By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted July 2, 2008
With nearly 11,000 acres of open BLM disposal land lying east of the Moapa Valley, community leaders in the lower valley have taken a keen interest in the process of sale and development of these lands. The prospect of so large a development area raises important questions. What roads are needed? Where will the water and sewer service come from? What about parks, open space and trails?
During the past year, members of the Moapa Valley Strategic Planning Committee (MVSPC) have taken a close look at these questions. The Committee has performed a study to find out just how much community planning can be locked in on that land prior to the sale. According to MVSPC Chairman, Steve Getz, the answer to that question is ‘not very much’. But there are a few things that the community can do in advance to prepare for a BLM land sale. Getz gave a report of the MVSPC findings to the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) meeting held on Wednesday, June 25.
“We started out with grand ideas and plans,” Getz said. “Then we thought to ask, if we do all of this work, just how much of it will survive the BLM land sale?”
Committee members took this question to officials at the BLM. They were told that the only kind of advanced planning that would remain in force after the sale was right-of-way planning. This would include things like roadways, flood control infrastructure and utility corridors.
“Anything else that we could spend time planning for in advance; like zoning, parks, trails, open space; all of that would really be hammered out after the sale by the developer working with Clark County,” Getz said.
With this in mind, the MVSPC drafted a list of recommendations that could be considered by the community when the time comes for the future development of the BLM land.
Chief among these recommendations was planning for an additional access road through the community. The report stated that the road should begin south of Overton, from the east end of Lewis Avenue, and run the full length of the valley connecting in somewhere north of the community. “More preferable would be a road which climbs out of the valley and connects with I-15 somewhere, like the Carp/Elgin exit,” Getz said.
The potential right-of-way for this road could be drawn on the map in advance of the land sale. “It may not be the final route but would give a rough idea where it could be,” Getz said. “At least it would indicate the concept for the route in advance with the specifics being determined later between developers and the county.”
Another important area of consideration brought up in the report was sewer service for the area. The report observed that the current sewer expansion project does not include capacity for the BLM release land. “Developers would have to plan and provide for additional plant size for this,” Getz said. Also the report recommended that advanced planning include the reuse of treated effluent from the sewer plant including a return pipe system for delivery of secondary water for irrigation purposes.
In the subject of setting aside lands for open space and parks, Getz admitted that there was little that could be done prior to the sale that would be guaranteed to stay in force through the development. But flood control rights-of-way could be established in advance that would form the basis of trails and open areas, he said.
“We can go to all the major washes on the east side of the valley and specify the bottoms of those washes as flood control right-of-way,” Getz explained. “That would provide the beginnings, at least, of a trail system through the disposal lands all the way up onto the mesa.”
The MVSPC report also recommended the completion of the ongoing Open Space Master Plan for the area. “The plan itself wouldn’t necessarily survive the sale,” Getz said. “But it would give an indication of what the community wants right up front before the developer even enters the picture.”
MVTAB members showed interest in the MVSPC report and asked that it be placed on a future agenda for additional discussion.
