Blast prompts look at zoning

Thursday, Oct. 18, 2001 | 9:59 a.m.

Responding to a fire and a series of explosions in her district Monday, Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams on Wednesday vowed to get hazardous materials away from residential areas.

Williams asked county planning staff to come back with a zoning ordinance that would keep hazardous materials at least 10 miles from residential areas.

She said residents were victimized by the explosion Monday that forced the evacuation of a mile-square area in eastern Las Vegas. A fire at the AeroTech Inc. model rocket plant triggered the explosions, which critically injured two plant workers.

The plant held material for rocket motors, including ammonium perchlorate -- a material that factored in a deadly 1988 explosion at the PEPCON plant in Henderson.

"We need to re-examine the reasons for that occurring," Williams said. "I don't think any of us knew that material, ammonium perchlorate, was in there."

She said residential and mixed-use zoning has grown around sites that once might have been in the desert.

"Things have changed a lot. We've grown a lot."

County staff members said they will bring a draft ordinance to the commissioners within 30 days, although planners for the county privately said the goal was a big one.

Hazardous materials surround many residential areas. Not only are there industrial uses, such as the rocket plant, but gas stations hold thousands of gallons of potentially explosive fuel.

Even swimming pools use large amounts of acids and chlorine, both considered hazardous materials.

But Williams said the zoning rules need to do more than keep out new users of hazardous materials. The rules need to ensure that older users also have to move out of neighborhoods with nearby residences.

Many zoning rules only affect properties established after the date of adoption, a provision known as "grandfathering" older uses.

"We cannot allow 'grandfathering' when hazardous materials are involved," Williams said.