TABs Appoint Town Boundary Committee Reps

The Town Advisory Boards of Moapa and Moapa Valley, in separate meetings last week, appointed representatives to serve on a special committee tasked with redrawing town boundaries in northeast Clark County.

The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) appointed Guy Doty and the Moapa Town Advisory Board (MTAB) appointed Craig Wolfley to the committee.

The town boundary change has been an ongoing issue for over two years.

It began with an effort to simplify a major development project, Riverview, proposed for the Moapa/Glendale area. Riverview developers found their property straddling two different towns and four tax districts. They made the request for a few modest changes to the boundary lines that would simplify and consolidate the process. This proposal was quickly agreed upon by all three boards.

At the same time, however, the MVTAB made a request to annex the area directly to its north giving the lower valley community access to two I-15 interchanges and jurisdiction over what the town residents considered an important viewshed area.

All of this land is currently part of the town of Bunkerville. So the MVTAB conditioned its approval of the change on agreement from the Bunkerville board and sent a representative to Bunkerville to broker an agreement.

Just before the agreement with Bunkerville could be reached, members of county staff held a meeting in early February to begin preparations for the anticipated boundary changes. Commissioner Tom Collins attended this meeting and proposed a separate plan. This brought all of the land being requested by the MVTAB into the Moapa town instead.

Then on February 25, the BTAB met and approved a map that allowed Moapa Valley to bring its eastern border to a point one mile past the Carp Elgin exit and north to the Lincoln County line.

But in March, Collins presented his plan to the three Boards. Stating that the communities had taken too long to come to a decision, he claimed that there was not sufficient time to make any changes to his proposal before a July 1 tax deadline. Thus, he said, the boundaries would be set according to his plan. He pledged to meet with the three boards after the deadline to make further changes.

The MVTAB and BTAB both voted against Collins’ proposal. Moapa voted in favor.

When the item was heard by the BCC on May 5, the Commissioners were not comfortable with pushing the changes against the will of the two dissenting communities. They voted to hold the item for 30 days and allow time for a committee to be formed with a representative from each town board. The committee would meet together and try to reach an agreement. Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani agreed to be an impartial chairperson for the committee.

On Wednesday, May 13, the MVTAB appointed Guy Doty to represent them on this committee. “Guy spent many hours working on this issue,” said MVTAB chairman Gene Houston. “He knows the details and is capable of representing us there.”

Doty asked the board for guidelines on how he should negotiate the boundaries. Board members agreed that a boundary line along the interstate going out to Carp Elgin would be an acceptable position.

“In my mind I’ve always just recognized this side of the I-15 as Moapa Valley and that (north) side as Moapa,” Houston said. “I think that would be equitable.”

On Thursday, May 14, the Moapa Town Advisory Board appointed board Chairman Craig Wolfley to serve on the committee. “I think what Tom (Collins) drew up was a little unrealistic even though I like Tom a lot and he has helped us out,” said Wolfley. “But I think if the lower valley came to the freeway and we took everything north out to Carp Elgin, and Bunkerville is happy with it, then I’d be happy.”

“There is no reason why the lower valley boundary shouldn’t come up to the I-15,” agreed MTAB member Don Davis. “It’s a natural dividing line.”

“And just for the record we are not Tom Collins’ lapdog,” added Ann Schreiber. “We did not know where the marks on that map were until the day he brought it into our meeting.”

The committee, including one member of each Town Board, will meet this week with county staff and Commissioner Giunchigliani to reach an agreement on the boundaries.