County Holds First Round of Land Use Workshops

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

Clark County staffers finished their first round of public workshops last week in an ongoing process of updating the Land Use Plan document for the northeast rural communities. A workshop was held in Moapa on Tuesday night, July 24 and another in Logandale on Wednesday, July 25. An earlier gathering was held in Overton on July 11.

The Land Use Plan is the document that guides all development and zoning decisions in the area. It is updated by the county every five years.

In the Plan, every parcel in the community is assigned a land use category. These categories give a general determination of where different uses are appropriate. Certain areas might be set aside for agricultural land, industrial uses, commercial development, residential projects and more.

Each of the categories also have a range of densities or intensities of use. For example, a Residential Rural category is designated as having no more than one dwelling on two acres. Other residential categories frequently found in Moapa Valley include Residential Agricultural (1 unit per acre), Rural Neighborhood (up to 2 units per acre) and Residential Low (3.5 units per acre).

In each of the three local meetings, maps were displayed detailing the land use categories currently in place for each parcel.
“We have included no changes at all at this point in the maps,” said Clark County principal planner Kevin Smedley at the Logandale meeting on Wednesday. “These maps just show what is in place right now. At this point, people can review their property and propose any changes they’d like to see.”
Land Use designation changes can only be requested by the current owner of the parcel in question, Smedley said.

For every requested change, notices will be sent out to all property owners in a 1500 foot radius of the parcel in question. Those notices will be sent out before the final revised plan is presented for approval at the town advisory boards and the county commission.

Very few changes were requested to the plan in this first round of meetings. In fact, turnout to the workshops was rather sparse. The Overton meeting had about 15 people show up within the two hour period designated. The Logandale meeting saw only about half of that.

The Moapa workshop on Tuesday had the best turnout of the three with around 25 people in attendance.
A modest change was requested in Moapa which caused controversy and presumably brought the stronger turnout. The request was made by Moapa resident Susan Pulsipher for a parcel of about ten acres at the corner of Barlow and Lawson. Pulsipher was requesting a change from a Residential Rural classification (2 acre residential lots) to Residential Neighborhood (2 units per acre).

Some of the adjacent residents in the neighborhood expressed opposition to the request, not wanting the increase the housing density in the neighborhood. Though there is a string of seven half acre parcels already developed in an adjacent area directly south of the property.

Pulsipher herself was travelling and not able to be in attendance at the workshop. But she sent family members to submit the request on her behalf.

In a telephone interview with the Progress, Pulsipher said that she had made plans some time ago to try and subdivide the 10 acre parcel. But it would have been a nonconforming zone change at the time. Making the change through the Land Use Plan process would allow for the subdivision to be done in the future as a conforming zone change.

“There is a need for smaller building lots in that area,” Pulsipher said. “Not everyone wants such a big piece of property as 2 acres. They are hard to keep up. And we could certainly use a little growth in the community.”

Pulsipher said that she was aware that the neighbors had been interested in what would happen with those ten acres for quite some time. “But no one has ever come forward to purchase it,” she said. “If you are going to insist on stopping growth, you have to buy the land. That is just how it works.”

Moapa Valley residents still have plenty of chances to provide input to the process. Two more public workshops are planned for each of the three Moapa Valley communities. The next round are expected to be held in October. The final round of workshops are planned for January 2019.

After the workshops are completed, a final draft plan will be submitted to the town advisory boards for discussion and approval. Those recommendations and the draft document will then go to the County Commissioners for final approval. Public input on any proposed changes may be made at any of those hearings.