Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Council orders halt of blasting near homes

Henderson City Council members Tuesday directed the city to halt close-range blasting near homes while they consider a proposed ordinance to do just that.

Reacting to complaints that close-range blasting may cause damage, Councilman Andy Hafen called for the moratorium on blasting within 300 feet of homes but said it should be allowed outside that distance.

"We may get ourselves in trouble (with the court), but we ought not to do anything closer than 300 feet," Mayor Jim Gibson said after the meeting. "I feel comfortable with that direction. If we are going to make a mistake, we are going to make the mistake of going slow."

The city enacted a previous moratorium March 24, but a month later a District Court judge ruled with the developer of MacDonald Highlands, ordering the city to process blasting permits.

This moratorium is much the same as the previous one, so it's unclear how it would hold up to judicial scrutiny.

The unveiling of the proposed ordinance follows months of criticism from Henderson residents in and around MacDonald Ranch who claim that construction blasting has cracked walls and caused other damage at their homes.

Henderson city staff has proposed an ordinance that outlaws blasting within 100 feet of homes, and places even greater requirements and costs on developers clearing rock formations for home construction.

The council set July 19 for a public hearing that will give residents and blasting contractors a chance to weigh in on the more restrictive ordinance. The city will be conducting a series of meetings with with developers, contractors and subdivisions where blasting is occurring on July 6 and 7.

The proposed ordinance would:

The proposed ordinance, however, doesn't change the decibel and vibration levels currently allowed during blasts. City officials said the existing limits are conservative and blasts have stayed under them.

Two weeks ago a city consultant issued a report that said the construction blasting likely wasn't the cause of damage to homes in MacDonald Highlands, Crystal Ridge and Sun City MacDonald Ranch. The report blamed wind, temperature and humidity fluctuations.

Henderson recently issued a permit for blasting in Lake Las Vegas, but the work has yet to begin.

Lake Las Vegas resident James Sabalos said the city should fight the court ruling and halt all blasting until it adopts a revised ordinance. More study is needed to determine if its soils and hillsides make Henderson homes vulnerable to damage from blasting, said Sabalos, who added the proposed ordinance doesn't do enough to protect homes.

"Our mayor and council owes it to the citizens of Henderson to protect the people and their property and not the interest of home builders," said Sabalos, attorney. "Why do home builders have such a free pass in this community. It is blind ignorance."

Glenn Christenson, a MacDonald Highlands resident who had been a staunch opponent of blasting less than 200 feet from his home, said he's working with residents to analyze the proposed ordinance.

"I am hopeful we can do something to work with the city to see if we can improve the ordinance even more," Christenson said.

One of the bigger blasting operators in the area, Dan Sanders, the owner of Sanders Construction, criticized the proposed ordinance as being too restrictive and unnecessary. He said the city is playing politics by kowtowing to residents and hurting home development without any justification.

"The guidelines we have had in places have worked fine for the last 30 years," Sanders said. "There is no reason to think they should be changed. People who don't know anything about blasting are making decisions."

The city's added requirements will double and triple the cost of removing rock formations and that will add to the price of new homes, Sanders said. He said the added paperwork and scrutiny and extensive public notification is unnecessary and that residents have recourse through the courts if they feel they have been harmed.

Eliminating blasting within 100 feet of homes doesn't make sense because it's the vibrations, not the distance that matter most, Sander said. He said other cities he has worked in have had the courage to tell residents the blasting isn't responsible for damage.

"They are not basing anything on sound scientific reasoning," Sanders said. "It is just a reaction to complaints."

Henderson Deputy Fire Marshal Fulton Cochran said the city is justified in tightening the ordinance. Science has played a role because the city hasn't changed its standard of allowing 0.5 inches of vibration per second and 120 decibels, he said.

"We have created a balanced program to allow blasting to continue for land development," Cochran said. "We need to have rules and regulations in place to balance the needs of the development community and protect the citizens."

Cochran said the new rules will have a minor impact on the cost of homes because the blasting is a small part of the cost to developers.

Dave Donner, the owner of Donner Drilling & Blasting, said he's willing to accept whatever the city decides.

archive