This article has been revised and updated with new information since its original print version earlier this week.
By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Clark County Commission held up a zone change request from a developer on a 12 acre parcel west of Henrie Road and south of McKnight in Moapa after the Moapa Town Advisory Board (MTAB) voted to deny the request last month
The request was to allow the parcel to be subdivided into half-acre lots, a significant increase in density from the 2-acre lots under the current zoning. However, the County Land Use Plan contemplates the possibility of half-acre lots on the property making the request a conforming zone change.
The item initially appeared as part of the consent agenda of a Board of County Commissioners (BCC) meeting held on Wednesday, May 17. But it was pulled from the agenda by County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick before the meeting to allow the developer to do additional work with the community and the MTAB members.
“As much as I would like to see a moderate amount of growth in the area, I don’t go against the town boards,” said Kirkpatrick in a statement to The Progress made on Thursday morning.
The request came before the MTAB on Tuesday, May 9. Misha Ray was in attendance to represent the developer.
Ray reminded the board that it was actually the second time the project had been brought before the MTAB. A similar request had been presented in Feb. of 2021 and had been denied at that time as well, she said.
“At that time, Commissioner Kirkpatrick requested that we have a neighborhood meeting and then also create a site plan to show what these half-acre lots would look like,” Ray said.
The site plan showed 21 half-acre lots in the proposed subdivision. “The goal is for the homes to front each of the roads so it feels like it blends with a neighborhood rather than creating a little sudivided community with backs to everybody,” Ray said.
She pointed out that the half acre lot zoning was congruent with the nearest neighboring lots immediately to the northwest of the parcel.
Ray also added that the intent of the developer was to sell the lots for the construction of individual custom homes rather than to a “big box developer.”
During public comment, local residents expressed concerns about a variety of factors including traffic impacts, how septic systems would be managed, what flood planning would look like, the effects on the nearby local elementary school and more.
Ray explained that the developer is only looking for the initial zone change at this stage. Later, as the plans are developed, they would be required to complete the studies on each of these items, and build the mitigations into the project.
Board members expressed concerns about the precedent being set in allowing this higher density subdivision in a community that has mainly 2 acre homestead lots.
MTAB member Blake Stratton pointed out that the same developer also owns more than 400 acres which stretch out over the empty land straddling Meadow Valley Wash just to the east of this parcel.
This acreage is the remnant of the old Riverview major development which was proposed during the boom years of the early 2000s.
Stratton worried that the current project could be portentous of much larger proposals in the future on those larger parcels of land.
“If they get this through, then that is just going to open the door for more,” Stratton said. “If this property isn’t held to two acres, then next we move up the street and they will be asking for quarter acres on other parcels. We will be going right across the street where they have 44 acres, across the river they own another 130 acres, and then just north of that they own another 200 acres.”
Ray said that the developer would be limited to the master plan which only allowed for a maximum denisty of half acre lots in the community.
But that didn’t make it better for MTAB Chairwoman Lola Egan. “Blake’s point is, even if you do half acres only, on more than 400 acres that is in excess of 800 homes,” Egan said. “If we approve it for you here, we are setting the precedent for that other 400 acres.”
MTAB member Callie Wade also called into question the process required of the developer. She said that the neighborhood meeting that had been asked for, never really happened.
“First, they didn’t schedule it in Moapa; it was held at the Fairgrounds in Logandale,” Wade said. “Then a bunch of us showed up and the door to the building wasn’t open. No one had arranged it. So they talked to us in the parking lot out in the cold, took down our contact info and my understanding was that they were scheduling another meeting. But it never happened.”
In the end, Stratton made the motion to deny the request. The vote for denial was unanimous for the board.
