‘Mixed use’ ordinance vote looms

Monday, Jan. 3, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

A Clark County ordinance designed to guide new high rises and other kinds of development that merge residential, retail, service and office uses will come up for public comment and a possible vote before the county commission Wednesday.

The "mixed use" ordinance came about in part as a reaction to a flood of requests for high-rise condominium developments. The ordinance would designate areas and limits to heights and housing densities.

One area targeted in the ordinance would be the Strip, in which the only limit to most of the area on the east side of Interstate 15 would be that set by the county commission and the Federal Aviation Administration. However, other areas that would be affected by the county rules would range from Blue Diamond Road in the southwest urban area east to Boulder Highway.

In 2003, the county received four applications for mixed use, or "urban village" proposals. This year the county has received more than 30 proposals. The county commission directed planning staff in August to consider an overlay that would guide where these developments would be and what limiting factors should be in place.

"Given our growth and escalating land prices, we need this ordinance because it will give predictability regarding where these projects are appropriate, at what heights, and for what types of use, densities and intensities," Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield said last month.

Rod Allison, a planner with Clark County Comprehensive Planning, said the proposal has gone through a number of public presentations and extensive discussion, but amendments could be added to the ordinance at Wednesday's meeting.

"It is a public hearing," Allison said. "Property owners, developers, interested citizens could come forward and make their pitch for adjustments to the mixed use overlay map. We expect that this is going to occur."

Allison said not all the areas designated in the overlay zones would be appropriate for high rises. The overlay zone has four stages ranging from a maximum height of 50 feet to as tall as the commission and the federal government would allow.

All of the zones, however, would bring residential, business and services together.

John Hiatt, chairman of the county's Enterprise Town Advisory Board, said he doesn't believe that the new rules will be perfect, but they represent a potentially good start to address unanswered questions that have come with a style of development that is relatively new to Las Vegas.

"It's important to get something in place so we have some basic rules," Hiatt said. "If it needs to be adjusted, we can do it, but right now we have a frenzy of people trying to file applications for mixed use type developments and we have no guidelines for what our vision is for those kinds of developments."

Jane Feldman, an activist with the local arm of the Sierra Club, heard the proposal in detail last month as a member of the county's Growth Management Task Force. She said mixed use developments can be a important component of sound urban planning.

"Mixed use is a zoning code that can be used in a variety of different and wonderful ways," Feldman said. "It's something we need to handle appropriately in many different contexts and settings."

Sierra Club members have expressed concern about requests for very tall buildings, 20 stories or more, away from the Strip.

"One of the things I thought they (county planners) did a wonderful job on is that they have designed different categories based on height," Feldman said. "Height is an issue for us."

But tall buildings would be appropriate on the Strip, she added.

Feldman said her major complaint is that the mixed use zones were restricted to the unincorporated county, leaving out such nearby cities as Las Vegas and Henderson.

"That makes for huge disconnects," she said, calling for stronger regional planning authority or cooperation.

Mixed use, Feldman said, helps create "a healthy, vibrant urban setting" that can bring together service providers and consumers, upscale condominiums and affordable housing, and other uses.

"Mixed use can also be mixed economies," she said. "There are some places, some cities that have integrated economic differences very well into the same neighborhoods. I would love to see that.

"I would really love to live in a mixed use neighborhood where I could walk to get services, where it would not be all old people such as myself, where it would be a neighborhood full of vitality.

"And hopefully, I wouldn't have to do any yardwork."