Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Some Scotch 80s residents want gated community

The Scotch 80s has a history of residents as colorful as its name, including Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and entertainer Jerry Lewis, and a present as an island of luxury in the midst of what urban planners call a transitional area. Some residents say a major reason the neighborhood retained its value through the '90s, as the valley boomed and upscale mansions on the edges of the city drew wealthy home buyers, was because it closed off several streets and limited access to a few entrances.

"We had people clocked at 60 mph," said Danny Piper, president of the Scotch 80s Homeowners Association. Now, he said, pointing to the tree-shaded street in front of his home, "do you see any traffic? It's a lovely, quiet place to live."

That was a first step, he said, that helped increase the quality of life -- and the property values -- of homes in the neighborhood. But as the city grows, and pressure builds in established neighborhoods, he said, some of the problems, crime and traffic, are coming back, and the next step in preserving the Scotch 80s is to gate the community.

"I want it to be a good place to live, and I know there's going to be controversy," said Piper. "But I love my neighborhood, and I'm going to fight for it."

Gated communities are not new in the Las Vegas Valley, but gating an existing neighborhood has happened only once before in the city of Las Vegas, officials said. It involves issues of public access, neighbors' rights if they don't want to join the homeowners' association, and the cost of street maintenance, as well as the broader social issues of walling off communities within a greater collective.

"Any time you talk about vacating public streets, not in their entirety, you're creating issues of access and so forth," said city of Las Vegas Planning Director Bob Genzer. "A lot of folks feel their property is more secure if they're within a walled or gated community. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's something you hear people say.

"You have others who say 'We moved into this area because we have open access, if we wanted to move into a gated community we would have.' It really comes down to a personal decision," Genzer said. "If you're starting from scratch, you're out looking for a house, you make a decision about what type of community you want to live in. That's the toughest part, I think ... going from one environment to the other."

The Scotch 80s proposal is not new. Residents tried to gate the last two entrances in 1997, but dropped the proposal in early 1998. The gates would seal the neighborhood, which earlier in the decade received city approval to block off entrances at Oakey and Westwood, Oakey and Birch, and at the ends of Silver, Crescent Circle and Bannie.

Piper said he's heard two versions of how the subdivision got its name: In one, a man from Scotland owned the land, and made the buyer go to Scotland to close the deal, in the other, the land was owned by a man from Scotland, and when he had to place a name on the subdisivion, simply called it after his home country.

The neighborhood itself is bounded by Oakey, Rancho, Charleston, and Martin Luther King, with the Saratoga Estates community wedged into the northeast corner between the Scotch 80s and Interstate 15.

The gates would be placed at Waldman Avenue just east of Rancho, and at Shadow Lane just south of Ellis.

Ward 1 Councilwoman Janet Moncrief, who represents the area, said if questions about how to pay for street maintenance and about whether there is room for proper turnarounds in front of the gates can be worked out, it could be a good deal for the city.

"I don't see any negatives," she said, noting that residents of 100 of the neighborhood's 123 homes have signed a petition supporting the proposal. "If I can work with them and it is the large majority of the (neighborhood) and they want it and it will save taxpayer money, then I'm all for it."

Under the proposal, residents would charge themselves about $100 a month, and take over maintenance of the tree-lined avenues and street maintenance, said Piper. The payments would be voluntary.

Moncrief said the proposal is unique.

"I haven't had another neighborhood come to me that wants their neighborhood guard-gated and has the resources to do it and has the signatures they need," Moncrief said. "I'd look at any neighborhood that has everything in order like Scotch 80s has."

She said when she brought the issue up with Goodman, he said he could not discuss it because he lives in the neighborhood. He reiterated that Thursday, saying it would be inappropriate for him to discuss it one way or the other.

Although a formal application has not yet been filed, Piper said the neighborhood hired civil engineers to do all the studies required by the city, looking at traffic counts and even drainage about six years ago.

Besides traffic, he also said he was worried about crime in the neighborhood. Police statistics available on the Internet indicate three burglaries and two unspecified disturbances since August within the neighborhood; when the radius is widened to include an area within a half mile from the center of the Scotch 80s, the statistics show 18 accidents, seven assaults, 10 burglaries, four fights, 36 unspecified disturbances, three robberies and eight stolen vehicles.

O.C. White, city traffic engineer, said the city often closes streets, but rarely to the extent of blocking off a neighborhood so it can gate the entrances. He gave a couple of examples of where streets have been closed for safety reasons:

He also mentioned the neighborhood that successfully petitioned the city to be gated, north of where Alta and Campbell meet.

"In that case, there were like 15 streets, not very long, that they asked to be responsible for, and they took over maintenance and operation," White said.

When asked if closing streets was a growing trend, he said that most new subdivisions are coming in as private streets. Existing neighborhoods, he said, are increasingly inquiring about closing themselves off, but "when we explain to do that they have to be willing to maintain and operate the streets ... sometimes that kind of has them not wanting to move forward."

Genzer said his department has been talking to Scotch 80s representatives, but they haven't yet made a formal application.

"The main thing for us, we don't actually have an application in front of us. That's something that needs to be emphasized," he said.

He said the neighborhood hasn't received 100 percent approval from property owners. He also said that when the street is vacated, it goes to the property owner, who may not want to assume the responsibility or turn it over to the association. Also, the neighborhood association would need a special use permit to take over the vacated streets.

"To now be able to do this, we have to do some type of ordinance amendment, and we really haven't gotten very far into that yet," Genzer said.

He said any neighborhood willing to take over maintenance costs of the streets, with a plan for how to do it, can file an application with the city to close its roads to the general public.

"We certainly don't encourage it," he said. "I'm not aware of any others attempting to do it at the present time."

Genzer said he started noticing an increase in gated communities in Las Vegas in the last 10-15 years, as more national builders got into the market. He said his office has 150 neighborhoods listed as gated in the city of Las Vegas.

Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research Inc., said gates have become almost a standard feature in new developments, especially apartment and duplexes.

"People as they move into nicer neighborhoods, they want that sense of security, and gates will not only be a requirement from amenities standpoint ... it's a standard feature in virtually any type of home that's priced almost, today I think you could say anything over $200,000," Smith said. "And even under -- almost all your townhomes and condos will be gated. It's almost getting to the point where it's a rare that a new community is not gated."

Piper said that was one reason many people moved out of the Scotch 80s in the early to mid-1990s, and could be a reason why many people move in.

"The people who moved to Summerlin, to Spanish Trail ... they're sitting in traffic for an hour every day," Piper said. Scotch 80s is "10 minutes from everywhere," he said. "I'm proud we have a beautiful neighborhood in the middle of the city."

archive