Rural residents say plan for preservation area too late

J. Craig Anderson

Friday, Oct. 7, 2005 | 7:09 a.m.

Richard and Cynthia Hayes say they are all for a Clark County neighborhood preservation effort to protect rural communities from urban encroachment.

But when it comes to the area where they live, that particular horse galloped out the barn door years ago, the two Enterprise township residents say.

"It was like a good idea that wasn't implemented in time, and now it's too late," says Richard Hayes, 55.

Exhibit A: Outside their front window, the skyline has been appropriated by a 25-story, 660-room hotel -- the South Coast, scheduled to open in mid-December.

Hayes and his wife say their privacy and the views from their property have been sufficiently compromised to make them think about selling the home in which they have lived for five years.

Their concern about being included in the proposed rural preservation overlay -- which would make rezoning for higher-impact uses more difficult -- is that it could scare away the only people who might be interested in buying their 2 1/4-acre property.

The area is currently zoned "residential estate," which means no more than two homes per acre would be allowed without a zoning change. Hayes doesn't think any prospective homebuyers wealthy enough to afford such an upscale property would want to live there.

"What kind of 'estates' would want to be next to a casino?" he says.

Based on that logic, the couple say they believe it's more likely a developer would want the land, but not to build two homes per acre.

"I just hate people to come in and tell us what we can and cannot do, especially when it affects our pocketbook," Cynthia Hayes, 43, says.

Of the 29 property owners in the neighborhood -- bounded to the north by Silverado Ranch Boulevard, to the east by Gillespie Street, to the south by Pyle Avenue and to the west by Haven Street -- 26 have signed a petition opposing the rural designation.

Two of the properties are in escrow, Richard Hayes says, and the third property owner is undecided.

Roberta and William Santa Cruz bought a lot in the neighborhood nearly 30 years ago. They had planned to someday build their dream home on the property.

Now they're not so sure.

Roberta Santa Cruz, 60, says the area has become too "industrialized" to be conducive to a quiet life of retirement. She, too, thinks preserving the community in its present state would be pointless.

"They're worried about preservation now?" she says. "They're a little too late on that, aren't they?"

Karie Newton agrees that the protection of Clark County's more sparsely populated neighborhoods has been a long time coming.

Newton says she began the effort to make residential estate zoning a "hard zoning," which is more difficult to change, about a decade ago.

A longtime valley resident, Newton says she and many like-minded people are tired of seeing developers get permission to construct buildings that don't belong in residential areas.

In all, there are 13 communities comprising 3,800 acres that Newton's activist group, Southwest Action Network, is hoping the county will include in the preservation overlay.

The Clark County Commission is expected to vote on the issue Oct. 19.

Newton and Southwest Action Network President Susan Allen say their effort has received overwhelming support, and that many of the residents who have expressed opposition don't understand what the group is trying to do.

"I think a lot of them are stirred up by false information" coming from some area developers who, Newton says, have used mailers to scare property owners.

"Some people thought the county was trying to take their land," Allen says.

Newton and Allen agree that if there is one community where the rural designation may not fit, it is the area containing the Hayes and Santa Cruz properties.

But Newton and Allen are reluctant to endorse removing that area from the overlay unless they are certain all residents in the area want to be left out.

"The problem is that their neighbors are equally adamant about not moving the line," Allen says.

Still, the two activists say they plan to canvass the neighborhood within the next two weeks, talking to residents and trying to determine if changes are needed.

In any case, Newton says, the so-called hard zoning may not be as difficult to change as some residents think.

"The county has plenty of outs for everybody," she says. "There are plenty of loopholes around here."

J. Craig Anderson can be reached at 259-2320 or craig@lasvegassun.com.