Monday, Jan. 5, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.
This year, he may have more specifics to point to, as millions of dollars for new development -- while meager compared to the billions being spent on and adjacent to the Strip -- flowed into downtown Las Vegas in 2003, with more to come in 2004.
The city's biggest success of the year -- the $95 million premium outlet mall that opened in August and has remained crowded with shoppers ever since -- will serve as the setting for the mayor's speech.
But the last year included other additions to downtown -- multiple lawyers' offices, the City Center high-rise apartment project and the start of the $17 million changing of the Fremont Street Experience's light bulbs.
Also new was the Ice House, a popular $5.5 million cocktail bar and restaurant on Main Street that opened in July. It illustrates the potential of downtown, and how far it has to go -- a clean white art deco-looking building sitting amid its grittier neighbors, including a dirt parking lot, waiting for sophisticated company.
While development of the 61 acres that is considered a centerpiece to downtown efforts is not fully under way, the city has started laying some roads and etching the pattern of infrastructure upon which the project will stand.
A $600,000 study, half paid by the city, will consider a partnership with the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, which would bring a medical center and a thicket of urban high rises. The study is to be complete within months, and chart a course for development of the 61 acres.
"We're about three steps up on where we should be, we're way ahead," said Councilman Gary Reese of the city's downtown efforts.
Reese said it's wrong to call it redevelopment, since what the city is trying to do is set the stage for a dense urban area, which it never has been.
"In essence we're building brand new stuff," Reese said.
In the Arts District, the Holsum Bread Factory at Charleston Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway will become a $5.5 million loft factory, with work to begin in February and be completed in the summer.
The city also is working out the details of a $50,000 contract with a Philadelphia company that specializes in urban redevelopment, and plans are in the works for a privately funded $1.5 million sculpture garden on Boulder Avenue, between Casino Center Drive and Main Street.
The L'Octaine Urban Apartment Project, postponed numerous times, is to break ground in January, offering 51 units at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard South and Gass Avenue. Nearby is the planned Soho Lofts, 112 units at the southwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Hoover Avenue. The $40 million to $45 million project is expected to break ground in May, according to previous articles in the Sun.
In the next year, the city will continue its push east on Fremont, where Goodman -- who would not comment for this article -- is hoping to establish an entertainment district. The city owns the former Metro Police fingerprint building at 601 Fremont, and Goodman has said frequently this fall that he's expecting the nightclub Hogs and Heifers, made famous by the movie "Coyote Ugly," to move somewhere on east Fremont.
The city in 2003 also prepared the groundwork for a mega-party in 2005 to celebrate Las Vegas' centennial, which is to commemorate 100 years since the land auction in 1905 that paved the way for the subdivision and eventual urban growth of the valley.
That growth will continue in 2004, with a couple of key actions that will ensure land for years of development. The city moved to annex 1,600 acres around the mouth of Kyle Canyon, and set the groundwork for annexing another 7,600 acres north of the current city of Las Vegas limits.
The land near U.S. 95 on Kyle Canyon Road is just north of 1,200 acres owned by Focus Property Group, part of which is 500 acres that Focus paid $113 million to the BLM for in June.
The Kyle Canyon plan aims to set a standard for development of 1,600 acres of northwest Las Vegas land that limits water and power usage, preserves natural terrain features, and provides a mix of housing cost and type.
"How we are managing our growth today is different from even 10 years ago. Today we see far more emphasis on the master planning approach," said Ward 4 Councilman Larry Brown.
For example, the northwest open space project is a look at the potential future growth patterns and the area that will be needed to provide breathing room and recreation for the tens of thousands of anticipated new residents.
"It's going to be crucial," Brown said. "It's certainly going to be a sign of where we're heading into the future, not only the city of Las Vegas, but also in that particular part of the valley there is so much opportunity to do things differently when it comes to open space."
He said that includes Floyd Lamb State Park to the north, the Kyle Canyon entrance in the northwest, and the foothills on the western edge of the valley. The city is discussing with the state the idea of taking over Floyd Lamb State Park, and at the same time is talking to a private group that wants to place zoo in the park boundaries.
