Council approves pair of contested shopping centers

Erin Neff

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001 | 9:29 a.m.

After more than an hour of debate spurred by angry townhome owners, the Las Vegas City Council approved two hotly-contested shopping centers in Summerlin.

Peccole 1982 Trust originally won approval for a 93,000-square-foot commercial center on the northwest corner of Charleston and Rampart boulevards in 1998.

But that was before Fairway Point townhomes were approved last year.

When Peccole asked the council to reduce the scope of its original project Wednesday, the new residents to the area came out in force to complain, claiming nobody had told them the land to the east of their property was zoned commercial.

Peccole won approval for a 75,650-square-foot center on that corner and for a 152,500-square-foot center on the southeast corner of the same intersection.

"As crass as it sounds, buyer beware, is something that always ends up before this council," Councilman Larry Brown told residents.

A number of residents argued they should be granted a 125-foot buffer identical to the length imposed on developers of the Boca Park shopping center across Rampart. Triple 5, that developer, also lobbied Mayor Oscar Goodman, asking him to apply the standards equally.

But the 125-foot buffer was actually deed restricted to the land when Triple 5 bought it, and was not something the city could have otherwise imposed, city planners said.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, in whose ward the centers will be built, said that if she denied the project, Peccole would simply build the larger version -- a version that would more greatly impact the neighbors.

Boggs McDonald also said that Fairway Point asked the council to waive a city requirement that the townhomes be situated a certain distance from the commercial-property line. She said since the townhome developer asked for the waiver, she found it hard to force Peccole to push its project farther back.

The council voted 6-1, with Michael Mack in opposition, for both projects.