By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Mesquite City Council met on Tuesday evening, April 9 and heard a number of agenda items. What follows is a summary of the more important actions and discussions of the council.
Tentative budget
The meeting agenda included discussion and approval of the city’s tentative budget for fiscal year 2024-25. But the item was postponed because the budget documents had not been posted in advance for the public. Rather they were made available at the meeting that evening.
During public comments, the issue was raised with complaints that the documents had not been available for advance review.
Mesquite Financial Officer Nikki Thorne explained that the documents were still preliminary and only completed the night before. In addition, the item was a draft budget only with the final budget not being finalized until next month.
In addition, she pointed out that several public workshops regarding the budget had been held where the documents had been reviewed carefully and in depth.
She insisted that the matter had been handled in full accordance with the Nevada Revised Statute.
But council members expressed a desire to err on the side of caution and hold the item to a special meeting that was then scheduled for Monday morning, April 15 – just in time to submit the tentative budget to the state in accordance with the statute.
This meeting took place after The Progress’ print deadline and will be covered in a subsequent edition.
Mixed use on Mesquite Blvd.
The council unanimously approved a zone change request that would open the door for construction of a mixed-use building containing 23 multi-family residential units built above a ground floor of 8,000 sq ft of office space at the southwest corner of Mesquite Blvd and Arrowhead Lane.
The item before the council dealt only with rezoning a .8 acre parcel just west of the Baja Imports building. But plans for this lot were connected to ongoing proposals on the larger adjacent further lot to the west which had been rezoned back in September of 2023.
Both parcels are owned by the same developer. Last week’s rezoning request would simply include the new lot into the larger development plan.
The additional land would allow the building to be placed to the north of the lot facing Mesquite Blvd. Adequate parking would then be available behind the building, according to the basic concept plans submitted with the request.
Mesquite Director of Development Services Simon Kim explained that the zone change would be in harmony with all surrounding parcels and that it would be consistent with the city’s master planning documents.
Kim had also found no adverse impacts in traffic analysis studies.
There was very little council discussion on the request and nocomments were voiced during the public hearing.
Amendment to Heritage Park agreement
The council approved an amendment to the development agreement for the Mesquite Heritage Park being constructed directly across Mesquite Blvd from City Hall.
The amendment proposes a few changes to an original agreement reached in August of 2021 for the Heritage Park.
Acting City Manager Martine Green explained that, after the park began construction, developer Dixie and Anne Leavitt Foundation had come to the city proposing a few changes.
But negotiations on those changes had been drawn out for an extended period of time during previous city management, she said.
Green explained that under the current city management, executive staff had met together with the developer and come to the amendment being proposed to the council to solve some of the difficulties in the original agreement.
The first issue was a problem with the ownership of the parking lot.
“The previous agreement had them (the developer) deed the parking lot over to us, we would own it but lease it back to them and they would have control over it,” Green said. “I am pleased with what we have come up with to solve that issue.”
In the amendment, ownership of the parking structure would stay with the developer to service the commercial and residential needs of the project. A separate parking lot would then be built to service the needs of the park.
The amendment also allowed for the elimation of three of the proposed buildings to make space for the parking and other features.
An amphitheatre proposed in the park would be moved to a more central and convenient location than what was depicted on the original plans.
The amendment also retained the obligation of the city to maintain the park after it is completed. But it removed the requirement that the city devote a full time employee for maintenance of the park, thus allowing flexibility on how it is maintained.
Council members were pleased with the resolution of the issues. “This has been a work in progress for a long, long time,” said Mayor Al Litman. “There have been a number of changes that have occurred. But it looks like it is all pretty smoothed out at this point…hopefully.”
Fielding made a motion to accept the amendment. The vote to approve the motion was unanimous.
