Northern development key to NLV state of the city

The future of North Las Vegas is riding on 7,500 acres and a continued increase in commercial and industrial development.

That's what Mayor Michael Montandon says he will announce in his upcoming state of the city address.

The city and the Chamber of Commerce will co-host the third annual State of the City luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 21 in the Cashman Field Center, 850 Las Vegas Blvd. North. The keynote speaker will be Matthew Young, Home Depot district manager.

The city's efforts in the new year will be concentrated on working with the Bureau of Land Management to find a developer for 7,500 acres of empty desert on its north side, Montandon said.

"The BLM process ... from planning and through actually orchestrating the auction ... will take all of 1999," he said.

City officials want to see the property, which is being sold under new federal legislation, to be sold to the highest bidder in one chunk.

"We will plan the entire 7,500 acres," he said, ranging from right-of-ways to police and fire stations to parks. "That way, in order to create a quality community up there, we won't have to have any additional zoning authority to create this project."

Montandon, who added he would outline the details of the process in his address, said he would not sacrifice the project as a whole if, for example, a 100-acre parcel were sold off separately.

Consistent zoning has been one of Montandon's goals since he took office.

"I feel the council has done a good job of planning," he said. "I believe we have denied more projects than we have approved."

While the city's estimated population grew at 14.7 percent in 1998, Montandon reported its assessed value grew by 30 percent thanks to commercial development -- the city's cornerstone.

Despite the commercial growth, it takes several years before those tax dollars show up in the city's budget because of the approximate 1 1/2-year lag time between when the city issues a building permit and the commercial development opens its doors for business, according to the mayor.

"Where for a long time we were growing residentially, now we're getting the Home Depots, the Targets and the Wal-Marts," he said, adding the commercial development will help the city get ahead of the curve when it comes to building additional parks, police substations and fire stations. "We're behind, we know that."

But it is attempting to catch up. The city saw two new parks to fruition in 1998 -- Theron Goynes and Richard Tam -- and plans call for the completion of a 24-acre park this year at the southeast corner of Centennial Parkway and Clayton Street.

archive