Thursday, June 29, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.
The Poker Palace Casino in North Las Vegas will expand by 4,750 square feet to allow a bingo hall for seniors.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the expansion Wednesday, along with an expansion of the Eldorado master-planned community. It denied a request for a tavern license.
The expansions, approved as special use permits, will not require a vote by the City Council.
Some of the commission's members were concerned about a satellite parking lot for employees that casino owner Marvin Coleman intends to construct across the Las Vegas Wash.
If the 114-space lot is made available to the public, a pedestrian bridge must be constructed across the channel, but a bridge is not required for employees.
Commissioner Tom Langford noted the irony of requiring the bridge only for patrons.
"These are your employees and they have to walk just as far as the customers would," he said.
Cecil Sanchez, engineering project coordinator for Development and Flood Control, said the department is encouraging Coleman to install a bridge even if the lot remains just for employees.
If Coleman decides to construct a bridge, however, it must be delayed until after a study of the wash is completed. The study is expected by March 2001.
Eldorado to expand
The board also unanimously approved an expansion of the Eldorado master-planned community by 66 single family lots, extending its borders 21 acres.
The site of the planned neighborhood, built by Pardee Construction Co., is west of Revere Street and south of Centennial Parkway.
Pardee hopes to begin grading by October, with construction beginning by June 2001.
The company has already built 2,500 houses in the community on 700 acres, out of a total 1,155 acres available for the master-planned community, Klif Andrews, a Pardee spokesman, said. Total buildout is expected by 2008, Andrews said.
Tavern denied
The commission shot down an application for a tavern after numerous residents protested.
The item was denied 6-1, with Commissioner Tom Lisiewski casting the lone vote for approval.
The two-pronged application by Thomas Della Valle was to remodel a beauty supply store into a convenience store with gas pumps and a restaurant and lounge at Losee Road and Lake Mead Boulevard.
Aside from objections from city planners that the site did not conform to ordinance and traffic requirements, residents living directly north and west of the site were concerned about what a tavern would do to their neighborhood.
Residents spoke out against an expected increase in traffic, sound and vagrants. They cheered the commission's denial of the project.
Commissioner Anita Wood told Della Valle that residents were just trying to protect their neighborhood.
"I can't blame them for being upset or being concerned," she said. "We have to consider and look at if this will be detrimental or affect public health ... and I don't believe either of these uses are going to help the neighborhood."
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