Council briefs

Thursday, March 2, 2000 | 11:47 a.m.

Department gets time to add numbers

Las Vegas fire officials, who need five new stations and the equipment and personnel to man them, were given more time Wednesday by the City Council to figure out their specific financial needs.

Fire & Rescue Services was originally scheduled to ask the council on Wednesday for permission to proceed with a ballot initiative this November to increase the fire tax.

The council is now scheduled to decide March 15 whether a ballot initiative is in order.

Pedestrian walkway planned for Lewis

Downtown's Lewis Avenue will soon fit in a little better with its spruced up neighbors -- Fremont, Fourth and Third streets.

The Las Vegas City Council approved a joint development agreement Wednesday for the design and construction of a pedestrian walkway on Lewis between Fourth Street and Las Vegas Boulevard and between the Foley Federal Building and the Fifth Street School.

The agreement was needed because the city plans to redevelop part of the property owned the U.S. General Services Administration. The city plans to create a 47-foot-wide by 300-foot-long landscaped pedestrian walkway at its own expense, but needed authorization from GSA.

Changes made in lease agreement

The Animal Foundation International edged a step closer to its goal of having the first no-kill shelter nationwide when the Las Vegas City Council approved an amendment to its lease agreement.

The amendment was needed because the planned facility on Mojave Road will not cost as much as the nonprofit agency originally thought it would.

The change in the lease reduced the proposed amount of the shelter from $5 million to $3.4 million -- the amount the foundation has raised and plans to spend on the structure.

Deal for land on MLK made

The city has agreed to buy the final piece of property needed to assemble land for construction of a fire station on Martin Luther King Boulevard between Charleston and Oakey boulevards.

The City Council on Wednesday authorized the city staff to buy the property at 1408 S. Martin Luther King for $135,200 plus closing costs. Massachusetts resident Diana Saling agreed to sell her property.

The city will use the land and two parcels it previously purchased to construct Fire Station 10.

Mayor Oscar Goodman abstained on the vote because his home is nearby and he said he thought having a new fire station could affect the value of his property.

City seeks parcels for two projects

Las Vegas will apply to the Bureau of Land Management to lease two separate parcels of land for possible future use in expanding the city's Water Pollution Control Facility and building a Public Safety Training Center.

The first lease application is for 240 acres southeast of the city's Water Pollution Control Facility at Desert Inn Road and Hollywood Boulevard for future expansion of that facility.

The second application is for 55 acres on the north corner of Centennial Parkway and Grand Canyon Drive, south of the proposed Las Vegas Beltway. That site is proposed for a Public Safety Training Center to be used by both Fire and Rescue Services and the city marshal's office.

The council authorized the city staff to apply for both leases, and pay the required $100 fee for each application.

Plans approved for northwest complex

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday approved plans for a 156,603-square-foot retail center at the southeast corner of Craig Road and Tenaya Way in the city's northwest.

The proposed development is being planned by George W. Couch III and Douglas E. Simms on behalf of Great American Capital.

Plans call for a 60,773-square-foot anchor tenant, 20,000 square feet for another major tenant, 22,980 square feet of leasable shops, two fast-food restaurant pads, a bank, a convenience store with gasoline sales and another 22,000-square-foot pad for leasable shops.

The developer is also planning 12 single story office buildings at the location, but must come back before the council for approval of that plan.