Smart Growth News

Nevada

FHLBank San Francisco Awards $32.5 Million in Affordable Housing Grants

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco awarded $32.5 million in Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grants in the first round of its 2010 funding competition. The grants approved by the Bank's Board of Directors in AHP Round A were awarded to 60 projects that address the diverse affordable housing needs of communities in Arizona, California, Illinois, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington, and will produce or preserve 3,375 housing units that are affordable to lower-income individuals and families.

AHP-funded projects create an affordable place to live for families with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, young adults transitioning out of the foster care system and other at-risk youth, people who are in need of supportive services or are homeless, and other lower-income individuals and households. ''In our region, the need for resources that provide vulnerable and disadvantaged populations with a safe, decent place to live is especially persistent, regardless of economic conditions. The AHP applications we received in this round reflect that broad, constant need,'' said Jim Yacenda, Vice President and Community Investment Officer at FHLBank San Francisco. ''We are pleased that our members are using our program to deliver such critical resources to their communities.''   6/29/2010

Resource(s): www.fhlbsf.com/

Nevada City Council Members Celebrate ''Bike to Work'' Week

The cities of Reno and Sparks, Nevada, are celebrating ''Bike to Work'' week by partnering with the Washoe Health District to encourage residents to ride to work this week. Members of the Reno and Sparks city councils set a good example, riding from Sparks City Hall to Reno Monday morning, after telling residents how both cities have become more bike-friendly with more bike lanes.

Erin Dixon with the Health Department emphasizes that there are no requirements for participating in Bike to Work week. ''We just want everyone to give a try.'' she said. National Bike to Work day is Friday, May 21.   5/17/2010

Resource(s): www.ktvn.com/

Lake Tahoe Summit Focuses on Biodiversity, Invasive Species

Held almost each summer since President Bill Clinton led the inaugural one in 1997, this year's bi-state Lake Tahoe revolving summit, hosted by Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign at Round Hill Pines Beach, reiterated the need for constant efforts to control shoreline erosion, restore area streams and wetlands, prevent the risk of wildfires, and pursue transit, with Nevada and California congressional leaders ready to introduce joint legislation authorizing $390 million over the next eight years to preserve the lake's famous clarity and protect it from invasive species.

''We look out, and we see a lake that is really troubled,'' said California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. ''Those of us in the political arena come from many different points of view but we come together when we talk about Lake Tahoe.''

Nevada Republican Governor Jim Gibbons agreed, saying, ''That little line that goes down the middle of the lake between our two states is not a line that divides us, it is a line that joins us.''

Having also brought in scientists, conservationists and federal land managers, report Reno Gazette-Journal writer Jeff Delong and Associated Pres writer Scott Sonner in Carson City's Nevada Appeal, the summit focused on the lake's biodiversity, increasingly threatened by nonnative infestation -- recently by dime-sized Asian clams.

''Once established in the lake, invasive species can alter the lake's biodiversity, change the lake's clarity and affect our recreational opportunities,'' cautioned University of Nevada-Reno assistant Professor Sudeep Chandra, noting that lake researchers have already found at least 20 such species. ''The good news is that many of them are in early stages of advancement,'' he added. ''Our research has shown you can manage these populations if you get to them immediately.'' -- Reno Gazette-Journal, Nevada Appeal   8/21/2009

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/ ; www.nevadaappeal.com/

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Shares Strategies for Success at Green Summit

Salt Lake City, Utah leaders and community activists have not just talked about urban sprawl, smart growth and climate change, but turned words into deeds, said former two-term Mayor Rocky Anderson in a keynote speech at Reno's second annual Green Summit, listing his city's greenhouse gas reduction accomplishments and stressing, ''It's transit first so future growth won't have to be accompanied by more automobile congestion.''

Since his election in 1999, Salt Lake City has built 19 miles of light rail and nearly 40 miles of commuter rail, with a recently approved quarter-cent four-county sales tax allowing the latter's extension to another four cities and the international airport, reports Reno Gazette-Journal writer Susan Voyles, with Mayor Anderson saying once rail ridership surged, ''opposition almost completely evaporated.''

The focus on transit, green construction and energy efficiency, he continued, enabled Salt Lake City to exceed greenhouse gas reduction goals it adopted in accordance with the international 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

His executive order, approved by the City Council, requires new city buildings to meet the highest green standards.

The city's sewer plant captures methane gas as a coal alternative to produce electricity, which prevents emission of 13,600 tons of carbon monoxide into the air each year, while savings from replacement of all light bulbs with low-energy fluorescent ones go for purchases of wind-generated power.

What's more, police drive Prius hybrids, owners of low-emission cars get a ''free parking'' card for street meters and the number of natural-gas service stations grew to the second highest nationwide.

When he fills his car with 86-cents-a-gallon natural gas, he finds others at the pump showing ''sort of a camaraderie, a cockiness about it.''

Founder of the High Road for Human Rights (HRHR) national advocacy group, which may form a Reno chapter, the writer notes, the former mayor now travels around the country promoting better government and awareness of global warming dangers, including the risk of death of hundreds of millions because of disease, floods, and other natural disaster if air pollution isn't curbed.

''It's inspiring to see what happened there,'' said Regional Transportation Commission public transportation director David Jickling about Salt Lake City. ''When we have champions at the political level, things happen.''

With Reno-Sparks area officials counting on voter approval of a one-eighth-cent sales tax increase to avoid a 25-percent bus service cut, and with Reno preparing installation of its first solar panels on public buildings, summit participants also would like to see plans for higher densities, narrower streets, less parking on bike-route streets, more plug-ins for electric vehicles, and reserved road lanes for rapid-bus or other transit.

And Reno Mayor Bob Cashell is looking at Sierra Green building design standards, drawn up and promoted by the Builders Associations of Western and Northern Nevada (BAWN & BANN), as perhaps the best way to spur environmentally-conscious and energy-efficient residential construction in the region.

BANN invited its members and other professionals to begin earning their ''Green'' certification at a sustainability seminar in Reno, October 1-2.

See www.bawn.org/government-affairs/sierra-green.html. -- Reno Gazette-Journal   9/22/2008

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage ; www.highroadforhumanrights.org

''Leapfrog'' Annexation Creates Stir in Reno

Nevada lawmakers turned down Reno's request to legalize non-contiguous -- or ''leapfrog'' -- annexations last year, but the Reno Planning Commission endorsed a massive development proposed for 6,105 acres some 25 miles north of downtown anyway, reports Reno Gazette-Journal writer Susan Voyles, with project general manager Arlo Stockham touting its mixed uses, cluster housing and open space as the best of ''smart growth,'' but city resident Craig Smyres seeing it as a possible ''new form of sprawl.''

Included in the city's planned-unit development handbook, located between Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation and California's Plumas National Forest, and called Spring Mountain, the project would include three villages totaling up to 12,000 homes -- 40 percent affordable for workers -- 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, 75 miles of public trails, an equestrian center, and a dude ranch and other western features for vacationers.

