Henderson planners approve limits on rural development

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, Aug. 17, 2001 | 11:06 a.m.

About 2,980 acres of so-called rural neighborhoods may be put out of reach of developers.

The Henderson Planning Commission approved a proposed ordinance Thursday that would limit development in three neighborhood districts to a maximum of two homes per acre. In a fourth district, the Mission and Paradise Hills neighborhoods, development would be limited to one home per acre. No commercial development would be allowed in any district.

The Henderson City Council will vote on the proposed ordinance Sept. 18 after a public hearing.

The new restrictions, which have been in planning stages for more than two years, couldn't come soon enough for many residents, including those in Mission and Paradise Hills. They want the ordinance passed before "an llth hour developer" assembles 70 acres toward a master-planned development of three homes per acre in an area where most residents have built custom homes, many keep horses, and a few build holes in their roofs to make room for palm trees.

"We don't like to be bothered too much out here," Henderson Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said. She has led the preservation effort and lives in one of the four proposed districts. "We don't like to sit in the kitchen eating dinner and look at our neighbors eating 10 feet away."

In some ways, Henderson would be catching up with the rest of the Las Vegas Valley if the City Council passes the ordinance.

City officials in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County already have drafted varying pacts with homeowners who want to corral a small piece of wide open desert, even if it is within minutes of the 24-hour Las Vegas Strip.

A 1999 state law required cities to identify and protect small neighborhoods of large-lot homes with a buffer of transitional zoning. It prevents, for instance, apartment high-rises from springing up next to a neighborhood of low-slung homes on half-acre lots.

The city of Las Vegas identified 4,843 acres for protection under that law, or 20 percent of the city's total residential acreage, Cynthia Sell, planning department spokeswoman, said.

But the law expires in 2004. Unless the state renews protections then, Las Vegas planners will consider them void, Chris Knight, deputy director of planning and development, said.

The Henderson ordinance, however, would extend protections beyond the "bubble zoning" of the state law. And it would contain no expiration date.

"If it's a rural neighborhood today, it should be a rural neighborhood in 2004 and 10 years from now," David Norris, a Henderson senior planner, said.

North Las Vegas planners created a similar ordinance in 1998 for about 550 acres in the western part of town at the request of residents. The ranch estates preserve requires a minimum lot size of 15,000 square feet, or about a third of an acre.

While the zoning is not set in stone, Tom Bell, North Las Vegas development services director, said, "It emphasizes the intent and let's developers know it's going to be difficult to move in there."

Planners for unincorporated Clark County say they regularly put aside acreage in townships for low-density development, and did so long before state laws required it.

Chuck Pulsipher, a zoning administrator for the county, said close to 7,000 acres south of the Sheep Mountains and west of U.S. 95 are being zoned for a maximum of two homes per acre. "Of course, all these zone designations are subject to change," he said.

The same is true in Henderson. There's nothing to stop developers from asking for changes, Cyphers said. But like Bell, she says having something on the books should help rural residents sleep at night.

Some Mission Hills landowners, however, see the rural designation as a change they could do without. For now, they can build up to six homes per acre.

Political consultant Bob Campbell on Thursday asked the commission to cut from the district 70 acres in Mission Hills near the U.S. 95 interchange at College Drive to give those landowners more leeway in developing their land.