Residents fight for Red Rock

Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002 | 10:42 a.m.

Meeting A second public meeting on Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is planned at 7 tonight at the Gardens Community Center, 10401 Garden Park Drive, Summerlin.

After one hard-fought battle to stop a plan to build thousands of homes overlooking Red Rock Canyon, 200 nearby residents jammed an orange Quonset hut in Blue Diamond Monday to urge Clark County officials to permanently restrict growth.

The neighbors said they feared that if a developer wins a favorable vote from the County Commission to build a large development, their lifestyles, surrounded by cottonwood groves, mountain peaks and some wild weather, would vanish.

By expanding restrictions in place for commercial development in the area, Blue Diamond residents hope that a bureaucratic umbrella will protect their homes.

County staffers listened to 245 people -- most of them Blue Diamond residents -- who braved rain to offer ideas on how to restrict the density of future subdivisions, preserve water, restrict road access and protect scenic views from the top of Blue Diamond Hill.

The draft ordinance would restrict developers from building homes within 600 feet of eastern or western ridgelines on the hill that separates the canyon from the Las Vegas Valley, county planner Dave Carlson said.

The ordinance could be heard as soon as two months, Carlson said.

New homes would be restricted to one unit per two acres and the natural resources of the area, such as the Blue Diamond cholla, would be protected, resident Pauline Van Betten said.

Conservationists and developer John Laing Homes battled over the hilltop earlier this year. The developer had planned to build more than 8,000 homes on top of 3,000-acre Blue Diamond Hill, but withdrew the plans after thousands of community protests poured into the County Commission.