Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.
Dozens of developers and others interested in Clark County's proposed rules governing high rises attended a public meeting Monday describing the draft ordinance, and many of those attending took away concerns about the rules.
The ordinance, which the Clark County Commission is slated to consider at a Jan. 5 meeting, would establish basic and potential building heights for four classes of neighborhoods. In what planners call the resort corridor, a stretch from Las Vegas Boulevard to Industrial Road would allow building height limited only by air traffic, architectural engineering and the Clark County Commission.
Other parts of the unincorporated valley could see building heights ranging from 200 feet to just 50 feet. Rod Allison, a county planner who attended the meeting, said the goal of the ordinance is to give some predictability to both developers and residents, many of whom, especially on the west side of the urban area, are concerned that the boom of high rises will block their views of the Spring Mountains.
Last year the county commission considered four applications to build high rises along the Strip. This year there are 31 land-use applications in various stages of processing for high rises, and more are promised. In response to the wave of applications, Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald and her colleagues asked for the county planners to hold meetings including various interest groups to devise a coordinated plan for the high rises.
The county's plan not only covers the high rises, but the mixture of other uses that accompany such developments. High rises approved in the county have generally included a mix of retail, office and residential uses, and the new ordinance is formally called the Mixed Use Overlay District.
The plan also refers to the density of such projects, which can put hundreds of homes on a few acres of land.
John Bayer, a real estate broker and president of J.B. Enterprises, said the county's plan is a start, but he faults it for restricting high rises to a swatch bordered by Sunset Road, Decatur and Valley View boulevards and Sahara Avenue. The 4-square-mile area would provide homes and easy access to jobs for people working on the Strip, including thousands of new workers needed for hotel expansion now under way, he said.
"You've got to look outside of the box, 10 years from now," Bayer said.
"They don't need it there," he said, gesturing to the potentially unlimited height zone south of Warm Spring Road along Las Vegas Boulevard. "Keep it where you know there are services to accommodate these people."
M.J. Harvey, chairwoman of the Paradise Town Advisory Board, a panel that advises the county commission on land-use issues and that has seen a flood of requests for high rises, said her concern is for the adequacy of infrastructure within the areas targeted by the county.
Specifically, she is worried about all the cars driven by all the residents of these projects, which can put hundreds of homes within a few acres of space.
"Where are all these thousands of cars going to go?" she asked. Harvey noted that in many areas on Paradise along the Strip, roads are already overcrowded. "How are we going to take care of all of this traffic?"
Chuck Pulsipher, county planner, responded patiently to the concerns and questions of those who attended Tuesday night's public meeting on the high rises. He said most of those who attended the meeting were developers, and they had an entirely different concern.
"The concerns that I've heard tonight are that the plan gives too much discretion to the board (of county commissioners)," Pulsipher said.
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