Water District key to Rhodes school site

Thursday, June 10, 2004 | 10:01 a.m.

The halt to construction at Rhodes Ranch came closer to an end Wednesday -- but the final step has not yet been taken.

Representatives of Rhodes Homes, the company building the residential subdivision in the southwest valley, and the Las Vegas Valley Water District, the agency which may be the last hurdle to approval of a new school site, huddled Wednesday.

The Water District needs to give the go-ahead for the school site. Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald directed staff to halt processing of new building permits for Rhodes Ranch in an effort to force the company to provide a school site, a requirement of a development agreement approved by the county in 1998.

The county normally processes about 100 permits a month for Rhodes Ranch, a community of about 4,800 homes including a gated residential area. At build-out, Rhodes Ranch is expected to have 9,000 homes.

Boggs McDonald said Wednesday that the concern is that schools near the subdivision are being overburdened with children. The Clark County School District had, but relinquished, school sites in Rhodes Ranch after the developer said the subdivision would be "age restricted" to seniors without young children.

However, Rhodes Homes changed marketing strategies about five years ago and now allows families with children. Since then, no new school site has been approved. The company this week said it has identified a 12-acre site at Grand Canyon Drive and Ford Avenue.

The Water District, however, raised concerns about the suitability of the site because it does not now have water service. Dean Walker, Rhodes Homes vice president of business development, said his company and Water District representatives met Wednesday and made progress on resolving the outstanding issue.

"It went really well," he said. The company and the agency discussed several different alternatives in terms of bringing reliable water to the site, he said.

"Our goal is to get with Lynette Boggs McDonald, the Water District and the School District, sit down with them and see which alternative is best," Walker said.

Boggs McDonald said the meeting should occur within the next few days.

"We need to pull together a meeting with the Water District, the School District, the (Clark County) planning department, Rhodes and all the parties that have some stake," she said. "It seems like we're getting close, but the key is the engineering issue, to be able to serve that site (with water).

"I want everyone sitting around the table at the same time, hearing the same information," Boggs McDonald said. "Before we can sing 'Kumbaya,' we all have to have the same sheet music."

J.C. Davis, Water District spokesman, said Wednesday's meeting helped his agency understand the issues. The next meeting, bringing together all the parties, should help resolve the issue, he said.