Board rejects school for gymnastics

By Jenny Davis

Friday, Oct. 3, 2008 | midnight

Residents near a proposed 2.2-acre gymnastics school in the northwest part of Las Vegas won their first victory Sept. 30 when the Lone Mountain Citizens Advisory Council recommended denial of the project.

The owner of the Vitaly Scherbo School of Gymnastics, which has been in Las Vegas for 10 years, is trying to expand by building a second location near Alexander and Juliano Roads.

The area is zoned residential. But according to Clark County zoning regulations, the training facility is permissible on a case by case basis. Under the Clark County Unified Development Code, a zone change is not required for the gymnastics facility because there are use permits allowed within residential neighborhoods that allow quasi-commercial facilities like training facilities, adult day cares, schools, churches and congregate care.

However, Clark County staff and the Lone Mountain board recommended denial because neither entity felt the school was compatible for the area.

The issue will next be heard at the Clark County Planning Commission meeting Oct. 9.

Scherbo said he wants to build in the area because most of the gymnastics students who now attend his school near Cheyenne Avenue and Jones Boulevard live in the northwest area and would like a facility built near them. He also said the facility would be beneficial to the community.

During the meeting, the architect for the school, Lee Bigelow, presented some changes to the proposed project that neighbors had previously suggested during neighborhood meetings. But about 100 residents attended the meeting unwilling to compromise, only wanting to oppose the project altogether.

Bigelow showed that he had changed the project from a two-story to a one-story, making the building look less boxy to be more compatible with the surrounding area, rearranging the floor plan to add more windows and reducing the square footage of the building from 23,600 to 21,515.

After Bigelow's presentation, the residents got up one after one to say that although they respected the school, they didn't want the facility near them.

Angela Lacey, whose home would be closest to the gymnastics school, spoke first, showing pictures of the buffer zone surrounding the proposed project, and showing it was all residential. She also painted a picture of how the community wanted to keep a rural feel. She showed a picture of what used to be a street light, but is now only a base for a street light.

"We made them take that light out," she said. "We didn't want that type of light in the rural area, near horse property."

Though the school itself would not be in a rural area, the surrounding homes are.

Lacey said what most residents there felt: the school did not fit into their idea of what was planned for the area.

"There was a master plan in this community that said this area will be residential," she said. "We bought our homes according to that. We built our lives according to that."

Many of the residents also fear that a special use permit would open the flood gates to other types of businesses to call themselves training facilities as well.

"If we put this here and call it a training facility, what would stop 24 Hour Fitness that teaches aerobic classes or stop karate class businesses or dance class businesses?" said Tina Rogers, a nearby resident.

Residents were also concerned the school would lower the values of their homes.

"Who would buy a $1 million home next to a commercial building?" Lacey asked the board. "If this goes, the whole neighborhood goes."

Scherbo said he and his staff have looked elsewhere for a location, but haven't been able to find the right acreage for the right price. He also said that after talking to many land owners in the area, he was often told by them that they believe the empty land in the area would someday be zoned commercial, and that they are waiting to sell until then for more money.

"From my point of view, it would be better to have something that will help the community then someday have something that doesn't," Scherbo said.

But not everyone believes the land will someday be commercial. Ten-year board member Donna Tagliaferri said that many times people have tried to build commercially in the area, telling her that the area will one day be zoned commercial, but it hasn't.

"I have felt that this is a very special area," she said.

Board member Carroll Varner agreed.

"I moved out here (northwest area) 26 years ago, and in that 26 years, there's been a constant effort from developers to come in introducing convenience stores, high density housing, more gravel pits than what we want, and we have fought a number of battles," Varner said. "At no time was this land ever planned for this type of use, and I see no reason in approving it. It's just not for the neighborhood. It's not compatible in any way."

Staff agreed the school was not suitable for the area.

"Staff is concerned with the size of the building and the amount of people who would use it," said Gene Pasinski, a principal planner for the Clark County Department of Comprehensive Planning.

Jenny Davis can be reached at 990-8921 or [email protected].