School sites become political battlefields

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, May 24, 2000 | 11 a.m.

Schools and churches once were considered neighborhood amenities, but Clark County developers say residents who launch campaigns opposing such facilities now outnumber those who prop up welcome signs.

Mindy Weiser insists she is not one of those residents commonly referred to as a NIMBY (not in my back yard).

Though Weiser has led her neighbors' petition drive against a proposed middle school in the northwest, she said her opposition has little to do with living near a school and everything to do with spending taxpayers' money responsibly.

"We're not a bunch of wild-eyed radicals," Weiser said. "It's not a NIMBY issue, it's a poor planning issue. We want them to see the light on this: It's a bad decision for the short term and a disastrous decision for the long term."

Weiser and fellow homeowners question why the Clark County School District spent $1.5 million on a 20-acre parcel at Lone Mountain Road and Conough Lane when nearby Bureau of Land Management property has been offered at no cost.

And they wonder why the new Levitt Middle School would be built a mile away from Molasky Middle School when the county's master plan shows future high-density housing developments to the north and west.

"We couldn't come up with a good reason to put a school here," Weiser said. "To spend $1.5 million on land they could have had for free is fiscally irresponsible."

The school district's request to change the zoning on the parcel to public facility was approved by the Lone Mountain Town Board and shot down by the Clark County Planning Commission.

Residents have collected 900 signatures opposing the project and enlisted the help of Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone in preparation for a June 21 hearing before the county's zoning board.

"We hope if we stick to our focus of common sense and good planning and fiscal responsibility, someone will listen to us," Weiser said.

Malone escorted Clark County School Board member Lois Tarkanian -- who is expected to be Malone's most threatening opponent in the upcoming commission race -- to several parcels the district could acquire for free.

He said the alternative sites are all BLM property and one 40-acre parcel is just a mile west on Ann Road from a location the school had attempted to acquire initially.

The Lone Mountain Road site is in a newly designated rural preservation neighborhood where two units are permitted per acre.

Malone said after children in the neighborhood grow up, students in more densely populated areas to the west and north will have to be bused into Levitt Middle School to keep classrooms full.

He also questioned the school district's handling of taxpayers' money.

"Many developers will buy land contingent on the zoning," Malone said. "The school district just bought it flat out without making any notification to residents to see if it's OK for them or a concern."

Dusty Dickens, the school district's director of demographics, zoning and realty, said the circumstances surrounding the purchase of the 20-acre parcel have been misrepresented.

Faced with having to build 88 schools in the next decade to keep up with growth, the school district is snatching up any undeveloped piece of property administrators believe will be suitable for a school.

Dickens, who accompanied Malone and Tarkanian on their tour, said the parcels Malone shopped around were either encumbered by power lines, have a major gas line on the property or were in the middle of nowhere.

In the meantime, she said, the school district's timeline was slipping.

Realizing that Molasky is overcrowded with 2,100 students expected to attend next year, Dickens said administrators wanted to have a second middle school in the area built by fall 2001.

Residents near Ann and Campbell roads successfully quashed plans to build the school there and the Lone Mountain Road parcel was already on the district's inventory of property.

"We would not have purchased the 20 acres if it had not been a good site," Dickens said. "In my 26 years here I can recall very few times that we didn't hear concerns from some neighbors when we sited a school."

Dickens said not every parcel can be acquired from the BLM because not all BLM property is in an ideal location. She added that three or four more middle schools will be built in the northwest as the area grows.

Malone said he intends to pitch a deal to the school district. He said he will trade the district a 75-acre piece of property at Ann Road and the Las Vegas Beltway with access road costs included for the Lone Mountain parcel.

As for the future, Malone said he plans to ask that school administrators, the city and the county work together on master planning undeveloped regions. That way, he said, the school district will better understand where high-density growth is headed.

"This way when people move in they will know this is a school site," Malone said. "The school district has never worked with us and we have never worked with them on a master plan."