MVTAB Approves Proposed Rodeo Arena Facility

Moapa Valley resident Blake Beck came to last week’s Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) meeting with a vision. Beck said he feels certain that his idea will serve a, largely unmet, demand in the region. Beck is planning to build a full commercial rodeo arena facility in Moapa Valley which would be open for public events throughout the year.

“This has been a dream of mine for a very long time,” Beck told the MVTAB members at the meeting held Wednesday, August 12. “It is a unique area. There is a high concentration of horses and cowboys here. I’d like to bring them to this community.”

Beck wants to build the facility on about 12 acres that he is currently renting near the intersection of Moapa Valley Blvd. and Lyman Street. The property is owned by Bill Leavitt.

Both Leavitt and Beck presented rough plans for the facility to the MVTAB last week. The plans included a rodeo arena, large parking lot and accessory structure which would house handicap accessible restrooms and a concession stand.

Leavitt made a case for the need of a privately owned commercial horse facility in the community. “There are a lot of arenas here in town,” Leavitt said. “But there is currently not a single privately owned horse-based facility in the valley with the appropriate licenses and permits to operate commercially.”

Leavitt acknowledged that the rodeo arena at the fairgrounds is available; but, that the high fees being charged by County Parks and Rec make it difficult for the smaller regular events to operate there.

Fees for commercial events at the fairgrounds run from $600 to $800 per day with additional charges if vendors are present. “Those kinds of fees are just unrealistic for a regular user,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt pledged that it was his desire for the facility to be a fully legitimate operation, meeting all of the requirements and having all of the necessary permits and licenses.

Beck agreed. “From the beginning I wanted to do this thing right,” Beck said. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. But I’m still glad that I am here working through all of this from the beginning.”

The request before the MVTAB was for a Use Permit to allow the commercial facility to operate in that location.

Also requested was a list of Waivers of standards that would normally be required on a commercial project but which, Leavitt said, “didn’t seem to fit this situation.” These included waiving requirements for curb, sidewalks and street landscaping on Lyman; paving and landscaping of the parking lot; trash enclosures and allowing vehicles to back out onto Lyman Street which is a collector street. The final request was for a Design Review on the facility.

MVTAB Chairman Gene Houston confessed being somewhat conflicted in waiving the standards. He stressed the importance of requiring developers to meet standards and make improvements needed in the community. But he also pointed to the fact that similar recreation facilities exist in Logandale that have been built by the county without following those standards.

“At the ball fields and the fairgrounds there is no paved parking or curbs or sidewalks or street landscaping,” Houston said. “It is hard to impose these County codes on a citizen who is doing the same type of facility when they haven’t been required of the County itself.”

MVTAB member Guy Doty also stressed the importance of consistency in upholding standards but said that this is a unique case. “It is an equestrian facility and has some unique elements,” Doty said.

Doty explained that paved parking and parking lot landscaping was not appropriate for an equestrian facility.

The only waiver that Doty saw a problem in granting was the one allowing vehicles to back onto Lyman Street. “I don’t think that it is advisable and with the space that you have there, I don’t think that you need to do it,” he said.

“I agree, we had no intention of having people backing onto the street,” Beck said. Beck explained that in designing the parking lot, he felt there was a need for no more than 35-40 spaces. “We’d consider that to be a great turnout,” he said. But County staff had required him to design it with 80 spaces, Beck said. “I don’t know how to lay that out with that many spaces and enough turnaround room,” Beck said. “The county requirement is what brought up the issue and so it shows up as a waiver. But we don’t have any intention of filling the lot so full.”

MVTAB member Billy Mildice had a list of problems he saw in dealing with the project. He brought up the need to have a commercial septic system installed to service the accessory structure. The current structure has a residential system. Mildice also raised concerns about potential traffic problems at the MV Blvd/Lyman intersection. He was also concerned about the property currently being used as an industrial storage area and wanted details on plans to clean it up before approving the waivers.

Mildice proposed that the request be withdrawn and heard again in 90 days so that these issues could be fully considered and resolved before coming to the town board.

But Houston reminded that none of these issues were included in the matter currently before the board. “We are just taking action on this list of waivers tonight,” Houston said. “On the other things, he will have to do what is required by the health district and the County.”

Doty agreed that there was no need to withdraw the item. He felt that the board could at least address the Use Permit and Waiver requests. “At least then they know what they have got and can then go to work out the dtrails to bring to us later,” Doty said. “Frankly I don’t know whether a Design Review is even needed but, if so, we can have them bring it back to us later.”

Doty stated that the Use Permit should have a time period stated where it would come back to the board for review. But he felt that one year was too short a period. “I feel that, with an operation like this, 5 years would suffice,” he said.

Doty made the motion to approve the Use Permit for a five year timeframe; also to approve all waivers except the one dealing with vehicles backing out onto Lyman. He also moved that the Design Review be done when the final plans were submitted. Doty, Houston, Metz and Greco voted in favor of the motion; Mildice was opposed.