Swap meet neighbors don’t buy it

Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, July 12, 2000 | 10:53 a.m.

Neighbors of a North Las Vegas swap meet are out of patience with the owner's failure to live up to agreements made three years ago that enabled him to expand his parking lot near their homes.

And tonight the Planning Commission will take the reasons for their impatience into account as commissioners evaluate whether to grant the business an extension on its zoning.

Three years ago the Broadacres Swap Meet agreed to certain conditions when it applied for commercial zoning at 2930 Las Vegas Blvd. North. Confident that the conditions would protect them, neighbors at the time did not protest the change.

The new zoning was granted, but neighbors say many of the conditions were never honored by the swap meet.

Residents say the Broadacres parking lot behind their homes is being turned into a public campground, with vendors strewing garbage around and sometimes using it as an open-air bathroom.

Many of the residents have lived in the area for 30 years and once had a cordial relationship with Jake Bowman, the owner of the business that has been there for many years. But that relationship has soured over time as the swap meet has continually detracted from their neighborhood, residents say.

But the residents have a weapon. The zoning was granted for three years only and expired last month.

On June 14 Bowman appeared before the Planning Commission asking for a one-year extension of the zone change.

But residents were there to protest the extension. They told the Planning Commission that Bowman had not put in landscape, had built a block wall too short to offer them any privacy, and was allowing vendors to use the parking lot as an overnight campground.

After hearing staff and the residents' concerns, commissioners gave Bowman one month to make progress before they would consider granting the request.

Tonight he will report back to the commission.

The neighbors say they will be out in full force to plead with the commission to deny the extension request unless Bowman meets the city's requirements.

Neighbors say they were told the swap meet would only be open Friday through Sunday during daylight hours. But beginning Thursday mornings, neighbors say, vendors camp out in their cars overnight in the parking lot, vying for first dibs on spots inside the swap meet once it opens Friday morning.

Betty Schmidt, who has lived in the neighborhood for 31 years, said she has seen people "using the parking lot as a bathroom."

Dorothy Stacey said she saw someone pitching a tent and sleeping in the parking lot last month. She never bargained for an overnight business in her back yard, she said, adding that there is no exterior lighting for the lot.

The owner was also required to install a 6-foot block wall to shelter the neighbors from noise and traffic in the parking lot.

Zane Terry, who stands 6 feet 2 inches tall, showed the Planning Commission pictures of himself standing against the block wall, which is at least 2 feet shy of the required 6-foot height.

Because the walls are so short, Stacey and Schmidt say children teeter dangerously on them, choosing it as a shortcut to walking around the parking lot. And it doesn't offer them much privacy.

"Our main concern is privacy and security, and we were promised a 6-foot block wall," Stacey said. "I went out with another neighbor and I'm 5 feet 3 inches tall and he took my picture and the wall was barely over my head."

City staff also told the commission that Bowman has not complied with requirements to install landscaping, irrigation and proper signs.

Bowman did not return calls, but city staff said he submitted landscape and irrigation plans last month.

Most of the residents say they would be satisfied if the landscaping and the block wall are installed.