Concessions made on Henderson mall approval

Greg Harman

Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2000 | 11:34 a.m.

By turns, Henderson City Council members cajoled, encouraged and chided contending developers and residents Tuesday night until both sides melted into a settlement over a 21-acre parcel near Lake Mead Drive and Pecos Road.

Proposed land use and zoning changes aimed at creating a strip mall on the road to Lake Mead had already been denied in three split Henderson Planning Commission votes when the appeal landed before the council for resolution.

But Bobby Lewis, chief operating officer of TETRA Southwest, speaking on behalf of property owners Helen and Seaynoah Mayfield, insisted he had made all of the concessions he could by downgrading a proposed tavern to a supper club and eliminating a convenience store.

About 15 residents disagreed.

Tim Brick complained of the "intensity" of uses in the proposed project, the same reasoning upon which the Planning Commission's recent rejection rested.

The proposed project boasts several retail/office buildings, a dry cleaning store, a restaurant and supper club, as well as a bank, car wash and professional office.

Referencing the number of similar services already offered in the area, Brick suggested the project may not succeed.

"The worst thing in a community are strip malls that end up being half vacant," he said.

After digesting residents' concerns, Mayor Jim Gibson and Councilman Jack Clark set about negotiating with Lewis.

But Lewis balked at the suggestion to consider downgrading the supper club to a restaurant with bar, saying the supper club was "the line" the owners were not willing to cross.

"We have gone the full length of what we can do," he said.

Gibson reminded Lewis gently that the only reason the project was being considered by the council was because of the changes the developer had made already.

But it took a sterner warning to shake loose the final concessions to allow the deal to sail through with a unanimous approval.

When Lewis said he didn't think moving the project's major office away from a utility easement would "work," Clark asked rhetorically, "Does a denial feel like it will work?"

A list of conditions, including ceding the easement properties and setting tight hours on the supper club, was quickly assembled and the project passed unanimously.

"I'm very pleased," said Antonio Correia, a resident who moments before had objected to the project. "This is the way the government works for the people by the people."

A dozen residents objecting to an office building, restaurant and bank locating on a 3.8-acre parcel set in a bend of South Eastern Avenue in the MacDonald Ranch Planning Area may have thought they would be getting the same sort of treatment from the council.

After sending in a line of neighborhood critics opposed to the project, supported by the Planning Commission's own recommendation for denial, the residents saw the council persuade the developer representing the Spalla Family Trust literally cut and paste a new design during a 10-minute recess that moved the buildings farther away from the residences.

But moments after a resident criticized the new plan as worse than the original, the group only watched silently as the council approved the originally designed project.

Only Councilman Steve Kirk, citing concerns about the restaurant's proximity to the neighborhood, did not support the project's original design.