It would also provide its own roads, water and sewers and leave 3,000 acres as open space, while villagers would be encouraged to get around in small electric vehicles.

Opponents, the writer notes, have sued to block the master-plan designation for this and other remote tracts within Reno's 29-acre annexation area and filed an initiative to stop leapfrog annexation attempts, but officials remain unconcerned.

''It's an opportunity to plan a city and do it right,'' Commissioner Dennis Romeo commented on the Spring Mountain project. ''While there are questions over lawsuits and annexations, when it's all said and done, it's a land-use issue.''

According to Deputy City Attorney Marilyn Craig, state law allows the city to approve zoning for projects in its annexation area limits.

The City Council, the writer adds, will consider Spring Mountain zoning approval April 23, after which the Regional Planning Commission will determine the project's compatibility with regional goals and policies. -- Reno Gazette-Journal   3/19/2008

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/

New Tahoe Development Proposals Under Review by Community Enhancement Program

Mindful of smart growth principles and extensive public input during its work on the 20-year Lake Tahoe Regional Plan update, scheduled for approval October 2008, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) is accepting developer applications under the recently created incentive-based Community Enhancement Program for another four weeks, with TRPA Executive Director John Singlaub expecting their projects to meet environmental criteria and civic needs, encourage ''further upgrades to our community centers, transit connections and neighborhoods,'' and guide local plan updates that will begin in 2009.

The overall goal, he writes in a North Lake Tahoe Bonanza guest opinion, is to make sure that lake communities are ''unique and beautiful,'' while offering mixed uses, affordable housing, walkable town centers and greater access to public transportation.

Noting that the almost 90 percent of buildings built at the lake before TRPA adopted its 1988 plan to curb sprawl and spur urban improvement have few conservation features but plenty of asphalt liable for high runoff and erosion rates, director Singlaub stresses, ''Smart growth is needed in the Tahoe Basin and TRPA is required by law to work toward better transportation with less reliance on the automobile.''

To make it happen, he points out, TRPA may need to revise some of its rules and ordinances, ''such as those limiting density and building height around commercial centers.''

For more information about the comprehensive planning process and the Community Enhancement Program, he invites readers to visit TRPA's web site at www.trpa.org or contact Brenda Hunt at bhunt@trp.org or at (775) 589-5225. -- Bonanza   9/30/2007

Resource(s): www.tahoebonanza.com/

Court Cuts Nevada Tax and Spending Ballot Measure and Trims Eminent Domain Proposal; Government Agencies, Business Groups Vow to Fight Initiative

In separate decisions against two broad November ballot proposals to curb government fiscal and developmental powers, the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously halted the Tax and Spending Control (TASC) measure and in a 5-2 vote trimmed the People's Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land (PISTOL) -- both for violation of the Arizona Constitution's single-subject ballot clause.

TASC, report Las Vegas Review-Journal writers Sean Whaley and Molly Ball, would have limited public spending increases to the population growth rate plus inflation, with further outlays dependent on voter approval. PISTOL would have coupled the proposed restrictions on eminent domain, left by the court majority on the ballot, with several other crippling provisions, one of which would make governments compensate claims for property value loss due to rezoning and other land use restrictions with the highest amounts these properties would fetch on the open market.

TASC Executive Director Bob Adney denounced the court for its ''horrible decision'' to block the measure. He accused the justices of ''being activist judges and silencing the will of the people,'' and promised to push for such a ballot again. His prominent ally, state Republican Senator Bob Beers, called the TASC ruling ''a political decision,'' which ''is going to widen the gulf in Nevada between taxpayers and tax consumers.''

On the other side, backed by unions, Nevadans for Nevada Chairman Danny Thompson noted that TASC, funded mostly by out-of-state interests, would have been a disaster and promised to work for a legislative ''overhaul'' of the ballot initiative process to ensure checks and balances that would test similar measure campaigns in their early stages.

The 5-2 ruling on PISTOL is equally controversial, with the measure's proponents happy that its eminent domain sections, including a ban on taking private property for economically needed private redevelopment, are staying on the ballot, and broad opposition led by government agencies and business groups determined to fight it until the election. PISTOL Chairman Don Chairez described the truncated measure as ''leaner and meaner,'' expecting it to weaken critics' arguments.

But Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury -- who heads a group called, significantly, Nevadans for the Protection of Property Rights -- said that even without ''probably the worst provision,'' the measure would result in ''unlimited liability for every act of government,'' because its remaining sections undercut state and local authority ''to implement infrastructure programs.''

During the state Supreme Court's hearing last month, business group coalition attorney Mark Ferrario illustrated the threat, pointing out that should a road widening project affect nearby businesses, they could sue government for damages, which goes far beyond eminent domain issues.

Two judges voted to reject the whole measure, but the majority removed only those overreaching provisions and some administrative ones.

A few days later, PISTOL opponents asked justices for reconsideration, saying that by taking out some provisions they had created a new initiative, which doesn't comply with the constitutional requirements for qualifying a measure on the ballot. They also suggest the court should have removed a provision that would free property owners from liability for any government fees or costs due to an eminent domain action. Observers note that courts usually deny motions for reconsideration. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   9/9/2006

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/index.html

Reno Regional Planning Commission Takes Steps to Direct Future Growth by Amending Truckee Meadows Regional Plan

Expecting increased growth in Washoe County, Reno and Sparks, the Regional Planning Commission amended the 2002 Truckee Meadows Regional Plan, which outlines the Truckee Meadows Services Area (TMSA) boundary for municipal water and sewer lines, to allow annexation not only of 12,000 acres by Reno and 16,000 acres by adjacent Sparks over the next 20 years, but also of 132,000 acres by the county after the new city tracts are developed, with a provision for concurrent funding of infrastructure taking effect next July.

The 8-2 vote, reports Reno Gazette-Journal writer Susan Voyles, came after a crowded four-and-a-half-hour hearing, during which North Valleys residents and conservationists opposed the changes, warning against prospective traffic, water shortages and open space loss, while smart-growth advocates, construction workers, and labor and business leaders stressed the importance of long-term planning for roads and necessary public services.

''I'd rather plan and make an error than not plan at all,'' said Commission Chairman and Reno Planning Commissioner Bill Newberg, with Commissioners Marge Frandsen and Steve Rogers voting ''no,'' convinced that the annexation and related issues should by worked out during the ongoing regional plan review to be completed next year.

Reno community development director John Hester thought the delay unwarranted, explaining that zoning requests in areas already having municipal services will be handled as usual, while in the new areas any rezoning will depend on regionally approved developer plans for transportation, water and sewers, flood control, fire and police protection, and park facilities.

The prospective growth area, the writer adds, includes mostly federal lands, whose sale for development would require approval by Congress, and the Winnemucca Ranch west of Pyramid Lake, some 20 miles north of Reno and Sparks, where developers expect to build up to 8,700 homes. -- Gazette-Journal   6/28/2006

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/

Churchill, Lyon County Officials Agree: Managed Growth Is Key to Growing Nevada Communities ''Smartly''

Since Nevada divides up consolidated tax revenue among jurisdictions according to their estimated population growth, local leaders sometimes question the state's demographic estimates, wishing for greater tax shares, and that's what officials in slow-growing Churchill County and adjacent-fast growing Lyon County are doing now, with their respective Fallon Eagle Standard and Lahontan Valley News agreeing that ''growth brings economic diversity and tax stability,'' but asking how much is enough and pointing out in the headline of their joint editorial that ''Smart growth is better than any growth.''

