Panel pursues job base to support city's growth

Despite being the fastest growing city in the country and almost half the size of Las Vegas, Henderson can't seem to shake its reputation as a bedroom community.

For years, a group of Henderson volunteers has huddled in a city conference room trying to figure out how to change the city's image. They're confident they have finally come up with a solution.

The city needs to create more jobs.

Manny Gomez, chairman of Henderson's Citizens Advisory Committee, said only 9 percent of the city's 160,000 residents work in the community -- and that's an improvement from a year ago.

"If development were to stop right now, we'd have a big city with a lot of homes and a lot of services to provide and not a big tax base," Gomez, president of the engineering firm Gomez Consulting Group, said.

Two years after the advisory committee was assembled by the Henderson City Council, it submitted a 180-page comprehensive plan offering recommendations on how best to develop the community.

Introduced in the economic-development portion of the plan is a new concept that Gomez is confident will lay to rest the city's bedroom-community image. The group created employment centers -- areas designated for commercial and industrial businesses.

"Each center is unique and has its own character," Gomez said. "It affords this community a tremendous opportunity to get some employment and increase the city's tax base."

Zoning in the designated employment areas is designed to support existing businesses. For example, the group envisions warehouses and professional offices adjacent to the Henderson Executive Airport.

"These areas were not selected lightly; they were researched by the committee," Gomez said. "We looked at available resources and transportation, access to highways and airports."

After the committee finished its report, it began revisiting the city's 20 neighborhood planning areas. Gomez said the group is in the process of putting more detailed recommendations in the report.

It's most recent report -- on the North Pittman planning area -- was accepted by the Henderson City Council last week. But the committee's task and subsequent plan weren't completed without controversy.

In the North Pittman area, the citizens committee said it wanted to see more landscaping around industrial buildings to buffer the often plain, metal-sided buildings from homes across the street.

Franklin Miller, president of Sescom Inc., took exception to the new conditions, saying what matters to his customers is what happens on the inside of his building.

Miller, whose company makes equipment for major television networks, said he attended six citizens committee meetings and claimed the group wasn't interested in creating jobs.

"They said nothing about creating jobs," Miller said. "It was always about what this looks like or that looks like."

Miller said the city's setback laws hurt businesses. He said businesses in a designated industrial area shouldn't be required to have 25 feet of landscaping between the building and the street.

"I get five customers a year," Miller said. "My image to the world is in my product. That's what counts, not putting grass and trees in front and watering them."

He argued that his is the type of business the city should strive to keep and help grow. If he has to install landscaping, his profits will shrink.

"The area needs more businesses like mine," Miller said. "If the gaming and tourism industry in this town begins to struggle, my business will not falter."

Henderson resident Bob Swadell also complained to the council that the citizens committee was anti-business and said its landscaping recommendation for industrial areas was ludicrous.

"I don't think these 30-foot rock gardens with two dead cactuses charm anybody," he said.

Gomez said his 15 committee members, seven of whom have operated or are operating their own businesses, know they can't please everyone. All they can do is consider the public's suggestions and concerns during their meetings.

"The product is never going to be perfect when the process includes consensus and public participation," Gomez said. "But it's the best process we have."

Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said the recommendations made in reports to the City Council are not set standards. The council will use the report as a guide when making decisions on developments.

The Citizens Advisory Committee meets at 6 p.m. the first and third Wednesdays of the month in the mayor's conference room, 240 Water St. The public is invited to attend.

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