Quality of life a concern as boom hits high gear

By Ed Koch

Thursday, June 30, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

With booming growth placing three Las Vegas Valley cities among the nation's leaders in population increases, local officials say the key issue is protecting quality of life.

The U.S. Census Bureau, in a report released today, ranks North Las Vegas as the third fastest-growing city with greater than 100,000 population for the period between July 1, 2003, and July 1, 2004. Only Port St. Lucie, Fla., and Elk Grove, Calif., have faster percentage growth rates.

Henderson is ranked 11th and Las Vegas is 19th in growth, the census says.

Local leaders say growth has become so routine they assume it will happen and are working to meet its challenges, including improving infrastructure, encouraging master-planned residential communities and boosting economic development.

Municipal officials say when people arrive here they expect services equal to the prosperity that growth can bring to a community.

"It's a balancing act. We have to continually provide high quality services to meet the needs of the people who are coming here to live or start up businesses," North Las Vegas City Manager Gregory Rose said. "That includes having enough police to provide protection and working with developers to meet infrastructure needs."

He said the city also offers "a very favorable business environment and a low tax rate. When companies want to build facilities they get through the process quickly and are up and running in North Las Vegas."

Henderson Assistant City Manager Mark Calhoun credits Henderson's well-planned communities amid rural settings and the overall small-town America atmosphere for the influx of new residents.

"We are not so much interested in pursuing growth for growth's sake -- every thing we do try to is master-planned," he said noting Henderson is annexing a lot of property to its West, "looking out for the long term of the city.

"Over the next 20, 30 years we will need sufficient land for quality and planned growth. Everyone in the valley is looking at quality growth," he said.

Las Vegas City Manager Doug Selby agrees that all local cities are facing similar growth issues.

"The challenge now is to maintain a quality lifestyle amid this growth -- safe neighborhoods, more parks and recreation centers and dealing with social and educational issues," Selby said.

The resident population of the valley is getting big enough "to support activities that we could not have supported in the past -- activities associated with the arts and, someday, major league sports," Selby said.

Combined, the three valley cities had 918,424 residents as of July 1, 2004, a 42,006 increase over July 1, 2003, the census said. Figures for unincorporated Clark County were not included in what the census calls its annual sub-county report.

According to these latest numbers, the city of Las Vegas had 534,847 residents by mid-2004, a 3.5 percent increase over mid-2003; Henderson, 224,829, a 4.6 percent increase; and North Las Vegas, 158,748, a 9.8 percent increase.

Las Vegas, with a 17,923 population hike, was fourth in the nation for largest increase in people, behind Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Antonio. Fort Worth, Texas, was fifth and North Las Vegas was sixth, with a 14,204 person increase.

The high rankings for local cities comes as no surprise as last December the census ranked Nevada first among states for the 18th consecutive year for its 4.1 percent growth rate between July 1, 2003, and July 1, 2004.

It only figures that the state's major population center would have significant growth rankings for its cities, analysts say.

"Southern Nevada is the growth engine for the state," UNLV economist Keith Schwer said. "It's not a surprise that its cities are among the nation's leaders for population increases.

"We have had, and continue to have, the key things that drive population -- jobs and amenities, including sunlight (year-round good weather)."

Schwer, director of the school's Center for Business and Economic Research, says the latest census numbers merely "verify what we already know -- we continue to attract people here."

Schwer said Southern Nevada is "still dominated" by the tourism and travel industries along with construction, though other industry is slowly making headway toward economic diversity and encouraging people to relocate here.

To determine city population estimates, the Census Bureau uses the distributive housing unit methodology, employing estimates based on building permits, mobile home shipments and housing loss to update changes from the previous census.

Based on that methodology, New York City remains the nation's most populous city, with 8.1 million residents, according to the latest numbers. Los Angeles is a distant second at 3.8 million, the census says.

Local leaders believe their cities will be among the nation's leaders in growth for years to come because so much more is planned to be built.

"I think people initially are attracted to Southern Nevada when they see all the new stuff going on -- they are enticed by a number of things, including the weather," Calhoun said.

"When they get here they decide where they want to live. In Henderson they see a city willing to put money into its downtown and older communities" as it encourages newer development. Calhoun said when residential development west of Seven Hills is completed, the city should see another surge of growth.

Rose said one major factor for the continued booming growth in North Las Vegas has been the availability of land on which to develop homes -- something that he believes will continue to play a factor in future census growth rankings.

Selby estimates his city's current population at about 560,000. If the census agrees with that figure in next year's rankings, Las Vegas' population would have increased by more than 25,000 people -- about a 4.5 percent hike -- over the current census report numbers.

"While growth has become routine for us and we have adapted to it, it certainly is still challenging," Selby said, noting that a number of future challenges likely will come from pressing social issues.

That, he said, includes providing affordable housing, addressing homelessness and meeting the needs of a large and growing immigrant population.

"Some of these issues are becoming much bigger than infrastructure," he said. "We need to keep up with them."

Schwer agrees.

"As you get larger in size, social issues become more important," he said.

"People still come here thinking the streets are paved with gold and quickly find out it is just asphalt and cement. Some of them come here not having options to go elsewhere if there is a problem. And they do not always have the safety net such as family members here to help them."

Las Vegas officials say they welcome growth but are not out to break records.

"Striving to have a huge population increase is not as important as having a modest increase and maintaining a high quality of life for residents," Selby said.

"We are not trying to create these record setting numbers. The people have come to us and Las Vegas continues to move at warp speed."