Panel offers no sure answers for real estate difficulties

Jennifer Shubinski

Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

The mayors of the valley's four municipalities and Clark County's commission chairman cheerfully bantered with one another but carefully sidestepped some questions from an audience of about 500 local developers and real estate professionals Thursday.

"I wanted to have little potted buckwheat plants on each table, but they didn't think that was in good taste," North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon joked to the audience, referring to the rare shrub partly responsible for causing the city to have 2,300 acres of land withdrawn from an upcoming Bureau of Land Management auction, throwing the development community into a near panic.

Then Montandon added a serious note, that it is becoming more difficult to find land for new opportunities and development in North Las Vegas, which he said attracts 1,100 to 1,200 new residents every month.

Montandon was part of a panel discussion put on by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) Las Vegas chapter for industry professionals.

County Commission Chairman Rory Reid said there are two major issues hanging over the county this year -- growth and property taxes.

Reid said he's looking forward to Clark County's Growth Task Force report on growth that is expected in April.

He said the anticipated discussion in the Legislature to address the phenomenal property tax growth in Southern Nevada will be closely followed by local municipalities and the county.

"There are as many property tax proposals as there are legislators," he said. "The question isn't whether we're going to do something, it's what we're going to do."

Reid said county officials will be "vigilant voices" in that debate.

"Whatever is done will have a significant impact on local governments," he said.

Audience member Tim Snow, president of Thomas & Mack Development Group, asked the panel what was being done to preserve industrial land throughout the valley in the face of numerous requests to change the zoning to residential uses.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said the city doesn't have any industrial land to convert, so it hasn't been a concern.

Montandon said the city of North Las Vegas has worked to preserve land, particularly land around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Only Goodman took on a question from another audience member who asked what the municipalities were doing to encourage affordable for-rent multifamily housing in the different communities, a market sector that is being pushed aside for sexier developments such as condominiums.

Many local industry experts have said a lack of new apartment developments and removal of existing apartments from the market is going to lead to a housing crisis in the near future.

Goodman said the city of Las Vegas is basically letting the free market take on the issue for now, but he acknowledged most of the new projects were luxury high-rise condo towers.

"I say there has to be inclusionary zoning after awhile to keep the young professionals in downtown," he said. "But right now we're letting the private sector take it at this point."

Inclusionary zoning, also called workforce housing, is a method local governments that can use to mandate that new neighborhoods provide a mix of housing products, allowing units to be built and sold to people in a specified income bracket who couldn't otherwise afford the average home price.