Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Wall war: City defends project that residents say has been bungled from the start

After calling for a wall they said would protect property values, residents in a West Las Vegas neighborhood say the $1.7 million cinder-block structure the city built is a disaster that actually detracts from the area.

Residents in the Bonanza Village subdivision, who fought for the wall, are now so disgusted with what was built that they're poised to ask the city to tear it down and start from scratch.

"How could the city accept such low standards?" said resident Dan Contreras. "This is the ugliest wall I've ever seen. I blame it on Public Works, who took it upon themselves to build a wall that not everybody wanted."

Culminating years of problems -- including a lawsuit that went to the Nevada Supreme Court -- the wall was built three months ago, but the result has left residents and city officials pointing fingers and locked in a controversy regarding a wall that was supposed to cost $824,698.

The city has asked residents to develop a solution in 60 days as a way of trying to resolve the mess, but residents say they either want it fixed or torn down. Because each homeowner is required to pay $5,000 for the wall, they say they want a quality project.

"We're not asking for a gold-plated wall," Contreras said. "We're asking for the same wall that everyone else in the city would get."

The wall was supposed to be an asset for the West Las Vegas community, which has struggled to be redeveloped. What has happened, residents say, is a disaster at every turn.

The wall is plain cinder block with different shades of brown in entire sections. Its alignment is such that there is no room for residents to wait for the bus, so women, children and seniors have had to wait in the street; the stops have been moved across the street.

Also, where the city built the wall around power poles, crevices formed, allowing trash to build up and giving people a place to hide.

Councilman Lawrence Weekly, who represents the area, said the wall can be improved, but added that the project has fractured relationships between residents that will only take longer to mend.

"What bothers me most about this whole thing is when you think of neighborhoods, you think of people really working together and getting along," Weekly said."And this issue has caused a lot of friction with a lot of people who were friends for a long time.

"This is something I know that would not have been acceptable in any other neighborhood."

The city is hoping 60 days is enough time for residents to devise solutions on how to improve the wall, setting a final public hearing for April 19 before the city starts sending bills to homeowners.

Attorney Carl Armstrong, newly elected president of the Bonanza Village Homeowners Association, has hired an engineer to study the wall and offer suggestions on how to address aesthetic and safety issues.

"We all agree it's not a project that we want," he said. "Something is going to have to change."

Weekly and the residents agree that part of the reason the project has become an albatross is, despite planning over a number of years, residents came and went, some with different ideas as to how the wall should look.

In 1998 a majority of Bonanza Village residents petitioned the city asking that a Special Improvement District be levied on their West Las Vegas neighborhood to build a security wall along Washington Avenue, Martin Luther King Boulevard, Owens Avenue and Tonopah Avenue. The petition gave a preliminary estimate of $2,338 per 168 homeowners.

But a decision regarding the wall's appearance was left to a group of residents who called themselves the Bonanza Village Homeowners Association, which, because many residents were seniors on a fixed income, decided that the wall should be affordable.

Dick Goecke, the city's Public Works director, said members of the Bonanza Village Homeowners Association in 1998 chose the least expensive option -- an 8-foot, plain, cinder-block wall. The wall was built according to those specifications and per code, he said.

Contreras, though, said the association had no power to act on behalf of the community, because its charter was revoked in 1995. According to the Nevada Secretary of State, the association reincorporated in 2000 as a nonprofit group.

One month before construction began residents were informed that the expected cost had risen to $4,908 per homeowner. Contreras said he tried to rally residents to attend the meeting, but, without a majority opposed to the proposal, the council approved the improvement district.

Contractors in June 2000 tore down the homeowners' temporary walls to construct one continuous block wall.

Contreras said the residents weren't told what the wall would look like until the bricklayers began working.

The project was halted several months later when resident Cuthbert Mack sued the city, saying a majority of the residents did not want the wall. The project, tied up in the Nevada Supreme Court, was halted for nearly eight months.

The cost for the city to put up a temporary fence caused the project's cost to increase, and the additional cost above the $824,698 was absorbed by the city.

Goecke said the bricks are different shades and types because, when the project was stalled, the city sold its brick inventory. When the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed the case, the contractor had to buy new block, which matched in neither color nor texture.

"The color leaves something to be desired," Goecke said, adding that the brick can be painted.

In reference to alignment, the city decided to build the wall on the public right-of-way, instead of on homeowners' property, where the temporary walls had been, Goecke said. As a result, room for sidewalks was eliminated and residents have to wait for a bus on Martin Luther King Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

The bus stops on Martin Luther King Boulevard were moved after residents expressed concern because they had to stand in the street; Martin Luther King Boulevard will eventually be reconstructed to create sidewalks, Goecke said, but that project is years away.

Goecke said that had the city built the wall on private property, it would have had to pay at least $250,000 to acquire the land.

And building a wall around power poles and fire hydrants is common practice, he said.

Weekly said city staff shouldn't be blamed for following instructions, but someone should have stepped in and told the residents the wall's appearance wasn't adequate. In new developments the city's urban design guidelines require a minimum 20 percent in contrasting materials for walls, including decorative block, split face, flute or rod iron.

"(City) staff was doing what they were directed to do, you can't blame them," Weekly said. "But it also takes a little common sense to say, although you're working with less, this isn't right."

Contreras said Bonanza Village residents want a quality project.

"We want a project that we can look at and go, 'Wow, this is the beginning of redevelopment in West Las Vegas,' " he said.

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