Rural lifestyle under siege by progress in Enterprise

Ellen Skinner and other homeowners in Enterprise Township believe they live in the last rural bastion of the Las Vegas Valley.

And they want to keep it that way.

But residents who have called their corner of unincorporated Clark County home for more than a decade are losing their voice to newer homeowners -- those moving into high-density developments springing up on both sides of the Interstate 15 corridor in the southern end of the Las Vegas Valley.

"They don't have a stake," said Skinner, vice president of the Enterprise Residents' Association, of the new neighbors who live on postage-stamp sized lots rather than acres. "They don't care."

That balance of power is bound to only get worse because Enterprise is the fastest-growing area in the county.

Skinner and Steve Small, the other vice president for the association, were among those who expressed their concerns Wednesday night at the Enterprise Town Board meeting, where Assistant County Manager Bonnie Rinaldi answered questions about an interlocal agreement approved earlier this month by the county and Henderson.

The agreement -- the first of its kind -- came after the residents protested loudly a plan by Henderson to annex about 1,400 acres of the township. The city agreed to drop several heavily populated sections when it eventually makes its annexation move as part of the pact, which pledges that county and Henderson planners will work together to develop the area.

Instead of pursuing annexation north of Lake Mead Drive, the city has the county's blessing to attempt to annex about 6,000 acres primarily south of Lake Mead Drive, including acreage in the Bureau of Land Management Disposal Area.

The city also wants to annex township Sections 26 and 34, which now are virtually unpopulated.

But the residents still feel that even that compromise will not protect them. They figure that once Henderson has annexed those two areas, the city will come back for more. So they feel it's time to draw a line in the desert.

It is Section 26 that has Skinner concerned. About 300 homes have already been built there. That's 300 new homeowners she is afraid won't protest the annexation.

However, Rinaldi said she thinks it will be difficult for the city to annex that section, unlike Section 34, owned by a single developer.

The earliest the city can pursue any annexation proposal is this summer, following municipal elections, according to Rinaldi. State law says a city cannot initiate annexation proceedings within 90 days of a general election.

Rinaldi explained that the county has no control over a city's annexation attempts. Cities don't need the county's permission to bring unincorporated areas into their boundaries.

"The city just has to provide notice to the property owners," she said.

So it's up to the property owners. If there is no protest from 51 percent of the landowners with a combination of the most total acreage and assessed value, the city can successfully annex the property. That means in the case of the Henderson annexation proposal, the BLM, which will not protest the proposal, or a developer that owns a large piece of property could override the wishes of all the other property owners in the area.

Township Board Chairman John Hiatt said there was some confusion that the interlocal agreement also approved the annexation. He and Rinaldi assured residents that was not the case.

The interlocal agreement does, however, address joint land-use planning, future corporation agreements and transportation planning in Enterprise Township and along shared boundaries.

"No one has done any roadway planning out here," she said. "For the first time ever, we are working with the state and the city to plan an arterial network, which we didn't have at all in the northwest (part of the valley)."

Rinaldi tried to assure Enterprise residents that the agreement will prevent a battle between the city and property owners. It also shows state leaders that local governments can work together on regional issues, she said.

"We wanted to keep the state off our back," she said.

Rinaldi said Henderson and the county have agreed to notify each other of zone changes in the proposed annexation area, which goes as far north as Silverado Ranch, no farther west than Las Vegas Boulevard South, no farther east than Eastern Avenue and as far south as the BLM Disposal Area.

The two entities also have agreed to borderless sewer and water systems.

"We (county) wanted to keep the relationship because we have some big investments in water and sewer lines," Rinaldi said.

archive