County, city to reconsider land-use plan

Launce Rake and Diana Sahagun

Monday, Nov. 5, 2001 | 9:49 a.m.

Clark County Commissioners and the Las Vegas City Council this week will reconsider a contentious agreement that supporters say will unify land-use policies in the northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley.

Commissioners a month ago rejected the agreement that called for creation of a "joint land-use planning area" in the northwest, an area where parcels of city and unincorporated county land abut one another in a patchwork of boundaries.

The county will consider the new version Tuesday, and the city will follow Wednesday.

Commissioner Chip Maxfield, who represents the area for the county, said the reworked version goes into more detail on how the governments will work together to provide utilities, roads and other services for the area.

The new version of the agreement should resolve several issues that have created friction between the governments, County Comprehensive Planning Director John Schlegel said.

The Legislature this year passed a law that would allow the city to annex undeveloped land in the area without permission of the property owners. County commissioners cited the city's push for the law as an example of bad-faith bargaining on annexation issues.

The agreement now would "restore the rights of property owners to receive notice, have a hearing and have the right to object" to annexation, Schlegel said. "That paragraph, in effect, would say the city would not use the authority granted to it."

The agreement also says the city will inform and work with the county before launching any major annexation in the northwest. The city tried unsuccessfully to annex 83 square miles of federally owned land in the county earlier this year.

That move prompted protest from the county, which did not know of the annexation attempt before the federal Bureau of Land Management revealed the city request.

Maxfield, who fell one vote short of winning approval for the agreement Oct. 3, said he believes he has the majority's support for the reworked version.

Commissioner Erin Kenny had led a drive to at least temporarily scuttle the plan, citing a provision of the agreement that would prohibit changes to the existing master plan for the Lone Mountain area.

The new agreement locks in the master plan until January 2003, when a new cooperative agreement between the city and county would take effect. Kenny could not be reached Friday for comment on the new plan.

Residents of the northwest have bitterly opposed changes to the Lone Mountain master plan that would allow intensive residential or commercial development.

A primary goal of the agreement, Maxwell said, is to protect rural lifestyles in the 33,000 acres the pact would cover.

Las Vegas Councilman Michael Mack, who with Councilman Larry Brown represents city residents in the affected area, said the agreement will halt land-use approvals that don't conform to either governments' master plans.

Mack said the interlocal agreement ensures the county and city will take joint responsibility for providing sewer services, roads, parks and trails.

The agreement also calls for the two governments to work together to draft an overall "seamless" development plan by January 2003.

Mack, Maxfield and city and county planners said the new agreement can work and potentially serve as a model for future cooperative pacts between the governments.

"It's good groundwork to lay between the county and the city for how we're going to go about keeping the northwest a good place to live," Schlegel said. "I feel pretty good about it."