New ward map with few changes backed by council

Dan Kulin

Monday, Nov. 1, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

The Henderson City Council wards are scheduled to be redrawn Tuesday, with the council apparently behind a proposed new ward map that would force minimal movement of the boundary lines.

During their last meeting, council members tentatively agreed to go with option No. 4 of five possibilities presented, Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said. That option would leave much of the ward map unchanged, with some shifts in neighborhoods between Horizon Ridge and Green Valley parkways and Interstate 215.

She said the council always wants to go with a new map that has the fewest border shifts because the council members grow accustomed to dealing with the issues in their ward, and residents become familiar with their council member.

Also, because different council members are elected every two years to four-year terms, it is possible that a neighborhood could change wards so often that no one from that neighborhood could run for council for many elections.

Redrawing the ward boundaries, last done two years ago, happens when population shifts and growth create unequal wards. This round of border changes is proposed to leave the city with four wards each with an average population of about 57,000, and none 5 percent larger or smaller than another, City Clerk Monica Simmons said.

A new ward map is intended to be in place for the coming city elections. The primary will be in April, and the city's general election will be in June. Clark's Ward III seat and the mayor's office will be on the ballot.

None of the proposed ward map changes would put two council members in one ward.

In Henderson council members are elected at large, by all city voters, but the council members must live in different wards. The mayor, who is a fifth voting member of the council, is also elected at large.

The proposed map the council seems to be leaning toward, option No. 4 would leave Cyphers' Ward I, made up of the eastern part of the city south of Lake Las Vegas, unchanged.

Ward III, now represented by Councilman Jack Clark, includes most of the northern part of the city, split by I-215 and Lake Mead Parkway, with Lake Las Vegas on the east and railroad tracks its southwest border. That ward would grow a little by adding some land northeast of where Stephanie Street crosses I-215, which is now part of Ward IV.

Ward IV, represented by Councilman Steven Kirk, would expand a little to the south. That ward, which is essentially in the middle of the west edge of the city, would take in some land and make parts of Green Valley and Horizon Ridge parkways its southern border.

Ward II, represented by Councilman Andy Hafen, also would change very little, giving up some land to Ward IV, but also taking a piece of that ward that is east of Eastern Avenue. Ward II is where the most intense growth is expected during the coming years, as it includes the land around the Henderson Executive Airport, some of which was sold in a recent Bureau of Land Management auction.