Council shows support for changes to Alta Drive

Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001 | 8:53 a.m.

Bob Robinson has lived on Alta Drive for 25 years and has grown accustomed to the drag races, speeding and car accidents that penetrate his neighborhood on a daily basis.

It's a hassle Robinson and other neighbors say they have experienced for years, as Alta, between Rancho Drive and Valley View Boulevard, has becomes a major thoroughfare to the northwest and to downtown. But it's a problem they hope will be alleviated if the city follows through with a major street project.

Robinson joined nearly 200 of his neighbors Tuesday night at a special, two-hour meeting of the Las Vegas City Council. His neighbors include high-profile attorneys, judges, legislators, and former city and Clark County officials.

City Council members said they were in full support of a proposed project that would narrow Alta, adding sidewalks and street lights.

Today, the council was expected to approve the drafting of preliminary plans for the project.

"The neighborhood showed its unity here tonight," Councilman Michael McDonald said. His ward includes the section of Alta Drive.

"They gave the message to the City Council that this neighborhood wants to stay a neighborhood," McDonald said.

The project would narrow Alta from a two-lane, 80-foot-wide street to a two-lane, curved, 34-foot street with a bicycle lane that would double as an emergency car lane. The street had previously been proposed to be 24 feet wide. The construction of the 34-foot street will lower the cost of the project because less landscaping will be required, city planners said.

Previously estimated at $1.8 million, the project as a 34-foot road is now expected to cost $1.7 million.

Over the next few months city planners will meet with Alta neighbors to determine who will pay for maintaining the landscape over a specified period of years, through a special improvement district.

While Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald said residents in her ward have defaulted on landscaping costs, residents living blocks from Alta offered to help pick up the tab for the yearly maintenance. A previous proposal would have had the 37 homeowners abutting Alta pay for the landscape.

Planners must still work out how residents, who have grown accustomed to pulling out of their driveway onto dirt in front of their homes, will be affected now that it will become a bike lane.

Traffic planners said the narrowing of the road will not decrease traffic flow, and traffic will likely remain at 18,000 cars a day along Alta.

That's fine for Marilyn Moran, who has lived with her family, including her father, the late former Metro Police Sheriff John Moran, near Alta for 41 years.

"We are staying because we want to, because our roots are here," she said.

Councilmen Larry Brown and Michael Mack, who previously had concerns about traffic issues, said they supported McDonald's effort and accepted the residents' comments.

"I support increased safety and traffic mitigation," Brown said. "And this project handles that."