Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Henderson:

Residents say, Hikers? Not in our back yard

Anthem Hikers

Leila Navidi

Forrest Fetherolf lives in Shadow Canyon Village in Anthem, just a few hundred feet from the trail that allows hikers access to Black Mountain. He and some neighbors are fighting Henderson’s plans to build a trailhead, where there are just parking spaces now, near his home. The city plans to go ahead with the plan, despite residents’ protests that hikers might bring violence to their peaceful neighborhood.

Click to enlarge photo

This trailhead in the 55-and-older Sun City Anthem community in Henderson, for which the City Council recently approved enhancements, has drawn protests from some residents who say it threatens their safety and peace and quiet.

On the night when the Henderson City Council approved what is to be the city’s tallest buildings — the 30-story Park Heights towers — citizens showed up to discuss something much smaller: a 12-by-12-foot shelter, a sign, three benches and a trash can.

That would be the Anthem East Trailhead, which Henderson plans to build in the spring in the Shadow Canyon Village neighborhood, a picture of suburbia with tasteful desert landscaping.

For now, the trailhead is a six-spot parking lot alongside Shadow Canyon Drive. The trail leads to Bureau of Land Management land allowing access to Black Mountain, identifiable for its crown of communications towers.

But some Shadow Canyon residents are digging in their heels against the trailhead.

“The quiet lifestyle is what people bought into,” said Robert Frank, a member of the Sun City Anthem board of directors. “They bought into this to be away from a lot of activity and young people hiking.”

The 3-year-old, 514-home Shadow Canyon neighborhood is the newest in Sun City Anthem, a master-planned community of 7,100 homes for people 55 and older.

The Sun City Anthem board did vote 5-2 last year to give the city an easement that led to the creation of the trailhead. Frank cast one of the votes against the easement.

He is not the only opponent of the trailhead. Forrest Fetherolf, who lives about 300 feet from the trailhead, and some of his neighbors have collected more than 550 signatures on a petition opposing the project.

Fetherolf complained that on some weekends as many as 30 hikers park cars along Shadow Canyon Drive, a wide residential street.

The city decided to check that out, though, and last weekend found there were never more than three vehicles at the trailhead — all parked in off-street spaces, according to Mary Ellen Donner, director of Henderson parks and recreation.

The city has been working on plans for the trailhead since early 2006 and the trail has been part of the Anthem master plan since 2000.

Then again, Shadow Canyon was originally supposed to be the site of a golf course.

Now, the retirees say they are worried about crime increasing in the neighborhood as a result of the trail drawing visitors.

But a Henderson Police spokesman said only one burglary has been reported in homes adjacent to the trail this year. He also said with the creation of the trailhead the department will increase patrols.

Residents critical of the trailhead are also defensive of their yet-to-be-built community recreation center across the street from the trailhead, saying they don’t want their new, pristine bathrooms used by hikers.

For a lot of people, that’s what the issue boils down to.

As resident Matt Cook put it: “This is an age-restricted community and we want peace and quiet. We don’t want outsiders in our community.”

His neighborhood is not gated, however, and the streets are city-owned, meaning the homeowners association lacks the authority to restrict traffic.

And even if it did, the trail is not Sun City Anthem’s, it is Henderson’s.

Some hikers are at least trying to be mindful of the residents’ concerns. A posting at trails.com noted that residents are “quite upset that the trial access is in their private community. Tread very, very, lightly.”

To be sure, not all of the area’s residents share the quest for solitude. At the council meeting several said they use the trail often and were offended by their neighbors’ disparaging of hikers.

Resident Mike Carey told the council that the burglary probably wouldn’t have happened if there had been some hikers in the area at the time.

Donner said the city has been working closely with the residents. They had a temporary garbage can placed at the site and may place no parking signs on the street.

Additionally, the city encourages visitors to leave vehicles at a park a few miles away. The trail connects to that park.

City Council members said they don’t see much reason to change the plan to build the trailhead by the end of May.

Until then Fetherolf vows to continue fighting to keep people who “look like modern-day hippies” out of his neighborhood.

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