Airport project concerns residents

Thursday, May 22, 2003 | 9 a.m.

Southeast Las Vegas residents said Wednesday they are worried about noise and fumes from a proposed third terminal at McCarran International Airport that would push Russell Road north.

The Clark County Aviation Department has purchased about 440 houses, apartments and condominiums and could start realigning Russell next year, Aviation Director Randy Walker said Wednesday night at a community workshop.

The required approval from the Federal Aviation Administration could come in the fall, Walker said.

The preliminary work on the $800 million project began about two years ago, Walker said. It evolved into a plan for a separate airport terminal with 14 gates, a new parking garage, ticket counters and roads looping around the terminal.

The terminal, the third at the airport, could be ready as soon as 2008, as long as Southern Nevada's tourism industry stays healthy, Walker said.

"If the growth's not there, we don't build," Walker said.

About 80 percent of McCarran's automobile traffic comes from Strip and downtown hotels, he said. Another 8 percent is generated within the airport itself from rental cars. The final 12 percent is local residents, Walker said.

A third terminal would cut waiting time at the airport in half, said Mike Loghides of the Aviation Department. Then, if Ivanpah Airport is built about 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas, McCarran's traffic would be reduced again, he said.

The first phase will involve moving Russell Road north, linking it to Swenson Street and creating a park for a neighborhood northwest of the construction area, Aviation Department spokesman Carl Scarbrough said.

Homeowner Kay Simpson, a 30-year Las Vegas resident, said she was concerned about the jet fumes and traffic noise affecting her home, where she keeps thoroughbred horses, north of Russell Road near Caliente Street.

"What about the noise?" Simpson said. "And the fumes, you have lots and lots of fumes."

Homes built up to 15 years ago along Russell Road are being torn down.

"They buffered us from the noise," Simpson said.

Bob Reeve, who owns three houses in the area and lives near Sunset Park, said the county is treating residents at one end of Russell differently from those at the eastern end of the project. Neighborhoods at the western end get a park to protect them from air and street traffic noises, he said.

But the park is also displacing affordable homes, Reeve said.

"What I don't want to see is insurance offices and other offices," Reeve said.

The public will be able to comment on the third terminal at three more hearings.

The Paradise Town Board meets Tuesday to discuss the issue and the Enterprise Town Board will take it up next Wednesday. The Clark County Commission is scheduled to review the plan at 10 a.m. June 17 at a formal public hearing at the County Government Center.