NW residents long for lasting protections

Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2001 | 9:39 a.m.

For some residents of the Las Vegas Valley's northwest, it's been a war of a thousand land-use battles.

"The money and power always seem to win," said homeowner Michael Stephens, who with his neighbors have opposed encroaching commercial development in his rural, residential area.

Stephens and other area homeowners hope that a much-debated agreement between the city of Las Vegas and Clark County will, at least for a time, end those battles and stop commercial development in the rapidly growing northwest.

The city and county are scheduled to consider the pact next week -- the City Council on Monday, the county commission a day later. It will be the third time debating the issue for both boards.

The principal backers of the proposed city-county interlocal agreement say the pact will protect rural and residential areas. The backers include city Councilmen Larry Brown and Michael Mack and county Commissioner Chip Maxfield, all of whom represent northwest residents.

Brown and Mack appear to have solid support on the City Council. But Maxfield is depending on a key swing vote for a four-person majority on the Clark County Commission: Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates. Three commissioners have always opposed the pact, arguing that it would limit their ability to be flexible in considering commercial or other zoning for the northwest.

The trio of policymakers who have worked for the pact say they believe Gates will support the interlocal next week. But Gates said she has serious reservations about any pact that allows the city to annex land in the northwest over the objections of property owners.

"I just don't think it's right. I don't think that's fair," Gates said.

The issue could be a deal killer, since Brown, Mack and the rest of the council said during an earlier vote that they will not support an agreement that takes the annexation right from the city.

Brown and Mack say they need the annexation right to stop commercial development on county islands surrounded by the city.

Brown said the city is looking at small parcels of 10 acres or fewer that could go commercial. He said the county too frequently approves commercial zoning contrary to the county's own master plans for regional development.

The city, he said, has only approved one commercial zoning request in the northwest, and that came with backing from the majority of neighbors and the property owner.

The city already has the right to annex vacant county parcels that are at least 75 percent surrounded by city land, a right granted by the Legislature this past spring. But city officials say they don't want to have to use the heavy club granted by Assembly Bill 179, and county officials predict a political backlash against city policymakers if they use the legislative remedy.

George Hitter, president of the Northwest Citizens Association, said his group wants an agreement, but isn't enthusiastic about a pact that would allow the city to annex property. Some homeowners in the area also own vacant land that could be annexed, and they aren't eager to pay the city's higher property taxes.

But the homeowners group would happily accept an agreement that allows annexation if it also guaranteed that rural preservation or protection zones would not go commercial, Hitter said.

Brown says the residents have as strong a guarantee as the city and county can give.

"It is guaranteed in our version (of the pact)," he said. "Wherever that green is outlined on the map, as soon as that is agreed to in the interlocal, the city is out of the picture in terms of commercial development.

"We're saying: If you want to preserve this as two units per acre, you have our permission," Brown said.

Most of the special "rural" areas, defined as two homes or fewer per acre of residential development, are in the county. Brown said a few of the rural preservation areas along Interstate 215, the Las Vegas Beltway, may support slightly higher numbers of housing units but remain residential, not commercial.

"There's only two guarantees in life," Maxfield said. "Death and taxes. We can't guarantee anything forever."

But the commission also has "hard-zoned" rural protections, he said.

Maxfield said the agreement, which also calls for the creation of a "seamless" city-county land-use plan for the northwest, would be the strongest protection that residents may see for rural-residential areas.

The seamless land-use plan would replace the agreement. Northwest Citizen Association members said they know they would have to go back to work to affect the new seamless plan and restrict commercial development.

But it could take a year or more to put the seamless plan in place, and that would give residents some breathing room from the seemingly endless development battles, said Gladys Feinn, another area resident.

Maxfield, Mack and Brown said they will work throughout the week to resolve any outstanding issues that might kill the deal.

"Staff has been working right up through last week and this morning to make sure the land use, the planning and the seamless approach is agreeable to everyone, and I think we're close to that," Brown said. "I feel that we can get (Gates) to the comfort level she is looking for.

"I absolutely want the mechanism in place to stop those non-conforming commercial approvals," he said.

Maxfield said he believes the latest incarnation of the interlocal pact will pass. He noted that the proposal covers issues such as cooperation on sewage service, road and highways and other issues, as well as development and annexation.

He said if necessary, the county and city could work together on the various issues one-by-one instead of a single, larger pact.

"I'd rather do it as a comprehensive agreement than piece-by-piece," he said.

Mack said the agreement would not only benefit existing homeowners throughout the northwest, but "will give developers a standard, and let residents know what kind of neighborhood they are moving to," he said.

Residents said they hope the issues can be resolved without letting go of the basic principle that residential areas need to stay residential.

"We've been out here a long time," Stephens said. "We want to keep what we've got."