Growth task force ready with ideas

David Kihara

Friday, Feb. 18, 2005 | 9:53 a.m.

With little discussion, the county's growth task force approved a series of recommendations on Thursday aimed at increasing affordable housing, easing traffic congestion and ensuring that Clark County uses money wisely for public services.

The task force will likely include the measures adopted Thursday in a final report, which will go to the County Commission in April.

The task force approved a series of measures to increase the availability of affordable housing in Clark County, which included breaking Bureau of Land Management land parcels into smaller units to help create more affordable housing.

The task force also recommended developing a neighborhood revitalization program to improve the quality of housing in deteriorated neighborhoods.

Many of these ideas were discussed at the previous growth task force meeting on Feb. 8 and therefore were passed without debate.

Lon DeWeese, the chief financial officer for the state's Housing Division, said that there is a dire need for affordable housing in Clark County for many economic groups.

DeWeese, who gave a presentation to the task force on the state's efforts to generate more affordable housing, said that many people are currently "priced out of being able to afford a house."

He said that at least 785,825 working people in Nevada will be "shut out" of the housing market because they could not afford a house. The majority of people affected are workers who make an average of $21,757 in annual income.

More than 385,890 people in this income bracket, which includes waiters and waitresses, bartenders and preschool teachers, will be prevented from purchasing a house if the market does not change, he said.

At least 196,684 cooks, carpenters, plumbers and electricians will also be shut out of the housing market because they make an average of $36,322 annually, he said.

He projected that homebuyers in Clark County will need to spend five times their annual income to buy an average house in 2005.

"We are approaching southern California" in terms of housing costs, he said.

The task force also adopted a series of recommendations on improving mass transit in Clark County, specifically expanding the mass transit programs now in place with the ultimate goal of increasing linkages. The task force suggested that this could be done with a light rail or "bus rapid transit."

In a more concrete example, the task force also will recommend to the commission that it amend sections of the Land Code and Business License Code to allow for density bonuses and more flexible development requirements for transit-oriented developments.

The task force also agreed to a series of recommendations on coordinating public services such as firefighters and recreational areas with the rapid development in the county.

The task force approved working with local governments to design more recreational space, to compare Clark County with other jurisdictions and examine how funds are spent.

Clark County is still lagging behind certain standards when it comes to some basic services, said Jeremy Aguero, the principal analyst with Applied Analysis, the private firm conducting studies for the county.

In a presentation to the task force, he said that while the acreage of park lands has increased substantially from January 1999, it is still quite low.