"In the past open space amenities came at the tail end of the planning process," Brown said. "It is now being placed on the front end."
Town Center, developing at and around Centennial Parkway and U.S. 95, has been in the planning and developing stages for years. "Now we're seeing the bricks and mortar," said Ward 6 Councilman Michael Mack. He mentioned the opening of Kohls, numerous restaurants, and diverse types of residential housing.
And, Mack said, "we just approved this year the Cliff's Edge project, a great master-planned community."
Also significant is an agreement that the city approved with the Hughes Corporation that will allow development in Summerlin to proceed west of the 215 Beltway, north of Charleston and south of Cheyenne, an area of more than 8,000 acres that will be home to an estimated 30,000 people within decades.
Ward 2 Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald said the Summerlin West agreement, "will serve as a blueprint for development west of 215, north of Charleston, south of Cheyenne, going to the red rocks."
Boggs McDonald said it represents about 8,300 acres, owned by the Howard Hughes Corporation, "that will dictate how that portion of Summerlin will be developed, I would say for the next 20 years. We estimate some 30,000 people will call just that section of the city home within the next 20 years."
In the coming year, Boggs McDonald said, the city will break ground for a new fire station, Station 47, at 215 and Far Hills. And development will head west.
"West of 215, north of Charleston, the new village called The Paseos is starting to come out of the ground, so in 2004 we'll see a lot of additional development coming to the west," Boggs McDonald said. "It's a lot of change. I can remember when Hualapai was not really even on maps."
"I predict that in 20 years when you look at Summerlin, it's going to be technically one of the top five cities in the state, if not one of the top three."
Summerlin is not a city now; it's part of Las Vegas.
Land use issues will continue to take up much of council's time, she said.
"Now it seems at each council meeting very tough decisions have to be made -- where do we locate a Social Security building, or a psychiatric hospital. Land issues become more complex as the city continues to grow and there's no going back," Boggs McDonald said, referring to recent zoning controversies over a Social Security building on Buffalo and a proposed state psychiatric hospital on Jones.
Inside the city, in the older districts, generally land locked with no room for expansion, the issues are pretty basic.
"Roads are huge, especially for me," said Ward 5 Councilman Lawrence Weekly. "A lot of the older areas in my ward, streets and wards had not been touched since they were built. That was one of the first things I said I would concentrate on when I got elected."
Weekly said that Washington Avenue was rebuilt in the past year, and workers are on Owens Avenue now. The Doolittle Community Center, a key civic element of West Las Vegas, reopened after $10.5 million in renovations.
For all council members, "There's always the park issues," Reese said. "We've done exceptionally well building and maintaining our parks systems."
Reese recently helped Huntridge-area residents celebrate the opening of Huntridge Circle Park, a $1.5 million project on Maryland Parkway just south of Charleston.
In some of the older areas, Reese said, "we're still way behind in repairing the roads, but we get the holes filled as soon as we can when we see them."
Reese said in the last year the city paved its alleyways, which was a big issue because paving makes it "easier to keep them clean and maintain them."
While much of what the city does will revolve around such development decisions as zoning and the attendant public services -- particularly infrastructure like streets, lights and drainage -- it also will consider policy issues.
Wednesday, at its first meeting of the new year, council will consider setting a policy to deal with city employees who are lawmakers. The issue comes up after months of turmoil stemming from Assemblyman Wendell Williams' use of city equipment and the pay he received while serving in the Legislature.
Williams was fired from his Neighborhood Services job at the beginning of December, and his former boss, Sharon Segerblom, was reassigned from her department director position to an administration job in the detention department.
"We have to remain diligent as far as being accountable as stewards of the taxpayer dollars," Brown said. The city recently received a report from its finance director in which council members were told that the rate of budget growth is exceeding income, a turnaround from the previous decade.
"We had this discussion back in 1998, which initiated a lot of the fiscal policies in place now," Brown said. "At that time we looked at about a 15 year window and obviously it turned out to be a five year window."
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