Residents will get chance to publicly oppose college site

Jeffrey Libby

Monday, June 18, 2001 | 10:48 a.m.

Mission Hills residents for the past three months have voiced opposition to building the Nevada State College on city and federal land in their back yards, arguing not against the college but against the development they say will accompany it.

With a deal that would have the city sell 73 acres to the university system as the site of the four-year state college nearly sealed, residents on Tuesday will have their first opportunity to air their concerns for the public record.

The public hearing is scheduled 7 p.m. in council chambers.

The land, in a light industrial park in the foothills of southeast Henderson, would be sold for $55 an acre, according to the proposed agreement. The $4,035 purchase price for the total acreage would equal the price paid to the Bureau of Land Management in 1970. A recent appraisal of the land put its value closer to $6 million. Earlier estimates by the city's property management put it closer to $8 million.

"Some of us will be showing up, but the college is going to happen," Lauren Pedersen, a Mission Hills resident, said this morning. "We're not necessarily against the college itself, but all the sprawl that goes with it. They'll need the pizza shops, the donut shops, the stores, the burger joints."

Other residents say they worry about decreased home values and increased crime and traffic. Some, however, have expressed support of the college, saying that development of the land is inevitable.

Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said commercial development would not be permitted in either the Mission Hills or Paradise Hills neighborhoods. Residents of both areas pride themselves on their mostly one-acre lots and rural character.

Cyphers for two years has spearheaded a new zoning plan that would allow only residential homes in that area. Under the plan, however, some lots could be reduced to a half-acre.

But even as Cyphers works to protect the rural quality of life for residents, she wants to bring the college to Henderson.

"To have an opportunity for another level of education here in Henderson, not only for families, but for the businesses to have another trained employee -- that's something we cannot pass by," she said.