Titus 'furious' over county efforts to sink growth bill

CARSON CITY -- Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, says she's "furious" over efforts by Clark County to sink her growth bill that requires impact studies of major projects on such things as traffic, water and sewer before construction is started.

"They get mad when I call them a do-nothing commission," Titus said. "Well, here's some evidence they don't want anything done" to manage growth.

Titus deleted a section of the bill that the county objected to, and that was the last thing she heard until Thursday, she said.

Her statement came after Lesa Coder of the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Agency told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee that the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition opposed Senate Bill 191.

The bill requires developers of "projects of significant impact" in the Las Vegas urban growth zone to provide "impact statements" on such things as the additional traffic that will be generated, water and sewer needs, drainage capacity and emergency services such as police and firemen.

The local government must determine if it will be able to provide these added services. If not, it must not approve the project.

Projects to be reviewed would be planned developments of 500 or more units; hotel-casinos with 300 rooms or more, a business generating more than 3,000 daily vehicle trips or a nonresidential development encompassing more than 160 acres.

Coder said the planning coalition felt it should be setting the thresholds in deciding the size of the projects to be reviewed. And she suggested the bill would prompt suits challenging the decisions of the local governments, which might have different standards.

"We think the thresholds could be challenged by competitors," she said, adding that there would be less question if a body representing more agencies had the same criteria. The coalition represents units of local government.

Coder said she was pleased that Titus eliminated a section in the bill giving an aggrieved party the right to sue.

After the hearing, Titus challenged Coder's representation that the coalition voted to oppose the bill. She later produced the minutes of a coalition meeting, which did not show any vote in opposition to the bill.

Titus said the either the coalition doesn't want anything done or "else the planner from Clark County is misrepresenting them. I don't know which it is, but neither situation is not very good."

This bill does not create a new bureaucracy and does not get the state involved in local planning. It does not require regional conformity, and it doesn't put a burden on developers, she said.

Titus said SB191 "codifies" what is already being done by local governments to "varying degrees."

She said it does not require a "cumbersome" impact study but allows local governments in Southern Nevada to determine if they have the infrastructure sufficient to meet the growth."

The committee did not take any action on her bill. But it approved Senate Bill 394 that lets the state join federal and local governments, tribes and property owners in protecting unique archaeological or historical sites.

Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, who authored the bill, said it is aimed at preserving 320 acres near Sloan, which is still used as a religious site by Indian tribes.

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