Spiraling infrastructure costs a growth task force concern

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004 | 9:12 a.m.

The Clark County Growth Task Force will hold a workshop about the social impacts of growth at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Pueblo conference room on the firs floor of the County Government Center. The task force will also meet at noon Nov. 20 at the Winchester Community Center, 3130 S. McLeod Drive. Both meeting are open to the public.

Upkeep costs on newly built government infrastructure projects will soon outpace tax revenue used to pay for them unless Clark County devises a new way to collect money, the county's chief financial officer told members of the Growth Task Force on Tuesday.

In some cases, the county can expect to pay almost as much for its new parks, police and fire department substations, recreation centers and flood control facilities each year as it paid to build them in the first place, said George Stevens, the chief financial officer for Clark County.

The potential shortfall presents a quandary for county planners, who face restrictions on levying new taxes or raising existing ones but struggle to meet guidelines dictating more accessible government services.

"Right now we're not allowed to do even the simplest things," task force member Guy Hobbs said of restrictions put in place more than 20 years ago that keep the county from raising property and sales taxes.

Among potential fixes outlined during the meeting, the first of three public meetings scheduled to address how the county plans for new parks, fire stations and other public facilities, were lobbying the state Legislature for more local control of tax revenues and re-evaluating how much county employees are paid.

In a presentation to the 17-member task force, Barbara Ginoulias, the county's comprehensive planning director, said all but a handful of county agencies have met objectives to keep pace with exploding growth.

Clark County Parks and Community Services, for example, has achieved a little more than half of its goal to have 2.5 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents, she said.

But what most concerns the county is the maintenance and operations costs for these facilities. A fire department substation, which costs the county on average $4.8 million to build, costs more than $3.6 million to staff and maintain. A 2.5-acre park costs roughly $750,000 to build but on average $54,000 to maintain, according to the county.

"This really is a graphic report of where it's headed," Ginoulias said.

Jane Feldman, a task force member and local Sierra Club representative, said she worried that planned infrastructure projects built near the valley's sprawling housing tracts could divert money from existing services in older neighborhoods.

Feldman, who has spoken against suburban sprawl in the past, said the county should deny building permits to developers until the infrastructure is in place.

"Should we be building homes so far from services?" she said. "What if we find the money isn't there? We're building ourselves a terrible problem."

Current laws do not require builders to tell prospective home buyers about a lack of nearby schools, police stations or other public services, Ginoulias said. Builders are required, however, to tell buyers of possible large-scale commercial development being built near their new homes.