Monday, March 13, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.
A sports park, a golf course and Nellis Air Force Base are among nine sites in the running to become the home of North Las Vegas' first sewage treatment plant.
Although the city hopes to open the plant in 2009, it has not even established a timetable for selecting a location. But seeing parks, recreational facilities and residential areas on the list of potential sites already worries some residents and Clark County commissioners, who would like the plant to be built as far away from homes as possible.
That may prove difficult, given the lack of sizable vacant tracts - 30 to 40 acres will be needed for the plant - near the southern end of the city limits. North Las Vegas wants a southern location in order to use gravity to move sewage, rather than being forced to use the more costly method of pumping waste uphill for treatment.
Three of the nine sites fall outside of North Las Vegas, including one at the southwest side of Nellis Air Force Base. Four locations are west of Interstate 15, including the 27-acre Community Golf Course and City View Park.
Two potential sites in a residential area near the Community College of Southern Nevada already have generated opposition. One proposal calls for the city to eliminate the 38-acre Cheyenne Sports Complex, at the northwest corner of Pecos Road and Cheyenne Avenue, directly east of the college, while the other proposed site is a few blocks north of the park at the northwest corner of Pecos and Gowan roads.
Rand Key, the college's vice president of planning and development, said the sports complex beautifies a neighborhood that has been in decline as well as provides an amenity for students. Neighborhood residents also have asked the college to help in keeping the treatment plant out of the area, he said.
"Our main concern is that the park makes our campus look more attractive," Key said. "It is an asset. I think losing it would be a detriment to residents and hurt their property values. We think when the City Council realizes what they would be taking away, they are not going to put a waste water treatment facility in the neighborhood."
City Manager Gregory Rose said while the city would obviously prefer not to replace a park with a sewage treatment plant, so long as no site has been selected, the Cheyenne complex cannot be ruled out. If park land eventually is used for the plant, estimated to cost up to $150 million, the city would buy other property to build a new park, he said.
Another potential 35-acre site north of the sports park also is opposed by residents.
In a survey of residents within two miles of the potential college area site, Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates found - not surprisingly - that 83 percent of the 918 people who responded do not want the facility near them, said Tanya Flanagan, Gates' community liaison. Many residents are concerned about odor and believe the plant should be located in a remote area, she said.
"I know they say there are advances in technology but that doesn't preclude there being any accidents or something happening that causes a smell," Atkinson Gates said. "I just don't believe it is appropriate to put this type of a facility in a residential neighborhood. We limit where we put commercial and industrial, and you should certainly limit where you put these."
The new North Las Vegas facility could allow the city of Las Vegas to postpone a planned expansion of its own waste water treatment plant. That expansion is not expected to occur for at least six to eight years - and may not be needed for as long as 18 years if North Las Vegas begins treating its own sewage.
That, in turn, could have an impact on the controversial proposal to convert Royal Links Golf Course to a residential development.
Last fall, a report by a panel of waste water treatment experts concluded that Las Vegas might have to spend up to $28 million to reduce odors from the city plant if developer Bill Walters builds 1,200 homes on his adjacent 160-acre Royal Links site.
Walters disputes that, pointing out that a plant expansion potentially two decades away logically would utilize state-of-the-art equipment capable of containing nearly all odors. The improved technology, Walters adds, would mean that the city would have to spend relatively little if any additional money to reduce odors on behalf of Royal Links homeowners.
Without knowing an exact location, commissioners decided in October to allow North Las Vegas to build its own treatment plant. Commissioners would have additional say over the plant only if the city opts to build it in the unincorporated area, Atkinson Gates said.
North Las Vegas Councilman Robert Eliason said he believes the proposed sites in unincorporated Clark County and next to the college will be taken off the city's list because of concerns raised to date.
"We are trying to work with the elected officials and right now those aren't a priority," Eliason said.
Commissioners say they are not opposed to the possibility of having a city sewage treatment facility in the county, so long as the location is not problematic. Similarly, Nellis spokesman Mike Estrada said while the base has not seen a proposal from North Las Vegas, officials would be happy to discuss the matter with the city.
Two sites in the unincorporated area still in the running are near Cheyenne Avenue and Lamb Boulevard.
Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins said North Las Vegas would have to sell any plan to his constituents before he would support building a city treatment facility in the county.
North Las Vegas officials believe they can overcome residents' concerns by educating the public about their plans to build a state-of-the-art facility that will help limit odors.
"We don't believe the public will be left with any concerns," Rose said. "The major concern is odor, but we will have a facility that addresses that."
That assurance, however, does little to assuage some residents.
"I don't think people are going to like it," said Emely Pulido, a leasing agent for Joshua Villas along Cheyenne Avenue in unincorporated Clark County. "The don't want the smell."
By building its own plant, North Las Vegas will be able to lower what now is one of the highest rates that any area city charges residents for sewer treatment.
The average North Las Vegas resident pays $388 annually for waste treatment, more than twice the $172 paid by residents in unincorporated Clark County. The new plant would lower North Las Vegas residents' rates by about $60 a year, according to city estimates.
The city estimates it will save $250 million over the next 30 years by treating its own waste, lessening its dependence on Las Vegas and the Clark County Water Reclamation District . Las Vegas now handles 90 percent of the city's sewage.
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