Sunday, Dec. 6, 1998 | 8:18 a.m.
Stop anywhere along Lake Mead Drive between McCormick Road and Olsen Street and look north.
There is a cluster of palm trees, acres of open desert and the remains of a former gravel pit where graders are pushing around dirt. Off in the distance is the 2,000-acre Clark County wetlands park.
Gazing upon this view, developer Paul Kenner envisions one of the valley's newest master-planned areas, Palm City, a gated golf-course community that will be home to 5,000 people.
But Larry Paulson and other Henderson residents see a potential for environmental disaster.
"We know that this area is contaminated with a host of chemicals," Paulson, who is also a biologist, said. "They can do their best to cover them up, but it is very difficult to cover up insults to the environment because sooner or later they will come back to haunt us."
The site is situated between the Basic Management Inc. Complex and the Las Vegas Wash -- an area of concern to the state and residents because tests of ground water have revealed higher than normal radiation and traces of chemicals including perchlorate, a rocket-fuel booster manufactured by BMI.
The wash is six miles upstream from the intake valve in Lake Mead that provides the Las Vegas Valley's drinking water.
Testing by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection is under way to determine the source of the pollution, which has not yet been judged a public health hazard.
Because there has been no definitive declaration of a health concern, Rhodes Design and Development Corp. is going ahead with plans to build the subdivision -- plans that have been approved by the city of Henderson despite the warnings from the state and Terracon Corp., Rhodes' own consultant.
In 1996, Terracon, a Las Vegas engineering consulting firm, turned over its assessment of the site to Rhodes. It warned about heavy metals, radiation, pesticides and insecticides in ground water flowing through the site downhill from old industrial and sewage waste ponds.
"It is recommended that the facility not be built until the standards and treatment are established," the report concluded.
Residents last week expressed concerns at a public hearing on the most recent environmental studies conducted at the BMI complex.
BMI has been the site of heavy industrial activity for the past half-century, including the production of chlorine, metals such as titanium and magnesium, and chemicals used as rocket propellants. As a result, there has been contamination of the soil and ground water in and around the complex, according to the NDEP.
The quantity of that contamination, however, remains unknown, including at the Palm City site, NDEP officials have acknowledged. "I can't give you a number," Doug Zimmerman, the NDEP's bureau chief of corrective actions, said.
And while concerns remain that the water flowing near the surface of the Rhodes development contains some of the contaminants that have leached into the ground water from BMI, public and private studies show that the majority of the chemicals found in the water are natural rather than manmade.
That's according to the state, the city and the developer.
"We have no concerns about the ground water from a public health standpoint," Brenda Pohlmann, an environmental scientist for the NDEP's Bureau of Corrective Actions, said.
It wouldn't seem there could ever be too much water in the desert.
But that's exactly what Rhodes Homes discovered even before it began grading the Palm City site, which used to be a gravel pit.
Compared to other master-planned communities in Henderson such as Anthem and Seven Hills, Palm City is small. But its developer has run into big problems when it comes to what lies beneath its surface.
In October, the NDEP said no home construction could begin until the developer designed a drainage system that would protect the Las Vegas Wash. That order came after an unknown source of low-level radioactivity was found in the site's ground water.
The area historically has been home to natural spring waters, which have bubbled to the surface forming the Palm City project's neighboring wetlands. Groundwater underneath Palm City has been found as close to the surface as 4 feet.
State and city officials fear that the development, with its proposed golf course and home landscaping, will cause the ground water to rise and thus create a greater threat to Palm City residents.
So do other residents.
"What happens in that development when we restore the washed-out area of the Las Vegas Wash?" Paulson asked. "They need to have a plan as to how they will be able to get rid of contaminated ground water and storm water ... draining from Henderson."
He predicts that the present movement of ground water will be slowed down and Palm City residents will find themselves with health risks -- and with their yards and foundations under water.
"Common sense dictates ... there is a lower elevation in the gravel pits .. the water is going to surface upstream," Paulson said. "I think the city and state need to go back and re-evaluate the permitting for the project to make sure (future) residents are protected."
The city is the approval authority for the planning and zoning of the project.
