All ages included in final plans for Anthem project

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, July 24, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

Henderson's largest master-planned community on Tuesday gained city approval for full build-out of its 5,100-acre project.

The amended plans for the mostly 55-and-older Anthem development, one of the nation's best sellers for the last two years, include a 1,700-home neighborhood open to all ages. That neighborhood, Anthem Highlands, and Solera, a 2,400-home age-restricted community, will be carved from 3,300 acres originally included as part of the more upscale, age-restricted Sun City Anthem.

Del Webb requested the changes because the Sun City Anthem demographic -- a community of retirees who zip by golf cart from fitness center to links to grocery store, eat dinner out most weeknights and call it a day by 9 p.m. -- is on the decline across the nation, said Sean Patrick, Del Webb spokesman. Fewer retirees choose to purchase homes like those in Sun City Anthem, ranging from $180,000 to more than $1 million.

"What we've seen over the last year is a much more conservative buyer looking for more reasonably priced homes. They're not as interested in upgrades and options," Patrick said. "They might go with a standard carpet rather than the marble floor." But in January when Del Webb first proposed Solera, a less luxurious age-restricted community, and the conventional Anthem Highlands, Sun City Anthem's 5,000 seniors protested. They had little appetite for sharing streets with teenage drivers or listening to the noisy pets they said would come with a community open to families with children. In Anthem Sun City, visitors under age 55 can stay a maximum of 30 days.

"We've raised kids. We love them. But now the dog's dead, the kids are moved out and we want to have fun," said Favil West, a retired contractor and commercial pilot who led negotiations for residents. "High speed cars don't mix with golf carts."

In the compromise plan approved Tuesday, Sun City residents lost a planned third golf course and more than 800 acres of neighbors with similar ages and economic backgrounds. But they gained 40,000 square feet of recreation facilities, funding for increased security and an eight-foot block wall that will be built along Anthem Highland's northern border.

Del Webb plans to complete full build-out of Anthem by 2008, building 13,700 homes, 1,500 more than originally planned. Del Webb made those gains by eliminating the third golf course and by planning Solera's homes for smaller lots. Prices there will range from $160,000 to $220,000.

City planners approved Anthem in November 1997, making it by far the largest master-planned community in Henderson. Lake Las Vegas, proposed for 2,600 acres, is a distant second.

Anthem followed the first rush of master-planned communities approved in Henderson in the early to mid-1990s.

"We had large amounts of land that were available for development in the early 1990s and the growth was just starting to move to our part of the valley," said Sue Goldade, principal planner for the city of Henderson. "We had a whole group coming in from a couple hundred acres to a couple thousand."

But by the time Del Webb began planning Anthem, assembling a 5,000-acre parcel required tapping into federal lands south of town.

In two separate land exchanges in 1997, Del Webb acquired and then traded thousands of acres of wetland, forests and wildlife refuges in central and Northern Nevada to the Bureau of Land Management. In return, they gained 4,756 acres of hillside overlooking the Las Vegas Valley.

But the Department of Interior Inspector General issued a report criticizing the BLM for allegedly undervaluing the federal land by millions of dollars in the trade with Del Webb.

Those trades and others prompted a moratorium on BLM land exchanges. In October 1998, the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act effectively ended the practice, requiring the BLM to release its land at public auction except when approved by Congressional act.

In November 2003, Henderson and the BLM auction plan to auction a portion of 6,000 undeveloped acres directly southwest of Anthem. Del Webb is expected to among the bidders.