Churchill Count grew by only 1.8 percent and Lyon County by a rather high 9.5 percent from mid-2004 to mid-2005, while the latter's once-sleepy town of Fernley led the state with 19 percent growth, the editorial says, observing that now town officials are facing an enormous challenge to build new roads, schools, a city hall and a library, and to ensure other services, strained by the residential influx.

''It's hard to adequately plan for an annual 20 percent growth rate,'' the editorial warns. ''It becomes a constant race for utilities and services to keep up with runaway development.''

Noting that Fernley needs the irrigation water Fallon farmers have used for more than 100 years, and that developers will pay whatever they must to bring it to their projects, ''making overnight millionaires of people with water rights on the Truckee River,'' the editorial doubts it's the best use of the resource.

''It seems to us that managed growth that allows good planning, resource allocation and job development is the best way to go,'' it concludes. ''We'll take the single digit growth and the chance to grow our community smartly any day.'' -- Lahontan Valley News   3/1/2006

Resource(s): www.lahontanvalleynews.com/

Workforce Housing Needs Falling Behind as Southern Nevada Communities Continue Rapid Growth

The faster Southern Nevada communities grow, the farther they fall behind the workforce housing demand, having provided a total average of 842 units in each of the past four years and facing a 5,300-unit shortage this year alone, with the problem ''no longer related only to the poor,'' said Clark County Redevelopment Agency operations director Lesa Coder at a hearing by the Legislative Commission's Subcommittee to Study the Availability and Inventory of Affordable Housing, noting that the shortage was calculated in mid-2005 and would certainly ''look much more dramatic'' if recalculated today.

Updating lawmakers on an ongoing workforce housing study by Las Vegas-based Restropo Consulting Group LLC, requested for the 2007 legislative session, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Sean Whaley, director Coder pointed out that communities used all available means, including housing authorities and special loan programs, to produce those 842 units a year.

With Restropo research showing that a household income in the $67,000-$84,000 range is not enough to buy the region's $280,000 median price home, state Democratic Senator Steven Horsford observed, ''So we're talking about professionals here who can't afford to live in our community.''

Local governments, he stressed, shouldn't wait for a legislative solution, unlikely before 2007, but use their current power to build more lower-income units to ease the problem, which ''is growing exponentially.'' Restropo Group principal John Restropo said private sector leaders ''are very concerned about their economic viability and business viability if we don't address this issue at this present time.''

Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce public affairs vice president Christina Dugan felt uneasy over any excessive government interference in the free market as having potentially ''unintended consequences,'' but confirmed the chamber's support for such ideas as infill tax incentives and the creation of public-private partnerships to fund mortgage assistance. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   2/28/2006

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/index.html

Reno Officials Find Smart Growth Goals Elusive

''Reno officials embrace 'smart growth'; will developers?'' wonders Reno Gazette-Journal writer Ben Kieckhefer in an introduction to the daily's seven-article special report on the subject, noting the enormous dedication to smart growth among communities, networks, think tanks and government agencies nationwide -- with EPA annual awards for smart-growth design and construction -- and quoting national experts who attribute the movement's build-up and influence to the focus on curbing sprawl and its public costs, offering choices and improving quality of life.

Citing study findings that one-third of Americans prefer urban life, Smart Growth Leadership Institute President and former Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening said even if officials only ''provide a choice for the third which really wants this,'' they achieve ''a substantial reduction of sprawl all by itself,'' which also cuts down local service costs and traffic congestion.

Smart growth, pointed out Smart Growth America Communication Director David Goldberg, is making sure that we build livable, beautiful ''great places to pass on to our kids.'' They both cautioned against imagining smart growth as uniform and one-dimensional, the former stressing that ''there are hundreds of different ways to get to that vision,'' the latter observing that too often ''smart growth gets reduced to certain types of projects.''

Congress for New Urbanism CEO and former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist described the current trend toward classic, more compact, transit-oriented, and pedestrian-friendly urban forms as the natural backlash after five decades of separate-use zoning and car-dependent sprawl, saying, ''What's happening now is like recovering from a stroke.''

But although Reno outlined its smart growth strategy in the 2002 update to the Truckee Meadows Regional Plan, requiring creation of a transit-oriented development corridor and adoption of regional center plans, the writer reports, its goals remain elusive, with most construction still outside the targeted areas and at much lower densities.

Despite the expected 35 percent of residential construction in infill areas, transit routes and regional centers, at a minimum density of 18 units per acre, the 2003-04 number was 5 percent, at an average density of under half that planned.

Reno Community Development Director John Hester explained that his staff had no time to draw up regional center plans for more infill, and that ''it's easier for developers to do large scale greenfield developments.''

It's a difficult situation, but the region must do more protect its quality of life, emphasized Scenic Nevada Board Chairman and Truckee Meadows Regional Growth Task Force member Doug Smith. ''If we're not careful,'' he said, ''we can develop to a point where we are creating what a lot of people have come here to avoid.'' -- Reno Gazette-Journal   12/20/2005

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/

Ranchers Take Advantage of Douglas County's TDR Program to Preserve Open Space

With much of the Carson Valley, parallel to Lake Tahoe some eight miles west, ''chopped into 19-acre home sites,'' Genoa area ranchers Dal and Barbara Byington took advantage of Douglas County's transfer of development rights program to save 700 pasture acres of their 1,050-acre ranch from development in perpetuity, while keeping its core, to pass it later for ranching by their son Russell.

Like many ranchers in the West, reports Gardnerville Record-Courier writer Suzie Vasquez, the couple think about the nation's long-term food supply. ''We don't want to become dependent on other countries like Brazil for our food,'' said Barbara Byington. ''People don't realize food comes from farms and ranches. They think it comes from the grocery store.''

In this largest land preservation deal under the county's program so far, the writer notes, the couple worked with the Terra Firma Associates consulting firm of former county commissioner Jacques Etchegoyhen and with nonprofit Ranch Open Space of Nevada Inc., a land trust governed by Nevada ranchers. ''A lot of people don't want to enter into a transaction with the federal government,'' Barbara explained, citing uncertainty over federal agency commitments and hoping that Ranch Open Space involvement will make people more confident in security of land conservation deals.

Calling development ''the biggest challenge for ranchers trying to maintain their property,'' because it ''puts such a high value on the land,'' trust executive director Paul Pugsle pointed out that their main tool ''is the conservation easement.''

But to qualify for an easement, the land must retain the water rights, he stressed, since ranchers can't continue ranching ''if they lose their water.''

