New standard for ‘big box’ retail stores introduced

Thursday, April 20, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

Clark County commissioners took the first step Wednesday to replace a 6-month-old law targeting large retail operations such as Wal-Mart.

The old law was prompted by the successful effort by Wal-Mart to place two of its large retail "big box" stores in the unincorporated county.

Commissioner Erin Kenny introduced two ordinances Wednesday. The first would repeal the old law -- which she had introduced -- and the other would establish a new standard for future development of large retail operations. The final form of the new ordinance hasn't been set.

Kenny said the new, substitute ordinance would better protect neighborhoods than the old law. The old law passed in October during a bitter fight, backed by unions, to keep Wal-Mart from building two large retail stores in the county, but a federal judge said the original ordinance couldn't apply to Wal-Mart's two new stores.

Although framed as a Wal-Mart vs. Kenny issue, the issue was really about protecting residential areas from very large stores, Kenny said. The new ordinance, through incorporating architectural and landscaping standards, does a better job than the old ordinance, she said.

The old ordinance passed by a slim 3-2 margin Oct. 6, but U.S. District Court Judge Philip Pro ruled in December that construction on the stores could go forward, and the stores could mix sales of traditional department-store fare and groceries. But Pro's decision only applied to the new stores and did not throw out the old ordinance altogether.

With other big-box style stores likely in the Las Vegas Valley, Wal-Mart continued fighting the ordinance. A company-backed organization, the Committee for Consumer Choice, on Tuesday turned in nearly 40,000 signatures on a petition to repeal the ordinance.

If a minimum of 27,760 signatures are from bonafide voters, the County Commission by law had 30 days to repeal the ordinance or the issue would go on the next Clark County election ballot.

Kenny said two issues -- a vote on the original ordinance or a challenge to that ordinance's constitutionality -- are irrelevant because of the County Commission's repeal move.

She said the new ordinance will do a better job of protecting neighborhoods from encroachment by large commercial operations.

But how much protection they will get is still up in the air. Kenny scrapped the original site restrictions for large commercial operations in a flurry of deletions and amendments.

Instead, Kenny said she probably will add a provision to the ordinance prohibiting large commercial developments -- 115,000 square feet or more under one roof -- within 500 feet of single-family homes.

The details of that provision or provisions have to be worked out, she said. The final ordinance was scheduled for discussion and vote on May 17.

Lesa Coder, Comprehensive Planning assistant director, said the ultimate ordinance will likely include provisions requiring buffers between single-family homes and large commercial developments. For example, apartments might be required between the competing uses.

Developers at Wednesday's meeting said they could live within such a restriction, but some of the deleted rules would have made their jobs more difficult.

One of the deleted rules was a sweeping measure that would have allowed targeted "big box" stores only within one-quarter of a mile of highway on or off ramps.

Kenny said she supported the measure, but took it out as a compromise to garner support for her "neighborhood protection ordinance."

Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury said he suggested the change in order to focus on provisions that would protect residential areas.

The one-quarter mile restriction was "a source of great concern" to Wal-Mart, said Amy Hill, the company's community affairs director.

"Pushing large retailers out to the freeway and beltway didn't make sense," she said.

The company isn't altogether happy with a rule that would prohibit their stores from locating within 500 feet of homes either, Hill said. She said Wal-Mart would look very carefully at the final ordinance.