Clark County resolution seeks to protect lifestyle in rural preservation neighborhoods

In the northwest corner of the Las Vegas Valley sits Lone Mountain, a far cry from the glitz and glam of Las Vegas Boulevard. And that’s just how the residents there enjoy it.

There are few sidewalks, some scattered streetlights and enough room for children to frolic around the open dirt spaces or residents to get the occasional wild critter that strolls into their yard.

It’s one of many rural preservation neighborhoods located in Clark County during a time of rapid urban growth overtaking these once-rustic areas, Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick told the Sun.

The fight to protect rural neighborhoods has stoked problems between local jurisdictions — like the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson — and community members over what should be allowed to be developed within these more agrarian areas. The issue was at the heart of a dispute by the Las Vegas City Council during the past few months over a proposed temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lone Mountain.

“We have a real agricultural history, and there’s no reason why we can’t have both, right?” Kirkpatrick said of balancing Las Vegas’ rural and urban lifestyles. “It’s our history; it’s Nevada (and) it’s amazing, and kids, today, they still want to be able to do that.”

Nevada lawmakers in 1999 passed Senate Bill 391 modifying zoning districts and regulations to establish rural preservation neighborhoods.

The bill defines these neighborhoods as “a subdivided or developed area which consists of 10 or more residential dwelling units; where the outer boundary of each lot that is used for residential purposes is not more than 330 feet from the outer boundary of any other lot that is used for residential purposes; which has no more than two residential dwelling units per acre; and which allows residents to raise or keep animals noncommercially.”

The legislation also calls for the “protection of rural preservation neighborhoods,” giving counties and cities the ability to adopt zoning regulations and restrictions to preserve the “character” of rural neighborhoods, and ensuring the orderly transition of land uses. The legislation was created in response to the growth experienced in Southern Nevada at the turn of the century.

Many rural neighborhoods now exist around the area, including the Lone Mountain area within the city of Las Vegas’ borders as well as the Foothills and Mission neighborhoods in south Henderson toward Boulder City.

But over time, the legislation protecting these areas has been “watered down” and local governments began setting their own rules for rural protection overlays, said Robert Eastman, junior manager of the planning and zoning division at the city of North Las Vegas.

The scarcity of land for development might be the reason for some of the encroachment, but it doesn’t necessarily have to mean conflict, Eastman continued.

Documenting the issues

The Clark County Commission in April unanimously passed a resolution that would establish the Rural Alliance Advisory Committee. Six people were appointed to the committee last month.

The committee was initially proposed by Kirkpatrick, whose district includes the northeast area of Clark County, which encompasses the area near Lone Mountain Road and includes towns like Mesquite and Moapa Valley. The committee’s goal is to gather information from rural community members on county-related issues that might directly affect the areas in which they live.

“As you know, most of the rural areas have depleted over time in our community, but there’s still a need for them,” Kirkpatrick said in an interview with the Sun. “When you have a McDonald’s down the street, that kind of changes the character of the neighborhood, so what we want to do is preserve what we have, but we got to know where every pocket is that we have across the valley, so that we can do our best to preserve them.”

Kirkpatrick, who lives in a rural preservation neighborhood, said there are a lot of people who move to Las Vegas from outside of the area that are still interested in continuing their rural lifestyle, like having multiple animals at their houses or having their children participate in agricultural programs like 4-H or FFA (formerly known as Future Farmers of America).

FFA and 4-H are national programs where people ages 5 to 19 old learn “leadership, citizenship and life skills” through various club activities, some of which involve raising different species of livestock to show or sell at county fairs, according to UNR, which administers the statewide 4-H program.

Nevada alone has 49,000 youths engaged in 4-H programs, the university noted.

There are seven 4-H clubs and four FFA chapters in the Las Vegas Valley — based out of Canyon Springs High School in the northeast, Northwest Career Technical Academy, West Career and Technical Academy and Sierra Vista High School in the southwest.

Kirkpatrick said it’s getting harder for families to find locations that can accommodate these farm animals.

She also wants to ensure that the existing neighborhoods have local recreation areas, like equestrian facilities, nearby so residents don’t have to haul their animals and all of their equipment to a different part of town to enjoy them.

The goal of Kirkpatrick’s resolution, she said, is to begin documenting where these rural neighborhoods are and what their biggest issues are “so that (the county) can continue the quality of life for those folks that bought out there a very long time ago and the folks that want to stay out there.”

Kirkpatrick wants to work across jurisdictions in the future to address differences in zoning codes that people might not even be aware of when they move into certain neighborhoods.

She used the example of code differences between the local cities and county, where one side of the street may be classified as rural and allow multiple animals or certain species of livestock while the other side of the street may have restrictions on the number or type of animals able to live on property.

