In final action, Malone OKs shopping center

Thursday, Dec. 21, 2000 | 10:15 a.m.

Lance Malone's last action as a Clark County Commissioner Wednesday was to gain zoning approval for a shopping center, which had been bitterly opposed by residents in his district.

Malone motioned and voted for the 22,000-square-foot shopping center at the corner of Cheyenne Avenue and Campbell Road, changing the zoning from rural-estates residential, which allows only homes, to local business.

The move was opposed by about a dozen residents who attended the regular zoning meeting. Also opposing the zoning change were the city of Las Vegas, the Lone Mountain Citizens Advisory Council, the county Comprehensive Planning Department staff and the Clark County Planning Commission.

Malone lost a primary challenge to fellow Republican Chip Maxfield, who went on to win the general election in November. The zoning meeting was the last formal meeting for commissioners before Maxfield takes over in January.

The applicant, Mary Ann Giles, sought commercial zoning for the 2.5 acre property that is adjacent to residential neighborhoods within Las Vegas. The county staff recommended denial because the approval did not conform to the master plan land-use guide, nor to a proposed "seamless plan" under discussion between city and county staffs.

County staff also said the residential character of the neighborhood in the Las Vegas Valley's northwest would be affected by a zone change to commercial.

Commissioners Myrna Wil-liams, Mary Kincaid, Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Malone, however, said that commercial development along Cheyenne is inevitable because the road is a major traffic artery.

"We're talking about a major intersection," Gates said. "It's going to become commercial."

Novelyn Stewart, a resident whose home abuts the proposed shopping center, echoed other residents when she argued that noise, traffic and the imposing walls of the shopping center would destroy the character of the neighborhood and undermine property values.

"We want to live in a neighborhood that is family friendly," she said. "We don't want an industrial-sized shopping center in our back yards."

Another resident presented a retouched photo that showed the height of the 30-foot building towering over Stewart's house and blocking views of the mountains in the background.

Although the proposed development is only one floor, resident Mark Ireland pointed out that the shopping center still would be much higher than all the homes in the neighborhood.

Russell Rowe, an attorney representing the applicant, said the developer had tried unsuccessfully to compromise with the residents in the area.

He said that independently of the residents, the developer put forward several conditions, including limiting access to the shopping center to Cheyenne, limiting deliveries to daytime hours and only through the front of the shopping center and putting "intense landscape" buffering between the shopping center and the residential neighborhood.

He also promised to keep gas stations and other "intense uses" out of the shopping center.

Rowe submitted his list of conditions, which were substituted for conditions proposed by staff. One of the conditions suggested by the planning department would have limited the development to office and professional zoning as a buffer between the residential area and the more intense commercial property.

However, Malone, in his motion to approve, rejected the staff conditions, substituting the developers proposal instead.

The shopping center may not be a done deal. Stewart, who submitted a petition representing 150 households opposed to the deal, said residents are certain to lodge a legal challenge to the zone change.

Ireland, in his appeal to the commissioners, said approval would violate the spirit and language of the newly enacted Title 30 county zoning rules, in part because it would have a detrimental effect on the residential neighborhood.

The shopping center developer also will have to get Las Vegas city water and sewer services. That might present an obstacle since Gary Leobold, a senior planner with the city, said the city staffers oppose the project as too intense for the area.