Sun City negotiates with city over fire station

By Jeff O'Brien

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008 | midnight

The ownership and maintenance of a 2.8-mile strip of land bordering the southern half of Cheyenne Avenue, which currently belongs to Sun City Summerlin, might be transferred to the city of Las Vegas — but only if Sun City homeowners approve the proposal for a new fire station in their community.

The 5-acre strip of land begins at the intersection of Cheyenne Avenue and Rampart Boulevard and runs west to the Las Vegas Beltway.

A 6-foot-tall block wall is also on the strip and serves as a barrier between passing vehicles on Cheyenne and a drainage channel on the other side. The wall begins at the intersection of Cheyenne and Rampart and ends approximately one mile east of the Beltway, where the drainage channel goes underground.

"We see no reason why we should own that strip of land," said David Steinman of the Sun City Summerlin Community Association Board of Directors. "It's a very difficult piece of land for us to maintain. We want to give it back to the city where it belongs."

The initial push for a new fire station in the heart of Sun City Summerlin came from Las Vegas Fire & Rescue in an effort to trim increasing response times in the community, said City Councilman Larry Brown.

Talks about the proposal began in earnest about a year ago and a site for the new firehouse was selected by the Association's Board of Directors on July 28 — a 7,000-square-foot site at the 9th tee of the Palm Valley Golf Course on the northwest corner of Del Webb Boulevard and Sundial Drive.

The Association owns the parcel, and rather than selling the land to the city or asking for a long-term lease, it has proposed to deed the land to the city for $1 in exchange for what it feels is a troublesome strip of land along Cheyenne Avenue. Although no agreement has been put down in writing yet, both parties are in support of the proposal.

"The city would be better equipped to maintain and look after that land than our maintenance crews," Steinman said. "We don't have crews who operate in those kinds of conditions. Most of our landscape crews work on interior streets in residential areas."

Sun City Summerlin maintenance crews do trash pickup and limited landscaping work along Cheyenne Avenue approximately once a month, occasionally repairing damage to the wall caused by car accidents.

"The crews have to work on a narrow strip of land and be wary of cars speeding by at more than 60 miles per hour," Steinman said.

One to two car accidents take place each year along the wall, said Ron Winkel, executive director of the Sun City Summerlin Community Association.

"Each incident costs us $5,000 to $10,000 in repairs, unless we're able to find out who did it and have their insurance pay for it," Winkel said.

The southern half of the Cheyenne Avenue corridor sees very little pedestrian traffic since it has no entry points into Sun City Summerlin, Brown said.

"The city would be much more aggressive regarding any accidents or damage done to the wall," Brown said. "We would be better equipped to handle the costs needed for repair."

He added that if the city took over ownership of the wall, it might consider installing bollards or other traffic mitigation devices to provide better safety for work crews. Bollards are rigid posts that can be arranged in a line to separate traffic from pedestrians.

"The city would own the sidewalk, the small portion of landscape and the wall," Brown said. "We could go in there and have far more flexibility in terms of making it safer."

A "yes" vote supporting the new fire station is needed from two-thirds of Sun City Summerlin homeowners before a transfer of the wall can be made.

Ballots will be distributed to each homeowner, including absentee owners, in the November issue of the community's "Link" magazine, which comes out Oct. 26.

Evie Dorfman, a seven-year resident of Sun City Summerlin, resides on Birch Grove Court near the Cheyenne wall. She said that speeding vehicles have been an issue on Cheyenne Avenue.

"Whether or not the city takes over the wall, I don't think it will really do anything," Dorfman said.

Jo Anne Clark, who also resides on Birch Grove Court, was more concerned with security issues involving teenagers jumping over the wall and entering the neighborhood.

"I've seen kids before walking around the back of houses and checking them out," Clark said. "I've called the police on it, but that doesn't do very much, because by the time the cops get here they're gone."

Jeff O’Brien can be reached at 990-8957 or [email protected].