Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2002 | 10:46 a.m.
Clark County Manager Thom Reilly moved Monday to hold off reconsideration of a controversial zone change until January, when two of the four Clark County Commissioners who voted for the project will no longer be on the board.
The move could be a prelude to rejection of a proposed 30-acre, 304-home development a few miles from the departing runway at McCarran International Airport. The zone change, approved Dec. 4, was opposed by the Clark County School District, the airport planning staff, the county planning and public works staffs, several advisory boards and Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who represents the area.
But Commissioner Erin Kenny and three of her colleagues supported the zone change for developer Fossil Properties and Woodside Homes, arguing that the county needs more affordable housing. Attorney Russell Rowe, representing the developer, also argued that the noise from departing jets would not be too bad for residents.
Reilly said he chose a request for reconsideration from Woodbury, which would come Jan. 8, over a parallel request from Kenny, which would come Dec. 18. The critical difference between the two requests is that Kenny's would come before the newly constituted board takes office.
The terms of Kenny and Commission Chairman Dario Herrera, who also voted for the zone change, will have expired by Jan. 8. A motion to reconsider in December would face the same four voters who initially supported the issue.
Neither Kenny nor Rowe could be reached for comment Monday.
Woodbury, however, said the issue should not have passed Dec. 4 and welcomed the reconsideration in January.
"I definitely think that's the right thing," he said. "If you scheduled it in the normal course of doing business, that's where it would be set."
"If this zone change that was approved at our last meeting was allowed to stand, it would totally destroy our longstanding policy of not allowing high-density residential in the direct flight path of the airport's highest noise contours."
Reilly said discussions with Kenny over the reconsideration date were "spirited and intense."
The school district, which has warned it would have to buy back land it surrendered in 1996 for new schools if residential construction continues in the airport's "cooperative management," or high-noise area, welcomed the move.
The federal land in the area could have been acquired at essentially no cost, said Dusty Dickens, district zoning director, but residential development would force the district to either bus students long distances or buy the land back.
Both options could cost the cash-strapped district millions of dollars.
"If we have to come back in and build schools, we have to have some provision for land," Dickens said.
Airport officials, who have spent $56 million buying and tearing down homes in the cooperative management area, said they also welcome another hearing on the issue.
"We're glad to see it reconsidered because we remain strong in our position that high-density residential housing does not belong in the high-noise area under the flight path," airport Public Affairs Manager Hilarie Grey said.
Reilly said county staff is preparing a draft ordinance that could make future zoning controversies less likely by making it harder to change the underlying land-use guides, commonly referred to as master plans.
Woodbury and Commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Chip Maxfield have asked for a draft ordinance that would make it harder to change the master plans, require greater notification to neighbors for change requests and make it harder to approve zoning that does not conform to those plans, Reilly said.
Mark James and Rory Reid, the two incoming commissioners, have indicated that they would support stronger master plans.
James could not immediately be reached Monday, but Reid said the commission should generally defer to master plans.
"The general rule has to be that the master plan prevails," he said. "A lot of people went to a lot of work to plan their communities."
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