Predictability sought in county’s master plan

Jeffrey Libby

Monday, Jan. 20, 2003 | 9:31 a.m.

Even as golf course magnate Billy Walters negotiates to save a proposed shopping center, Clark County commissioners are drafting new regulations intended to strengthen predictability in planning.

They will also create longer odds for the bid by Walters, a professional gambler.

Commissioners plan Wednesday to introduce regulations that would bar amendments to land-use plans for two years after their adoption. Any proposed changes would require a two-thirds vote, or five of seven commissioners.

"There's a sense that some of us have, and a lot of people out in the community have, that the County Commission has not given sufficient weight to the master plan," Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said. "And that we have granted non-conforming changes all too often.

"We want to give people a sense of predictability, so they can plan their lives."

Proposed regulations would require county planners to notify all property owners within 1,500 feet of proposed land-use changes, double today's requirement of 750 feet.

The package of new regulations would also require developers to meet with residents and seek consensus, much as Walters is being required to do now.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said, "It ensures that the public will be consulted."

Lobbyist Greg Borgel, who has been negotiating on Walters' behalf, said commissioners are essentially making a policy decision to "slow down the responsiveness to growth in order to get more (public) input."

"It's going to take longer to get housing approved," Borgel said, "So there's going to be a period of adjustment where there'll be unmet housing needs and an escalation of housing prices."

Atkinson Gates pointed out that the proposed regulations would also require land-use, or master plans to be updated every five years, helping the county keep current with developers needs.

There are areas in the county, Atkinson Gates said, that county planners have not updated in more than 10 years.

Commissioners acknowledge that on many non-conforming projects, approval has been given and it is too late to attempt to rescind agreements.

But in the case of Walters' proposed commercial center and residential project in southwest Las Vegas, the commission has already demonstrated a shift in its views.

"We asked him to get together with the other property owners and negotiate and come back with a consensus," Woodbury said. "There's no guarantee that will happen."

But the request itself, that Walters negotiate with his future competitors, could have been taken directly from the draft regulations released Friday.

Commissioners say Walters' project cannot in any legal sense be judged based on the proposed regulations, first announced in draft form on Friday.

Atkinson Gates called the possible passage of those regulations "probably the single most important decision that the board will make this year."

Walters' case, which is to be heard Feb. 5, involves his proposed shopping center near Durango Drive and Warm Springs Road.

Borgel said that with the political climate shifting toward tighter land-use regulations, he will have to work that much harder with competing developers to obtain a compromise favorable to his client.