Park for sale

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1999 | 11:52 a.m.

When soccer fields and playgrounds on 10 acres of land were dubbed Charleston Heights Neighborhood Preservation Park, the name implied saving open space for the future.

But the city of Las Vegas is planning to sell the park where hundreds of kids play every night to the Nevada Department of Transportation to be used for the proposed widening of U.S. 95.

The park, located at Torrey Pines Drive and Hyde Avenue, has been open for only a year -- lending more irony to its preservation name.

The first public discussion of the planned $3.6 million sale Monday afternoon drew upset residents questioning the move and forced the council's Real Estate Committee to hold the item for two weeks.

"Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of children have been able to play there," Juanita Clark, president of the Charleston Heights Neighborhood Preservation Group, said. "Please do not accept this purchase."

In an Aug. 10 letter NDOT offered the city $3,670,000 for the park site, which would be used for a new O.K. Adcock Elementary School. The existing school is in the proposed path of the widened highway.

The offer price includes $1,745,000 for NDOT's appraised value of the land and another $1,925,000 for the city's park improvements, which include 10 soccer fields. The city would have to spend $25,000 to salvage any of the equipment at the park for other use.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, whose ward includes the park, is troubled that only 2 1/2 acres of open land will be available in the neighborhood to replace the 10-acre park.

John McNellis, deputy director of Public Works, said he thought the $1.7 million portion of the sale price could be applied to projects in the neighborhood with remaining funds used to benefit park projects citywide.

"I feel very strongly that any excess go back into the Charleston Heights neighborhood," Boggs McDonald said.

Councilman Gary Reese, the lone member of the two-person committee present for Monday's meeting, said "I'm in favor of taking the money and spending it there."

Councilman Michael McDonald did not attend the meeting. As a result, Reese agreed to hold off on a decision until the Nov. 2 Real Estate Committee meeting.

An average of 500 children, not including coaches, parents and referees, play in the park's soccer fields each Saturday. Weeknights under the parks lights are a plus for the young athletes, who must play at night because of a shortage of soccer fields.

"I'm really concerned about it," said Nick Russo, a youth soccer coach who runs the Center for Development soccer school. "That's one of the few dedicated facilities we have for soccer."

Russo understands the need to widen U.S. 95, because he drives the congested roadway every day. He also said that if the park is taken away, soccer players will need another lighted facility just to catch up with what they had.

"We're getting stuck in a political mess," Russo said.

McNellis said the city felt caught between its residents, the state and the federal government. He asked Reese to approve the sale request Monday so the full council could hear it Wednesday, because NDOT is pressed to lock up the deal.

"Federal agencies have expressed that they would like the agreements to be in place before the final EIS (Environmental Impact Study related to U.S. 95 widening) is finished," Roger Patton, a consultant to NDOT on this project, said. "The further we are along in the agreements, the happier the federal agencies will be that the city won't change its mind."

But Barbara Roth, a citizen actively involved in the widening issue, said NDOT's own regulations bar any type of property acquisition before the final EIS is submitted.

That statement is expected to be finished in about 30 days, Patton said.

"Until it's for sure, I say don't do it," June Ingram, vice president of Charleston Neighborhood Preservation, said. "This is a rip-off. This is like the fleecing of America."

Mary Greene helped her 3-year-old son, Allen, climb the steps to the park's sliding board Monday afternoon and viewed her neighborhood's future as a similarly arduous uphill battle.

"We know this road is coming and that our homes are going to lose their value," Greene said. "Why can't we at least keep this park to soften the blow?"

If the U.S. 95 widening is approved and the sale of the park is authorized by the City Council, NDOT would likely take the land over in less than a year.

"We may still be able to utilize the park until next summer," McNellis said.

But that will be little solace for Allen Greene and his fellow toddlers who will soon be without the swings and slides they love.

"You better get your slides in now," his mother told him. "Who knows how long we'll have this?"