Two area parks are slated for upgrades

Malia Spencer

Monday, July 14, 2003 | 11:02 a.m.

Half of the sprinklers at Lone Mountain Park are on at 8:30 on a warm Friday morning. A lone man is hitting a tennis ball to two eagerly awaiting dogs that, despite the heat, chase it around the grass.

The park is empty, and that is just the way Alan Picome likes it.

In the coming years, however, Lone Mountain will have more people in its open spaces.

Two of Clark County's regional parks, Lone Mountain and Sunset, are slated to be remodeled.

The most drastic change will be the expansion of Lone Mountain Park -- and that leaves Picome, a resident near the park for three years, with mixed feelings.

The proposed design for Lone Mountain increases the park's size from 20 acres to more than 300 acres. The park will extend from West Alexander Road in the south to West Lone Mountain Road in the north.

This would include hiking and equestrian trails but would also preserve the natural beauty of Lone Mountain, said Doug Bradford, spokesman for the Clark County Parks and Community Services.

Much of the park will be open space for people to picnic, relax and enjoy the natural surroundings, he said, with the addition of many amenities such as:

Picome said he likes the idea of a large park in the area but he also has concerns.

He has been coming to the park every morning for three years and worries about the amount of people a larger park would attract. The crowds would make it difficult for his dogs to play freely.

"I come out here early when no one is around, so they can run around. It's what dogs are meant to do," Picome said.

On the other side of the park, Sue Lyons played with her dogs under the shade of a pavilion. She said she couldn't think of any reasons to oppose the proposed expansion.

"I think the ideas are great, less houses and more park," she said.

Lyons, who volunteers with the Humane Society, brings her dogs and foster dogs to the park twice a day. She has lived in the area for 10 years and said she has enjoyed Lone Mountain Park since it opened.

The park expansion is still in the planning stages. Funds have yet to be allocated for the project, but creating the design was an important first step, Clark County Commissioner Chip Maxfield said.

The vacant land surrounding the existing Lone Mountain Park is owned by the Bureau of Land Management. The county is in the process of acquiring the land free of charge, Bradford said, because it will be used for public recreation.

Maxfield has been involved in the Lone Mountain plan from the beginning. He said he recognized the Lone Mountain Park and its natural landscape and "wanted to preserve it as a legacy for the whole valley."

Lone Mountain Park will be the regional park for the northwest area of the county. Input from the surrounding community has been a part of the planning process because "it's their park, it's their fun place," Bradford said.

There have been two community meetings with more than 200 local residents, he said.

It was important to make sure the planning process "incorporated residential needs," Maxfield added.

"We want to enhance the surrounding area, not take away from it," he said.

As a result of community recommendations, some amenities were added, such as the equestrian trails, and other proposals such as a tram and an outdoor amphitheater were abandoned, Maxfield said.

Working with the county to finalize a proposal was a positive experience, said Linda Fionda, secretary of the Northwest Citizens Association. Fionda, a neighborhood activist for 10 years, attended both community meetings.

At first, she said, she was appalled by some of the county's plans, such as a tram that would run to the top of the mountain, but after the meetings she said the final plan was acceptable.

"I think the end result will be wonderful," Fionda said. "I think it helps set the aura of a rural setting."

The undeveloped setting of the Lone Mountain area is what drew Fionda to purchase her home in the shadow of the mountain. She said preserving that is the reason she is involved with the Northwest Citizens Association.

County commissioners got their first peek at the plans earlier this month. The designs are part of the Clark County Parks and Community Services Master Plan, which calls for a large regional park within five miles of any Las Vegas Valley resident.

The Clark County Parks and Community Services is working to "provide broader and larger recreation opportunities for the community," Bradford said.

A final cost has yet to be announced Bradford said. He added work will begin once the funding is available.

"It's not going to happen overnight," he said.

Sunset Park, the oldest of the valley's regional parks, is also in line for renovations. Some of the changes include moving the baseball and softball fields to a new location and adding a small outdoor amphitheater and a fenced-in children's play area and a water play area, Bradford said.

There is also a proposed festival area in the north end of the park near the corner of Eastern Avenue and Sunset Road. That area would be the home of a renaissance festival. Bradford said the county hopes to create facilities at the regional parks to house signature events, such as Desert Breeze's annual Red, White and Boom.

Like the Lone Mountain project, Sunset Park's renovation would begin as funds become available, Bradford said.

The first phase in the Sunset project will be constructing the new facilities for the softball and baseball fields on a new location. This way people would not lose the use of the fields during the remodeling, Bradford said.

The space left by the fields, at Warm Springs Road and Eastern Avenue, will be replaced with group picnic areas.

The softball fields will be moved to an 80-acre site at Interstate 215 and Arville Street. The baseball fields will be moved to another 80-acre site at Robindale and Warm Springs Road. Both areas are vacant lands the county has received from the Bureau of Land Management.

The plan calls for the park to be 60 percent turf and grass areas and 40 percent desert landscape.

Funding for the projects will come from Clark County and the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, Maxfield said.

The county will ask for $15 million for each park project when it submits its lands management application in September, Bradford said. That money would be generated through the auction of public land.

"This process is always long," Bradford added. The application and review process takes about a year, the county would know by September 2004 if it receives the funding.

Until then the county will keep "charging ahead" finding funding where it can, Bradford said.

About $15 million of county money earmarked for parks projects this year was lost when it was reallocated to help fund the University Medical Center and the Regional Justice Center. But Maxfield said UMC and justice center funding should be under control now and he "is hopeful the project will get back on track next year."

The master plan for the county's parks was created five years ago. The proposed larger parks would offer neighborhood residents more opportunities for recreation close to home, Bradford said. Although, he added renovations would "take a number of years and involve a number of people."