Reno Gazette-Journal writer Tim Anderson reported earlier that the development rights on 700 acres of the Galeppi-Byington Ranch were purchased by three developers for a total of $5.1 million. In exchange, the developers will be eligible for density bonuses on land targeted for development in the county's master plan. -- Record-Courier, Reno Gazette-Journal   5/25/2005

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/ ; www.recordcourier.com/

Carson City 20-Year Master Plan Likely to Focus on Compact Urban Development, Preservation of Scenic Vistas

To save the Carson River corridor and irrigated lands from sprawl, and to keep the Sierra Nevada vistas unblemished, the Carson City Open Space Advisory Committee will likely urge drafters of a 20-year master plan to focus on two growth scenarios -- one would ensure compact development on vacant or underused tracts within city limits; the other would facilitate mixed-use projects in designated areas such as the U.S. 50 East vicinity.

Committee Chairman Steve Hartman and Carson City Open Space Manager Juan Guzman, reports Reno Gazette-Journal writer Sandi Hoover, both cautioned against urban expansion at the fringes as extremely detrimental to the community's quality of life. Low-density housing would mean the loss of hillsides, scenic gateways and public lands, the manager pointed out, calling such a land-use pattern ''costly'' and ''much inferior'' to in-city and mixed-use development.

The committee chairman noted that the city could offer incentives for development within its limits, and that such measures as transfer of development rights could benefit developers and open space advocates alike. Local resident Larry Taylor agreed, seeing nothing wrong with multi-story city housing and higher density. ''Rather than fill every inch of (outside) land,'' he said, ''we should put more people on less acreage.'' -- Reno Gazette-Journal   3/29/2005

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/

Advisory Group Begins Work on Initial Plans for Las Vegas Light Rail System

''We've all heard NIMBY -- not in my back yard -- and NOTE -- not over there, either,'' commented the Regional Transportation Commission's advisory committee member Mark Paris on local concerns about the potential impact of a tentatively envisioned Las Vegas light-rail system, which could be built between 2009 and 2012, summing up the first problem in one sentence, ''That's what we have to deal with, the noise.''

Indeed, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Omar Sofradzija, Sierra Vista Ranchos Homeowners Association president Amber Varricchio told the committee that light rail is ''not so cute when it's literally in your back yard,'' and another resident added, ''Fifty feet from my back wall, I don't think anybody is going to want to buy my property.''

As the 22-member advisory committee mulls over options, routes and goals for Las Vegas area transit, the members recognize that light-rail lines can't obstruct traffic at street intersection, that train stops must be easily accessible and safe, and that system infrastructure should be flexible enough to allow different transportation modes as the plans evolve.

''We're trying to come to grips with the needs out there and how that can be integrated by the style of development,'' said Committee Chairman Gary Johnson, with Commission General Manager Jacob Snow stressing that ''the location of stations will have tremendous impact on the success of this system.''

The initial 33-mile segment of the so-called CAT Rail, the writer notes, would link Henderson with downtown Las Vegas, running later through the city's north to the Motor Speedway and both Nellis Air Force Base areas, with other spurs possible in the future. The segment could cost about $900 million, but a $300 million bus-based rapid transit system is also being considered. Officials expect to finalize a concept this year. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   3/25/2005

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/index.html

Developers Roll Out the Mixed-Use Projects in Las Vegas

Lauding his planned 42-acre ''The Curve'' village at Interstate 215 in southwest Las Vegas Valley as the area's truly mixed-use and smart-growth projects, California real estate attorney and Curve Development president Edward Kile said the village, with 376 condo units in two 18-story towers and some 116,000 square feet of retail -- including 12 restaurants -- topped by 61,000 square feet of offices, will target the demographic group of ''DINKs'' (Dual Income, No Kids), or 35 to 60 year-olds.

''Who I want to attract here is people who live in Las Vegas and work in Las Vegas and want to be in Las Vegas,'' he said on behalf his partners, local investors and business leaders Bill Richardson, Michael Dean, Dan Juba, Randy Black Jr. and Michael Chernine. ''Our whole thing is to make your life simpler. That's what people want in the 21st century. I'm hoping to save you an hour a day.''

These modern mixed-use and urban livability ideas, he added, evolved after the 1970s' oil crisis, in response to questions about ''how to live, work and play without getting in a car.''

Other developers, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Hubble Smith, are pursuing similar valley projects, too. Mark Doppe of Carina Homes is building the 41-acre Centennial Spring neighborhood and the 38-acre St. Rose Village, Jim Stuart of Centra Properties is working on a 25-acre Harmon Avenue site, and Frank Nielsen of Montecito Cos. is developing the 200-acre Montecito Town Center in the Centennial Hills area.

Local Keller Williams Realty owner and broker Rick Brenkus applauded the efforts. ''I think these new master-planned, mixed-use projects are phenomenal, especially the way Las Vegas is becoming a destination for second homes, as well as those primary residents that are busy and can have a living, working, shopping experience,'' he observed. ''People having all of that all-encompassed, especially for food late at night, really makes it convenient.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   3/12/2005

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/index.html

Time Running Out to Protect Open Space in Carson Valley

The most unique of Nevada's last five riparian areas, Carson Valley -- to Carson City's south and some six miles east of Lake Tahoe -- must see its open space protected in the next five years or ''we'll never have a chance to do it again,'' warned Douglas County Commissioner Jacques Etchegoyhen, stressing the importance of the recent selection of about 3,600 valley acres for conservation easements, at a cost of $22 million, through the federal Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

''Conservation is good business,'' since protection of large areas helps increase property values, attract newcomers, and ensure the county's economic future, but landowners must be compensated, too, he said, adding, ''If you want to take owners' property rights, you'd better come with a checkbook.''

So far, notes Douglas County Record-Courier writer Susie Vasquez, the county has set aside about 2,600 acres of the valley's rural land as open space through its transfer of development rights program. Separately, reports Nevada Appeal writer Kurt Hildebrand, the Nature Conservancy and local rancher Don Bentley worked out a $2 million deal for his 1,200-acre easement along the Carson River, with the rancher donating $500,000 and the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the Division of Public Lands promising the rest from a 2002 voter-approved bond fund.

The easement provides not only for construction of trails along the river and its use by rafters and other outdoor enthusiasts, but also for preservation of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad tracks across the property. Under the deal ''the V & T could be rebuilt,'' said Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Laura Crane, observing, ''As gas prices go up, that's going to be more important to the valley.'' -- Nevada Appeal, Record-Courier   9/22/2004

Resource(s): www.recordcourier.com ; www.nevadaappeal.com/

Rising Housing Prices Create Development Pressure in Las Vegas

Las Vegas may be facing Southern California-style commutes in less than a decade if housing prices continue to rise, forcing development further away from the city. Environmentalists are concerned about the effect on air pollution, light pollution, dependence on foreign oil, and water quality and availability.

The perceived lack of developable land has caused some critics to pressure the Bureau of Land Management, which owns most of the federal government's holdings in the state, including almost 3 million of Clark County's 5 million acres, to open up some of its land to development.

