Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Residents say plan to build school next to pig farm smells

It wouldn't be the first time someone thought that school stinks - and in this case, they might be right.

The Clark County School District has plans to build an elementary school at the corner of El Campo Grande Avenue and Bruce Street in North Las Vegas.

That's in the same neighborhood as the roughly 3,000 pigs that call R.C. Farms home.

While the location would give the school quick access to one of the ingredients for BLTs, some see few other advantages to the site.

In the more than 40 years that the pig farm has been there, neighbors have complained about the smell and the pigeons circling overhead - complaints that have increased as the area has become more populated.

The farm, owned by Robert Combs, used to be on the outskirts of the city. But as North Las Vegas' population exploded to more than 200,000, the 140-acre pig farm gradually found itself in the middle of town.

The farm, north of Ann Road, is surrounded by residential neighborhoods and a few stores. And with development comes a need for schools.

While officials admit that building an elementary school about one-third of a mile from a pig farm is far from ideal, they also stress that it has become increasingly difficult to find land throughout the valley.

"We looked all over," said Carol Bailey, the School District's acting director of real property management. "That's one of the last sites available."

The district is two-thirds of the way through a $3.5 billion capital improvement plan. In each of the past five years, it has opened at least 10 schools.

It previously built a middle school within a mile of the pig farm. And when Mojave High School opened south of the pig farm in 1998, the foul odor prompted students to nickname it "Pig Sty High."

The new elementary school would be on a 17.8-acre tract - if the proposal passes the, uh, smell test.

"We're not afraid to turn down a school site when we think it's in an inappropriate area," North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck said.

The odor is a big reason Buck thinks the site might be inappropriate.

"I have a real fear of putting an elementary right next to the pig farm," Buck said.

To build a typical elementary school, the district requires at least 12 to 15 acres. The district has a two-story prototype requiring just five acres - used for Hollingsworth Elementary School near downtown Las Vegas - but the construction costs for the two-story school are about $1 million more than the standard design.

In addition, most of Hollingsworth's students walk to school, eliminating the need for space - or money - to build bus lanes or parking lots. That wouldn't be possible at the North Las Vegas site, Bailey said.

That raises another concern from nearby residents.

"I'm not an expert, but the traffic would be terrible," resident Scott Sauer said at a recent meeting.

Residents and city officials also worry that if the elementary school is built, the district may later want to construct a second building at the site. School officials say they have no such immediate plans.

North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon points out that schools will have to be built one way or another. It's just another challenge of dealing with growth, he said.

"You can't just say, 'Educate them somewhere other than our neighborhood,' " Montandon said. "I haven't seen any reason we shouldn't keep building schools in our neighborhoods."

Combs - now a city dweller - doesn't particularly care whether the school gets built, although he admits liking one aspect of the plan.

"More than 20 years ago I was giving tours of my farm," Combs said. "Now maybe I'll be able to give their kids tours."

Many acknowledge the area doesn't reek as badly as it once did. In 2003, with some nearby residents complaining that there were some days they could not even open their windows, Combs took odor-reduction steps to avoid $71,000 in Clark County air quality fines.

The next year, the city rezoned 168 acres near the farm, allowing for the construction of nearly 1,000 homes. Now the children whose families moved in need a place to learn.

Bailey said she was a real estate agent in the mid-1990s and often handled homes near the pig farm.

"There were days back then it was so bad you could hardly breathe," Bailey said. "But Mr. Combs has been active in minimizing the smells coming from that area, and it's certainly improved."

Plus, it won't smell any worse at the school than at many of the students' homes.

"A lot of those kids live next to the pig farm anyway," Councilwoman Stephanie Smith said.

Sun reporter Emily Richmond contributed to this report.

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