Another high-rise dispute on horizon

Friday, July 23, 2004 | 11:17 a.m.

Seven months after activists led a successful effort to reduce the height of a planned casino tower in Summerlin, some of the same people are focusing on two equally tall towers proposed for Spring Valley.

A consortium of investors dubbed Paramount Professional Plaza hopes to build two 300-foot towers as part of a mixed-use development at Durango Drive and the Las Vegas Beltway. The towers are only two of about 30 high rises planned throughout Clark County as developers struggle to fit more real estate into smaller, increasingly expensive parcels.

Some county officials and activists say the development points to the need for a comprehensive policy governing where such high rises are appropriate.

The zoning request for the towers is scheduled to be considered by the Spring Valley Town Advisory Board on Tuesday, then by the Clark County Planning Commission on Aug. 5. Unless the applicants request a delay, the Clark County Commission would hear the issue Sept. 8.

The applicants are asking for a zone change from residential and commercial to the county's new "urban village" designation, which allows a mix of residential, professional and light commercial uses on the same site.

The commissioners also would have to approve a use permit allowing the 300-foot towers, three times the height now allowed in the area.

Dionicio Gordillo, a Clark County planner, said county staff have recommended approval of the zone change but denial of the height request.

"It's beautiful project," he said. "It's a great site plan. ... It's just the height, the visual aspect that is the issue."

The Paramount project would provide 468,000 square feet of residential space, 171,000 square feet of commercial area and 122,000 square feet of recreational and open space. The towers themselves would be home to 506 housing units.

Gordillo and his bosses on the Clark County Commission are well aware that the impact on views of the Spring Mountains from the valley floor is what fueled four years of debate over billboard rules, and more recently led to the Red Rock Station casino debate.

Gordillo, however, noted that the proposal for the two towers is only one of several near that intersection alone. Other towers are planned throughout the urban region.

"Now we've got a lot of this vertical intensity going on throughout the valley, and it seems like Spring Valley is next on the list," he said.

Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a community activist who was involved in both the debate over billboards and the Red Rock Station, said a similar opposition group is forming over the Paramount towers proposal. Mayo-DeRiso is a member of Scenic Nevada, an affiliate of a national group that works to preserve views.

"If we allow two 300-foot towers, then it sets a precedent," she said. "The height is an issue because of the viewshed and it is also an issue because we still have three or four casinos that are allowed on that side of town."

If the Paramount project is permitted, than the casinos will seek similar heights, Mayo-DeRiso predicted.

Mayo-DeRiso agrees that there are few residents immediately to the east of the proposed towers whose views would be affected by the towers. She said drivers on the Las Vegas Beltway and Durango, however, would see the imposing towers instead of the mountains to the west.

"If we start allowing high rises in that land, we might as well kiss the view of the mountains goodbye," she said.

Another problem is that the project would be home to hundreds of commuters from a single source, and those commuters could overwhelm the roads at rush hours. Mayo-DeRiso agrees, however, that high-rises in general can be very effective in saving land and water.

She said the appropriate place for high-rise towers is in the resort corridor along the Strip.

"Condo towers along the Strip I think are fine," she said. "That's where high buildings should be."

Mayo-DeRiso said Southern Hills Hospital, built to 130 feet nearby the proposed Paramount site, is already pushing the envelope.

"We're thinking, you know, about 100 feet is the highest it should go there," she said. "Red Rock Station -- that should be the tallest building anybody should have to look at on the west side of town."

A compromise in January that settled the contentious debate over Red Rock Station allowed the casino to come in at just under 200 feet. Mayo-DeRiso and her allies know that Station Casinos Inc. has plans to someday build a 216-foot casino nearby the Paramount site, and she fears county approval for the height of the new casino would be likely if the Paramount project is approved.

Greg Borgel, a land-use consultant who also worked on the Red Rock Station project, said the Durango site is appropriate for a high-rise. He noted that during a neighborhood meeting on the issue, not a single resident showed up to protest.

"That might be because there are no neighbors," he said.

Borgel said the team working on the application has scheduled a second meeting on the issue because activists asked for it.

The divide over the issue could take weeks or months to decide, but it has exposed what may be a hole in the county's land-use policies, which don't specify where high-rise buildings are appropriate. Debates over the issue have been on a case-by-case basis, as with the Red Rock Station issue, but county officials and observers from both the developers and community activist sides say a general policy might be needed.

Already the Clark County Growth Task Force, formed last spring, is debating where and how high-rises are appropriate. The task force's recommendations won't come out until December, however, and some say the policy is needed now.

Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, who represents the area, said she has concerns about the height of the project, but the issue should not be tackled on a individual basis.

"We're going through this process, we're going through this analysis," she said. "Why don't we look at this issue in a holistic manner rather than a piecemeal manner?

"I just seems like we're just seeing more and more vertical projects coming down the pipeline," Boggs McDonald said. "Now they seem to be coming beyond the resort corridor. I think we have to develop something sooner than the Growth Task Force.

"We can get input sooner from them, but because of the volume of projects coming down the pipelines, I think we have to react sooner," she said.

Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, Bogg McDonald's likely opponent in the November election for her county seat, also has concerns about the height of the proposed Paramount project. He said while such high-rises may be efficient in some ways, they create other issues that can affect the quality of life.

"Without question, the impact on traffic and the impact on quality of life are considerations that have to go in that zoning decision," he said. "Though it's an efficient use of some resources, it has an impact on others, and we have to consider that.

Goldwater, a candidate running on a "slow growth" platform, said high rises should stay on the Strip.

"It's probably more prudent to grow up inside the city than up outside the city," he said.