Meanwhile, those who are already living out in the country, annoyed by the sudden influx of suburban-style development around them, are planning to leapfrog even further out. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   8/3/2004

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/

Clark County Task Force to Issue Growth Proposals in January

Focused on alternatives to Las Vegas leapfrog development toward the valley desert fringes as its first priority and on affordable housing as the second, the Clark County Growth Task Force will be ready to present its proposals for curbing sprawl, road congestion and air pollution in January, with task force member and university history professor Hal Rothman stressing, ''Infill is the place to begin to find a solution.''

Others agreed, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Adrienne Packer, quoting former county commissioner turned developer Jay Bingham, who pointed out that the multi-year rush outward was fueled by cheap land prices and left vast open tracts within the metro area.

County officials thought that with land prices increasingly high, developers could take advantage of possible county incentives for ''mixed-use communities,'' or urban villages, which would help reduce car dependency, traffic jams, air pollution and housing costs.

As part of the solution, the county should also build a light-rail system, said Regional Transportation Commission General Manager Jacob Snow. To illustrate its benefits, he cited statistics from St. Louis, Missouri, where 70 percent of a new light-rail system's passengers had earlier commuted by car, and where the system reduced road rush-hour traffic by 93,000 vehicles, and made 46,000 downtown parking spaces unnecessary. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   6/23/2004

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/index.html

Controversy Surrounds Southern Nevada Water Authority Growth Study

Although Nevada suffers chronic water shortages, a growth study commissioned by the Southern Nevada Water Authority finds that even a slight growth slowdown could devastate the region's economy, starting in the construction industry and having a long-term domino effect across the board, a finding seen as slanted and incomplete by growth-management advocates, who stress the need to balance it with a study that would reveal the full costs of further unrestricted growth.

Sierra Club's Southern Nevada conservation chairwoman Jane Feldman ''can't imagine so much doom and gloom'' about the economic impact of controlling development, noting, ''It's conserving water, controlling housing interest rates, varying what we build and where, and so on,'' which provides many growth options.

Las Vegas environmentalist Jeff van Ee points out that to service rapid growth the water authority will need ''billions and billions of dollars just on infrastructure, and these costs will have to be passed on.'' Nevada Seniors Coalition president Ken Mahal is more blunt, saying an ''honest study'' would have mentioned the fiscal burden of many construction workers without health insurance, whose medical and other benefits must be shouldered by the state.

The water authority's board chairwoman, Henderson City Council member Amanda Cyphers, argues she doesn't need a study to tell her the pitfalls of random growth, because ''(a)s an elected official, those are things I have to look at on a daily basis. It's all about growing well, growing smart.'' Also a member of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition, formed by lawmakers in 1999 to coordinate growth policies and plans in the Las Vegas Valley, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Henry Brean, she doesn't expect the coalition to seek a study on growth side effects either.

Another coalition member, Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro, whose city has long controlled growth, explains that most of its 10 members want their municipalities to pursue growth. The controversial study's executive summary is available at www.snwa.com -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   3/8/2004

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/index.html

Las Vegas Drafting ''Sustainable Community'' Master Plan for Northwest Development Site

With the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) auction of a 1,600-acre federal tract some 15 miles northwest of downtown Las Vegas scheduled for November 2004, the city began work on the site's master plan, which will require the winning bidder to keep up to half of the future Kyle Canyon Gateway development as open space, put housing, schools, parks and jobs within walking distance, and provide alternative energy for homes and vehicles. ''We've never done what we're trying to do now, develop a concept of a sustainable community'' and help Las Vegas ''grow and be dynamic within our resource constraints,'' said City Manager Doug Selby, while planning consultant David Rehfeld promised, ''You won't have a sea of uniform red tile roofs.'' But problems already loom, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal Michael Squires. Councilman Michael Mack voiced his constituents' concerns over development im pact on the nearby wilderness and recreation areas of the Desert National Wildlife Range and the Toiyabe National Forest. BLM spokesman Philllip Guerro noted that the city ''may have an idea of what ought to be built, but developers know what needs to be done and what profit margin is needed to make it go,'' which requires a ''give-and-take'' approach. Sierra Club Conservation Chairwoman Jane Feldman pointed out that Kyle Canyon Getaway residents will most likely commute to Las Vegas, which will clog roads and worsen air pollution, and that officials should rather focus on vacant land near the city, since ''(l)eap frog development is not smart growth.'' City Manager Selby responded that the area near the city will be filling in once the Kyle Canyon Gateway construction starts, and Councilman Mack added, ''There's no stopping growth. We just need to be smart about it.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   9/2/2003

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/index.html

Newly Created Clark County Redevelopment Agency Identifying Priority Revitalization Areas

Encouraged by examples of Las Vegas and Henderson, whose redevelopment agencies facilitate renewal in their depressed areas, the Clark County Commission created its own redevelopment agency, chaired by Commissioner Myrna Williams, and began the process of identifying older county areas for prospective revitalization. Noting that increased property taxes in designated redevelopment areas are invested in further economic development and revitalization projects, The Las Vegas Review-Journal says the county Comprehensive Planning Department's interim director, Alan Pinkerton, expects the commission to finalize the list of redevelopment areas in December, after more staff and consultant work. -- The Las Vegas Review-Journal   8/6/2003

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/

First Leg of Las Vegas Monorail Scheduled to Open in 2004

Concerned about Las Vegas traffic congestion, air pollution and flat downtown business, area officials and activists put their best hopes in the monorail, the Clark County Regional Transportation Commission's most expensive transit project -- its $650-million first segment between casinos and convention centers scheduled for completion early next year and the $1 billion second segment between the Strip and the downtown area likely to open in 2006 -- with Sierra Club conservation organizer J.J. Straight expecting this great ''innovation for tourists and workers'' to eliminate 4.4 million car trips a year, increase property values along the route by 30 percent, and ''revitalize downtown and invigorate smart growth.'' Enthusiastic about the monorail, reports Las Vegas Mercury writer Larry Wills, Straight and her husband are planning to buy a house near the downtown line, while a local businessman already bought a Main Street bar near a future transit station. Noting that the old MGM Grand-Bally monorail carried 5 million passengers a year, Las Vegas Monorail Co. communication director Todd Walker thinks the new system should quickly pay its cost by capturing the 4 million convention guests a year and average tourists, 75 percent of whom are visiting at least three hot spots a day, much of their time spent on crowded sidewalks or in rental cars at traffic stops. Its resort segment paid for by business contributions and state-backed bonds, and the downtown segment by federal matching funds, the highly advanced monorail, the first of its type in the world, will have seven to nine remotely operated trains running at 25-45 mph every four minutes and stopping for less than 30 seconds, each car seating 72 of 300 riders, with plenty of room for their luggage. Planning a possible west spur, along with the McCarran International Airport line delayed by the federal environmental impact study until 2008, officials are also envisaging greater transit expansion, including construction of light rail between the monorail southern terminus and Henderson a few miles farther to the southeast. Director Walker notes that the monorail ''will not end or solve all transportation problems,'' but says, ''if we can get visitors out of their cars, we can continue to make the city more exciting in the 21st century.'' -- Las Vegas Mercury   7/10/2003

