Las Vegas decides to wait on new rules on fountains

Sito Negron

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.

Las Vegas decided to take another two weeks to decide whether to follow the valley-wide drought guidelines that forbid fountains everywhere but the Strip.

Initially, the City Council voted to approve the rules Wednesday, but reopened the discussion when they realized they had not acknowledged a speaker, Peter Thomas, manager of the Thomas & Mack real estate company.

He made the case that the rules did not save much water and didn't make sense for his company. He said the pond in front of his company's U.S. Bank building loses about 23,000 gallons a year due to evaporation, while a $300,000 xeriscaping project under way at the building will save 2.5 million gallons a year.

He proposed that the city adopt an ordinance that allows it to negotiate agreements with individual property owners to provide a mechanism to save water, while keeping features, such as fountains, that make their property more valuable to tenants.

Mayor Oscar Goodman agreed, and said he didn't think it was fair for the Strip to keep its fountains while others cannot.

The drought rules were developed by the Southern Water Authority, which is made up of water providers and local jurisdictions in the Las Vegas Valley. While the authority sets overall policy, it is up to the individual jurisdictions to approve and implement it.

The portion of the policy dealing with fountains, which is one of 12 categories addressed in the conservation plan, became an issue when the city considered an ordinance in September. Some office parks sought exemptions under a waiver meant to apply to the Strip.