TABs Reject Collins’ Town Boundary Proposal

County Commissioner Tom Collins pitched his own proposal for a major town boundary line adjustment at two separate Town Advisory Board meetings last week. The proposal would add nearly 109,000 acres to the town of Moapa; land which had previously been part of the towns of Bunkerville and Moapa Valley. The Moapa Town Board approved Collins’ plan on March 12. It was presented to the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) on Wednesday, April 1 and to the Bunkerville Town Advisory Board (BTAB) on Thursday, April 2. Both boards rejected the Collins’ proposal, but were told that the plans would go forward anyway.

In his presentation, Collins began by reprimanding both TABs for their indecision in the boundary matter. “You’ve had two years to discuss this and nothing has been done,” Collins said. “I finally decided that if you couldn’t make a decision, I was going to.”

The town boundary adjustment began with the Riverview development project proposed for the Glendale/Moapa area. Nearly two years ago, representatives of this huge project realized that the project spanned across three different tax districts. In addition to being situated mainly in the town of Moapa, the project included a small corner of Moapa Valley and the old Glendale district which currently is under no town boundary.

Thus, the developer expressed a desire to consolidate the property into a single tax district. Bonnie Rinaldi of the Riverview project, made the request that two square-mile sections currently in the town of Moapa Valley; along with the areas that were once the town of Glendale; be added to the boundaries of Moapa town. Later an addition was made which included another strip of land, one mile wide running north to the Lincoln County line. This would increase Moapa’s boundary one mile to the east with land that is currently part of the town of Bunkerville. The proposal was brought first to the Moapa TAB and approved. It was then brought to the MVTAB.

In May 2008, the MVTAB expressed general approval of the plan. While boundary lines were being adjusted, however, Moapa Valley made a request of its own. Currently having no I-15 frontage, Moapa Valley asked that its own exit be added to its boundaries as well as extending the Moapa Valley boundaries east to include the Carp Elgin I-15 interchange. Rinaldi agreed to help in that process and a motion was passed to continue the discussion.

In October of 2008, the issue came to the MVTAB again. Then-MVTAB-member, Rik Eide had worked with Rinaldi to develop a map showing the proposed adjustments. The map resolved the issues for the developer in Moapa. It also extended the northern borders of Moapa Valley all the way to the Lincoln County line. All of this area is currently part of Bunkerville.

The MVTAB voted to approve these plans. But, since the proposal so heavily affected the town of Bunkerville, board members conditioned their approval on an approval from Bunkerville.

On November 13, Eide and Moapa TAB member Ann Schreiber presented the plan to the BTAB. At that meeting, the BTAB members noted that they had already approved the first proposal to increase Moapa’s borders. This had been done over a year earlier when it was originally brought to them. But since this new proposal, adding land to Moapa Valley, would require them to give up a much larger tract of land, they wanted time to consider and discuss the matter fully.

The issue was discussed again at a January 29 BTAB meeting. But the vote was postponed again. At that time, the board scheduled a special meeting on February 24 to discuss the issue and take a final vote on it.

On February 24, the BTAB approved a map that revised the Moapa Valley eastern line back to a mile past the Carp/Elgin exit. In return they asked that the Bunkerville town lines be extended south to include the Gold Butte area. This compromise was agreeable to the Moapa Valley representatives as well.

“We thought with that last meeting that everyone should be happy and that we had reached a consensus,” said BTAB member Marianne Leavitt in Thursday’s meeting.

But before the February 24 BTAB meeting could take place, Collins had already decided that the time was up. He wanted to have the changes made by July 1 in time for the new tax year and did not believe that consensus among the various TABs was forthcoming.

On February 11, he called a meeting of about 18 people, including county staff and Riverview’s Bonnie Rinaldi, and put them to work on his own plan. This plan gave all of the land previously requested by Moapa Valley over to the town of Moapa. Furthermore, it extended five miles to the east past the line that Bunkerville would agree to at its February 24 meeting.

