Town board rejects shopping center

Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003 | 9:44 a.m.

The Spring Valley Town Advisory Board, in a split vote, recommended stripping the shopping center from a controversial proposed development in southwest Las Vegas.

The development, planned for Clark County land by golf course impresario Billy Walters, would have included the shopping center on 25 acres, 40 acres of offices and a golf course on more than 200 acres near Warm Springs and Cimarron roads, across from a high school.

The Clark County Commission approved the master-plan change and accompanying zone change for the project last year, although the lease for the land has not been changed from golf courses to the mixed use. In the face of stiff community opposition, the commission changed course earlier this month and asked staff, advisory boards, Walters and community members to take another look at the master plan for the area.

Many residents, including neighbors from the Rhodes Ranch community next door, want the entire block of land to go back to its original designation as a "public facility" golf course.

The town board took up the issue Tuesday night. Walters and his opponents sounded familiar themes.

Walters said he has not done anything inappropriate in his yearlong effort to change the underlying master land-use plan for the area and get the new zoning. He said the project would contribute to home values nearby and would provide office space to support a hospital planned for the area.

"We're still convinced that the development of a golf course in conjunction with the entire 285 acres makes a lot of sense right now," Walters said. "Our project needs, in my opinion, all three elements to be successful."

Opponents, including some from a planned shopping center next door to the project, complained that the project cannot be supported by the number of homes in the area, particularly when thousands of acres of commercial uses are planned a few miles away.

"Within two miles of this location, we have 3 square miles of master-planned commercial," said opponent Carolyn Edwards, a Spring Valley resident who has been active on county land-use issues. "We need the public facility."

Walters brought supporters to the town board. Some, like Henderson resident Lynn Vertner, live miles away.

Vertner said she had no vested interest in the project but came out to public meetings on the issue because she thought the area could use more stores and a golf course.

Jimmy Gomes, who said he lives in Rhodes Ranch near the proposed commercial development, also supports the project. Gomes, a developer, said he also did not have any financial interest in the project, but appreciates Walters' efforts in other parts of the county.

"Eventually something is going to go in there," Gomes said. "Everything he has built has been first class."

But most residents who wrote to the county, and most who attended public meetings, including the town board meeting, wanted either a park or golf course on the site, according to county planners.

Those residents had an ally on the town advisory board, Chairman James Shibler. Shibler proposed a recommendation to turn the entire 285 acres back to public-facility, suitable for the golf course or a park.

But his motion needed three votes to pass, and the vote was 2-2. Board member Dee Gatliff joined Shilber in the motion, but new board members Denise Mehocic and Todd Terry opposed the motion.

Shibler made another motion, this one for 30 acres of offices, without the shopping center. This passed 3-1. Terry, who had earlier disclosed that he is a lawyer representing Albertson's grocery stores, cast the one vote in opposition.

Walters said following the vote that the board's recommendation "obviously would not be acceptable" and promised to take his effort to the County Planning Commission meeting Tuesday and then the County Commission, which is scheduled to take up the ultimate vote on the issue Wednesday.

John Sheehan, a Rhodes Ranch resident who has opposed the project for months, said the board made a compromise that opponents can live with.

"This compromise says: We had some impact," Sheehan said.

Todd Nigro, a competing developer with plans to build a project on his family's land already slated for commercial development, said the board's decision was reasonable. Nigro said his family's main concern was the shopping center part of the project, which was deleted in the board's recommendation.

"They made a prudent planning decision," he said.

Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a Spring Valley activist on county land-use issues, said groups fighting the project will probably continue their effort at the Planning Commission and County Commission meetings, seeking to have the land planned for golf courses without any commercial uses.