Traffic study to determine rural lifestyle

As politicians haggle over how they want northwest Clark County developed, longtime residents who cherish their rural lifestyle are engaging in a familiar battle: fending off growth.

Several homeowners faced Gilbert Development's attorney Wednesday, each trying to tell Clark County Commissioners how to align a planned thoroughfare that eventually will define the southwest boundary of Town Center.

During the contentious debate, commissioners whispered angrily to each other, argued loudly and publicly scoffed at colleagues' opinions.

After the hourlong discussion, members voted 6-1 to hold the item for 60 days so the developer can conduct a traffic analysis. Commissioner Mary Kincaid was the opposing vote.

Residents who have built custom homes on half-acre lots wondered what it would take to remain in a rural area. They learned Wednesday that not even a previous vote to keep them out of a commercial district is a guarantee.

"If the county comes up with a plan and everybody agrees with it, they have to stick with it," resident Owen Kline said.

Kline referred to an August meeting in which commissioners voted unanimously for a C-shaped thoroughfare that would connect Durango Drive to El Capitan Way and run almost parallel to Centennial Way.

The design of the road would keep residents in a desert preservation area, rather than thrusting them into Town Center -- a 2,000-acre project designated for commercial centers, high-density housing and single-family homes.

"This is very emotional for me because this is something I've been working on for a very, very long time," Commissioner Lance Malone, who has met regularly with residents in the northwest, said. "We made a commitment to these people, and we should stick to our guns."

At stake if the county chooses an S-shaped design of the thoroughfare -- which also will link Durango to El Capitan Way -- is about a dozen residents' homes. The C-shaped alignment would slice through a 30-acre parcel targeted to be commercial.

While residents prefer a C-shaped road, it would be financially harmful to Gilbert Development, which owns the 30-acre parcel that straddles the boundary.

The C-shaped road would leave less than one-fourth of the parcel inside the boundary -- where property is reportedly worth millions per acre. The remainder would be in a rural preserve area where, according to residents, property goes for $50,000 per half acre.

The S-shaped curve allows about three-fourths of the 30-acre parcel to sit inside the Town Center boundary.

But residents were hardly sympathetic to the developer.

"If we want to talk hardship, we can talk hardship," resident Michelle Ware said. "The developer has put money into this, that's his job. This isn't my job, it's my life. Keep our dreams alive."

The Lone Mountain Land Use Guide shows the Town Center boundary -- and the proposed road -- as an S-shaped design.

Several homes in the path of that alignment would be razed and several other homeowners who bought houses because of the rural setting would find themselves in the middle of commercial developments.

Malone said he would support the current S-shaped design, except nobody is willing to pay the homeowners for their property.

"If the developers want to develop there, then they should pay the price," Malone said. "If not, then the C-shaped alignment is perfectly acceptable."

He also recommended that the property where the Las Vegas Beltway slices through the region be left rural preservation, where only two homes can be built on an acre.

But Kincaid, who vehemently opposes the C-shaped route, said the property nearest to the Beltway should be designated for medium-density neighborhoods.

She argued that leaving it rural preservation -- as it is in the master plan -- would mislead potential homebuyers, who might think they are buying a home in a quiet area, only to find out it is a couple thousand feet from a major freeway.

"Unfortunately there are rural estates homes out there," Kincaid said. "If we leave it rural preservation, there will be more and more homes. And in 10 years, they're going to have a Spaghetti Bowl in their front yards."

While Public Works Director Marty Manning said the C-shaped road would accommodate traffic, the architect of the S-shaped design says his way is the only way.

When Town Center is built out in 20 years, officials expect it to have 300,000 residents, and it will provide an estimated 160,000 jobs in its commercial district.

James Veltman of Veltman Consulting Services said a C curve would handle 3,000 cars a day and would include two left-turn lanes and two right-turn lanes onto El Capitan.

"Until major development comes, that's fine," Veltman said. "But once major development comes, there will not be sufficient traffic flow through Town Center. Do you want to plan ahead or solve the problem later?"

He said motorists will resort to residential streets to avoid the backup.

"It might take a few houses, but I'd rather take them now and give everybody a good deal and get them out of the way. The people who will be moved into Town Center will come out smelling like a rose because developers will buy their land for the land, not their house."

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