City pares down parcel proposed for state college

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, April 6, 2001 | 10:59 a.m.

Henderson city officials confirmed Thursday at a neighborhood meeting with Mission Hills residents that they have removed the most costly acreage from a city-owned industrial park they plan to convey to the state university system as the site for the new state college.

Of the 85 acres offered two weeks ago as the site for the college, just 22 acres remained Thursday on display maps in the front lobby of the Caesar Caviglia building on the Community College at Henderson campus.

Much of the acreage bordering the Mission Hills neighborhood and a industrial development remained tentatively marked for buffer. But about 20 acres that have cost city taxpayers $6 million in failed land deals over the past four years have been definitively removed from plans.

John Rinaldi, survey and properties manager for Henderson, said the city included in its most recent plans only the land that was "conveyable at a very affordable price for the state."

But for the 100 Mission Hills residents who came to find out more about the college that dropped from the sky into their back yard less than a month ago, lost taxes was less of an issue than the threat the college poses to their rural way of life.

Many residents of the small neighborhood of one-acre lots, horses, ATVs and dirt bikes enjoy racing over the federally-owned desert that climbs into the McCullough Range.

The city has applied with the Bureau of Land Management to acquire 555 acres of that land to add to the 22 city-owned acres.

"The city's gone from downtown rejuvenation to rural residential invasion over night," Esther Cothrun, a Foothills High School teacher, said.

Cothrun's mother, Rae Smalley, who lives next door on a one-acre plot she bought in the 1970s for $2,000, said the city "just jumped" after losing the previous site in the old downtown in order to preserve a chance of funding from legislators this session.

Others worried about decreased home values, increased crime and traffic.

Steve Goeken, an employee of McCarran airport, said he would prefer living next to a light industrial park, as the land is currently zoned for, rather than a college. He obtained a building permit in January to build his home on San Andreas Street, which borders the western edge of the land being considered for the college. "There's no sidewalks here. There's no street lights. It's quiet. It's dark. You can see the stars at night," Goeken said.

Council member Amanda Cyphers said she would work to protect the quality of life of residents as the project develops.

The city council will formally consider conveying the 22 acres to the state university system May 1 at a public hearing.