Henderson high school near reality

Valerie Miller

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999 | 10:56 a.m.

Henderson may soon get a new high school to accommodate growth along Lake Mead Drive but there are still some obstacles on the road to completion.

The Clark County School District is planning to construct a 295,653- square-foot high school on 36.9 acres north of Maryland Parkway and west of Pecos Road in the Westgate area. But the site is smaller than the usual 40 acres required for a high school and as a result it may need a waiver from city officials.

The school is urgently needed to relieve overcrowding at Silverado High School at Pebble Road and Spencer Street, Rob Steppke, supervisor of real property management at the Clark County School District, said.

"Right now we have 3,600 kids at Silverado High School where we should have only 2,700," Steppke told the Henderson Planning Commission last week as he sought approval for the project. "We've needed a high school south of Lake Mead Drive to address the new developments in the area such as Sunridge at MacDonald Ranch, Seven Hills and Anthem."

Steppke would like to have the school ready for the 2001-2002 school year, but it still must work out problems related to the smaller site before the project goes to the City Council on Dec. 21.

"We try to assemble 40-acre sites in this part of the valley, but it is difficult," Steppke said. "It looks very open and undeveloped, but all the land is pretty much taken already."

Because of the smaller size the high school design has a shortage of landscaping. While the Planning Commission approved most of the project on Thursday, it recommended denial of a waiver that would have allowed less landscaping than is usually required. Steppke said it's a choice between parking and plants.

"The planning staff has said that we could reduce the amount of parking by about 100 spaces to accommodate more landscaping," he said. "Since there will be little opportunity for on-street parking, I would not want to trade landscaping for parking."

As a partial compromise, the school district is considering adding diamond-shaped parking that allows more room for landscaping. Also the school district must screen or conceal mechanical equipment on the site, which Steppke said could add more than $300,000 to construction costs.

Because of the need for schools, Steppke said, the school district should get special consideration not offered to ordinary commercial developments.

"Unlike commercial developments, we can't sell more stock to meet city requirement or just decide it's too expensive and not build," he said. "We have to build and make it work."

While sympathetic to the School District's plight, planners said requirement are in place to protect the surrounding neighborhoods. "We support schools and we know that we need this high school, but no matter how much we may need it, a school must comply with the city's requirements as much as a commercial building," Planning Commission Chairwoman JoAnn Huffaker said.