County land listed for protection

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004 | 10:06 a.m.

Clark County took another step toward protecting environmentally sensitive lands Tuesday.

The Clark County Commission accepted unanimously a report prepared by county staff members and an 18-person citizens committee that outlined where those lands are. The report wraps up more than a year of work to identify lands that should receive some protection against development, and prioritize those areas for protection.

The report identifies more than 3.8 million acres that could receive protection through county and federal land-use decisions, including 1.2 million acres identified as a top priority for preservation. The county has about 5.2 million acres including federal land.

Jon Wardlaw, assistant planning manager and project leader, said that still provides 1.3 million acres for various kinds of development, about four times what is now used for homes and businesses in Clark County.

The commission directed Clark County planning staff to develop a program to implement the recommendations of the report. The goal is to have the county's land use guides reflect the report and to use the study as a basis for conversations with the federal government.

The work began more than 18 months ago. Former commissioner Dario Herrera asked for the project after controversy erupted over plans to build thousands of homes on top of Blue Diamond Hill, adjacent to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

In December 2002, the Clark County Commission formally created the citizens group, with the task of identifying environmentally sensitive land for potential protection.

Jeff Rhoads, an urban planner in the private sector, said the Blue Diamond and Red Rock area was "the most sensitive area in terms of public perception" that the citizens group found during a year of meetings.

Blue Diamond Hill and land nearby the Red Rock conservation area received a high priority for preservation in the planning study.

Alan O'Neill, executive director of the Outside Las Vegas Foundation, a conservation group, and a member of the citizens group that worked on the plan, said the effort included four broad criteria for selecting land that should be protected from development.

The first criteria was biological habitat -- the group and county planners, working with the Nature Conservancy, a national conservation group, selected areas important to threatened desert flora and fauna.

Areas that fulfilled an "aesthetic criteria" also were marked for protection. That includes "scenic roads and backcountry byways," O'Neill said. Sharp slopes and ridgetops also were included in this criteria, he said, because the ridgelines are visible from the valleys.

Another criteria judged in the effort was existing "administrative areas" that might deserve additional protection, including conservation, national park and national forest areas, and finally historic and cultural sites, O'Neill said.

Rhoads said areas that sparked particular concern were those along the broad development corridors anticipated to come, including U.S. 95 to Indian Springs, Interstate 15 to the planned Ivanpah airport near Jean, and I-15 north to Moapa Valley.