City Council Gives ‘Go-Ahead’ For Two Development Projects

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Mesquite City Council voted to move forward on two separate developments at a meeting held on Tuesday, Aug. 9. The first approval was on plans for a large warehouse distribution facility. The second item would pave the way for a proposed new high density, 4-story apartment complex in Mesquite.

The first item proposed a 233,000 sq ft warehouse/distribution facility on 19.69 acres on the north side of Pioneer Blvd between Willis Carrier Canyon and John Deere Drive.

Mesquite city planner Dan Catron explained to the council that the project included a request for a conditional use permit to allow a building of 44 feet in height, where current code allowed only 30 feet without council approval.

Catron explained that the facility might employ up to 233 people, which is the number of parking spots being included in the plans. In addition the project would include 100 semi-truck parking spaces.
Catron said that the developer had completed a required traffic study finding that there would be no significant impacts to adjacent roadways or intersections.

Project architect Chris Teachman told the board that the plans were to build what is known as a “spec warehouse” in the location. Occupancy was not yet entirely determined.
“We design it to where it will be the most flexible,” Teachman said. “It could be all one tenant, or it could be up to three tenants in the building, depending on the demand in the market.”

Also representing the developer was Isaac Newman who expressed appreciation to the board for considering the proposal.
“This is our first project in this township and we are excited to be here,” Newman said. “We would be hiring as many local people that need jobs as we can here. That is the purpose of it is to bring economic development to Mesquite.”

The item brought little board discussion and no public comment. Councilman Brian Wursten made a motion to approve the application and the motion passed with a unanimous vote.

The second item, a request from developer Bruce Langson, proposed to construct a 392-unit, 4-story apartment development on 18.87 acres at the intersection of Horizon Blvd and Canyon Crest Blvd.

Project architect Eric Swendseid displayed a conceptual vision for the site showing three phases. On the western end of the parcel were two phases of market-rate 4-story apartment buildings with a pleasant contemporary esthetic. A restaurant would be included on the ground floor of one of the two apartment buildings which would be open to the general public, Swendseid said.

The eastern end of the parcel included two-story townhomes targeted to be priced as workforce housing, Swendseid said. These would be built concurrently with the first phase of the market rate portion of the project.

Swendseid emhasized that the developer was still in the preliminary planning stage and not yet ready to present the specific plans to the council. But in order to move forward, they needed feedback from the council on the project’s proposed density.

On one phase of the project, the developer would need approval on a density of 32 dwelling units per acre. There is no residential zoning designation that currently allows more than 25 units per acre in the city. This had caused a dilemma for city planning staff, said Mesquite Development Services Director Richard Secrist.

“What we are looking for tonight is just direction from the council,” Secrist said. “To move forward we would need to amend the existing MF-4 (high density residential) zoning with the idea to have some built-in process to allow increased density in certain locations such as this.”
“I think this is a worthy idea to pursue,” Secrist added. “So with your approval we could go ahead and prepare an ordinance amendment to bring back to council to permit this type of thing.”

Most of the council expressed general approval of the concept.
“I think it is the only way that we are going to be able to get housing pricing to come down enough for the workforce,” Wursten said. “That is why I like this idea.”

Councilwoman Karen Dutkowski asked some pointed questions about the ratio of market rate to workforce housing being planned in the project. She pointed out that the city was being asked to drastically increase density caps on the parcel for the possibility of only about 73 workforce units out of the nearly 400 units planned.

“Would you entertain putting in more workforce housing at a lesser density,” Dutkowski asked Langson, who was also in attendance.
“My preference is to build exactly what I have outlined here,” Langson responded. “I think it is appropriate for Mesquite. And building down to some other criteria, I would lose interest, I think, in pursuing this development.”

During public comment, a handful of people came forward who were critical of the City’s dogged focus on workforce housing.

Ed Escareno asked the council what the ultimate goal for workforce housing in the city was.
“What is your ultimate number that we are trying to get to?” he asked. “Because it seems like it just keeps going and going. We keep saying workforce housing, workforce housing; and beating those words to death. I want to know what are the numbers? What are we looking at.”

In response to this, Councilman George Gault talked about a 2019 housing market study for the city done by the Nevada Rural Housing Authority. It found that there was a severe shortage of multifamily and other housing priced for wage earners. The study noted that there had not been a multifamily housing unit built in a decade.

Gault also cited a recent wage survey completed by Mesquite Regional Economic Development which polled the six largest employers in town and found the average wage at the time of the study was $12.50 per hour.

“We have come a long way since then, but we still have a problem of diversity of housing in this community,” Gault said. “That is what we are trying to solve here. Not everyone can afford to buy a house for $500,000.”

“We are trying to create some options,” Gault continued. “We can’t hold a single developer to try and reach all of our affordability goals.”

Gault said that the study had shown a deficit in apartments in Mesquite of about 1,700 units short.
“That is a big number,” Gault said. “it is a lot of ground to make up.”
“Look, not all of the seniors in this community are well-to-do people who have just sold a home in California,” Gault concluded with some added frustration. “Some of them are what you think of as a traditional retiree, on limited incomes. They could really use some help. So come on, folks, get real!”

Wursten said that the labor shortage has become a critical issue for the city. He cited that Mesquite Gaming is short about 150 employees and the Eureka is short a good deal more. In addition, the new Crown Holdings facility currently being built is having difficulty filling the jobs that are needed, even with a lot of those position slated to pay $50,000 per year or more.

“And here we are tonight, just finding out the possibility that we could need another 233 more employees here soon,” Wursten said. “With numbers moving so quickly, it is just not possible to come up with a target number of what we need in workforce housing units. Simply put, the goal has to be just keeping up with the need. That is a constantly moving target.”

In the end, Wursten pointed out that the council was not voting to approve the entire concept of the project at this point. Rather the matter on the current agenda was merely to provide feedback on whether higher density options, above the current code, should be made available in certain areas.

“This is just that they are recommending it and we are saying, ‘Hey, this might not be a bad idea’,” Wursten said. “It could help us to get the units in here that we really need. So that is what we are voting on. Not these specific plans, because those are bound to change before the end.”

Gault made a motion for the staff to prepare appropriate documents to amend the code to accommodate the developer’s request and provide a way to build residential projects exceeding 25 units per acre.

The motion was approved with a unanimous vote.