Resource(s): www.lasvegasmercury.com/

Officials Voice Development Concerns Over Clark County Land Auctions

As the federal Bureau of Land Management auctioned another 1,000 acres of mostly unincorporated Clark County land to builders, Interior Secretary Gale Norton assured attendees that local leaders thought it advisable and that the auction will result in ''smart growth,'' but some Las Vegas area officials later voiced concern about the pace of development and its impact on traffic, schools, services and air and water quality. The Associated Press quotes the secretary as saying, ''We work closely with them and don't think it's our place to say, 'These are the limits of growth in the West'.'' She also noted that efficient water management requires conservation; that 72 percent of the auction proceeds will remain in Clark County, while ten percent will go to the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) and five percent to schools; and that with money from previous auctions, the federal government bought more than 750 acres for the county's Wetlands Park. Nevertheless, Commissioner Mark James said he believes ''we are growing at a pace we cannot sustain'' and ''need to make sure our resources are keeping up with our land-use approvals.'' He was echoed by Commissioner Myrna Williams and SNWA general manager Patricia Mulroy, the latter hoping that the secretary will let Nevada use more Colorado River water, its surplus frozen this year following California's opposition to a 15-year apportionment plan. Enterprise Town Board chairman, Sierra Club member John Hiatt, expressed doubts about the prospect of building ten homes per acre on the Las Vegas outskirts, stating flatly, ''There is no water.''   6/6/2003

Resource(s): www.lasvegassun.com/

Nevada Lot Size Ordinance Sets 2-Acre Minimum for Rural Clark County

Two days after Governor Kenny Guinn signed a bill that locks in Clark County's minimum two-acre-lot rural zoning -- a bill written by Senate Democratic Minority Leader Dina Titus and unanimously passed in both chambers -- the County Commission approved an identical ordinance, both measures effectively letting developer Jim Rhodes build only about 1,500 instead of the 5,400 homes he planned for his 2,400-acre former mine site near scenic Red Rock Canyon west of Las Vegas, with his attorney Paul Larson threatening to sue the county for unlawful land taking. Stressing that the developers paid $53.8 million for the site last month, the attorney called the ordinance's land use restrictions and open space requirements unworkable and ''designed to preclude development.'' In contrast to his criticism, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Frank Geary, about a dozen speakers strongly backed the ordinance. They included representatives of the village Blue Diamond, the Red Rock Audubon Society, the Paiute Indian tribe and the Sierra Club. County officials also rebutted the attorney's assertions. Planner Dave Carlson told him the ordinance permits development of 83 percent of the site. Planning administrator Chuck Pulsipher pointed out that it allows a site access from state Highway 159. And commission lawyer Rob Warhola flatly denied the charge of property taking. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   5/22/2003

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/

Bill Would Limit Residential Density in Nevada's Red Rock Canyon

Threatened by proposals to build thousands of homes on 2,400 acres of the defunct Hardie gypsum mine, the site and the whole area of Red Rock Canyon -- a prime scenic and recreational destination west of Las Vegas -- will retain low-density zoning that requires a two- acre minimum lot under a bill passed unanimously by the Nevada Senate and strongly backed in the Assembly, with its author, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, stressing, ''It takes only one developer to destroy it (the canyon area), and only one vote (in each chamber) to save it.'' Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley applauded the senator's effort to preserve ''one of Southern Nevada's treasures'' and Assembly Government Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Manendo promised a weekend hearing in Las Vegas ''so folks can come out and testify.'' Las Vegas Review- Journal writer Sean Whaley notes that some criticize the bill as imposing state control over a local land-use issue, but they overlook its support by the Clark County Commission, the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association, the Associated General Contractors, Red Rock area residents and several conservation and recreation groups. In an editorial arguing both for conservation and private property rights, the daily says ''zoning changes should be allowed only if it can be shown the original zoning was based on error'' or if the area's later land use changes ''render the existing zoning absurd.'' In this context, the developer ''should be free to develop his property,'' the editorial concludes, ''under precisely those zoning restrictions which he knew were in place when he bought it.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   4/18/2003

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/

Clark County, Nevada Passes Master Land Policy Reform

Should Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal readers occasionally scan only headlines, they could get confused about what the Clark County Commission did after a showdown between residents and developers at its latest land use meeting, because the Sun stated ''County adopts major reform of land policies'' and the Review-Journal announced ''Diluted master plan rule OK'd,'' while both articles make clear that what was generally sought and achieved is a compromise and that the ''diluted'' law is still a major one. As residents complained about proliferation of projects incompatible with their neighborhoods and demanded strong master plan protections, and developers called building restrictions irrational in a time of growing population pressures and affordable housing needs, the county commission voted 5-2 to require updating of its 12 local master plans every five years, but also to consider single annual amendments, or ''nonconforming'' zone changes to these updates after one instead of two years, with each amendment potentially applicable to multiple properties. To slow down nonconforming zone change requests, the commission decided to vote on them in its zoning board capacity only four times a year instead of twice a month; to let members sponsor such requests only for projects in their districts; to ask developers for ''compelling evidence'' that rezoning is necessary; and to require a two-thirds majority for its approval. By a 4-3 vote, the commission defeated motions to delay the law and remove its two-thirds majority provision for nonconforming zone change approvals, but it still must decide next month whether to exempt large projects of 1,200 acres or more and those which would involve rezoning from commercial to residential use and thus promise less impact. One of the leading proponents of a strong land use law, Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, acknowledged those who argued ''that master plans, land-use plans, are not perfect,'' but he stressed that such plans ''are important, and they are necessary and they need to be given some respect.'' The sponsor of the revised law, Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said, ''We made a great compromise. This thing has been watered down a great deal from when we initially started.'' New Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who campaigned on growth planning and quality-of-life issues together with the other new commissioner, Chip Maxfield -- both instrumental in advancing this law -- added, ''As a candidate, I was all for master plan reform. I've learned it's much easier to say that than do it.'' -- Las Vegas Sun ; Las Vegas Review-Journal   2/20/2003

Resource(s): www.lasvegassun.com/ ; www.reviewjournal.com/

New Nevadans Straining Infrastructure; Gov. Guinn Asks for Business Tax to Close Budget Gap

