Stronger master plans sought

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003 | 11:01 a.m.

Clark County's land-use guides, which now have little binding impact, could get substantially stronger under an ordinance introduced Wednesday.

In the last several months the County Commission has been embroiled in increasingly acrimonious debate over zone change requests that do not conform to the land-use guides, usually called master plans.

In that last year, hundreds of residents have protested land-use decisions that have overruled the master plans.

The commission is to discuss and vote Feb. 19 on further restrictions on master plans. The ordinance would help protect neighborhoods by freezing new master plans for two years and requiring the approval of two-thirds of the commissioners for zoning that does not conform to the plans, Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said.

Commissioner Myrna Williams, who has often been on the other, and until now winning, side of master-plan battles, said the ordinance could lead to zero growth in unincorporated county, which for decades has been one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the country. The growth historically has employed thousands of construction workers.

"That's jobs," Williams said. "It's not just jobs, it's the economy."

Williams directed staff to research the fiscal impact the new law would have on the county.

"I don't know. I could be wrong," she said. "But I think we need to find out."

Planning staff for the county said they will meet with affected parties over the next month before writing the ordinance that will appear before the commission. Those slated to participate in the process include members of the county's town boards, which advise the commission on land-use issues and regularly tangle with developers, and both the commercial and residential developers themselves. Williams asked that the policy discussions also include labor unions.

The broad outlines of the ordinance are already a matter of record and were forwarded by Woodbury and Commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Chip Maxfield, and with the support of new Commissioners Rory Reid and Mark James.

Woodbury said the ordinance would not stop growth.

"There is nothing here intended to restrict growth or construction," he said.

"I don't see any fiscal impact. I think the good developers will have no problem planning projects that meet the master plans."