Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Tower of proposed church is point of contention

Neighbors in city’s Northwest say its too tall for the area

Proposed church

Though their numbers were small, neighbors had made their opposition to the sizeable proposed church next to Lone Mountain clear to the Las Vegas Planning Commission.

Of the 28 post cards sent in by residents surveyed about the project, just three favored it. The main concern: the proposed 85-foot “prayer tower,” to be a defining feature of the roughly 90,000-square-foot church complex’s structure.

At that height, the church — on 5 acres at the southwest corner of Cliff Shadows Parkway and the Las Vegas Beltway — needs a variance because it would be about 2 1/2 times as tall as city rules allow.

Opponents insist they don’t mind having a church there, just not one so big. They say they hadn’t counted on the serious lobbying effort by the International Church of Las Vegas, and the lack of sufficient notice so that neighbors could fully express their concerns.

Church members sent the commission about 700 form letters in support of what they call the Prayer Mountain Project. That spurred the Planning Commission to vote 6-1 to approve it.

That’s when the fight really broke out.

Church opponents from the neighborhood, as well as the group North West Residents for Responsible Growth, say only about 500 nearby residences — many emptied by foreclosures — were mailed notices about the project. That was far too small a sample to prove there was significant opposition, they say.

The vast majority of church members who sent letters supporting the project live nowhere near the site — with some as far away as Boulder City and even Texas, they say.

“We’re looking at this as a neighborhood issue,” said Amy Brewster, a longtime resident who has been leading the opposition.

“We have no problem with them putting a church there,” said Brewster, a physical therapist and first-time neighborhood activist who lives about 2.5 miles from the site. It’s the design she objects to, with a large tower that would obstruct the view of Lone Mountain from her neighborhood.

She said opponents also object that the project would require construction crews to dig into the mountain.

“It’s out of character with the rest of the neighborhood,” said Brewster, who sends e-mails regarding her campaign from an e-mail address that begins “badtower@.”

Church member Ron Portaro, who is spearheading the campaign on the church’s behalf, said the project has rightly received widespread support for its appealing, neighborhood-friendly design.

“We’ve felt we’ve done everything we needed to do” to get the project approved, Portaro said.

He disputed the contention that the tower would be out of place, as there is a 150-foot transmission pole nearby. The neighborhood, for that matter, is on a “very commercial corner,” with retail stores and gas stations and road signs.

Portaro said the tower would consist of a two-floor lobby, a third floor with offices for church staffers, a fourth floor with a “wellness center” for counseling, and a fifth floor with prayer rooms.

The church would be the third satellite of the Assemblies of God/evangelical church, whose main campus is on Westcliffe Drive. The Lone Mountain church would have 1,500 seats, making the congregation large but not quite of “megachurch” size.

Both supporters and opponents are lobbying City Council members. Council members are being targeted by another letter writing campaign by church members who live in their wards, and opponents are gathering signatures.

Planning Commissioner Glenn Trowbridge voted to approve the project. But he has other concerns as a candidate for the open City Council seat for Ward 4, which includes the Lone Mountain site.

He said the initial meetings showed clear support for the project. But after the Feb. 12 vote he went to another meeting — at Brewster’s house. There, he said, he learned of stronger opposition than he knew existed.

It’s moot whether he supports the project now, Trowbridge said, because he wouldn’t be able to vote on it a second time if he were elected to the council.

One of his main opponents, Metro Police Capt. Stavros Anthony, said he hadn’t reached a position on the matter.

Trowbridge said he hoped for a compromise, but that’s looking unlikely at this point, according to Interim Ward 4 Councilman David Steinman. “It is so contentious,” he said.

Steinman said it was possible the council, when it votes on April 1, could approve all of the church’s development plan — except the 85-foot tower.

He declined to say how he will vote on the issue.

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