NLV apartment plan yanked after neighbors’ protest

By Mike Trask

Friday, May 23, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Two scoops of ice cream and a little indignation brought a group of North Las Vegas neighbors the result they wanted.

Pardee Homes has decided to withdraw a proposal for a 660-unit apartment complex in their community.

“My guess is we put up such a big stink about it they decided not to do it,” said Sarah Humphreys, a 28-year-old homeowner who became the opponents’ ringleader, at one point organizing an ice cream social to rally the troops.

Jennifer Lazovich, an attorney for Pardee, said the request to withdraw the site plan review from next week’s Planning Commission meeting was a “business decision.”

Many had expected North Las Vegas to allow the plans to proceed, given that a 1988 development agreement between the city and Pardee gave the company the right to use several parcels in the Eldorado development as it chose.

In April, the North Las Vegas City Council approved plans for a 320-unit apartment complex, with council members saying the 20-year-old development agreement prevented them from opposing the project.

Those apartments will be built on more than 30 acres at Centennial Parkway and Revere Street near Seastrand Park. The proposed 660-unit complex was planned for one block north along Deer Springs Way.

Councilwoman Shari Buck, who lives less than a mile from the proposed sites, opposed both plans. She and Councilman William Robinson voted against the 320-unit complex.

“I’m glad they did it,” Buck said about the withdrawal of the bigger project. “It makes me believe they someday want to put homes there and not apartments.”

Buck and her neighbors worried that the addition of hundreds of apartments in the area would increase traffic and crime, driving down property values in the middle-class neighborhood.

However, nothing prevents Pardee from later refiling plans to use the land for apartments or other multifamily residences. Lazovich said Pardee has no immediate plans to build on the site, which is zoned for commercial, single-family or multi-family development.

Humphreys’ efforts at warding off the apartments, which included collecting thousands of signatures on a petition and going door-to-door to raise $1,500 for the Save Our Community Ice Cream Social, have made her one of the most popular people in her neighborhood.

“It was my goal to push them away or stop them,” she said of the planned apartments.

For the community, the battle became a bonding experience. Drawn together by their opposition to what became known as simply “the apartments,” neighbors who previously had, at best, a nodding acquaintance got to know one another better, fostering a sense of community that Humphreys and others believe leaves the neighborhood forever changed for the better.

“It was nice to see people come together and unite,” she said. “I hate when people walk on other people and that’s what I felt Pardee was doing. I think if you come together and unite you’re more powerful. It’s just wonderful to see that.”