Council sets limit on changes to general plan

Las Vegas residents interested in growth in their neighborhood will now need to follow only four City Council meetings a year to make sure planned developments are built as designed and approved.

An ordinance adopted unanimously Monday limits the number of times the city's general plan can be amended to four annually.

The final bill was a compromise between homeowner associations' requests for biannual hearings and developers' requests for six or more hearings a year.

The council has been holding about 60 such hearings a year -- making the general plan less a zoning blueprint and more a work in progress.

Under the compromise reached Monday, developers building in any of the city's four wards can request zoning variances at any of the four meetings.

Edward Lubbers, an attorney representing the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association, said four hearings a year was acceptable provided the ordinance comes up for review in one year.

"I'd be happy to review it in a year," said Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, the bill's sponsor.

Under an amendment designed by Councilman Gary Reese, developers can have requests for amendments held in abeyance only one time, eliminating the possibility of items being shelved indefinitely.

The new ordinance will allow the city's Planning and Development Department more time to work on other projects, instead of constantly having to prepare data for hearings on requested variances to city ordinances.

Residents had requested such an ordinance after finding it increasingly difficult to follow planned developments in their neighborhoods because, in some cases, meetings were being held on the plans every two weeks.

In Ward 4 -- the area of the city's most growth -- 17 requests for general-plan amendments have been made already this year.

In one 2-square-mile area encompassed by Charleston Boulevard, Sahara Avenue, Rainbow Boulevard and Durango Drive, there have been 29 amendment requests since the general plan was created in 1992.

Sonya Douglass, spokeswoman for the Planning and Development Department, said the ordinance will ensure that the general plan remains a "vision for where the city wants to go."

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