City Council gives final OK to plan to revamp Boulder corridor

By Jeremy Twitchell

Thursday, June 11, 2009 | 5:03 p.m.

After more than two years of planning, several public meetings and hundreds of comments, Henderson’s plan to reshape Boulder Highway into a sleek corridor of modern, mixed-use developments won final approval from the City Council on Tuesday.

The Boulder Highway Investment Strategy, as the plan has come to be known, was adopted in December.

On Tuesday, the City Council put the plan in motion by rezoning more than 1,100 acres along the city’s eight-mile stretch of Boulder Highway to a new zoning classification called corridor mixed-use. The new classification encourages developments that combine retail, work and living spaces by offering density bonuses and other incentives to developers who build them.

A memo from city planners to the council stated that “the goal of changing the zoning in one legislative act is to ‘ready the environment’ for investment so developers will be able to take advantage of the new standards without going through the lengthy zone change process.”

Because the plan relies on private investment and construction, there is no timetable for the area’s redevelopment. All existing buildings along Boulder Highway, including homes, stores and small casinos, were grandfathered in.

The Investment Strategy came about in response to the Regional Transportation Commission’s plan to create a rapid bus transit route on Boulder Highway. Construction on that project is expected to begin this fall and service is expected to begin in early 2011.

The new zoning also allows for single-use buildings.

The strategy, combined with a landscaping guidebook that the council also adopted on Tuesday, envisions the future Boulder Highway with more a of a Main Street flair — storefronts brought right up to the sidewalk, parking tucked in back and shade structures over the sidewalks to encourage walking.

Though the plan has been subject to many public hearings and was reviewed by a citizens’ advisory committee, some residents still raised concerns at the last stage.

Diane Booker, president of the River Mountain Ranch Estates Homeowners Association, requested that the city prohibit low-income housing from the corridor because, she said, it would increase crime, and limit the height of buildings to one story because it would block the views of River Mountain Ranch Estates residents.

“After all, we were here first,” she said.

Henderson Principal Planner Gloria Elder, who prepared the plan, said it was not the city’s purpose to negatively impact surrounding neighborhoods.

“It’s our goal to make sure that whatever development comes in is consistent with the surrounding neighborhoods,” she said. “That’s one of the primary goals of the Investment Strategy.”

Henderson Mayor James B. Gibson, who was in his last meeting, said future city councils will have to consider each project on its own merits.

“We’re trying in every way to upgrade the economic viability of the Boulder Strip,” he said. “That’s important. I think we can imagine that the council will look at things with that in mind as we go forward. … Something tells me that we would run afoul of the law if we tried to group people by income and keep them out of certain areas of the city.”