By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted Mar. 5, 2008
The Moapa Town Advisory board (MTAB) approved planning documents submitted last week by Glendale Holdings for its major development, Riverview project, proposed on roughly 1,400 acres in the Glendale/Moapa area. In its Thursday, February 29 meeting, the board voted to approve the developer’s Public Facilities Needs Assessment and Specific Plan with a 3-1 vote.
The MTAB approved the initial Concept Plan for the Riverview project back in 2005; but with conditions. Bonnie Rinaldi, representative for Glendal Holdings, went down a long list of these conditions and the proposed features that would address them.
Rinaldi said that a new road would be built to provide access to the northern part of the development. This proposal was in response to a desire from the community that traffic from the new development not be directed through existing neighborhoods.
Rinaldi also showed specific photos and graphics of proposed design features. The designs showed a minimum of block walls and fences with homes and neighborhoods facing outward toward the surrounding desert-scapes.
The 1,462 acre development spans across three separate areas or villages. The Northern Village, which will encompass roughly 495 acres, is located adjacent to existing neighborhoods at the north end of Henrie Road in Moapa. Rinaldi explained that special attention had been given to areas that were immediately adjacent to existing property owners. Some of the project’s areas of lowest density had been placed in those adjacent neighborhoods as buffers, Rinaldi said.
The South Village area would entail what is now 660 acres of large open pasture south of I-15. It sits along both sides of the Muddy River up until the river enters the Narrows.
A central village area is being planned for both of these neighborhoods including recreation centers, a park site and small neighborhood commercial buildings.
The third component of the project is a large 327 acre parcel at Glendale which straddles either side of the I-15. This is planned as a larger town center complex. It would include mixed use commercial and higher density residential in that area.
On the subject of schools, Rinaldi said that the developer had conducted meetings with the Clark County School District to start making plans for the new schools which will be needed. “According to the School District formulas, we would need two new elementary schools,” Rinaldi said.
Sites for elementary schools had been identified by the developer in the North and South Villages, Rinaldi said.
Between Riverview and the proposed Hidden Valley project, it was also estimated that demand would nearly reach a level of needing another high school and middle school in the Moapa area, Rinaldi said. Two possible sites for each had been proposed on nearby BLM land in the developer’s documents. MTAB members and community members had several questions regarding the planning that was going into the project.
One of the major areas of concern was flood control. Some community members expressed doubt that the area at the confluence of the Muddy River and the Meadow Valley Wash, and just south of that, could be engineered adequately for flood control.
But project engineer, Paul Kenner claimed that the developer was going far beyond current flood control standards and requirements in its planning. He explained that detailed study had been done on the vast watershed areas draining into the area using nearly 100 years of data through the system. “We will be designing to a 40% higher standard on flood control than the county has required for this area,” Kenner said. “We are taking steps to not just deal with hydrology, but also the whole ecosystem,” Kenner said.
In the end, the concerns of the Board centered back to the subject of residential density in the project. Riverview project proposes an overall average density of 4.66 units per acre.
MTAB member, Craig Wolfley felt that this density number was too high for the community. “This is going to change where we live,” he said. “I recognize that things will change, regardless; but in my mind I have reservations. I think that there are way too many houses here.”
MTAB member, Lyn Wren explored the idea of what would happen if the board voted no on the project. “In the long run, if we say no to this developer, eventually it will be developed. And then we may end up with a developer who will just steamroll right over us and tell us ‘this is what we are going to do, now you can just get over it.’”
Wren richly praised Glendale Holdings for working closely with the community and listening to and respecting what it wanted. “I don’t like to see the growth and these densities either,” she said. “But I feel like we have a developer here who will listen to us every step of the way and will help us build a community that we do want to live in and stay in. We may not be so lucky with another developer.”
MTAB Chairwoman, Ann Schreiber agreed. She pointed out that the developer had reduced its residential density numbers by half from original proposals. “They have listened to us and accomodated us in almost everything we have asked,” Schreiber said. “I trust them . I would rather see them with the responsibility of forming this community than anyone else.”
Schreiber made a motion to approve the requests from Glendale Holdings for the Riverview Project. The motion was carried with Schreiber, Johnson and Wren in favor; Wolfley, opposed.
