Home Depot wins approval to build LV ‘big box’ store

Thursday, March 9, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

The Clark County Commission might have been listening to California voters Wednesday night when it granted Home Depot the right to build a "big-box" home improvement store near the corner of Patrick Lane and Pecos Road.

Home Depot won the right to build the 130,000-foot store despite opposition from neighbors and recommendation for denial from both the Paradise Town Board and the county's planning staff.

Home Depot and other big-box retail companies won approval from California voters Tuesday for similar proposals in Glendora, South San Francisco and Huntington Beach.

County staff members and the Paradise Town Board argued that the store was too intense a use for the largely residential neighborhood, would contribute to area traffic congestion and didn't conform to the land-use plan.

The county Planning Commission approved the plan Feb. 3 with numerous conditions to mitigate the effect on the community.

Staff members also said part of the project falls within a Rural Neighborhood Preservation area. State law discourages commercial development within such areas and a 330-foot buffer zone around them.

Several people living near the site joined dozens of letters and hundreds of petition signatures opposing the store.

"Bottom line, it's not compatible with the land-use plan," Ray Kelly, an Oquendo Road homeowner, said. The zone change reclassifies 12.4 acres from rural-estates-residential to local business.

Several homeowners said they would be comfortable with zoning to allow offices and light business, which would establish the tract as a buffer zone for more intensive uses to the south.

But a local business zone would mean "a domino effect" of more intensive uses throughout the neighborhood, Kelly said.

Paradise Town Board Chairwoman M.J. Harvey told commissioners that area residents had expected residential development along Oquendo.

Approval "will dramatically change the character of the community," Harvey said.

As with other recent zone changes to the county's long-range land-use plans, residents said they felt the change would be an unneeded reversal that will hurt property values.

"When you buy a home, you ask about the zoning," Linda Turner, another Oquendo resident, said. "We did that."

Rodney Helm, owner of a single-family residence north of the project, said he will challenge the commission's decision in court.

Helm said Home Depot's representatives offered to buy his property -- then backed out of the deal. He said after the meeting that the company had made numerous promises that it hadn't fulfilled.

He said a likely basis for his legal challenge would be the failure of the commissioners to defer to the land-use plan.

During the meeting, Helm showed commissioners a videotape that he argued showed the noisy, industrial character of other Home Depot stores in the Las Vegas Valley.

Referring to the tape as "two minutes, 17 seconds of torture," the tape appeared to show building supplies stacked behind a Home Depot along with noise from loading operations.

"This is not a place to raise your family," said Garry Hayes, a land-use attorney who spoke against the project. He said the Helm family will suffer the greatest hardship. "It's going to be unbearable."

Home Depot representatives said the tape didn't show what the new store would be like. Mark Fiorentino, a land-use attorney who has successfully lobbied commissioners for land-use and master-plan revisions in past controversial decisions, said the company compromised substantially to lessen the effect on nearby homes.

Hayes, who is fighting Fiorentino over commission approval of a controversial neighborhood casino in Spring Valley, asked the commissioners to force Home Depot to honor a commitment to purchase Helm's home.

The County Commission can't do that, Fiorentino responded.

The store would be 100 feet away from the nearest residence, would limit delivery and store hours and put up screening landscaping, he said. Also, the company will work with the county to mitigate traffic problems, Fiorentino said.

The only outside storage will be plants for the Home Depot's garden store, he said.

Greg George, a Home Depot representative, said the project will keep noise away from homes and traffic will be mostly during off-peak hours. The store will only get about 20 delivery trucks a day, he said. Other Home Depots can receive 60 a day.

County Commissioner Dario Herrera, who represents the Paradise area, introduced the motion to approve the zone change and several accompanying variances.

Herrera said the decision to support the project was difficult, since it went against the wishes of some voters in his district.

"But I've never made a decision based on votes," Herrera said, adding that the project was a quality business and this Home Depot project will not be the same as others in the valley.

The motion passed 4-1, with Chairman Bruce Woodbury the sole dissenting vote.

Launce Rake covers growth issues for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4127 or by e-mail at lrake@lasvegassun.com