Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Major park project will be boon to horse riders

The first part of what could ultimately be 150 acres of parkland for people and their horses received approval from Clark County on Wednesday.

The Clark County Commission reclassified 7 1/2 acres about a mile southwest of the intersection of Interstate 215 and Interstate 15 from residential to public facility. The move allows the Parks and Community Services Department to go forward with plans that would combine about five acres of a traditional park with a couple of acres suitable for horses and trailers.

But the little neighborhood, Western Trails Park, would be the keystone of a much larger system designed to serve the riding needs of horse owners in the still largely rural area, according to Clark County's early plans.

Jeff Harris, parks planning manager, said the $2.7 million park at Warm Springs Road and Rogers Street should be open in 12 to 18 months. The park is a small part of a larger checkboard of land that Harris' department has assembled in the area.

A much larger, 80-acre parcel is slated to become a community park. Tying those two parks together would be about 70 acres with designated bridle paths.

Harris said the county already owns all of the land, most of it former Bureau of Land Management property, but the cost, timetable and design details for the larger project aren't available yet. He said those decisions won't be made until the county has the funding for the park development.

"The first part is to do the park (at Warm Springs and Rogers)," he said. "Someone can trailer their horse to that site, they can get off and ride their horses.

"Then they can come back, tie up their horses and have a picnic."

Although the park would be welcomed by horse enthusiasts, the 7 1/2 acres approved Wednesday also will provide recreational opportunities for children. The top two-thirds of the park will be for people only, Harris said.

"It's a small neighborhood park in an area where there are absolutely no park facilities for miles," he said. "It will give them a place for children to play and also give access to the bridle paths."

Horse riders already have blazed paths throughout much of the rural area, and the park at Warm Springs and Rogers will serve as a starting and ending point as soon as it opens, Harris said.

Dan Bamberry, who with his wife owns a couple of horses about a block from the planned park, is one of the neighborhood activists who worked with the parks department to establish Western Trails.

"We started in February 2000," said Bamberry, who wore a cowboy hat to speak for the park at the county commission meeting. "You might think of this as a rest area, or a trailhead."

Neighbors have put their own money into the project. Steve Capps, a resident and small business owner, said horse owners have purchased about $15,000 worth of fencing and other materials to make the circular training areas and fencing the park will ultimately have.

Capps said the project will help preserve a rural lifestyle even as development springs up a few miles to the north, south and east.

"We want to keep the rural way we live in now," he said.

Richard Marriotti, an architect who put the early designs of the first 7 1/2 acres to paper, said the project would help keep the area horse-friendly. It also makes sense because it will preserve nearby rural preservation areas, which many residents throughout the Las Vegas Valley have seen whittled away by encroaching development, he said.

But not everyone at the county meeting supported the new park.

Larry de Angelo, a neighbor, objected to the trailer area, which he said would bring horses and traffic close to his home. But de Angelo was the only speaker against the park.

About four dozen people attended the meeting to support the horse park. Many, like Bamberry, wore their cowboy hats and boots or sported stickers advertising their support of the project.

One of those was Lou Godino, president of the Horse Council of Nevada. Godino lives about three miles away from the new neighborhood park, and horse council members live throughout the region.

But the issue was important for riders through Las Vegas, he said.

"Its not just a neighborhood thing," Gordino said. "There's a trail system that's being built throughout the county."

He hopes that the little park approved Wednesday will grow even beyond the 150 acres of recreation area planned by the parks department. Eventually, Gordino and other horse council members want to see a network of horse trails that connects at least the entire west side of the urban area.

He pointed out that much of the land nearby is included in the McCarran International Airport cooperative management area, which restricts residential development. That means thousands of acres are destined to become commercial, industrial or recreational land. Gordino believes that will leave room for horse trails throughout.

"The trail system in the park could be part of the larger trail system," he said.

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