Neighborhood favors commercial development

Erin Neff

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 | 11:08 a.m.

West Las Vegas residents bristled Monday at a proposal to put a charter school in an area many would prefer to reserve for commercial development.

The neighborhood meeting, held at the West Las Vegas Library by City Councilman Lawrence Weekly, took place amid the backdrop of city redevelopment efforts that don't seem to always jibe with the community.

The city's Enterprise Park is dominated by a Department of Veterans Affairs facility, a post office and proposed buildings to house the FBI and Metro Police.

After learning of the projects from Jeff Maresh, the city's director of business development, residents wanted to know how those governmental agencies help bring jobs and revenue to the predominantly black neighborhood.

"How many people are going to get a job with the FBI?" asked Beatrice Turner facetiously with many in the crowd of about 100 answering with laughs. "I know I can't get a job with the FBI."

Henry Thorns said he has lived in West Las Vegas for 39 years and has watched most of his friends go off to jail or wind up homeless.

"Once again I hear FBI, Metro Police and post office," Thorns said. "What are you going to put up for the kids? What we have now is taking up land and not putting anything back."

But a proposal specifically designed to help the neighborhood's at-risk youth fell on unsympathetic ears Monday for one reason -- location.

The Andre Agassi Foundation is proposing a $3.1 million charter school for students in grades 5 through 8 on an 11-acre parcel east of the Vons grocery store on Owens Avenue at H Street.

"I don't think there's anyone in this room opposed to education," the Rev. Marion Bennett said. "I'm opposed to the location. And I'm a bit taken aback that you want to take the last prime piece of commercial land."

Perry Rogers, Andre Agassi's lawyer, said the foundation needed that site to be donated by the city because it cannot afford to purchase the land after raising funds for the school and donating to other beneficial programs.

"I don't have $1.5 million to go buy land," Rogers said.

The city originally granted an exclusive agreement to former professional basketball player Magic Johnson's development company for the land on Owens between H and J streets.

Johnson's company developed Magic's Westland Plaza, which includes the Vons, an Auto Zone and a State Farm Insurance agent's office. But Johnson's development team told the city it was having difficulty leasing the remaining 11 acres and relinquished its hold on the land in March.

Now that the land has reverted back to the city, development officials have commissioned a study to examine possible uses of both that site and one other nearby, Maresh said.

But some residents wondered whether "back-door deals" were going to taint the study results and show a charter school as the best option.

That perception began to buzz through the room when Rogers showed a short videotape he introduced as being "about the charter school movement."

The video opened with shots of Agassi hugging children and talking about the virtues of helping the community through the Agassi Boys and Girls Club, donations to Operation School Bell and the Agassi school at Child Haven.

"I want to give them a reason to learn," Agassi said on the video.

Also on the video was testimony about the need for charter schools by state Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, who also works for the city of Las Vegas' Neighborhood Services Department.

Williams, chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, promoted $600,000 in state money for the Agassi charter school during the 1999 session. Two other charter schools said that they were stunned Agassi's unlicensed school won out over their proposals.

With support from the state, a $1 million federal Housing and Urban Development grant and backing from Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn and his wife, Elaine, one resident questioned whether the charter school isn't already a done deal.

"It just smells of a back-room deal," said Karin Bennett, Marion Bennett's daughter and attorney for the Las Vegas Housing Authority.

Weekly rejected that notion, saying the meeting Monday was designed to receive input from residents.

He also told Rogers that without the community's support now, he worried if residents would "embrace the school."

Rogers said the foundation conducted a poll of the community showing 84 percent in favor of the school on that site.

A.D. Watson was one.

"I think it's an excellent idea," Watson said. "That land is just sitting there vacant. If kids can't operate a computer, if they can't read, what good is having jobs for them?"

Vanessa Williams, who runs a child care center in the Vegas Heights neighborhood nearby, said she doesn't doubt the community's need for economic development.

"But we definitely need to bring in education," Williams said, adding that she thought the charter school would succeed if it tailored its curriculum to Afrocentric studies.

Weekly said he loves the idea of the charter school but has yet to be convinced it belongs on that parcel.

One resident suggested the city offer a land swap of some sort with an existing land owner to give a different parcel to the Agassi Foundation in exchange for something else from the city.