Regional planning panel seeks EPA grant

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 10:43 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition moved a step beyond the abstract to the concrete Thursday.

The coalition meeting, which included Clark County Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman among other regional policy-makers, approved a $250,000 grant application to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The grant money would be used to fund regional efforts to design regional transportation policy, create an urban infill development program, and develop a master plan for regional trails systems.

The Sustainable Development Challenge Grant would bring together staff from multiple jurisdictions to achieve the goals, according the county's planning staff, which produced the grant proposal.

The grant is the first project produced by the coalition, which was created last year by the Legislature to follow up the regional planning process started by the Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority.

The EPA should notify the coalition early next year if it has received the grant, assistant planning manager Jon Wardlaw said. The money would be awarded July 1.

Woodbury, who has been meeting with the coalition since early this year, said the group is moving beyond setting the scope and agenda for its activities and into the arena of taking concrete action.

John Schlegel, county planning assistant director, said the grant would start the process for producing the Regional Planning Policy, a comprehensive document required by the legislature under the law creating the coalition.

The coalition, created by the Legislature in response to concerns about the pace of growth in and around Las Vegas, cannot require county or city governments to follow its recommendations. However, by including the top policy-makers from throughout the region, the coalition is designed to foster regional planning and air-pollution control efforts.