Business plans for park land irk homeowners

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.

Spring Valley homeowners are teed off at a developer's proposal to convert a portion of the community's planned 330-acre regional park and golf course into a shopping center and office complex.

The Walters Group, owned by golf course developer Billy Walters, is requesting that the Spring Valley Land Use Plan be amended to change 65 acres along Warm Springs and Cimarron roads from park land to commercial.

Clark County commissioners, acting as the zoning board, will consider the proposal Wednesday.

Spring Valley resident Carolyn Edwards, who worked on the committee that drafted the land use plan, said the vast desert parcel was slated to be developed into James Cashman III Regional Park.

"It's ridiculous," Edwards said. "The push by commissioners is anything on every major street should go commercial. If we made every section-line street commercial, there wouldn't be enough residents to support them."

Walters said Friday that he has always intended to put commercial businesses on a portion of the land. The recent approval of the new St. Rose Hospital on Warm Springs simply bolstered the need for more stores and office space, he said.

"Our plan since Day 1 has been to develop the property for multiple uses," Walters said. "This wasn't designated park land that someone in the last moment decided they were going to develop as commercial."

But according to Clark County planning documents and maps, commercial uses have never been considered for the property. The land is zoned rural estates -- a holding pattern zoning designation -- but is master planned for public facilities.

Parks and Recreation division officials said the property was supposed to be developed into golf courses and a community park.

Parks and Recreation sources, who asked not to be named because the proposal is expected to explode into a political battle between Clark County commissioners, said keeping the parcels along Cimarron between Warm Springs and Robindale roads as park land is critical.

Barbara Ginoulias, assistant director of the county planning division, said requests to switch public facilities property to commercial is a "fairly infrequent application." Her staff has yet to render a recommendation.

"The staff's recommendation to the board is you need to address or take appropriate public testimony," Ginoulias said. "We have stayed fairly neutral as far as a recommendation."

The property between Durango and Cimarron drives is part of 5,300 acres the federal government transferred to McCarran International Airport, which is responsible for protecting the land from unsuitable developments like neighborhoods.

The land, which lies under noisy flight paths, is known as the Cooperative Management Area.

In 2000, Clark County commissioners granted a 50-year lease to Walters, who agreed to build two public golf courses. The golf courses were to accompany a 60-acre community park, according to county records.

Constructing stores and office buildings along the park site contradicts the intent of the Spring Valley Land Use Plan, Edwards said.

Commissioner Erin Kenny, who oversees Spring Valley, did not return phone messages last week. But during a public hearing when the plan was adopted in 1997, Kenny said commercial developments don't belong on all major streets.

"We need to cease putting commercial and apartment dwellings on every single corner," she said. "We don't have to do that to be effective in serving the needs of residents in Spring Valley."

But since the land use plan was implemented, two hospitals in the Spring Valley area have been approved. Walters said the development pattern in the southwest has changed significantly.

"When communities change, needs for services change and development requirements change," Walters said. "Two hospitals going in out there mandates the need for other services."

Edwards said the county isn't required to notify residents who live near the park site of amendments to the master plan, a policy she hopes to persuade lawmakers to change during the upcoming legislative session.

"Once the plan is amended to commercial, the project is conforming so you can't fight this; the public has no recourse," she said. "The Legislature should change the laws governing master plans so they can't be amended without notice to specific property that will be affected."