Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

THE IMPACT OF LIGHT RAIL:

How mass transit will affect North Las Vegas

North Las Vegas City Hall

Steve Marcus

A view of the North Las Vegas City Hall Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013.

Mass transit Across U.S.

Bay Area Rapid Transit passengers wait for a train in this Oct. 22, 2013 file photo taken in Oakland, Calif. Launch slideshow »

North Las Vegas could become the “breadbasket” of the valley, the city’s mayor has said.

The city took a step toward that future in 2015 when Faraday Future announced plans to build a $1 billion auto manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas’ 18,000-acre Apex Industrial Park, opening the door for further development of the park and broader economic diversification for the entire community.

Would light rail help the city shed its status as a bedroom community and become an economic driver for the entire valley?

At the least, light rail running to North Las Vegas City Hall on Las Vegas Boulevard is likely to spur economic development in that area, said Rob Lang, executive director of Brookings Mountain West, a nonprofit think tank. Rail would cut mainly through commercial zones, like strip malls, instead of residential areas, making it less likely to displace existing residents.

Light rail also would create more of a traditional downtown feel for North Las Vegas with more vertical, mixed-use development including housing and commercial, said UNLV civil engineering professor Hualiang Teng.

“Their city hall is right there on Las Vegas Boulevard,” Teng said. “They could naturally build a downtown, and that could connect in the future, if they are planning their industries, to the north.”

The Regional Transportation Commission’s current proposal for light rail doesn’t include a route to North Las Vegas. It proposes a line stretching from the airport to downtown Las Vegas with an extension to Cashman Center, putting light rail very close to but not quite inside North Las Vegas city limits.

In the mid-2000s, the RTC put forward a 35-mile light rail plan, which would have spanned from Nevada State College in Henderson, up the Strip and up North Fifth Street in North Las Vegas. In an alternatives analysis of the plan, the RTC identified three other options for where light rail could run in North Las Vegas — a line north on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, northeast following the existing Union Pacific Railroad right of way, or northeast following Las Vegas Boulevard North.

With so many options on the table, light rail’s benefits for North Las Vegas are all about which route is chosen, said Assistant City Manager Ryann Juden.

“Obviously light rail’s impact on North Las Vegas would depend on where it stops and starts,” he said.

So where should the system go?

The city has been making a strong push over the past few months to spur development. Bills passed during a special session of the Nevada Legislature in December provide the financial means to make infrastructure improvements at Apex — in the short term, to allow electric car startup Faraday Future to open its factory and, in the long term, to pave the path for further industrial growth.

A light rail system connecting Apex with the rest of the valley could add appeal to the site and catalyze further development. But Apex has long faced the chicken-and-egg problem: “You don’t build a train to nowhere,” Juden said.

Light rail all the way to Apex would be costly. Lang said light rail “belongs in the valley,” and that workers at Apex may still need cars to commute to their jobs. “We don’t need commuter rail,” Lang said. “Apex is always going to be auto dependent.”

Indeed, many North Las Vegas residents probably would have to drive their cars to a park-and-ride lot and then hop on light rail to utilize the system, though some housing likely would spring up around stations on the light rail’s route.

If light rail to Apex did happen, it likely would be as a future phase of the project after a core section is built — a line to Apex, a line to Summerlin and a line to Henderson, Teng said.

“It’s very difficult for people to give up the auto,” Teng said. “But my personal feeling is as long as you provide a system that is reliable, people will follow.”

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