City residents fight plan for county island

Thursday, Feb. 8, 2001 | 10:10 a.m.

The Clark County Planning Commission will hear an item tonight that has Las Vegas and Clark County squabbling like neighbors without a fence.

Residents and city officials vow to keep a planned commercial development out of a 2-acre island of unincorporated county land in northwest Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Councilman Larry Brown is only one of the residents who live near the proposed development at the corner of Buffalo and Alexander drives. Brown points out the application for commercial activity there doesn't fit the land use plan for the area negotiated between the city and county.

The issue could create another bone of contention between the City Council and the Clark County Commission, which has approved a handful of projects on county islands near residential areas in the city.

Besides the city, the county's planning staff and the Lone Mountain Citizens Advisory Council oppose the application from Matrix Construction Consulting. The company seeks to convert a two-story, 27-foot-high building into an office building.

"I'll fight these nonconforming uses tooth and nail," Brown said last week.

He has plenty of allies in the nearby community.

"It is simply not appropriate," said Linda Fionda, a member of the Alexander Road Association. "It doesn't fit the neighborhood. There is plenty of room for commercial in other areas.

"The city has been really good at keeping commercial off Alexander," she said, but Fionda fears that a county approval will set a precedent that would allow more commercial applications in the area.

A number of residents have pledged to attend the meeting to protest the application. The issue will go before the Planning Commission, which on Jan. 18 delayed its vote in order to give the applicant time to negotiate with residents.

Edward Lovett, Matrix president, said he has already made a number of concessions that should make the project more palatable to policy-makers and residents.

Instead of the general commercial zoning Matrix originally sought, the company now is asking for offices only. The company also had reduced the interior floor space of the building by about 10 percent, to under 30,000 square feet, and has dropped a request for a waiver of parking rules, Lovett said.

He also said the project has been redesigned to be more compatible with a neighboring park.

"We've done a lot of the changes that the homeowners requested," Lovett said. "When all is said and done, it's going to look like a little Southwestern office park."

Lovett said the house on the 2-acre plot is the last single-family, private residence on long stretches of Buffalo and Alexander.

"Everything else is a gated community," he said.

The issue is likely to end up on the docket of the Clark County Commission's zoning board. Commissioner Chip Maxfield, who represents the district, said he is aware of the controversy and will monitor the planning board's actions tonight.

He has met with both the developer and residents opposing the project.

Maxfield said he doesn't want to prejudge the project before it comes before the planning board or the County Commission, but he shares some of Brown's concerns.