Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006 | 8:26 a.m.
The Kyle Canyon Gateway development will have thousands more homes than previously thought, along with its own downtown area featuring a park lined with condo and apartment buildings, a shopping district and a casino.
One year after purchasing a massive tract of desert in the northwest corner of Las Vegas, the Focus Property Group is wrapping up negotiations with city planners for the master-planned community, which essentially will create a community the size of a small city on the edge of Las Vegas.
City and Focus representatives expect the development plan to go before the City Council in April.
Environmentalists and Mount Charleston residents have expressed concern about development encroaching on the area - worries unlikely to be alleviated by the proposed addition of 3,000 homes to the plan.
Developers, though, insist that steps will be taken to minimize traffic impacts and note that open space will be incorporated into the development.
Focus purchased the 1,710 acres at a February 2005 Bureau of Land Management auction for $510 million. The land is south and east of the Kyle Canyon Road exit off U.S. 95, with about 70 percent of the project on the west side of the highway and the rest on the east.
A planned new highway interchange and bridge at Horse Drive just south of Kyle Canyon Road will link parts of the development, enhancing residents' access to the freeway.
Originally, the new development was expected to have about 12,000 homes, but the proposal now is expected to call for about 15,000, said Focus Chief Executive Officer John A. Ritter.
Condos and apartment buildings - most about five stories tall, with some possibly as high as eight stories - will surround the center of the development. The housing density will decrease the farther from the center of the development homes are, with the most spacious neighborhoods having four or five houses per acre, Ritter said.
Ritter said the first homes could be finished by late 2007. Prices have yet to be determined.
The development's downtown area will be centered around a long, narrow park, part of which is being modeled after Barcelona's Las Ramblas, a spacious outdoor mall in the Spanish city. Here, the area will be about 60 feet wide, and three-quarters of a mile long. Small parks and seating areas will dot the park, which will have one-way streets on both sides.
A casino is planned for the north end of the downtown space.
Ritter said he expects the proposed casino "will have very little impact" on the surrounding area, in part because it will be built next to the highway.
Other open space in the project includes two arroyos, which are natural storm-water washes. The two major arroyos that will be incorporated into the development are about a mile long, and 30-70 feet wide, and 10-30 feet deep in places. A trail system and several small parks will be situated along the arroyos.
Las Vegas Councilman Steve Ross, whose ward includes the area, likes what he has heard about the development so far.
The higher density of the homes will make the area "more pedestrian friendly," Ross said.
Ross, who has long talked about protecting the rural character of the northwest, said he believes the development will not hurt the character of the area or adversely impact nearby Kyle Canyon.
But university Regent Thalia Dondero, who has a cabin up Kyle Canyon at Mount Charleston, expressed concern about the number of residents who would be moving so close to the canyon's entrance.
"That's a lot of homes, and I think it's important to remember it's the entrance to the forest," she said.
Ross, though, said the development will be relatively "far away, along the highway." Potential traffic impact from the development will be lessened by the new highway interchange, he added.
"The residents up there want to make sure their access to the highway is unaffected, and I think it will be," he said.
Ross said the project and future development make it more important for local governments to work on the so-called outer beltway highway. The Focus development sets aside land for that planned highway.
"We're trying everything we can to minimize the impact" from traffic, Ritter said. The development will include a transportation center, expected to be served by bus service.
The Kyle Canyon Gateway development is one of four major local projects that Focus is working on.
Focus' Providence development covers about 1,200 acres just south of the Kyle Canyon Gateway land; the Mountain's Edge development is being built on 3,500 acres in the southwestern edge of the Las Vegas Valley; and the company's Inspirada development occupies about 2,000 acres in Henderson.
Dan Kulin can be reached at 259-8826 or at [email protected].
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