Web site highlights growth issues

Molly Ball

Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005 | 8:47 a.m.

Since crashing after Sept. 11, 2001, the Las Vegas Valley's economy has rebounded and continued to soar. But in the last year, it became much harder to afford housing in the area, and local environmental quality was better two years ago.

Those are some of the insights available at a glance from a new county Web site.

Growthtaskforce.com, which went online Tuesday, crunches some very useful numbers to tell Clark County how it's doing across the board.

"We took several hundred different indicators and synthesized them into general trends," said Jeremy Aguero, a consultant with Applied Analysis hired by the county Growth Task Force to create the Web site.

The result is a revealing look at the trends in this fast-growing region. For example, you could learn that the area's economy has diversified more or less steadily since 2001, but remains only about 60 percent as diverse as the nation as a whole, with economic activity concentrated in the hospitality and construction industries.

Or you could see that the supply of housing in the valley increased by leaps and bounds for four years, then "fell off a cliff" in 2004, with the apartment vacancy rate dipping below desirable levels, Aguero explained to the task force.

Task force member Merlinda Gallegos said the Web site would be a valuable resource.

"This is the beginning of something we can organize around and have the community buy into," she said. "We can say, 'Gee, as a community, what are we going to prioritize?' "

She added, "I see wonderful things. The synergy is just incredible!"

The Web site started as a project of the county's Nuclear Waste Division as a way to look at the potential effects of the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, said Sheila Conway, a consultant with Urban Environmental Research.

Including the costs to some county agencies of reporting the information, the site cost $180,000, she said.

The Web site is not yet in its finished form, which will include projections as to the effects of the growth task force's proposals on the various indicators, Aguero said.