Reactions mixed for recreation center on Mount Charleston

David Kihara

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

The public got its first look Tuesday at the U.S. Forest Service's proposals to develop 2,500 acres of Mount Charleston for a recreation center -- a center that is expected to cost upwards of $60 million and could have a summer 2006 construction start, according to forestry officials.

The aim of the development is not only to provide more recreation on the mountain but also to ease traffic congestion during peak visiting times for visitors and residents of the mountain, officials said.

The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday presented three plans to the public at the Forest Service's main office on N. Torrey Pines Drive. The three proposals look specifically at developing Middle Kyle Canyon along State Highway 157, also known as Kyle Canyon Road.

The Forest Service's favored plan includes building a large and small amphitheater, a visitor center and "environmentally based shops" as well as hiking trails, camp grounds and parking facilities.

The area to be developed is on National Forest lands and is located below the residential subdivisions located further up the mountain.

Several residents of Mount Charleston praised the plans, saying that development of Middle Kyle Canyon, if done with traffic mitigation in mind, could relieve some of the problems homeowners on the mountain face.

Deanna Werner, who lives in Las Vegas but owns two houses and two lots on Mount Charleston, said visitors sometimes park in the driveways of residents' homes, and she often finds trash scattered about the roads and private property on the mountain.

She hopes a developed recreation area will stop people from traveling to private subdivisions where residents of the mountain live.

"I think it's a good idea because there is too much traffic up there as it is," she said. When asked if the recreation area might bring even more visitors to the already-crowded mountain, she replied, "It's not managed now, so how much worse could it get?"

The entire project is projected to cost $60 million, according to Stephanie Phillips, deputy forest supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service. At least $14 million of that will go toward the construction of an asphalt parking lot, she said, but added that the forest department is looking for less expensive materials for the parking lot.

An environmental impact assessment is set to begin this summer, and if all goes well and the project gets final approval promptly from U.S. Forest Service headquarters in Washington, construction would begin as early as summer 2006, Phillips said.

The agency already has $27 million earmarked for the project from the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act that will go toward development and implementation of the project, said Beth Short, spokeswoman for the forest service.

Scott Lamoreux, a landscape architect with the U.S. Forest service, said the forestry service ultimately wants the recreation area to be self-sufficient, with the operations and maintenance costs covered by private sector funding, transportation and parking fees as well as possible charges for picnic and camping areas.

There will be no basic user fees for the recreation areas, Lamoreux said.

Lamoreux and other forestry officials on Tuesday did not yet know the estimated maintenance and operations cost for the recreation area.

The U.S. Forest Service's preferred plan for the recreational area includes express bus services from Las Vegas with a local recreation shuttle. The transportation would be run by the Regional Transportation Commission.

The other two plans are modified versions of the preferred plan, with one giving more emphasis to economic development and allowing more vendors and the third plan included fewer recreational facilities.

Barbara Reed, who lives in Las Vegas but owns two homes on Mount Charleston, welcomed the idea of a recreation area on the mountain as long as it alleviated the traffic congestion on the mountain at busy times and kept the mobs of tourists from the residential areas.

She said the crowds of traffic often clog up the roads, and some visitors to the mountain throw trash and lit cigarettes out their windows.

"They need to put a toll booth on the road," she said. "People park in the drive ways of homes, and the roads aren't wide enough."

Loretta St. John, who has owned a 5-acre parcel on the mountain since 1971, shuddered at the thought of more development on Mount Charleston.

She said she uses visits to Mount Charleston as a relief to the fast-paced lifestyle of Las Vegas, and dreads the day when more people will be traveling to the mountain.

"It's going to attract a lot of people," she said.

Forestry officials, however, say thousands of people already visit the mountain. On New Year's Day, for example, an estimated 6,500 vehicles were driven up the mountain road, they said.

The growing population of Las Vegas means more people visiting the mountain, and without proper recreation facilities, Mount Charleston will become unmanageable and unsafe, Lamoreux said.

With that in mind, St. John said the recreation area could provide a much needed outlet.

"I'm all for development, and the recreation area may be a good idea. The access is just so limited," she said.