Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Development limits proposed

Public meetings on Red Rock zoning will be at 7 p.m. Monday at Blue Diamond Community Recreation Hall, and 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Gardens Community Center,10401 Garden Park Drive, Summerlin.

After neighbors' objections stopped an effort to build thousands of homes overlooking Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, a movement has begun to curb future large-scale development on private land within the area.

County staffers have proposed an ordinance that would not stop all development, but would restrict the density of new residential subdivisions with more than 10 homes.

The draft ordinance also would prohibit homes within 600 feet of the eastern and western ridgelines on top of Blue Diamond Hill, the mountain immediately south of the Red Rock scenic loop in the heart of the conservation area.

New homes would have to be built on an average of two acres, or 500 homes on 1,000 acres.

Two public hearings on the new ordinance will be held next week.

The hilltop was the focus of a battle between conservationists and developer John Laing Homes this year. The developer had plans in hand to build more than 8,000 homes on top of 3,000-acre Blue Diamond Hill, but withdrew the plans after stiff community resistance.

During the contentious process of reviewing the development plans, Commissioners Erin Kenny and Dario Herrera both suggested looking at additional protections for the area, based upon similar land-use rules affecting national parks in other parts of the country.

Although not technically a national park, the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is widely considered the jewel of the federal recreational lands near Las Vegas.

With 1.2 million visitors yearly, Red Rock is one of the area's favorite destinations.

County planner Dave Carlson said his agency is still waiting for feedback from the public.

"We're going out to the public to seek comment and input from everyone in the area, as well as the general community," he said.

James Hardie Gypsum, an Australia-based multinational company, has mined land in the area for 80 years. Colliers International, an international commercial real estate firm, represented the $50 million deal that would have turned the property over to the developer -- if the developer had gotten approval from the Clark County Commission.

Colliers Senior Vice President Mike Mixer said his company will take a close look at the new ordinance and welcomes opportunities to speak on the issue. He said the restrictions "at first blush" do not appear insurmountable.

But Evan Blythin, chairman of the Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council, said people living in his small community of Blue Diamond are generally pleased with the proposed ordinance.

The council advises the Clark County Commission on land use issues affecting the Blue Diamond and Red Rock areas and was a focal point for resistance to the John Laing Homes proposal.

"The Clark County staff has, I think, done a beautiful job working on it," Blythin said. "Everyone so far has been pretty much for it.

"It's a march toward the ultimate goal of protecting it all."

Carlson said the draft ordinance would protect scenic vistas for people in the Las Vegas Valley and on Blue Diamond Road. But the ordinance probably would not stop development that could be visible from the Red Rock scenic loop.

"I don't see how you could have development without including that area" on the north side of Blue Diamond Hill, he said, although the topographic work continues.

Carlson's boss at the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Department, Director John Schlegel, said the county has proposed an answer: The federal government could buy the entire 3,000-acre property from James Hardie Gypsum and include it in the national conservation area.

The county has nominated the land for purchase under the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. But the federal Bureau of Land Management, which would have to take ownership of the property, does not want it.

"We are very, very hesitant," BLM spokesman Phil Guerrero said. "The problem is reclamation. We've got a lot of mined-out land up there and it would be very expensive to reclaim. Who knows how much it would cost?"

Schlegel said despite the protestations of the federal agency, the county will continue to pursue the option.

One group would like to see the federal government take over the mining area.

"We would be real happy about that," said Tom Pfaendler, president of Friends of Red Rock, the volunteer group committed to improving the conservation area. "We as an organization would embrace that, would encompass that as an area to care for."

Pfaendler said his group does not take a formal position on development of the area, although he personally -- and many of those active with the group -- do not want to see intense residential development on top of Blue Diamond Hill.

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