LOOKING IN ON: SUBURBS

Sunday, July 15, 2007 | 2:29 a.m.

The Henderson City Council wants to snuff out smoke shops before they can alight near schools.

On Wednesday the council plans to ban shops selling tobacco and smoking accessories from opening within 2,000 feet of a school or an existing smoke shop.

"We started to see more and more pop up," city planner Scott Majewski said. "They start getting closer to the schools, where the nonlegal smokers are."

The city's 20 or so smoke shops would be exempt, as would grocery stores, gas stations and other shops that sell tobacco in addition to other goods.

The city hasn't received any complaints about the proposal, and no one spoke against it at a recent Planning Commission meeting.

Last year Henderson enacted a similar ordinance aimed at payday-loan and check-cashing businesses.

Henderson continues to annex land near the southeast corner of St. Rose Parkway and Las Vegas Boulevard.

Next up: 26 acres near St. Rose and Amigo Street, which the City Council plans to annex on Wednesday. The city annexed about five acres in the same area earlier this month and took control of about five square miles east of Interstate 15 and south of St. Rose in November.

Henderson has annexed most of the property near the intersection hoping it will be the site of billions of dollars in development, including two casinos, during the next few years.

The city already provides the majority of services in the area.

The state attorney general is being asked to resolve the bickering over a lease that would allow a hotel to be built at the Boulder Creek Golf Course.

The 50-year lease would pay Boulder City $173,000 a year.

New City Council members Linda Strickland and Travis Chandler called for a vote to rescind the agreement, saying it's illegal because only one property appraisal was done when two are required by state law.

City Manager Vicki Mayes said the lease is legal, and only one appraisal is needed for such a development.

The council voted last week to wait until for the attorney general's review, which is expected to take at least a month.

The lease was unanimously approved on June 12 - the last meeting before Strickland and Chandler took office.