A population increase of 900,000 made Nevada the fastest-growing state in the last decade, but also strained its roads, schools and services, while a sharp drop in the state's tourism and gaming revenue in the wake of a national recession threatened to widen its deficit from $300 million to over $700 million by 2005, said Republican Governor Kenny C. Guinn in his State of the State speech, refusing to balance the budget ''on the backs of our children, senior citizens, and the poor'' and making instead a ''never popular'' request for ''a series of broad-based business taxes'' to raise $980 million in new revenue. At stake are the needs of 27,000 new students, along with funding for higher education, health care and Medicaid, the governor stressed as he reached for recommendations made last year by the state Task Force on Tax Policy. He requested an immediate increase in cigarette and alcohol taxes, corporate filing fees and slot machine license fees; an increase of the Business Activity Tax to $300; a 15-cent property tax increase; and the creation of an admission and amusement tax. He told lawmakers to deal with ''the long-term structural budget problem'' through an increase in gaming taxes and a new quarter- percent gross receipts tax on all Nevada businesses whose revenues exceed $450,000, which would exempt more than 60 percent of them as small businesses. He also asked legislative leaders to consider such revenue-boosting measures as property tax collection, which would let the state ''benefit from the growth and value of real property;'' a constitutional change to allow different tax rates for ''homes, commercial businesses and land development;'' and other ''professional, business, and discretionary service taxes.'' In addition, the governor promised to ask the Nevada Transportation Board to approve the sale of $200 million in new transportation bonds to augment his currently proposed $325 million in two-year transportation bonding. This money, he said, will let the state complete four major highway construction projects, providing ''a shot in the arm for our economy,'' creating thousands of jobs and ''easing the horrific traffic problem in our more populated areas.''   1/20/2003

Resource(s): www.gov.state.nv.us/sos2003.htm

Douglas County Development Cap Faces Court Challenge

Two days after the Nevada Supreme Court confirmed the legislative character of a ballot initiative to cut Douglas County residential development outside of the Lake Tahoe Basin from about 550 to 280 homes a year, District Judge Michael Gibbons decided the county can't implement the cap, approved by 53 percent of voters last month, pending a February 11 validity trial, which he wants to conclude within three days, ''because of the importance of the issue.'' The Douglas County Building Industry Association and several major developers challenge the 280-home cap, spearheaded by the grassroots Sustainable Growth Initiative Committee, as unconstitutional and detrimental to their property value. ''The Supreme Court is looking for litigation to determine the validity of the initiative,'' the association's executive director Carole Thompson says combatively. ''I hope Douglas County has big pocketbooks.'' The grassroots committee's leader, John Garvin, sees the Supreme Court ruling as a reaffirmation of ''the power of the initiative process'' and looks forward to presenting further arguments for the cap during the District Court trial. Opponents of the cap, reports Reno Gazette-Journal writer Tim Anderson, claim it would undercut county building fee revenue and jobs, while pushing up taxes and housing costs. Proponents respond that without the cap, the county will face increased spending for roads, schools and water and sewer systems, while losing more natural resources, especially water. -- Reno Gazette-Journal   12/19/2002

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/news/

Tahoe Misses Lake Restoration Targets, Cuts New Home Permits

Although all Tahoe jurisdictions -- Douglas and Washoe counties in Nevada, along with El Dorado and Placer counties and the city of South Lake Tahoe in California -- have shown sufficient environmental progress to allow record residential construction this building season, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) missed the latest lake restoration targets outlined in its $1.5 billion Environmental Improvement Program and decided to cut the baseline number of new homes around the lake from the 300 permitted each year since 1986 to 150, with the possibility of lowering it to 78 or increasing to 294, depending on each jurisdiction's environmental performance. For example, explains Reno Gazette- Journal writer Jeff DeLong, Washoe County's base allocation of 25 new homes a year could be lowered to 13 or increased to 49, depending on how poorly it performs or how well. The jurisdictions will be rated on their results in major restoration projects, public transit improvements and implementation of ''best management practices'' for cleaning runoff. In response to some critics, concerned that such TRPA goals as transit improvements may lie beyond local control and others may be too ambitious, California deputy attorney general Dan Siegel says the lake ''is continuing to go downhill'' and the agency's other option would be to halt all lakeside construction. -- Reno Gazette-Journal   12/18/2002

Resource(s): www.rgi.com/news/

Open Space Preservation Seen as Priority for Nevada Newcomers

Even though 87 percent of Nevada land is in federal hands and many rural residents view the three newly passed open space conservation initiatives as further obstacles to mining and ranching, activists and observers think the state's explosive population growth -- from 490,000 to 2.1 million between 1970 and 2001, nearly 92 percent of it in the Las Vegas and Reno areas -- will fuel land conservation and quality of life efforts throughout the countryside; otherwise, says University of Nevada geography professor, former ranch worker Paul Starrs, ''It'll be condos as far as the eyes can see.'' Attributing much of the state's population jump to an influx from California, the professor tells Salon web site writer Martin Griffith ''We don't want to see Nevada 'Californicated' in the same way as the Santa Clara Valley, Sacramento Valley and Sierra foothills.'' Republican political consultant Jim Denton of Reno concurs. Observing that only 21 percent of Nevadans were born in the state, he thinks those from regions ''where they didn't do a good job of preserving open space ... would not like that to happen in Nevada.'' The writer notes that last month voters approved $200 million in bonds to protect land, water and parks statewide, passed a tough building-cap initiative in Douglas County and rejected development at a public park in Carson City.   12/17/2002

Resource(s): www.salon.com/

Audit Faults Nevada DOT for Bypassing Procedures in 30 Road Projects

A Legislative Counsel Bureau audit of the Nevada Department of Transportation, spurred last year by Democratic Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus and Republican Senator Mark Amodei in response to their Las Vegas and Carson City constituencies' complaints about traffic congestion, found the department has ignored its own procedures in approving 30 road projects worth $1.7 billion over the past three years. With the audit telling the department that objective criteria would help it ''select the most beneficial projects and spend its resources efficiently,'' Las Vegas Review- Journal writer Sean Whaley quotes Senator Amodei, who says, ''The issue is how can we know if you're making the right decisions if we don't know the process you are going through.'' Department director Tom Stephens defended all 30 projects as fully justified, stressing that the selection process is complicated and all decisions ''must be run through a number of elected and appointed officials before finalization,'' with funding in the hands of the seven-member state Transportation Board, led by Governor Kenny Guin. The governor vetoed an earlier 2001 bill to conduct the audit as too costly, the writer notes, adding that director Stephens said department officials meet regularly with their counterparts from congested Clark and Washoe counties and from rural areas, but promised to follow the audit's project selection and accountability recommendations. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   12/12/2002

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/

Nevada Bond Measure Will Fund Variety of Open Space and Cultural Preservation Projects

In a big win for Nevada's environment and quality of life, 59 percent of voters approved a $200 million general obligation bond issue to preserve water quality, protect lakes, rivers, wetlands, open space and wildlife habitat, and restore and improve parks, recreational areas, and historic and cultural resources. As proposed in Assembly Bill 9, the state will distribute $65.5 million through its Division of State Lands as grants to state agencies, local governments and nonprofit groups for recreational trails, urban parks, habitat conservation, open space and protection of other natural resources. The state Department of Cultural Affairs will receive $35 million for a new museum at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve; the Division of Wildlife, $27.5 million for site acquisitions, facility construction and renovation and habitat improvement; and the Division of State Parks, $27 million for land purchases or capital improvements and renovations. Clark County and Washoe County will get $10 million each for creation of a regional wetland park and for enhancement and restoration of the Truckee River corridor, respectively. Depending on the interest rates and the state economy, the bond repayment may require a slight increase in the state property tax, up to 2.6 cent per $100 of assessed value, which would raise tax on a $200,000 home by $18.20 a year.   11/7/2002

