Public gets fresh look at growth

Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 | 10:47 a.m.

Clark County and a host of local agencies brought an ongoing look at growth and its effects to the public on Saturday and showed some new products for gauging the pace of growth.

The county's Growth Management Task Force, which has been meeting for nearly a year and discussing a broad range of growth-related issues and strategies for mitigating the negative effects of growth, held the open house at the Clark County Government Center. Task force members joined such agencies at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Regional Flood Control District, the Regional Transportation Commission and county departments to answer questions from a few dozen members of the public.

Also on hand were some of the county commissioners who should receive recommendations from the task force in April on how to handle the region's growth, which has for years led the nation.

The task force has met several times a month on average since February 2004, and its meetings have been on the county's Cable Channel 4. Task force chairman Pat Goodall, a former UNLV president, said it was important to give members of the public who might not have been able to come to the weekday meetings and still had questions a chance to meet and talk to the group members and representatives from government agencies in person.

"A lot of people have an interest in these issues and might not have had the opportunity to come to the meetings," he said.

While at times the number of government and task force representatives outnumbered visitors, about 80 of those visitors came with many growth-related questions. Some were concerned about the impact of growth on the skyrocketing property value and, consequently, property tax bills. Others were concerned about transportation, the availability of water, or the lack of affordable housing.

Eric and Tammy Weisberg, residents of the Las Vegas Valley's southwest, came to the meeting because of an issue that brought others to the open house. The couple moved near Wigwam Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard to get away from the city, but they are finding the city is catching up to their rural area.

"We're living in an area where development is starting to encroach on the neighborhood," Tammy Weisberg said. "We want to preserve the rural character of the area and add some horse trails."

Larry Anspach, a business consultant who attended the meeting with his daughter Annie, said his family has been active in several high-profile land-use disputes in the city of Las Vegas. He opposed the Social Security building the city council recently approved.

Although the growth task force's jurisdiction is technically over the unincorporated county, the cities have expressed interest in the issues that the group has discussed and the entire region will learn of the recommendations that come from the group at an upcoming meeting of the Regional Planning Coalition, which brings together all the local governments.

Anspach said he wanted to get a glimpse of what the future might hold for residents of the region, "to see what future battles there are to fight."

Anspach said he is not opposed to growth, but like the Weisberg's, he wants it "just in the appropriate places."

Barbara Ginoulias, Clark County Comprehensive Planning director, has been involved with the growth task force since its inception. She said one issue that some people asked her about is the relationship between taxes, particularly property taxes, and growth.

She said while taxes are affected by growth, the local agencies and the task force have been focused on broad issues of availability of natural resources, such as air quality and land and water availability, as well as many other issues.

Nicholas Wolf, director of A Helping Hand, a for-profit in-home care provider, said his company and the entire region has been affected by growth impact on social services, which have been stretched thin.

"People fall through the cracks," Wolf said. "If they don't get the right care, that impacts the county, the hospitals, everyone."

Tracie Thompson, client care coordinator for A Helping Hand, said growth affects her business just like many other businesses.

"With the growth of the city, we want to be able to project and budget for the services that are going to be needed," she said.

Lisa Mayo-de Riso, a community activist who has been involved in some of the biggest land-use battles that have come before the Clark County Commission in recent years, came to the open house. She left impressed with the scope and depth of work.

"I am very impressed," Mayo-de Riso said. "I wish more citizens could see the work the county has put into this. This took a lot of time and effort and they're doing a great thing for the community.

"It shows that there is a plan and a lot of people have put a lot of work into dealing with growth."

One aspect of that work is in the information that touches on growth related issues. The county presented two Web sites that collectively bring reams of information on the many aspects of the issues.

At the county's site, www.accessclarkcounty.com, viewers can follow the links to the dozens of reports the 17 task force members received from various agencies over the course of the last year.

Today, the county also will launch www.growthtaskforce.com, a Web site that brings dozens of statistics on growth, the economy, transportation resources, the regional environment and other "community indicators" in the past years and decades.

Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, who with Commissioner Rory Reid attended the growth task force open house, said the information would be important for people concerned about growth or just interested in where the region is going. She noted that the web site documents the area's rapid growth and churning economic situation.

"Before you can figure out where you're going, it's important to look back and see the trends," she said. "This information can be pretty eye-opening."