New south beltway poses many problems

Sito Negron

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

Las Vegas' proposal for a new beltway in the northwest and north valley would be difficult to duplicate in the south, where planners say a checkerboard of development has eaten up too much desert for transportation officials to easily assemble enough land for a highway.

But on the edges of the valley in almost all directions, the continued explosive growth that has showed no signs of abating is driving planners to look years into the future and develop ideas about how all those cars are going to get around.

"We know there's going to be transportation needs. That's for sure. To define those transportation needs and find a way to deal with them sooner rather than later is a good idea," city of Las Vegas Public Works Director Dick Goecke said.

He said the process of developing the city's northern beltway -- dubbed the Mountain Edge Parkway Corridor -- began last year, when planners from around the valley met to discuss northwest transportation issues, and the city and county adopted a map with the proposed alignment.

Las Vegas will bring the outer northern beltway proposal to a technical committee of the Regional Transportation Commission on Thursday. The city is seeking for approval to begin a study that would begin to solidify the plan.

"We felt the need to study that before we were very much heavily competing with private developers and the like," Goecke said. "If it were to become a reality we don't want to go and buy homes. If (federal) right of way is available we should be taking advantage of that."

Those concerns go for the south valley, too, where checkerboard development limits the amount of land that can be assembled. That means planners looking at that area will have to develop arterials, surface streets similar to such avenues as Tropicana Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.

"We don't believe we have enough property to build another highway like the beltway," said Clark County Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton. "It wouldn't be cost-effective for us now to go and try to build right of way in area that is already developed.

"What will have to take place is improvements to the infrastructure ... to the south, as people develop parcels, they will be asked to put in improvements to Pebble, Gomez, Cactus, Star in the Southern Highlands."

Richard Lee, vice president of First American Title Co. and an expert on Southern Nevada land use, said government officials often don't lock into a plan until they have identified land needs and found a way to get the space needed.

"People start buying property based on the map or panicking based on the map," Lee said. However, on all sides of the valley, continued growth will demand a variety of traffic solutions, he said.

"The transportation issues and the challenges here are very big but also very exciting," Lee said. "I don't think anybody understand what this city will be in 50 years ... land's so expensive we're not just going out, we're going up."

However, the bulk of the development -- particularly residential -- continues to take place to the south, west and northwest.

In the northwest, the proposed new Mountain Edge Parkway would extend north from the current beltway, in a swath about as wide as two football fields are long -- more than 600 feet. It would swing east about where the Kyle Canyon gateway intersects with U.S. 95, heading through North Las Vegas to intersect with I-15.

Brenda Johnson, spokeswoman for the city of North Las Vegas, said although her council did not approve the project as did Las Vegas and Clark County, "North Las Vegas is working cooperatively with the city of Las Vegas as they proceed with the corridor study. As proposed, it would enter our city north of Grand Teton, and potentially connect to the existing beltway at North Fifth Street. This area is currently undeveloped."

The idea, while forward-looking in that it seeks to anticipate growth -- as opposed to the current beltway, which many have pointed out followed growth -- it still presumes a dependence on automobiles, some said.

Jeff Van Ee, an environmentalist who studies growth issues in the Las Vegas valley, said the proposal for more highways could be at the expense of air quality and transportation options like arterials and mass transit.

"With the tremendous growth we have not only are we having difficulty attaining air quality standards but 20 years down the road, with the topography and climate, meeting air quality standards will be an even greater challenge," Van Ee said. "So building more highways and getting more people into cars 20 years down the road won't be helping the problems we have today.

"I drove in from Arizona ... and I looked at the haze over the Las Vegas valley, and it didn't look very good. One wonders what it will look like 20 years from now when we've built up from one valley range to the next." He also questioned who would benefit from the beltway.

"If you live in the northwest it will connect to I-15, but is that really the direction people will want to go? Where is the employment and where will they be living? The employment seems to be in the metro area, the center of the city, and the beltway doesn't serve to get to the center part of the valley," Van Ee said.

"So I think with the limited transportation dollars we have we should be spending on upgrading the spokes of the wheel that serve to get people more easily into the center of the metropolitan area. We need to emphasize mass transit."

Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack represents Ward 6, a portion of the city through which the proposed northern outer beltway would pass.

"As much as I don't like building roads, I think it's a necessary evil. We have to stay ahead of it," he said.

"The county did a good job with the beltway," Mack said. But as development accrues in northwest, "we're going to have to have the infrastructure and I think the beltway makes a lot of sense."

Lee, the land use expert, said he thinks the southern and eastern edges of the valley are where planners will have the hardest time creating roads that flow well across large areas.

"The nightmare in this town will be Blue Diamond, because of the growth there," Lee said.

The Blue Diamond highway, which is state road 160, will be rebuilt in phases. The first phase, $23 million for 1.5 miles from Valley View to Las Vegas Boulevard, where a new interchange will align it with Windmill, is scheduled to start late this year.

Phase 2, which is to extend to Rainbow, bridge a railroad track and realign the spot where Jones intersects with Highway 160, is scheduled to be advertised in December of 2004.