Historic district on agenda

Judy Odierna

Tuesday, March 18, 2003 | 9:46 a.m.

A proposed historic district and the hiring of consultants for downtown Las Vegas development will be back before the City Council on Wednesday.

A decision on both items was put on hold earlier this month.

The council is expected to decide whether to create the city's first historic district and whether to hire two companies to help create a master plan for the 61-acre parcel of land downtown.

The proposed historic district would be in a residential area southeast of Charleston and Las Vegas boulevards. It would be bounded by Park Paseo and Franklin avenues, Ninth Street and Fifth Place.

The John S. Park Neighborhood Association has been seeking the designation since August 2000. The City Council adopted a five-step plan to improve the neighborhood that included the designation.

Residents have been split over the designation. Those who oppose it say they want to retain the opportunity to sell their properties for commercial use, which would be harder to do if their house were labeled as historic.

Those in favor of the district say the designation would preserve the area's historic residential nature and say the few who oppose the designation are misinforming the bulk of the neighborhood residents.

The decision to postpone the hiring of two consultants to help plan projects on the 61 acres came after council members Lynette Boggs McDonald and Michael Mack expressed some concerns about the planning procedure.

They also wanted Mayor Oscar Goodman and Councilman Lawrence Weekly, who were absent, to be present for the vote.

Hiring Design Workshop and Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. would cost more than $600,000.

Design Workshop is an architectural engineering firm that helped develop the Commons in Denver, a 60-acre urban village built on former railroad land adjacent to downtown. It would get $424,000.

Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., a nationwide firm specializing in projects involving infrastructure such as sewer lines and streets, would be paid $180,000.