Mobile home park project rejected by planners

The Clark County Planning Commission has rejected a developer's request to build a 124-unit mobile home park near the Las Vegas Wash behind Sam Boyd Stadium.

But the opposition to the plan did not come from the fact that it is next to the entrance of the environmentally sensitive Wetlands Park, which is being developed to protect the plants in the wash that naturally filter water on its way to Lake Mead.

Instead the plan drew more practical objections: The park is in a 100-year flood plain, and the water table under the property is in some cases only inches from the surface, pointed out neighbors bearing a petition with 60 signatures of people who opposed the project. Citing the same objections, the Whitney Town Advisory Board also voted to oppose the project.

The developer doesn't want to landscape the mobile home park, county parks officials noted, and that is not consistent with its proximity to the Wetlands Park entrance.

Not only that, county planning staff said, the property is within a mile of the Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, and the county usually restricts residential developments near sewage treatment plants.

Michael Loudermilk, representing Tropicana Hollywood, had asked the planning commission to change the zoning of the property near the eastern end of Tropicana Avenue from rural-residential to mobile home park, and he asked for a variance to eliminate the landscaping requirement.

The Planning Commission voted 4-1 to deny the rezoning and variance request. The issue now goes to the Clark County Commissioners, who can decide to approve or deny the request.

"We bought this land in good faith 21 years ago," Loudermilk said. "Our intention then and still is to develop the land."

Loudermilk made his case to county planners, noting that nearby developments received favorable zoning changes from the county, and some of the neighbors speaking against the proposal lived in those developments. In addition, he said, his soil estimates found the water table 3 to 9 feet under the surface.

One lone voice supported Loudermilk's request: Gary McCall, a partner in Ryan LLC, which owns a 60-acre undeveloped tract immediately north of the Tropicana Hollywood property.

McCall noted the county approved developments in 1984 and 1986 with similar densities west and south of the Tropicana Hollywood property.

Housing has been allowed at nine units per acre to the south of the 20-acre property, and to the west the Tropicana Palms manufactured home park has 530 units at about seven units per acre. Wetlands Park is to the east, and Ryan LLC's undeveloped property, zoned rural residential, is to the north.

"To close the gate after they've allowed those guys to develop their property seems kind of unfair," McCall said.

"We're just asking for six (units) an acre," Loudermilk said. The company plans to fill to the land to bring it above the 100-year flood plain, he added.

Although the county Parks and Recreation Department's protest was confined to the landscaping issue, officials are acutely aware that what happens on the Tropicana Hollywood property will likely be felt in the Wetland Park next door.

Attempts to de-water the property, or pump out the ground water, could hurt the wetlands, Bruce Sillitoe, Parks and Recreation planner, said. The county would almost certainly have to require de-watering, county planners said in background documentation.

Sillitoe said Parks and Recreation discussed purchasing the 20 acres in question as well as the Ryan LLC tract to the north to act as a buffer for the park, but owners have been unwilling to sell. The problem, Sillitoe said, is that the owners wanted more than the department offered.

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