Another year granted for building Millennium Arena

Diana Sahagun

Friday, Jan. 14, 2000 | 11:31 a.m.

Ground could be broken for the Millennium Arena in North Las Vegas in time for what many believe to be the beginning of the new millennium, Jan. 1, 2001.

The North Las Vegas Planning Commission has granted Reed Mitchell, president of Millennium Arena Inc., another year to get the project going at 2845 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

While the commission is usually strict about forcing new developers to adhere to newly adopted commercial design standards, it will not make Millennium Arena Inc. comply as long as representatives work with city staff to provide additional landscaping.

Mitchell first approached the Planning Commission for a use permit Dec. 10, 1997. Construction of the 7,000-seat arena on 12.4 acres was supposed to have begun in October 1998.

Because the use permit for a special events center in a commercial district expired, as did the building permit, the Planning Commission granted the year's extension. A traffic study also must be completed as part of the pre-construction requirements.

Millennium representative Rex Bell told the commission that the reason for the lapse in permits was due to "unforeseen financial challenges" but that the financing is now being taken care of.

Part of the financing may come through a city Redevelopment Agency grant.

Mitchell told the commission that he also has an agreement with a minor league hockey team and an agreement with a Hispanic rodeo. The Zelzah Shrine Temple also signed a 10-year contract in 1998 to hold its annual circus at the arena.

"I've been working on this for over two years, and my telephone rings every single day with people wanting to rent the facility," Mitchell said.

A problem addressed in the staff reports was that because of the lapse in permits, the project should be redesigned to meet the recently adopted commercial design guidelines.

Millennium representative Ken Nicholson said that the city's new design standards would reduce parking for the facility, which originally called for 1,086 parking spaces.

He said adding a 20-foot setback on the property, 6 feet of landscaping and a pedestrian access would chomp up nearly 300 parking spaces. That deletion, he said, could make the arena lose 1,200 to 1,400 seats -- the rationale being that each parking space holds four patrons.

"We've batted this thing around, and it is a unique project," Planning Commissioner Nelson Stone said. "I'm not opposed to softening the language (of design standards). But we put standards in place to get the aesthetics of all community projects in town a little bit nicer. I don't want to give away the whole farm, I still want something rather than nothing."

A condition was added that Millennium Arena Inc. would work with staff to design additional landscaping.