Planners OK apartment complex near Fiesta Henderson

By Jeremy Twitchell

Friday, Aug. 29, 2008 | 3:18 p.m.

A new apartment complex south of the Fiesta Henderson won Henderson Planning Commission approval Thursday by a 4-0 vote — but how big the project will be depends on the developers and the city reaching an agreement on who will live there.

Developers from Trammell Crow are billing the Alexan Fiesta, a proposed 380-unit complex on 10.5 acres, as a workforce housing project that will give priority to Station Casinos employees working at Fiesta Henderson and the company's other Henderson properties.

Station Casinos is selling the land to Trammell Crow for the project and has worked closely with the developer on the planning.

Planning commissioners, however, said they saw no form of guarantee that the project will be used for workforce housing and refused to grant developers the density of 38 units per acre they were seeking until the city sees some guarantee.

"I can count on one hand the number of projects we've approved that have been anywhere near that density," Commission Chairman Dan Shaw said. "We need sustainability. We need workforce housing. If this project falls into those categories, I need to know how that is going to work."

The commission approved the project for 24 units per acre, standard for an apartment complex, but with the caveat that the density would escalate to the requested 38 units per acre if Trammell Crow and Station Casinos could work out a way to ensure that Station employees would have first rights to the apartments and provide some form of incentive for employees to live in the apartments, such as reduced rent.

Any such agreement would have to be approved by Henderson's Neighborhood Services Department and the city attorney's office in order for the density to increase.

"It seems a little hazy to me that this is called workforce housing when we don't have any concrete agreement between Trammell Crow and Station to make it so," Commissioner Craig Burr said. "It needs to go beyond lip service."

Jeff Allen, managing director of Trammell Crow Residential Southwest, told the commission that his company has been trying to work with businesses around the country to develop workforce housing close to where their employees work, but said it has been very difficult. He said he's hoping the Alexan Fiesta can become an example of how the approach can work.

"Our goal is fairly simple and that goal is to provide housing that is more affordable than single-family housing and to locate it close to where opportunities for work exist," he said.

The proposal was not without its detractors, however. Seventeen people showed up to have a say on the plan — most of them residents from the neighboring communities. The speakers were divided in their opinions, with nine opposed to the proposal and eight in favor.

Those who were opposed to the project expressed concern about increased traffic, crime and negative impacts on their property values.

"We think we have enough density in this area," resident Gene Emelko said. "It gives us enough traffic on our roads. … I don't think that the construction of apartments is consistent with the surrounding neighborhood."

Other residents said the apartment complex would be better than the empty land, which some said has been used for illegal dumping and generates a lot of dust.

"We all agreed that an apartment housing project is not the perfect project for this property, but it is the best project that's been suggested," said John Thiessen, a homeowners association president in a neighboring community. "The people who live there will be shopping and spending in our community and that benefits everybody."

A handful of Fiesta Henderson employees spoke in favor of the project, and attorneys representing Trammell Crow had 44 employees who attended the meeting stand up to show their support.

Jeremy Twitchell is a reporter for the Home News. He can be reached at 990-8928 or [email protected].