Town Center in middle of debate

Many frustrated Las Vegas homeowners expressed their concerns to Ward 4 City Councilman Larry Brown at a town meeting Wednesday evening on a proposed zoning plan for the Town Center Project.

The meeting was held in response to a Las Vegas City Council meeting Monday that released standards for the future Town Center, to be located in the northwest sector of the city around U.S. Highway 95 and the future Las Vegas Beltway. The plan was introduced following a moratorium enacted in February on new planning in that area.

The Town Center, as conceived in 1996, would cover 2,002 acres. The area's proposed size at buildout is 2,600 acres. The center will be made up of high-density housing and commercial businesses concentrated in one area.

"We are trying to eliminate commercial encroachment in residential areas so you don't have a mini-mart on every corner," Brown said. "There is nothing of this size and scope anywhere else in the valley."

The project has been an ongoing battle between the residents of Timber Lake and the future Town Center.

Many residents of Timber Lake, a family housing development on Deer Springs Way and Durango Drive, said that when they bought their homes, many with horse ranches, they were not informed of the Town Center project concept. Now some are angry that this quiet neighborhood will be sitting in the middle of Town Center, surrounded by businesses and shopping districts.

A resident of Timber Lake who asked to remain anonymous said she was not told by America West realty agents that a commercial area would border her neighborhood when she signed a contract for her home last September. Timber Lake will be bordered on all sides by apartments.

"My main concern is that they didn't tell me when I bought the property. I could have moved anywhere in the city, I picked Timber Lake because it would be a great place to raise my child ... now I am going to be living underneath a freeway," she said.

Town Center will be clustered around a future 60-foot-high interchange, similar in construction to the Las Vegas Spaghetti Bowl.

"I think the perceptions are what is the problem," Jim Veltman, consultant for Town Center, said. "People thought they were living in a horse-ranch area, but they really were living in estate homes ... built next to the future Town Center."

Brown said the goal of the Town Center project is to preserve the residential lifestyle in the northwest. But Las Vegas resident Bob Lacker, who has lived on a one-acre estate at Tenaya Way and Centennial Parkway since 1992, says developers are doing just the opposite.

"They are taking over our property, taking away the rights of the citizens," he said. "Our community is only going to go down the tubes. I don't want to live in city life."

Town Center will border Lacker's backyard, so his neighborhood will be surrounded by apartments and a beltway.

"I didn't buy my home to have commercial building in my backyard. I don't know who's benefiting from Town Center, but I'm not. I'm losing," he said.

Gail Shiels, who lives on Azure Drive, agrees. "They might as well as have bought us all out."

In the draft proposal, landscaped avenues and parkways and walkable neighborhoods are included to help keep the areas residential, with nearly 200 acres already planned for parks and open space, Brown said.

The center will also contribute 100,000 jobs. It is projected that 25 to 30 percent of those jobs will be filled by residents of the northwest sector.

"We want to create employment nodes so residents don't have to travel to the Strip or downtown to work," Brown said.

He said at a news conference earlier Wednesday that he recognizes the conflict with the residents of Timber Lake, but he said he welcomes their criticism.

"I think we have to deal with criticism, we have to acknowledge there are conflicts with existing areas. The tone (at the public meeting), even if it is hostile, is welcomed because it can lead to solutions. Those are the people we want to hear from."

The full build-out could take 15 to 20 years to complete, but construction will begin this year, Brown said.

Numerous town meetings have been scheduled to discuss the issue. The Las Vegas Planning Commission will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. July 23 at Las Vegas City Hall, 400 E. Stewart Ave. The City Council will hold a public hearing at 2 p.m. Aug. 10, also at City Hall.

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