Apex developers seek approval for community

Adrienne Packer

Friday, June 21, 2002 | 9:53 a.m.

Apex Industrial Park developers were scheduled to submit conceptual designs today for a neighborhood they hope to construct in the area, which is designated to keep high-risk manufacturing plants away from homes.

Clark County major projects manager Marta Brown confirmed Apex's appointment with the Planning Department this morning.

Apex was expected to move forward with its proposal to develop a master planned community after its real estate acquisitions agreement with the county was modified in March.

The agreement initially prohibited any discussions about the development of "population dense" uses such as homes, motels, hotels, casinos, prisons or sports complexes.

Before any project is approved, developers must seek zone changes and the county must conduct studies to ensure residents wouldn't be at risk.

Brown said Apex's plans, which were submitted by chief operating officer Adam Titus, will be reviewed by the sanitation division, Las Vegas Valley Water District and county planners.

Apex Industrial Park was developed 15 miles northeast of Las Vegas in 1998 after the Pacific Engineering & Production Co. of Nevada (PEPCON) rocket fuel plant in Henderson exploded, killing two people.

The county purchased 45 square miles from the federal government to keep dangerous plants far from the booming community. Apex Industrial Park Inc. was created to manage it.

Property has been sold to Republic Services, Georgia Pacific Corp., Chemical Lime Co., Ulysses Corp. and Kerr-McGee, but Apex still controls 10,000 acres.

Titus has argued that stringent air-quality laws have kept the industrial park from being a success.

Sixteen investors, including influential community members such as developers Peter and Thomas Thomas, Imperial Palace owner Ralph Engelstad and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, have invested about $20 million into the struggling park.

The company's only hope might be to consider a residential area. The community would be built on the southern end of the park and would be separated from existing factories by a mountain range.

Titus said last summer that blast studies at Kerr-McGee's ammonium perchlorate plant show that debris would not rain down beyond the company's five square miles. Ammonium perchlorate is the chemical that exploded at PEPCON.