Survey says: NLV residents happy with city

By Jeff Pope, Jeremy Twitchell

Monday, June 29, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Most North Las Vegas residents say they have a good quality of life and enjoy living in the city, despite thinking it still has an image problem and employment opportunities are scarce, a new survey indicates.

The city posted the survey results on its Web site last week, and officials say they are using them to gauge performance and direct efforts to improve services for residents.

About half of the respondents gave a favorable rating to the overall direction taken by the city, and half of the respondents rated the overall quality of life in North Las Vegas as “excellent” or “good.” Nearly 75 percent said they would recommend the city as a good place to live, and 69 percent said they plan to remain in the city for the next five years.

About 40 percent said North Las Vegas is a good place to raise children, and the same percentage said it is a good place to retire.

Despite reports from North Las Vegas Police that crime decreased 9 percent last year, most respondents said they don’t feel safe, especially downtown.

About 43 percent said they felt “very” or “somewhat” safe from violent crimes and 31 percent gave the same responses to questions about property crimes.

The police received a 60 percent approval rating, the fire department, an 80 percent approval rating.

A little more than 1,000 households were chosen at random to receive the survey, and 216 responded. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percent, according to National Research Center Inc. of Boulder, Colo. The city paid the company $11,000 to conduct the survey.

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The Henderson Planning Commission last week unanimously rejected NV Energy’s plan for a new transmission line in the southeastern part of the city, but that won’t be the final word.

The utility is expected to appeal to the Henderson City Council. And if the council agrees with its planning commission, the question becomes: Who will foot the bill for an alternative plan? Will only Henderson residents have to pay the extra costs or will they be spread across all electric bills in the Las Vegas Valley? The Public Utilities Commission would make that decision.

A group of Tuscany and Section 4 residents who live along the proposed path of the transmission line say they are ready to continue fighting the utility’s plan, arguing that 135-foot towers and their 20 lines would devastate property values.

NV Energy argues its plan would allow the utility to meet the area’s future needs in the most cost-efficient way.

NV Energy’s Dave Rigdon said his company may take its case to the City Council. The alternative routes that skirt the neighborhoods would increase the project’s estimated $27 million price tag by $5 million to $19.5 million, he said.

When Washoe County required NV Energy to bury a transmission line instead of going with a less expensive option, the PUC required Washoe residents to cover the additional expense, Rigdon has noted.

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The Henderson Planning Commission also sided unanimously with neighbors on another controversial case last week, denying a use permit for operators of a group home in Henderson’s Serene Country Estates that last year housed homeless people.

The commission agreed with neighborhood residents who said an existing group home for the elderly 200 feet away from the home for which permitting was requested is sufficient to serve the community’s needs.

Although operating group homes is generally considered a permitted use in residential neighborhoods and in most cases does not require a public hearing, state law requires close scrutiny and a public hearing for any proposed home that would be within 1,500 feet of another one, and that is the case in Serene Country Estates.

The applicants said they plan to appeal the decision to the City Council.

Last year’s discovery that as many as eight indigent people were living in the home, under a Clark County Social Service program, sparked neighbors’ outrage.

The neighbors’ complaints spurred the city to introduce a bill that would reduce the number of unrelated people allowed to live in a single-family home from 10 to four, but the bill was tabled in March and hasn’t resurfaced.