Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Zoning request out, but houses coming

Developers of a controversial housing development in Southern Highlands withdrew their zoning request before Wednesday's meeting of the Clark County Commission.

But many of the three-dozen residents who had intended to protest the application were surprised and frustrated to learn that some new homes are still likely to be built at the site despite a master plan that designates public use for the land.

Residents protesting the subdivision said they do not know whether to blame the developer or the builder or both, but some said they have learned that the county's master-planning process, despite strengthening earlier this year, is still flawed.

Chris Kaempfer, a land-use attorney representing Southern Highlands Development Corp., said after withdrawing the request to reclassify 77 acres for 193 homes that the company already has the existing zoning it needs to go ahead with two homes per acre on the hill.

Residents had mobilized to block construction on the site, a hill behind their small community of Siena Ancora. They said they were promised by the builder that the hill would be open space or a public park -- not a housing subdivision. The residents, most of whom moved into the community of 128 homes within the last year, still have the promotional brochures indicating that the hill would be a park, with riding and walking trails.

Builder Pulte Homes, which sold the homes in the upscale community, also believed the area would be a park, said Pulte spokeswoman Allison Copening. But the residents were all warned that the developer, Southern Highlands Development, could change tactics and plan some other fate for the rocky little mountain, she added.

Although the "hard zoning" for the hill is for residential development at two homes per acre, Southern Highlands Development and the county had designated the master plan as "public-facility," which is appropriate for a park or some other public use, and open space. The master plan and company requests were made in 1999.

"It was totally deceptive and misleading," said Jason Heard, a homeowner in Siena Ancora who paid a $25,000 premium to have what was a choice lot with a view of the hill. He closed escrow and moved into the property in January.

Smith said Southern Highlands began moving forward with the application for higher-density residential zoning in November 2002, which means that people continued to buy property in the area thinking that a park would be nearby when the developer had no intention of creating the park.

Southern Highlands Development employees directed phone calls to Mitch McClellan, who did not return calls Wednesday. Kaempfer, however, said the company never represented the land on the hill and nearby -- some of which is zoned for commercial uses or high-density residential -- as a future park.

"It's not going to be a park. It was never represented to be a park," Kaempfer said.

Attorney Scott Smith, representing the protesters, told them after the withdrawal that unlike the original zoning request, they would not be warned when the company comes in to build at the existing zoning because there is no application for a change.

Some of the crowd reacted with disbelief.

"What's the point of having a master plan that clearly identifies the land as a park?" Heard asked.

Commission Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey asked that the residents receive some warning when the company files its paperwork with the county to begin selling the land to builders, but county counsel Rob Warhola quashed the notion, explaining that would be circumventing the existing process.

Barbara Ginoulias, the head of the county's current planning division, said following Wednesday's zoning meeting that people could learn from the disappointment of Siena Ancora's residents.

She said the strengthened master-planning process applies to proposed changes in the zoning, but does not change what already exists.

"A master plan is still a guide," Ginoulias said. "Master plans do not rezone property."

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