Smart Growth Las Vegas

Though the popular myth of Las Vegas may suggest that the diamond in the desert can continue glittering ever outward and outward, the current reality is quite different. Miles of suburban subdivisions, with the single-family homes that have, until now, served the thousands who move to Las Vegas each year, are hitting barriers on all sides. Mountains, national parks, military bases, a Native American community, and preservation lands for the endangered desert tortoise ring the present borders of the city, checking further outward expansion.

The moment of crisis has not yet come, but it is visible on the horizon. If current growth trends continue, Las Vegas’ 1.8 million residents will be swelled by an additional 1 million within the next decade, for a projected population of 3 million by 2020. Compound this with the building projections, which estimate that available acreage will disappear within the next ten years, and the land catastrophe is complete. Developer Kenneth Smith summed it up: “You hear anywhere from a seven to 10 years supply at our growth rates and the valley’s full.”

Anxiety about the impending land crisis has rocketed prices. Land that would have gone for $40,000 per acre 15 years ago is now selling for over $300,000. Last year, a developer paid $639 million for 2,655 acres at a public land auction. And with the land crunch only looking more serious, developers do not expect the competition for land to ease or for prices to fall. The suburban subdivisions that have been as quintessentially ‘Las Vegas’ as casinos, are now featuring houses built so close together that neighbors could almost exchange a handshake or a plate of cookies through their side windows.

Once Las Vegas hits its capacity, there are a couple of options. The first is to build outside the valley, on the other side of the current confines. Builders plan to extend north and south along Interstate 15; a 42,000-acre Coyote Springs project 50 miles north of the city is now on the drawing board. Still, home buyers looking to barter convenience for an affordable mortgage may have to wait. According to Steve Bottfeld, a senior analyst for Marketing Solutions, the prices for providing utilities and building roads and sewers for the new community “are incredible. Don’t look for it to happen in 10 years.”

But as Las Vegas may run out of land in as little as seven years, city planners must come up with alternative solutions. The result is an influx of smart growth and new urbanism principles appearing in new development plans. Neighborhood designs that promote walking, narrower streets, smaller yards, and mixed-use blends of housing and retail are all cropping up. Plans for housing in high-rises “mid-rises” and townhouses are on the increase, and building plans with a more “urban” feel, such as the placement of the garage in back rather than in front.

These changes result for the ubiquitous sense of urgency for more efficient urban planning, but also through specific zoning changes to promote higher-density neighborhoods in Clark County. “This is the time to be visionary,” said Rory Reid, a Clark County Commissioner. Councilman Michael Mack is separately quoted as asserting that ”There’s no stopping growth. We just need to be smart about it.”

“This isn’t something that’s trickling down, it’s flowing down, top to bottom, fast,” said Bottfeld of Marketing Solutions. “It’s the Manhattanization of Las Vegas.” Developer Smith elaborated on the same topic, noting that residents don’t mind the changes in city structure because most have moved to Las Vegas from elsewhere. “They’ve seen it, they know it, they’re comfortable with it,” he says. “We hear people say, ‘I never thought it would happen here. I’ve been waiting for it.’ ”

Thanks to Steve Harless, who pointed our attention to the USA Today article on his Las Vegas real estate blog.

Read contrasting opinions from Las Vegas natives; Geoff Shumacher supports the use of smart growth principles in Las Vegas, while D. Dowd Muska opposes it.

This entry was posted by Isabel on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 and is filed under Nevada, Smart Growth, State, Zoning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.