Open house gathers input on Spring Mountain plans

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 | 9:48 a.m.

Residents of the Spring Mountains applauded a new effort to begin addressing traffic problems created by thousands of visitors going to Mount Charleston or Lee Canyon, but they wondered if it would come soon enough.

The Federal Highway Administration, the Nevada Department of Transportation and the Forest Service have been working together for the past two years to develop a transportation plan for the Spring Mountains, said Michael Dotson, an FHA transportation system planner.

"It's going to be a tough thing to implement," Dotson said.

For Mount Charleston resident and University of Nevada Board of Regent Thalia Dondero, reaching her cabin off Kyle Canyon Road on New Year's Day took hours because 6,600 other motorists were all trying to inch up the mountainside at the same time.

"I was stuck in that traffic jam," Dondero said Tuesday night at the U.S. Forest Service open house. She suggested charging a visitor's fee after learning that an estimated 2 million people motored up the mountain last year.

"It's the only forest we have," Dondero said.

For Bobbye and Pat Fitzgibbons, secretary and president of the Spring Mountains Volunteers Association, respectively, visitors drop garbage, park in private residential driveways and block narrow roads.

"We've got too many people coming up to the mountain," Bobbye Fitzgibbons said. She and her husband liked the idea of shuttle buses bringing hikers, campers and mountain bikers into the Spring Mountains.

Former Kyle Canyon resident Steve Hamilton said more toilets and more public parking spaces are needed.

Lee Gibson of Parsons Brinckerhoff, a Las Vegas consulting firm, said that the three agencies together have created short-term and long-term solutions to the traffic jams that can involve 20,000 vehicles on the mountain during a three-day weekend.

Within two years "No Parking" signs could be posted along the two-lane roads leading into the mountains.

Planners also are eager to try an Intelligent Traffic System, which would allow police or forest rangers to post mobile lighted signs spelling out road conditions to keep unprepared vehicles off the mountain in times of danger such as heavy snow storms.

Pedestrian crosswalks on Deer Creek Road, linking Kyle Canyon and Lee Canyon, will be repainted and sport new signs so those parking cars can cross the road to the trailheads in safety.

An evacuation plan, drawn up by Metro Police, can be in place almost immediately, Gibson said, so emergency crews can reach motorists after traffic accidents. A couple of injured people drove themselves to Las Vegas Valley hospitals during the New Year's Day crush, he said.

An orderly evacuation is "very critical" in the case of wildland fires or snow avalanche emergencies, such as the fatal avalanche that killed a 13-year-old Las Vegas boy on Jan. 10, Gibson said.

Parking improvements are planned as the Middle Kyle Canyon project becomes a reality with a development known as The Village, Gibson said.

Longer-range plans -- up to 20 years in the future -- include a park-and-ride lot at the U.S. 95 turnoff to Kyle Canyon Road. Shuttle buses would take visitors from the highway to The Village, where they could hike on trails or go horseback riding or catch a bicycle trail.

Las Vegas resident and environmental activist John Hiatt said that the problem isn't people visiting the mountains, but the number of cars and campers and motorcycles.

"If vehicles could be eliminated higher on the mountain, the problem would be solved," Hiatt said. But he had reservations about how well shuttles would work. They would have to be frequent and be able to carry hikers, bikers and campers.

The most drastic solution would involve gates locked across the roads with law enforcement officers posted at them to prevent thousands of motorists from going up the mountain on the busiest days.

However, County Commissioner Chip Maxfield, who attended the open house, said it might be hard finding funds to put two to four more Metro Police officers on the mountain to enforce the stricter traffic flow. "Be realistic," he said.

The key to smoothing traffic bumps on the way to Mount Charleston involves residential, commercial and visitor parking permits plus enforcement, Gibson said.

As the plan envisions it, residents and their guests would park free, while day-time motorists would pay to drive into higher elevations, or they could park and ride shuttle buses, Gibson said.

The transportation plan is still underway, Gibson said, and planners expect a final version in July.

One group visiting the mountain protested the restrictions. The Southern Nevada Paiutes view Mount Charleston as a sacred place. Calvin Meyer of the Moapa Valley Band of Paiutes said that forcing tribal members to get permits violates the Indians' spiritual beliefs.

"You are destroying the mountain, which is my church," Meyer said, explaining that he and other Paiutes and Western Shoshones often travel into remote places in the Spring Mountains to conduct spiritual ceremonies.

Forest Service representatives promised to include free access to tribal members in the transportation plan.

Funds to pay for transportation improvements could come from two sources. The Nevada Forest Highway program receives about $2 million annually in federal funds. Then there are funds raised from land auctions under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act.

The Sierra Club has a national policy that does not support access fees to national parks or recreation areas, Las Vegas club representative Jane Feldman said.

However, the Sierra Club would not oppose parking fees, Feldman said.

For 62-year Las Vegas resident Kay Moran, entrance fees established for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area ended her frequent trips to those areas.

"I haven't been there since," Moran said.