Blue Diamond development put on hold

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

A controversial proposal to build commercial development at the intersection of Pahrump Highway and Blue Diamond Road was put on hold following a contentious meeting of the Clark County Commission at Wednesday's zoning meeting.

The hold passed 4-0 after opponents of the proposed restaurant and cigar bar reluctantly agreed to meet with the owner of the property. But the hold came after residents living near the site bitterly protested the proposed development and representatives of the developer, Pacific Star Ventures, said compromise appeared unlikely.

The developers seek a zone change that would allow them to build a 5,000-square-foot restaurant, cigar bar and wine-tasting salon on about 5 acres of a 90-acre property. The developers seek a zone change from H-2, "general highway frontage," which is generally designed for uses appropriate to the side of a highway, to C-2, general commercial.

Under the existing zoning designation, virtually any commercial use would require a use permit from the county. A general commercial designation would allow the restaurant and other kinds of light commercial uses.

Neighbors, nearby residents and other opponents fear the impact that the development would have on the view of the Red Rock Canyon several miles away and on the rural character of the area. They asked the commissioners to uphold denial recommendations for the zone change from the Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council, the Clark County Planning Commission and the county Comprehensive Planning Department.

The 1996 land-use guide for the area also would restrict development to rural, residential construction.

The opponents brought a petition with more than 1,500 signatures opposing the project.

"I think we need to seriously think about the fact that this is Red Rock," said Peggy Pierce, co-chairwoman of the conservation committee of the local group of the Sierra Club, a national environmental organization.

"This is the absolute jewel of our community," she said. "It's the most profoundly beautiful area close to Las Vegas. We need to protect it with every ounce of our being."

But Pacific Star Ventures representatives said the alternative to the restaurant could be something much more intensive. They argued that commercial activity is already present in the area, including across the street from the site with a gas station/convenience store.

"This area has not been preserved as a commercial free area of some kind," said land-use attorney Chris Kaempfer.

"We are not at the gateway to Red Rock," he said. A nursery less than a mile away from the site, a gypsum processing plant 2 miles down the road, and the town of Blue Diamond, 5 miles away, are between the proposed development and the sign announcing the beginning of the Red Rock scenic road, he said.

It is unfair "to characterize a vote for this application as somehow, some way a vote against preservation of Red Rock," Kaempfer said. "It is important to us that the integrity of Red Rock be maintained."

He said the upscale development would "be a benefit, not a burden, to this community."

Evan Blythin, chair of the Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council, said the fact that the site is in a major flood plain and does not now have any water or sewage service within 5 miles should weigh against approval.

Katherine Peck, a Henderson attorney working with the project opponents, said the fact that the developers might pay millions to extend services to the restaurant suggests that the developers will seek to have more businesses at the highway intersections.

Kaempfer denied those charges, and said the owners are willing to accept whatever kind of restrictions that the county wants to put on them to keep the property largely undeveloped.

But Blythin and Peck warned that opening the door to commercial zoning would likely let similar development in the area.

"You give one person that zoning, and that changes the whole ball of wax," Blythin said.

Commercial development has been proposed for the same plot of land before. The county has rejected attempts to put a recreational vehicle park and a hotel-casino on the site.

A proposal for a cemetery on the site was OK'd in 1998 but never built. Blythin said that, or a similar use that doesn't obstruct the view to the cliffs of Red Rock Canyon, are uses that residents could accept.

Blythin and many of the opponents to the project at the zoning meeting -- about 80 showed up to protest the application -- initially wanted the commissioners to vote on the proposal.

But following a brief recess in which Commissioner Erin Kenny, serving as commission chairwoman in Bruce Woodbury's absence, explained that the vote would likely be to allow the commercial development, the residents accepted the proposal to hold a meeting with developers.

The zone change proposal will go back before the commissioners on Feb. 21.