Friday, Sept. 29, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.
Hoping to avoid a future of topsy-turvy growth and deteriorating quality of life - and to avoid repeating past missteps - a mix of town-and-gown leaders are mulling the creation of a visionary think tank to help guide Clark County into the future.
At stake, long-range planners say, is nothing less than the region's environmental, social and economic health - sometimes-competing interests that can too easily collide and jeopardize the region's attractiveness.
UNLV officials have been proposing such a think tank for some time, and now county officials also are concluding that it is a smart idea. Among the issues are who would operate the institute and how it would be funded. The proposal for now is mostly in the chatter stage.
Under discussion is a think tank that would look beyond the immediate planning for such issues as land use, environmental quality and public works .
The group would provide guidance to the region's elected leaders on how to prepare for myriad issues affecting the economy, housing and transportation needs, air and water quality, public safety, health care and other factors that will define the future quality of life.
"When you are growing as quickly as we are, somebody has to take a step back once in a while and give some thoughtful consideration of what our future should be and whether or not we can keep doing what we are doing and sustain our quality of life," County Commission Chairman Rory Reid said.
Sustainability - the ability to meet a region's needs without compromising future generations - is a common focus for such think tanks around the country, and is likely to be adopted by this one, too.
The group's membership probably would include representatives of academia who would bring to the brainstorming table their research into urban planning, the environment, health and welfare, growth and economy, recreation, transportation, energy and other related disciplines.
"We have thousands of people moving here, and that requires appropriate planning," Reid said. "A sustainability institute or think tank can sit around and think about the future and evaluate the existing policy to determine whether we can continue to be what we are in the future if we continue on our current course."
Helen Neill, an associate professor of environmental studies at UNLV and former chairwoman of the environmental studies department, said there have been preliminary talks with the county about UNLV hosting the think tank, but no decisions have been made.
The think tank should operate separately from government to foster independent research and recommendations without being potentially tainted by political agendas, Neill said.
Had a think tank of this sort been in place decades ago, the Las Vegas Valley might not be afflicted with the poor air quality, water shortages and traffic congestion it faces today, she said.
For instance, Clark County zoning regulations in place two decades ago limited some projects to two stories in height. "This led to more development on the outskirts and causing more congestion and pollution," Neill said.
But it's not too late to map an appropriate course for the region's future, she said.
"It is a wonderful community," Neill said. "I guess the main concern is looking at the big picture and how will all of this development lead Las Vegas to look like 20 years from now. It's not just simply a matter of saying we are not going to grow anymore. The economy has become so intertwined by growth. Planning is one important aspect of the decision-making process, but planning in a vacuum without the business and economic input and consumer preference is not going to get a long-term outcome."
A think tank should bring multiple disciplines to the table, others agree.
"We want to make sure when we are making policy decisions at the county level that we have a strong basis in research, that it's well understood and that the community is involved," Clark County Planning Manager Irene Navis said. "The institute would be one thing that helps bring all of those pieces together One of the things you can say is that issues facing an entity like Clark County go beyond jurisdictional boundaries. It takes a whole community to pull together and understand the problems and address them now into the future."
The think tank would cost about $440,000 annually to operate, according to UNLV's proposal. It suggested that funding come from local governments, developers and proceeds from federal land auctions.
The think tank would seem to complement a recent proposal by the Urban Land Institute to create a regional task force to oversee the planning of communities outside of the valley, and as far away as Arizona.
The Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization that espouses quality land use, said such a task force could coordinate planning among various government agencies.
A similar report on this issue appears today in In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication.
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