County agenda grows with high rises

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005 | 9:02 a.m.

In what could portend things to come, the Clark County Commission on Wednesday is scheduled to consider requests for 11 high-rise buildings for the Las Vegas Strip.

Although the county and other local governments have received more requests for the high rises, the flood of almost a dozen of the requests before the county board is unusual. In the past 18 months, as the number of such requests has swollen from four in 2003 to at least 36 last year, the commission rarely has had more than two or three requests at a time on any of their twice-monthly land-use agendas.

County staffers said there are two reasons for the number of requests.

Chuck Pulsipher, regional planning manager, said that one reason for the high volume is that a regular update to the plans for the Winchester/Paradise area of the county is on the agenda.

"We take all of these as a group every three months," Pulsipher said.

Rod Allison, south county planning manager, said while the requests do come in batches, the number is indicative of a larger trend.

Allison and numerous residents, developers and community activists worked for much of last year on a new county guide to mixed-use developments, which includes the high-rises that bring together residential, retail business and professional uses. The commission in January adopted the rules but left the door open for plan amendments later.

"This is what we've been talking about," Allison said. "The mixed-use project -- those application are coming in."

Not all of the projects that have and will come before the County Commission are likely to be built, he said. Nonetheless, county planners consider each proposal's height, population density and other factors carefully, Allison added.

"I'm sure some of these projects are speculative," he said. "We have to treat it like it is going to be built."