Sierra Club slams Del Webb’s Anthem in sprawl report

Friday, Sept. 15, 2000 | 10:52 a.m.

The national Sierra Club slammed one Southern Nevada development and praised another in a report issued Thursday.

The report details successes and failures of developments nationwide, and sticks to the environmental organization's agenda, which promotes in-town development and criticizes sprawling suburban projects. The Sierra Club has made sprawl a prime focus nationally, and the local group's No. 1 issue.

In Nevada, it singles out the Del Webb Corp.'s Anthem development in Henderson for a "thumbs down."

"In an area that used to be mainly open space and Bureau of Land Management property, development has occurred at a feverish pace and with little planning," the Fall 2000 Sprawl Report said. "Developers are snatching up land and building subdivisions with names like McDonald Ranch, the Vineyards and Palermo.

"Smack dab in the middle of all this sprawl is Anthem by Del Webb -- a development firm that seems to specialize in sprawling projects," the report said.

The report accuses the 5,000-acre, 12,000-home Anthem and similar developments of destroying natural resources and adding "more cars to crowded roads and more smog to dirty skies."

Del Webb's Scott Higginson, vice president of government affairs, said no one outside the Sierra Club would define the Anthem project as "sprawl."

"It doesn't meet the Sierra Club's objectives, which is for people to live in high-density condominiums and town homes in the urban center," he said. "That's certainly not how the majority of people in our community want to live.

"The real issue is about lifestyle ... The Sierra Club has this narrow focus of how they think the rest of us ought to live."

Higginson said Del Webb's development does not draw people to the Las Vegas area, but responds to an existing urban need.

"We are like any other business, responding to the demands of the marketplace," he said.

A Del Webb project in Phoenix also was named one of the country's worst developments.

Jessica Hodge, a Southern Nevada Sierra Club organizer, said the company's developments fail to integrate mass transit, a mixture of high- and low-density housing and employment opportunities into their projects.

The Sierra Club's report on the state wasn't all negative, she said.

The group held up the 320-room Campaige Place in downtown Las Vegas as a positive contribution to the region.

"In the fastest-growing big city in the country, where developers never met a neon sign they didn't like, the Campaige Place is like a breath of fresh air," the report said.

Noting that the development is in the middle of a "decrepit part of downtown ... known more for its crime rate than safe, affordable housing opportunities," the report cited the low rents -- about $400 per month -- and close proximity to jobs.

The report said the effort and similar projects planned by developer Tom Hom Group will help revitalize the downtown area.

"As a developer, it's always nice to get commendations from the Sierra Club," said Scott Brown, Tom Hom executive vice president. "This is exactly what cities like Las Vegas need."

He said the company plans to build two similar developments, totaling about 325 apartments, in the downtown area.

Infill projects such as Campaige Place are ideal for older downtown areas because costs can be kept to a minimum. Such projects have easy access to utilities, an expensive issue for developments on the urban perimeter, Brown said.