Residents waiting for next curve

Leery homeowners who live on the east edge of Las Vegas' massive Town Center property are bracing for another crucial Clark County decision that will affect their lifestyle.

The county's Public Works Department is completing traffic studies to determine which of three designs for Durango Drive -- the main road into the 2,000-acre business development -- will herd commuters into Town Center most efficiently.

Residents' preferences depend on where they live.

The road will link northbound El Capitan Way and Durango Drive, which currently ends at Centennial Parkway, to create a new thoroughfare for Town Center. While some homeowners support a route along existing rights of way that would spare their homes -- called a C-shaped route for a curve that would take traffic from Durango to Centennial -- others say an S-shaped design that would displace 11 homes would accommodate more motorists and reduce the chance of traffic jams.

The C-shaped route would shepherd motorists north on Durango, west onto Centennial Parkway -- along a C-shaped curve -- then north on El Capitan Way into the primarily commercial project.

Critics fear the design -- with a left turn onto Centennial -- will back up drivers, who would eventually invent shortcuts through parking lots or even quiet neighborhoods.

"The C-curve will only complicate things up there," Don Dickson, a Bonita Vista Street resident, said. "What we really need to do is get cars in and out of there and keep them away from the residential areas."

The S-shaped curve would be a continuous road through neighborhoods west of Durango, sweeping north to El Capitan.

The third option would be to stay with the current streets.

Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone said Friday that if the commissioners choose the S-shaped design, the county and the Regional Transportation Commission likely will be responsible for buying 11 homes that stand in the way.

Complicating matters was the county board's decision last week to change the zoning of a 30-acre Gilbert Development parcel from rural to commercial.

Five of the 11 homes that would be affected by the S-shaped road sit in pockets of land within the 30 acres.

In addition, the commission had guaranteed residents that businesses would stay within the Town Center boundaries.

Because of the commercial zoning, the value of the residents' property -- now at about $50,000 per half acre -- increases by as much as tenfold.

Malone said about six other homeowners would find themselves living next door to the new road, and they, too, should be compensated through the Transportation Commission's "willing seller-willing buyer" program.

Under that program, the RTC buys homes from owners who were there before the road was planned and sold to residents who agree to the course of the planned thoroughfare, knowing how it will affect their new home, Malone said.

"I'm skeptical," Malone said of the S-shaped plan. "I'm hoping the RTC will work with residents, but until I see it on paper, I think it's the worst alignment."

James Veltman of Veltman Consulting Services said the S-curve is best for the region, because it can move 12,000 motorists a day smoothly through the northwest. The C-shaped road would accommodate 3,000 cars a day, he said.

"To get there we will have to take a property or two," he said. "They just have to bite their tongue to save the rest of their neighborhood."

Veltman, who appears to have most commissioners siding with him, said planners focused on Durango for the new arterial, because it's the only north-south road in the northwest that stretches from one section of the Las Vegas Beltway to another.

Malone said residents in the way of the new route are not opposed to the S-shaped road as long as they are compensated accordingly.

But given the commission's decision to rezone Gilbert's property after guaranteeing that businesses would stay within Town Center, homeowners are skeptical.

"Malone has been supportive and knowledgeable about what is going on, but I don't know if the other commissioners are," resident Louise Ruskamp said. "Most commissioners look at Town Center as a city thing. Town Center was created because the beltway is going through there and the beltway is a county project."

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