City, school district battle over land parcel

Mathis Winkler

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

The largest vacant lot in North Las Vegas' redevelopment area has become a battleground for city and Clark County School District officials, who have different visions for the parcel.

Clark County School District officials, who paid almost $3 million for the northern half of the 32-acre site between Carey Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard North, envision a state-of-the-art middle school for 1,700 students.

The school would serve the growing student population of this poor and predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, where an extra 250 middle school students are expected to attend in the fall.

North Las Vegas city officials, who have the final say on the district's proposal, have another hope.

They want to see a bustling shopping center that can provide much-needed tax revenue to fund revitalization projects in this part of town.

The City Council is expected to vote in March on the school district's request to change the site's commercial zoning to build the school.

The controversy is not unique to North Las Vegas: While cities in the Las Vegas Valley are trying to attract commercial development to their older sections, school officials are struggling to find land for new schools in already crowded urban areas.

A similar problem occurred two years ago in West Las Vegas, where residents opposed plans for a charter school on one of the area's last commercial sites. Tennis star Andre Agassi ended up building his school elsewhere, and construction for a 90,000-square-foot shopping center is to begin in 30 days where the school was proposed.

In less developed areas, cheap land is still available for schools. In new master-planned communities, such as the one proposed on 1,900 acres of former Bureau of Land Management land in North Las Vegas, developers set aside school sites.

But in highly developed areas such as the old part of North Las Vegas, "we have to buy ground that's available," said Matt LaCroix, an assistant director of the district's facilities division.

"This was the only site that was available to us," LaCroix said, adding that the 18.6-acre parcel is just shy of the 20 acres the district usually needs for a middle school.

The idea is not to tear down nearby Bridger Middle School, where 90 percent of students are either Hispanic or black and 30 percent are not native English speakers.

District officials want to transform Bridger into a magnet school for math, science and technology if the new school gets built. Magnet schools provide specialized curriculums, and students apply from across the Las Vegas Valley to attend.

Twenty-five percent of the new magnet school's seats would be set aside for Bridger's 1,300 students.

Together the schools would provide room for about 2,000 neighborhood middle schoolers.

The space could fill up quickly. Bridger is already overcrowded, and Census 2000 figures show that there is a higher percentage of children under 14 in this area than in the city or Clark County as a whole.

Adding to the district's urgency to open the new campus by fall 2003 is the potential loss of $500,000 in federal funds to convert Bridger to a magnet school.

There are less tangible benefits to the new school as well, school officials argue.

While Bridger was remodeled in recent years and "doesn't look bad for an old building," a new school would foster community pride, Principal Jessie Phee said.

"A new facility would be wonderful," she said. The students "deserve a new building."

City officials say they don't oppose a new school, but would like to see it built elsewhere, and they warned district officials early on that they would oppose a school on the site.

They found other parcels with more appropriate zoning that would be big enough for a two-story school -- about 10 acres. But the school district wouldn't consider them, Councilwoman Shari Buck said.

"It's maddening that the district bought commercially zoned land and paid an awful lot of money for it," she said. "It's a waste of taxpayers' money.

"When the city's asking them not to buy the land and they kind of just do what they want, it's very frustrating."

City officials also fear a new campus could hem in future commercial projects because of zoning restrictions around schools.

A casino or liquor-selling business could not be built on the remaining half of the parcel, since city law prohibits them within 400 feet of a school or church.

A school could also limit any future expansion of the aging Mahoney's Silver Nugget casino, which sits just south of the land on Las Vegas Boulevard North. A state law that requires gambling be 1,500 feet from schools could stop any growth, city officials say.

"It's sad to say, but a school would be a shot in the foot for a potential developer" in the surrounding area, Councilman William Robinson said.

"I don't think it's a good site (for a school), especially when you're trying to do some economic development," Robinson said.

Councilman Robert Eliason expressed similar reservations, lining up a majority of the council against the school proposal well before its March consideration. Mayor Michael Montandon and Councilwoman Stephanie Smith, a music teacher, said they have not studied the issue enough to decide.

District officials argue commercial development on the proposed school site is already limited. A deed restriction prohibits a supermarket to prevent competition with a store across the street.

But city officials said any number of other businesses, such as a movie theater or an electronics store, could make the city money, where a school would cost revenue.

Losing commercial land to a tax-exempt school would have a "major impact" on the city's ability to fund redevelopment projects, Jacque Risner, the city's community development director, said.

In the redevelopment district, which was established in 1990, extra tax revenue from new commercial developments finances other projects in the area. The arrangement lasts only until 2020.

North Las Vegas currently has about $2 million in its redevelopment fund.

Counting the value of the land in dollars is a mistake, LaCroix said.

"If we're just focusing on increasing revenue without focusing on our youth, then what type of investment are we making?" he said.