Gilcrease Orchard’s future debated at county meeting

Eric Leake

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 8:49 a.m.

The future of the Gilcrease Orchard, where generations of Las Vegans have harvested fresh fruit, was debated Tuesday night at a county advisory meeting.

An item proposing a zoning change for 40 acres of former orchard land turned to discussion of the value and preservation of the orchard.

"We love that orchard. We don't want to lose it. I've been picking fruit there for too long to let it go now," said Leah Canfield in remarks typical of the public comment.

Canfield said she has picked fruit at the orchard for three decades. She and others said turning 40 acres of the 107-acre orchard into homes is not what the family would have wanted.

"Ted Gilcrease told us, 'Don't worry about the orchard. It'll always be there,' " Canfield said, referencing the orchard's late owner.

But the item on the Lone Mountain Citizens Advisory Council agenda Tuesday night only concerned zoning for 40 acres of the orchard on Tenaya Way at Grand Teton Drive in northwest Las Vegas.

Representatives of the Gilcrease Orchard Foundation said the 40 acres has already been sold to bail out the financially troubled orchard.

"It's just been a tough year, year after year," Mark Fierro of Fierro Communications said.

"The bottom line is, to get right down to it, they are land rich and cash poor."

The orchard is the only working orchard remaining in Las Vegas.

Residents visit the orchard to pick and purchase fruit and nuts. Fierro said declining demand for the orchard's produce has left "tons of fruit' rotting on the ground.

Attorney Chris Kaempfer, representing Spinnaker Homes, asked the advisory board to support a zoning change to allow 120 homes on the orchard's former land.

Kaempfer said money from the land's sell will go to preserve the remaining 67 acres of orchard.

"The more money they have from this sale, the more money they can put into maintaining the orchard and the Gilcrease home," he said.

The price of the land sale and how a zoning change may influence what has already been sold was not made clear to the council.

"So you want us to feel horrible for the Gilcrease people and make sure they get more money?" council member Donna Tagliaferri asked. "It's a zone. It's not a human interest story."

Ultimately, the five-member council rejected the zoning change item and recommended only 80 homes be allowed on the parcel. The issue next goes before the Clark County Planning Commission.

County and Las Vegas staff have recommended developers not be granted zoning changes to allow 120 homes.

Many of the more than 70 people who packed the Mountain Crest Neighborhood Services Center attended to discuss the orchard.

"This is the last bastion of agriculture that we have in this valley. We want to see it preserved and we want to see it saved," Las Vegas Councilman Steve Ross said in presenting a petition to the council.

Grizel Herhold wondered why money could not be found to preserve the orchard in its entirety.

"We should preserve it the way it is. There's lots of money rolling around," Herhold said. "If I had all the money in the world I would buy that land."

Joe Thomson said he represented Bill Gilcrease, the only surviving family member. He said he visits Gilcrease regularly in his history studies as a doctoral candidate at UNLV.

"He has no personal connection and it's improper to use Bill Gilcrease's name as leverage to increase profits in this holding," Thomson said.

Fierro said keeping the orchard intact was unworkable and no longer an option.

"The 40 acres is sold," he said. "It's going to be houses or it's going to be houses."