise Town Board rejected the proposal, neighbors presented signatures from all but 12 of 101 area homeowners and planning staff recommended denial.

"Staff believes this is an inappropriate use adjacent to existing residential homes," a county planning report says. "Further, staff believes this is not compatible because it will bring commercial traffic into a residential and school area."

Still, the Planning Commission delayed its decision and asked that neighbors meet with Boys and Girls Club representatives to work out a compromise.

The last of those meetings was Wednesday night, and it ended with frustrated homeowners filing out the door and shouting, "See you on the 18th!"

Residents strongly opposed a billboard that would stand 47 feet away from their property boundary. They also feared the Boys and Girls Club would eventually sell the commercial land and an undesirable business might move in.

But their greatest concern is that their property values will plummet.

"The county's recommendation was no," Orinda Avenue resident Ken Lessner said in response to a proposed compromise. "What part of 'no' don't you understand?"

Boys and Girls Club Executive Director Deborah Verges said the organization did not intend to anger residents, but added the group badly needs money to help with a $1 million endowment associated with its new Donald Reynolds facility.

The club has owned the property since 1970. Over the years, the land has been whittled down to 1.6 acres because of the widening of U.S. 95. Water and power lines cut through the parcel severely limited its uses, Verges said.

"This is purely about the Boys and Girls Club trying to get some economic value out of property we own," Verges said. "It is not conducive to a lot of things and the Boys and Girls Club is excited about this opportunity.

"If there is another use they are comfortable with and it was viable, we would entertain that."

Verges added that the organization invited residents to submit other ideas but received no comments.

The organization, which offers after-school activities and programs to 10,000 Clark County youths, receives its money from grants and fund-raising events.

One of the project's advocates is Richard Bonar, the planning commissioner who represents the area. While Bonar admitted the placement of a billboard so close to a neighborhood is unusual, he does not believe it would have an adverse impact.

"It is uncommon and certainly not preferred," Bonar said of the billboard's proposed location. "But whoever the private property owner is has a right to put their property to use."

Although neighbors repeatedly voiced their appreciation for the Boys and Girls Club, the organization's argument that it can do little with the highway frontage property did not generate much sympathy.

"You cannot put a round peg into a square hole," Orinda Avenue resident Patti Merkt told Verges. "You got stuck with the property and I'm sorry, but why should we have something shoved down our throats because of it?"