Despite the concerns, the city gave Rhodes a restricted grading permit in July for the golf course so it could plant its grass in the spring -- one of only two times a year golf courses can be planted, according to Kenner.
"In order to keep them on schedule, we have allowed them to grade for the golf course," Henderson City Attorney Shauna Hughes said.
But that doesn't mean the city doesn't have issues with the project with respect to water, according to Hughes.
At issue is ground water and public safety, which according to the city's Utility Services Manager Kurt Segler, is actually a nonissue because no one is going to drink the ground water.
"No one would use this water to drink from, so there is no health hazard there," he said. "Much of Henderson has a high saline content in its ground water."
Kenner added, "People don't realize that ground water running underneath the site doesn't affect our developability."
Segler said the concern is finding the source of the radioactive material discovered in the ground water.
He said the city's main concern is whether the radioactivity originates from a natural or industrial source, such as BMI. Three samples of ground water were taken, one each from the west part of the Palm City property, from the Palm City property itself and from Sunrise Mountain to the north of the Las Vegas Wash.
The results? According to Segler, they were virtually the same.
"Radioactivity is pervasive throughout the local environment," he said, adding that this explains why the samples taken downstream from BMI showed little difference from those taken elsewhere.
Another issue is the level of radioactivity and whether it would be a health hazard to anyone who lived in the area for a significant amount of time.
He said Rhodes-employed independent consultants who first looked at the property as an age-restricted development determined there was not a health safety issue. A subsequent study showed the area as safe for growing families as well.
While Rhodes has owned the property for less than a year, Kenner said the developer has been studying the water and soil quality for about five years.
The NDEP told Rhodes that, in order to continue work at the site, it had to address the ground-water issue or receive a discharge permit allowing runoff to flow into the wash.
Kenner said the company's response was to build an underground drain system, or ground-water conduit, in two areas where historically the ground water has come together.
"Our full intent was not to impede or change the flow of the ground water. ... We wanted to ensure that it stayed where it was," he said. "The conduit does not intercept the ground water; it runs parallel."
Rhodes will study the infiltration of the golf course and its subdrain system, which he said will work collectively with the conduits to manage the surface and ground water.
Kenner added that at no time has any agency asked Rhodes to do more than it has done regarding the ground-water studies and management, or any other part of the project concerning environmental matters.
"We have tried to be up-front and do the right thing," he said. "If we had done something obviously wrong, someone would have told us and they haven't."
The NDEP did tell Rhodes it was concerned about where the development's drain system ended at its property line to the north, according to Kenner, because it will eventually discharge into the wetlands.
"They said they also were worried that the ground water would surface," he said.
Kenner said, however, that the system has been closed up for two months and that no water has come to the top.
"We went back and drilled 18 holes at the end of the conduit system to see where the ground water was," he said. "It is almost doing what we thought it would do -- there is a little bit of mounding, but it doesn't surface."
What makes the 600-acre Palm City project unique is that about 50 percent of it is devoted to open space -- including the golf course, two lakes and parks, according to the developer.
"It's a great benefit and one of the things that we feel is the strength of our project," Kenner, who is director of land development, said.
A grand entrance similar to Rhodes' Spanish Hills development just west of Spanish Trail in southwest Las Vegas will grace the Palm City site, which will be accessed from Lake Mead.
The community will feature 1,500 homes and roughly 800 condominiums and apartments. According to Kenner, the number of residences roughly translates into some 5,000 residents.
The homes will be wrapped around an 18-hole golf course designed by Ted Robinson Sr., who also designed the Rhodes Ranch golf course, Kenner said.
"When you have a piece of property this size, you are able to create something with distinction," Kenner said. "Ted Robinson said this course actually will have more character than the Rhodes Ranch course due to the topography, and he thinks it will be comparable if not better."
Also planned are three miles of bike and jogging trails.
Kenner said the development, while similar to Rhodes Ranch, will be a step down from it, meaning it will be more affordable. "We have as many amenities as Rhodes Ranch," he said.
Construction of eight of the project's 16 model homes is scheduled to begin in January.