Both MVTAB and BTAB members were unaware through all of this that Collins’ February 11 meeting had taken place. At last weeks meetings, they expressed confusion at why Collins would make this unilateral decision just when the long negotiation process was nearly at an end.

“I am offended that you had your meeting with all of those people and didn’t include the most important people who should have been at that meeting: the representatives of each town board,” MVTAB member Judy Metz told Collins. “I think a lot of harsh feelings would have been avoided if you had taken the time to include a member of each board.”

Collins responded with frustration that the boards had made such a mess of what had started as a small boundary issue to simplify a development.

“But you are the one who took it there!” Metz replied. “We didn’t take it there. Bunkerville didn’t take it there. Moapa is following you around like a lapdog because look at all the acreage they are going to get! And to think that it all started with (Riverview) asking for a consolidation of tax districts. It is sickening that a developer is leading all of this instead of what the people want.”

In the Bunkerville meeting, Marianne Leavitt asked Collins why he had called his meeting just a few days before Bunkerville had planned to vote on the proposal.

“I was told that you were not going to actually decide on February 24, but that you were just putting it to another public meeting to hear comments and then would schedule a vote later,” Collins responded.

“No, we planned to make a decision in that (Feb. 24) meeting,” Leavitt countered. “It was right there in our (January 29) minutes and that is exactly what we did. Your information was wrong. So I’m sorry that you went to the county with that dastardly proposal.”

During the public comment period at the MVTAB meeting, Logandale resident Alice Crites asked why Collins was giving the northern land in question to Moapa, who had never requested it, instead of to Moapa Valley who had.

“Because they have had two years to do that and they haven’t done it,” Collins responded. “On February 11 the directions were given. It is already in the oven, you can’t change the recipe now.”

“Then why even take a vote here?” Crites asked.

“This is your entitlement to a public meeting,” Collins answered.

Collins also told the BTAB that it was too late now to change his plan. “To go to anything else at this point would jeopardize the July 1 deadline,” he said.

“But why?” asked Leavitt. “It has only been a month. They can’t change this in another month? That is way before July 1.”

Collins said that to do so, it would all the maps and documents would have to be changed and then brought back to the three TABs again for approval. He didn’t feel it could be done in time.

“But why does it have to come back to us?” Leavitt said. “It has already been approved. We don’t need to see it again if we have already approved it.”

But Collins insisted that it was too late to change. He said that his top priority was to consolidate the tax districts by July 1 deadline. After the deadline, the lines could be renegotiated, he said.

“After July 1 if you want to start over, go for it,” Collins said. “I’m wide open to redraw this map once Riverview gets into one tax district so they can start pulling their permits and building motels, hotels, restaurants, gas stations or whatever.”

“So you want us to just give everything away and then, after July 1, you’ll give it back to us?” Leavitt asked.

“Once we get the tax districting problem taken care of, then we can sit down with all three TABs and renegotiate,” Collins answered. “Then there won’t be anymore of this ‘he said, she said, they said.”

“But it is all in the minutes!” Leavitt responded. “There is no ‘he said, she said’. It seems silly for the County Commission to take action and then immediately have to go back and fix it. Why would you do that?”

Members from both TABs expressed concerns about negotiating the return of the land after it had already been given over to Moapa. Board members asked what incentive the town of Moapa would have to give the land back once it was granted to them. Collins gave a different answer to each board.

In the MVTAB meeting, Collins stated that he would personally oversee the negotiations to the desired end. “But it shouldn’t be a problem,” he told them. “In their meeting some of the Moapa board members were very friendly to the idea of negotiating a solution.”

But in Bunkerville, Collins had another answer. “They’ll (Moapa) give it back to Bunkerville they just don’t want to give it back to Moapa Valley,” he said. “That war has been going on forever. The difference is that Matt (LaCroix) and I will be facilitating the meetings.”

In the end, both boards came to the same conclusion: that they had already solved the boundary issue and already approved what was needed. Both boards voted on motions to approve the maps that they had already approved and not the one that Collins was proposing. Both Boards also expressed a willingness to sit down with representatives of all three TABs together and negotiate a final solution. The votes in both meetings were unanimous.