Editorial: Odor from City Hall, not farm

Monday, Sept. 23, 2002 | 8:49 a.m.

In 1963 when Robert Combs built his pig farm in the northern part of the Las Vegas Valley, he was perfectly situated. He was so far from residential housing that there were no utility lines and no water mains. Yet he was close enough to Las Vegas hotels to make it affordable for his farm to transport tons of waste food every day from the hotels. This harmonious arrangement, which saves the hotels time and money, preserves space in the county landfill, and feeds the pigs all at the same time, continues today. What doesn't continue is the isolation that the 160-acre farm once enjoyed.

Today, a high school sits one-quarter of a mile away from the farm and housing developments are inching closer and closer. The city of North Las Vegas, through its zoning decisions, is allowing all of this incompatible development. Instead of maintaining a proper buffer zone while R.C Farms, with its 300 head of cattle and 4,000 pigs, remains active, the city is paving the way for people to move into homes, settle into their urban lifestyles, and turn up their noses at the idea of a working farm family as their neighbor.

R.C. Farms is within a "county island" -- land that is part of Clark County but surrounded by land within the city's borders. For years, the city of North Las Vegas sought to annex the island, which would give it control over how it was zoned. Combs has successfully fought annexation, largely because his taxes would increase if his land was in the city and because he wants to continue his livelihood as a farmer. Our view is that the hard-working Combs was there first and the city should back off any attempt to annex his property. Combs has offered to move if developers could find him another place in the valley where he could have his farm and be near to the hotels. So far, no one has taken him up on that offer -- most likely because urban growth has made finding an equitable amount of land impossible.

If the Combs family wants to pass the farm down from generation to generation, that's their right and it should be respected. Meanwhile, the city of North Las Vegas should stop approving developments so close to the farm and the county should dismiss the odor complaints that are piling up. The Combs family has worked hard to be a good neighbor, but pig farms aren't meant to have neighbors right across the street. The real odor here is coming from North Las Vegas City Hall, where planners are coddling developers while crowding out a family that represents the backbone of the West.