Court ruling unlikely to affect planning decisions

Stephen Curran

Monday, Sept. 12, 2005 | 9:40 a.m.

A state Supreme Court ruling last month that nullified a Clark County ordinance requiring a two-thirds majority vote for all changes to its master plan appears to have had no effect on hundreds of decisions, the county's planning manager said Friday.

County Planning Manager Chuck Pulsipher and lawyers on both sides of the issue said following the ruling of Aug. 11 it is unlikely that any outcome of any application approved or defeated while the provision was in effect would be undone as a result.

A subsequent review of roughly 350 applications for nonconforming zone changes, including several that were withdrawn before reaching the Clark County Commission, dating to October 2003 and later found that none required the so-called supermajority to pass the board's muster, Pulsipher said.

The now-defunct ordinance, which barred the commission from passing a nonconforming change with any less than a two-thirds majority, grew from an April 2003 change that required a comprehensive update to the county's master plan at least every five years.

Pulsipher and Commission Chairman Rory Reid said after the ruling that the board's frequently unanimous decisions made it unlikely that any of the board's rulings would be thrown into question.

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