One such place that deals with this is the Lone Mountain neighborhood, part of which sits within Las Vegas City Councilwoman Francis Allen-Palenske’s district and a small “county island” that is overseen by Commissioner Ross Miller.

Division over temple

The Las Vegas City Council last month voted 7-0 to approve the construction of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in the Lone Mountain area that has caused controversy among neighbors. The city council’s decision also rezones the land.

To be built in the southeast corner of a 20-acre dirt plot between Hickam Avenue and North Grand Canyon Drive, the three-story, 70,194-square-foot temple will include an almost 16,000-square-foot meeting house; a 1,807-square-foot maintenance building; a 1,800-square-foot pavilion; and a three-story, 216-foot steeple from bottom to top.

The plot of land the temple is set to be built upon isn’t located within the rural preservation neighborhood itself.

More than 182,000 Mormons live in Nevada, according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website, and there are currently two temples — one in Las Vegas built in 1989 and another in Reno. Two more are set to be erected in Elko and now the Lone Mountain area.

Supporters said the temple would “enhance and beautify” the Lone Mountain neighborhood without taking away the natural scenery and could be a welcome replacement for the “vacant lot that collects garbage and is unsightly.”

“Life is busy right now, and it is difficult to attend the temple, as it is across the valley. To have a temple built in Ward 4 would mean that I can attend more often,” Karlee Burton, a nurse with two young children who grew up in the northwest, said tearfully at the July 17 city council meeting. “The temple will be compatible with the preferences of both members and nonmembers of the church, serving as a good neighbor to our community.”

Community members accused the church of unfairness during the permit process when seeking neighborhood input, and said the church would increase traffic, block views of the nearby Lone Mountain, cause flooding by using “less porous” concrete, affect water usage due to onsite foliage and bring large, bright lighting.

In its original plans, the temple’s design included lights circling the building that would be lit for 24 hours a day, seven days a week; parking lot lamps with no indication of whether they would be dimmed at night; and the steeple with a height that would need approval from the Federal Aviation Administration because it was so tall.

Allen-Palenske was especially troubled by the steeple height, saying she would not approve the temple’s building application that “has a red blinking FAA beacon on the top of it.” An FAA expert said the original height of the steeple shouldn’t warrant the need for a red beacon.

After hours of deliberation and public comments, Allen-Palenske gave her approval for the project with some conditions. The church will have to turn off its parking lot lights from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.; may only place street lights on Grand Canyon Road; must decrease the steeple height to 196 feet from bottom to top; and will remove the entrance off Hickam Avenue to traffic.

“If this was happening 15 or 20 years ago, the building would not be an issue because that was when all the planning and development was happening there. What you’ve got now are families who have settled in this area decades ago, and if they knew this was going to happen now, they would have a choice to live there or not,” resident Patricia Reid said during the same city council meeting. “It needs to be conducive to what’s already happening here. This has nothing to do with religion.”

During the meeting, Allen-Palenske mentioned that she intended to propose a “dark sky” ordinance for her ward in the future to make sure that outdoor structure lights — like those on the temple — couldn’t be on all the time.

Henderson similarity

Lone Mountain isn’t the first community in the valley where a potential new neighbor caused controversy.

In September 2022, Henderson was in a similar situation when the American Hindu Association was given the green light to build a Hindu temple on more than 5 acres at Berlin Avenue and North Milarn Street near Racetrack Road for the region’s roughly 300 followers.

The proposed Anand Utsav Mandir temple was going to be built for Hindus living on the east side of the valley who found it difficult traveling across town to the only other Hindu temple in Summerlin.

Residents of the rural preservation neighborhood in east Henderson argued that the temple violated SB 391, but the Henderson Planning Commission cited the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal civil rights law “that protects individuals and religious assemblies and institutions from discriminatory and unduly burdensome land-use regulations.”

The act “takes precedence” over any local land use codes during conflicts, such as the one that arose with this project, said a spokesperson for the city of Henderson at the time.

The Henderson City Council voted 4-1 in October 2022 to uphold the planning commission’s decision, with Mayor Michelle Romero — then the councilwoman for Ward 1, where the rural neighborhood is located — as the lone no vote.

But almost a year later as the American Hindu Association’s conditional use permit was about to expire, the Henderson City Council approved city code amendments that would now ban buildings like public safety facilities, cultural institutions, day care centers and 24 other uses.

It also noted that schools and buildings for religious assembly should “demonstrate compatibility with the adjacent uses in terms of scale, site design and operating characteristics,” but gave no further specifications on what those compatibility requirements would be.

The temple was never built. The Hindu Association, in a letter to the Department of Justice, accused Henderson of discrimination.

 

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