LV fastest-growing city in ‘90s

Friday, Oct. 20, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

The latest news from the U.S. Census Bureau won't come as any surprise to those who have lived in the Las Vegas Valley for more than a couple of years.

Once again, the metropolitan area leads the nation in the rate of growth. The federal agency released figures today showing that the Las Vegas area led the nation in growth in 1999, and for the last decade.

The Las Vegas area, which includes all of Clark County and Mohave County, Ariz., grew at a 62 percent pace since 1990, the Census Bureau estimated. The next highest rate was 45 percent for the Laredo, Texas, area.

With a population of about 1.4 million, that growth rate adds 70,000 to 75,000 people a year to the Las Vegas area.

From 1998 to 1999, the Las Vegas area grew at a pace of 4.6 percent. The next highest area was Austin-San Marcos, Texas, which grew at a pace of 3.8 percent.

The growth rate was even higher for the two big cities on the edges of the Las Vegas urban area. Henderson was the fastest-growing city in the country, the bureau estimated, rocketing from a population of just over 65,100 to 166,400 in a decade -- a 155.6 percent increase.

North Las Vegas was the second-fastest growing city in the country, growing 112.4 percent since 1990, the bureau said. The third big city in the triad, Las Vegas itself, was the sixth-fastest in the country, growing 61.1 percent, from 259,800 to 418,700.

The spark for the growth of population in the cities was the availability of relatively cheap land, said Monica Caruso, public affairs director for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association. Henderson in particular benefited from the creation of huge "master-planned communities" such as Green Valley.

Capitalizing on what similar communities tried in other states, American Nevada Corp. built housing that included shopping and recreational amenities in a mixed community.

"That started the whole wheel turning," Caruso said. "It set the trend for the fact that home buyers were attracted to the product. It has become a standard."

Inexpensive land also was a boon for developers and home buyers in North Las Vegas, although the focus was different -- North Las Vegas provided thousands of affordable homes in a "golden triangle" sandwiched between Interstate 15, U.S. 95 and the city's downtown.

Although potential visitors to the Las Vegas Valley from other parts of the country see the area as a place of neon-lit boulevards and casino resorts, people living here know that perhaps the defining aspect of Southern Nevada is growth.

Cars jam highways that a decade before didn't exist. Hillside residents complain that new subdivisions are coming in, blocking their view of the mountains.

New airports, schools, sewer lines, strip malls and other services are springing up faster than cacti in the desert.

And public service providers still can't keep up. Some of those in the front lines are the harried professional planners and prognosticators that work for local governments.

"We seek out mental health care professionals," joked Jory Stewart, a Clark County principal planner. "It's just a struggle to keep abreast with all the needs of the community, including infrastructure, public facilities, health care, emergency services, you name it.

"Whatever human services are necessary, you amplify them with our growth rate," she said.

Stewart said planners in the region can't even compare the growth problems in Las Vegas to any other area in the nation, since no large metropolitan area in modern times has grown as fast.

Don Matson, Clark County demographer, said the rate of growth should continue for at least several more years.

Although fewer large hotel resorts are expected to open in the next few years, tens of thousands more service employees are needed to handle the thousands of casino employees who were hired in the late 1990s, he said.

"Some people worry that there's not a bunch (of resorts) under construction, but there is quite a bit of catching up to do before they build more rooms," Matson said.

But Keith Schwer, director of UNLV's Business and Economic Research Center, said that the growth rates cannot be sustained over the long term.

The population would double every 10 years with today's growth rate, he said.

"All expectations are that the pace of the growth will slow," Schwer said. "The pace will slow, but the number will remain fairly large."

But the growth rate could be affected by a significant economic downturn in the rest of the country, Schwer warned.

It will be increasingly important to diversify the economy while maintaining comparative advantages in tourism, he said.

Turning off the spigot of high growth could hit the Las Vegas area hard, Schwer said. The region has become acclimated to what appears to be permanent growth.

Levels of construction employment, for example, is very volatile in other parts of the country. But in the Las Vegas area, it has averaged about 10 percent of the work force year after year, he pointed out.

Without growth, those 70,000 or so workers would have to seek other jobs or leave the area, he said.