Editorial: Caveat emptor, homeowner

Friday, Oct. 13, 2006 | 8:02 a.m.

A group of Henderson homeowners is livid over a zoning change that has cleared the way for a subdivision on adjacent land that originally was set aside for public use, such as a park.

In a Las Vegas Sun story Wednesday, Sunridge Estates homeowner Nicole McGeary told reporter Mike Trask that she had paid a $150,000 lot premium to build her home next to the undeveloped land that, at the time, was zoned for public use. She envisioned living next to a park, soccer field or some public use other than a subdivision.

But last year, despite the recommendations of the city's planning commission, the Henderson City Council approved a zoning change for the land that would allow construction of houses on 52 lots. At two homes per acre, it isn't exactly high density. But it also is not the park or open space that McGeary and her neighbors expected.

McGeary is not naive in the ways of land deals. She is a real estate agent who carefully researched the zoning codes and land-use maps before buying her property. City Council members and administrators told the Sun that the land had been improperly labeled for public use in the city's master plan, and the city land-use map was wrong. Residents have been told that they have no recourse.

Lot premiums are based on such amenities as views and proximity to open space. So someone who pays such a fee rightfully expects to get what he or she has paid for. When municipal administrators make mistakes on their maps, it throws an entire system out of balance. Even those who know how to research their prospective property purchases can't make sound decisions when the documents they examine contain mistakes.

Still, as one city councilman noted, public uses can mean schools, hospitals or churches in addition to parks. And growing communities need change, so zoning must be flexible enough to change with them. But land-use maps and the zoning that enforce those uses also should be static enough to allow people to know what they are buying when they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What happened to McGeary and her neighbors is unfortunate. But, as Henderson officials noted, zoning offers no guarantees. And in this fast-growing valley, buyers must beware.