City holds off action on northwest plan

Monday, Nov. 19, 2001 | 8:37 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council has delayed discussion and possible action on a contentious agreement governing development and annexation in the northwest Las Vegas Valley.

The council will consider the issue at a special meeting Dec. 3, Betsy Fretwell, assistant city manager, said.

The Clark County Commission is tentatively scheduled to debate the interlocal agreement the next day.

The agreement is designed to unify city and county development and annexation policies for the 8,200-acre area.

Residents of the northwest valley, particularly in the unincorporated county area near Lone Mountain, want an agreement that will halt encroaching commercial development in their rural and suburban neighborhoods.

The residents fear annexation of now-vacant properties by the city will encourage the spread of businesses. The Legislature last spring granted the city the right to annex unincorporated parcels mostly surrounded by city land, commonly called "county islands."

A slim majority of county commissioners supported an earlier version of the agreement, which would have halted commercial zoning in the county for at least one year. But the agreement that the commissioners approved also would have rolled back the city's ability to annex county islands.

City Council members rejected that version. They said at the time they would consider the agreement this week, but it was not put on the agenda for Wednesday's council meeting.

City and county staff members and elected policy makers have been working to craft a compromise acceptable to both sides.

County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, however, said a compromise will be difficult to find. Atkinson Gates said she isn't likely to support a pact that allows the city to annex land over the objections of property owners.

Some property owners fear annexation would put the land in the city's higher property tax bracket.

"I just don't think it's right," she said. Atkinson Gates was the swing vote that passed the agreement 4-3 earlier this month at a County Commission meeting.

Commissioner Chip Maxfield, however, said he still believes a compromise acceptable to most policy makers in both the city and county can be crafted.