NLV OKs housing close to pig farm

Mathis Winkler

Thursday, March 21, 2002 | 9:29 a.m.

The pigs will get next-door neighbors in North Las Vegas.

City Council members on Wednesday approved a 70-acre housing development with about 343 homes that will sit right across the street from R.C. Farms, where the Combs family raises 6,000 pigs.

It will be the closest development to the farm, and city officials, who have long dealt with odor complaints from nearby residents, want to make sure home buyers know what they are getting themselves into.

Anyone buying a house in the new neighborhood will have to sign a statement to acknowledge the fact that whiffs of hog are bound to come their way.

Still, the pig farmers said they were not too excited about their future neighbors.

"I'm opposing any houses that close to the farm," said Hank Combs, son of Bob, the family patriarch.

He added that he worried that new residents across El Campo Grande Avenue might pressure city officials to put the farm out of business. The family has enough odor control problems with the Clark County Health District as it is, Combs said.

The farm sits on unincorporated county land, but is completely surrounded by the city.

Mayor Michael Montandon countered that city officials were simply trying to respect everyone's property rights.

"The Combs have a right to their property," he said. "They were stinking here first."

But owners of the 70 acres across the street should also have a right to make use of the land, he added.

His colleagues agreed with him, but several said they hoped home buyers would find out early on that they would have to deal with the smell.

A representative for the developers said they would make sure buyers would be aware of the smell.

"We're not trying to hide anything," Bob Gronauer said, adding that it would take about two years before residents could move into homes in the neighborhood.