Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Permit issue puts clinic on hold

School District didn’t seek county approval to build health center

Health Clinics

Leila Navidi

Carolyn Edwards, vice president of the Clark County School Board, speaks to Spring Valley residents at a meeting Monday about a health clinic proposed for Elaine Wynn Elementary School. Construction of the clinic is on hold while questions about a special-use permit are researched.

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Much of the anger voiced at a Spring Valley neighborhood meeting Monday about a proposed student health clinic at Elaine Wynn Elementary School was directed at the Clark County School District for not having previously discussed the plan publicly.

On Tuesday district officials acknowledged that neighbors of the school were shortchanged on the ability to weigh in on the clinic.

At issue: whether the School District or Communities in Schools, the nonprofit group that intends to operate the campus clinic, should have applied for a special-use permit from the county. A spokesman for the county said the matter is being researched to determine whether the permit is required.

The permit application would have triggered a Clark County Commission public hearing to air the proposal and measure its merits versus potential effects on the neighborhood. Instead, construction of the clinic began several weeks ago without the public hearing and without a special-use permit.

County, School District and Communities in Schools officials say they think the misstep was based on a genuine misunderstanding, and not an intentional attempt to circumvent a public hearing. In the meantime, construction of the clinic has been put on hold.

Neighbors not notified

Residents living near Wynn Elementary say they had no idea a health clinic was going to be built until after a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 22. They have questioned the appropriateness of the location and possible effects on property values, traffic and neighborhood safety.

“I find it odd that our neighborhood was not notified of this laudable project,” 15-year resident Colette Welsing said at Monday’s meeting. “It appears the few in a boardroom made a decision for the many.”

Commissioner Susan Brager, whose district includes the area surrounding Wynn, has put the health clinic permit application on the agenda for the Nov. 18 meeting. The Spring Valley Town Board will also hear the issue Tuesday.

The Wynn campus health clinic would become the seventh to operate in Clark County. The nonprofit Nevada Health Centers operates clinics at C.P. Squires Elementary School, Roy Martin Middle School and Valley High School. Two — at Martinez and Cunningham elementary schools — are operated by Communities in Schools. The sixth, at Basic High School, is funded by Nevada State College.

The district provides land and the utilities hookups for the clinics, but the providers cover operational costs.

In 2004, when the district’s first campus health clinic opened at Martinez in North Las Vegas, a special-use permit was not sought because the clinic was a partnership with the county health district, and it was determined that a memorandum of understanding was sufficient. The health clinic was sponsored by Communities in Schools.

When another Communities in Schools clinic was built at Cunningham Elementary in 2007, the same process used for the Martinez project was followed, said Joyce Haldeman, the district‚s associate superintendent of community and government relations. Neighbors of both schools welcomed the clinics.

Surprised by opposition

The Southern Nevada chapter of NAIOP, the commercial real estate development association, has offered to donate the clinic building at Wynn Elementary, which would be named in memory of Casey Jones, who served as the business group’s president in 2005.

Because contractors and builders are donating their services, the construction schedule has little room for flexibility, said Louise Helton, state director of Communities in Schools of Nevada.

“I don’t want to put any more pressure on the situation than we have to, but (a delay) would definitely jeopardize the whole project,” Helton said.

The other Communities in Schools clinics were so well received by the surrounding neighborhoods that the opposition to the Wynn project took her by surprise, Helton said. She regretted the lack of outreach to the neighbors and said “we’re working very hard to make up for that.”

It appears that the clinics operated by Nevada Health Centers are in compliance with permit and licensing regulations of the respective jurisdictions, although district officials said they are double-checking to make sure no requirements have been overlooked.

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