"One of the reasons we are building so many models is to create a large product availability," Kenner said. "The pricing structures are roughly from $115,000 to $240,000."
He added that the largest -- 4,100 square feet -- and most expensive home is essentially the same home offered at Rhodes Ranch, but for much less.
As part of the project, Rhodes donated 20 combined acres in the northeast corner of Olsen Street near the landfill to the city for an elementary school and a park. Kenner said the park will be an amenity for the entire area, including the neighboring Calico Ridge.
"In this area, we feel we're the jewel or the thing to be looked at," Kenner said, in response to some of the criticisms lobbed by neighbors concerning the project. "The people on Calico Ridge have nice custom homes, but when you look at the amenities, all they have is their house. They are going to be glad to be associated with us."
Kenner added that it is interesting to note that when Palm City was first proposed, it was the Calico Ridge residents who voiced support for the project to the City Council because the area had an industrial zoning designation. Recently, however, the neighbors have voiced concerns about the density of the project and increased traffic, among other worries.
Kenner said Rhodes traded the city for two pieces of property -- one 2-acre parcel that is zoned commercial and is located across from the Good Humor/Bryers ice cream plant, which he said most likely will be home to some type of convenience store.
Another piece of property that the city with swapped Rhodes was the 80 acres on which the entrance sits. Rhodes agreed to pay an additional $1.7 million in the trade to provide a buffer at the north end of the development between homes and the former city landfill. And just east of the former city property, Rhodes is purchasing 30 acres from BMI to complete the project.
Sunset Road, which currently ends at Pabco Road, will be extended around the edge of the project to form its southern and eastern boundaries. Because it will parallel Olsen Street, Kenner said there has been discussion with the city to combine the two thoroughfares in the future.
"The city's concern is that if we don't combine Sunset and Olsen, it will have this appearance that it didn't look like it was properly designed," he said.
City Councilman Dave Wood is responsible for the ward in which Palm City and neighboring Calico Ridge lie.
He said that while Palm City's neighbors have expressed concern about density, they have met with the developer and they do not have a lot of issues with the residential development. "They are more concerned about the industrial development on their border," he said.
The Calico Ridge Homeowners Association is currently in arbitration with the owners of the industrially zoned property that lies between their homes and the Palm City development with the city acting as an arbitrator.
Wood said the city's concerns about Palm City are twofold. "What are the building on and where are the sources of the contamination? If the land they are sitting on is contaminated, they are going to have to deal with it.
"The health and safety of existing residents is most important to us when it comes to new projects and quality of life," he said.
He added that the state seems to have resolved a certain amount of the issues surrounding the Palm City project at this point.
"From the design it appears to be a great project," he said. "I've taken a tour of some of the stuff that Rhodes has done on the west side (of the valley) and it is very attractive. I think it would integrate nicely into the ambiance of Calico Ridge, but they have to address environmental concerns first."
Although the tentative map is approved, the developer still has to go through the approval process on each portion of the project as it progresses, Wood said. "The tentative map is the end product and all those little steps in between."
And that's in part where the city comes in. Despite the fact that all of the tentative maps for the Palm City master plan have been approved -- with the exception of six parcels -- by city planners and the council, the maps are only the first step in a long process, said David Norris, city planner.
The tentative map is conceptually what the project will look like, but the city's public works department must sign off on grading, compaction, flood concerns and quality control.
Norris added that the six parcels awaiting approval are adjacent to Sunset and include four single-family developments and two apartment sites.
"That means everything else in the master plan in terms of residential has been approved," he said. "The golf course and the maintenance facility have use permits, but the clubhouse is pending and so is the entry structure."
Norris said a use permit and the architectural review for a sewer lift station have been submitted and will go to the Planning Commission for approval.
The applications for the apartment sites and on three out of the six parcels are on hold partially because of the Sunset Road alignment has not been approved and because it is involved in the Citizens Advisory Committee's review of Calico Ridge.
Norris added that the city also is waiting for some final numbers on a traffic analysis to pinpoint where the entry will be located.
Hughes added that the tentative maps also must be signed off on by the state.
"But as far as we know, from a planning and zoning and normal review process, we are proceeding with this project as we would any other large project," she said.
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