Councilman asks Mission Hills residents to accept campus site

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, May 2, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

Henderson Councilman Jack Clark asked about 180 Mission Hills residents gathered at City Hall Tuesday to remember the neighborhoods they had grown up in and put aside the negativism he says is controlling discussion of a proposed state college site just south of their rural homes.

Clark, conjuring lost days of front-yard swing sets and caring neighbors, asked how "we can stand before each other and say this college will be a detriment to our neighborhoods?"

Mission Hills residents had many reasons for standing before the council, including concerns of degraded home values, increased crime and lost access to desert foothills on federal land.

Some Mission Hills residents, however, expressed support for the college while asking for a role in planning its development.

As expected, the council approved by a 3-0 vote a resolution to sell 73 acres to the state for the initial site of the proposed college. Most of the acreage is in the Wagon Wheel Industrial Park overlooking U.S. 95 in southeast Henderson.

Mayor Jim Gibson and Councilman Steve Kirk were absent.

The council also approved a resolution to lease about a third of the available space in a former vitamin manufacturing plant for temporary use by college administrators.

A public hearing to discuss the potential deals will be held June 19, if the Legislature approves initial funding for the college by June 4, when the 2001 session ends.

The city has asked the Bureau of Land Management for an additional 555 acres for future expansion of the college. University regents are expected to authorize the BLM application May 10.

The choice of the site hinged on three criteria, according to John Rinaldi, director of property management. The city wanted to have 300 acres for a campus with the potential to expand to 600 acres. And officials had to be able to close the deal by the end of this month, Rinaldi said.

Of seven options reviewed in mid-March, the Mission Hills site proved the best option, he said.

But Mission Hills resident Mareka Lodge questioned whether the site of a college should be chosen mainly because the land could be obtained quickly.

Many residents have complained that the city has rushed to embrace the Mission Hills site in order to increase chances of obtaining the $23 million in state funding recommended by Gov. Kenny Guinn.

The city abandoned a long-favored site in the old downtown in mid-March, due in part to unresolved environmental issues.

Jacob Snow, a resident of Paradise Hills and general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission, said residents might be well-served to accept the college while it is still an option.

"This is an opportunity to tie down the type of development we would like to have," Snow said.

Of the 555 acres requested by the city, 235 acres fall within the Las Vegas Valley disposal area, which has been designated by the BLM for development.

Snow and others suggested that if the college site isn't pursued, another developer could purchase the land.

Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said she would continue working with city staff members to create a campus plan and zoning regulations that would preserve as much as possible the rural way of life in and around Mission Hills.