Resource(s): www.sos.state.nv.us/nvelection/2002_bq/bq1.htm

$2.7 Billion Tax and Developer Fee Measure Would Fund Road, Transit and Air Quality Projects in Clark County, Nevada

Alarmed by Las Vegas Valley smog and traffic, 53 percent of Clark County voters passed a $2.7 billion tax and developer fee package to fund road, transit and air quality projects in the next 25 years, but the advisory measure depends on legislative approval to become law. Along with an aviation fuel tax raise, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Joelle Babula, the package includes proposals to increase sales tax by a quarter cent and developer impact fees next year from $500 to $650 for a home and gradually to $1,000 by 2025, and from 50 to 65 cents and eventually $1 per square foot for commercial construction. The money would let officials complete the Las Vegas Beltway within 10 years, build roads and highways, improve traffic flow, create seven Citizens Area Transit routes and buy 225 modern buses to replace old vehicles. ''Without this measure, year by year, we'll see the community evolving into a situation of almost total gridlock on our freeways and major arterial roads,'' said Clark County Commissioner and Transportation Commission member Bruce Woodbury. ''Without it, we'll have a deteriorating quality of life, and it will cost people a lot more in terms of gasoline and wasted time.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   11/6/2002

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/

Bureau of Land Management Under Fire for Land Nevada Swaps

''End the land swaps,'' urges a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial in the wake of recent findings by the independent Appraisal Foundation that the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which commissioned the report, ignores frequent criticism, continues ''to give 'special treatment' to developers in land trades, and surrenders land to private owners at below-market value.'' Noting a 90-day BLM moratorium on pending land trades in the West, the editorial ridicules the agency's claim of ''aggressive action'' to improve oversight of its deals. The editorial points out that Nevada's congressional delegation anticipated the problem years ago, succeeding with the 1998 Southern Nevada Land Management Act, which shifts BLM focus in the area from land trades to public auctions. This secures the disposal of some of the agency's Southern Nevada land at market value, the editorial says, stressing that ''the practice should become the principal means the BLM employs nationwide to get rid of property.''   10/17/2002

Resource(s): www.reviewjournal.com/

Nature Conservancy Hailed for Truckee River Restoration Project Land Purchase

Determined to restore a 20-mile ranchland passage along the Truckee River between Sparks and Wadsworth, the Nature Conservancy is doing it ''the right way,'' states a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial, applauding the environmental group for a purchase of 300 acres at its own expense and another 1,300 acres with help from developers of a riverside industrial park. Rather than depending on government funds, which could result in bureaucratic delays for decades, the editorial says, the conservancy moved to restore this important wildlife habitat immediately and open the whole corridor later to recreation, including hiking, canoeing and fishing. Slated to begin next summer, the restoration project, the editorial concludes, ''demonstrates again that private stewardship of sensitive areas is a winning proposition for the public and the environment alike.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   9/24/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/

Tax, Fee Hikes Sought to Fund Las Vegas Beltway and Public Transit

Stepping up their campaign for a quarter-cent sales tax increase, along with jet fuel tax and development fee hikes, Clark County and Regional Transportation Commission officials say voter approval of ballot Question 10 in November would let them not only improve Las Vegas area public transit and air quality, but also accelerate the widening of the Las Vegas Beltway to six or eight lanes, while leaving space for two more lanes along its entire 53-mile stretch, and complete the project by 2012 instead of 2025. The measure would raise $2.7 billion over 25 years, with officials promising to reserve $600 million for the beltway, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Michael Squires. This money, he notes, together with the beltway's first, though streamlined, environmental review process, would make the project eligible for federal funds in a range of $120 million to $200 million. The accelerated construction would include new interchanges, underpasses, drainage facilities, sound walls and traffic message boards, which would also ease congestion and improve road safety. ''As the valley grows, it's become more and more evident that we can't wait until 2025 for it (the beltway) to be completed,'' said County Commissioner Chip Maxfield. ''We need help from the voters.'' But the measure's ardent critic, retired federal labor official Joseph Hogan, called the promise of faster beltway construction a ''gimmick'' to win votes for ''one of the largest one-time tax increases in Nevada history.'' He said its burden would be borne by ''people who pay sales taxes, not drivers, not commuters, not smog inspectors,'' with the main benefit reaped by developers ''because it adds to the comfort of living in the far-out suburbs.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   9/17/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/

Development Controversy Grows in Nevada's Carson Valley

A seven-month campaign by Douglas County's grass-roots Sustainable Growth Initiative Committee to let voters decide in November on its proposed residential permit cap of 280 a year for Carson Valley -- the county's main populated stretch beside Tahoe Basin -- has had several turbulent weeks as the county verified 5,000 petition signatures and placed the proposal on the ballot, the Nevada Northwest LLC development company sued against a public vote on the building cap, a District Judge barred the proposal from the ballot, and the state Supreme Court ordered the county to continue ballot preparations, while giving county and company officials 30 days for arguments before it issues a final decision. The county resumed the preparations, reports Reno Gazette-Journal writer Tim Anderson, but its lawyers earlier agreed with company attorney Bill Huss' argument that the citizens' initiative ''would step into the domain reserved for administrative acts by elected officials'' and ''short-circuit administrative authority.'' With the company having county approval for a major project in Minden, the attorney argued that any building cap should be delayed until the county adopts a capital improvement plan and studies prove the need to limit growth. The citizens' committee believes the cap is necessary to protect the region's quality of life, save natural resources and maintain adequate infrastructure without new taxes. Heartened by the Supreme Court's stance, committee member Jim Slade said, ''The people deserve an opportunity to vote on such an important matter'' and co-chair Judy Sturgis added, ''Democracy is alive and well in Nevada.'' -- Reno Gazette-Journal   9/6/2002

Resource(s): www.rgj.com/news/

Developer Hopes to Bring 8,400 Homes to Nevada's Red Rock Canyon Area

Residents of Red Rock Canyon and Blue Diamond on both sides of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area are up in arms against a John Laing Homes proposal to turn an old 3000-acre mine site near Red Rock into a massive complex of 8,400 homes, shopping centers, schools and parks, which would increase the local population from about 500 to 21,000 and overwhelm it with traffic, noise and night-lights, belying the project's lofty name of Cielo Encantado, or enchanted sky. Laing vice president for land acquisition and planning Paul Henner expects an uphill battle to convince residents -- along with hikers and bikers who enjoy the Red Rock area of Toiyabe National Forest -- that the planned homes in a $250,000 to $10 million range will be good for the community. And the first presentation of the builder's conceptual plan to the Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Frank Geary, only increased residents' opposition to a project that also hinges on a public-private land swap. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is considering a swap of 976 acres near Red Rock for 533 acres owned by the James Hardie Gypsum company in the national conservation area, because that tract is the only habitat of a Blue Diamond cholla cactus, a candidate for the federal list of endangered species. Told that the same Las Vegas-based G.C. Wallace engineering firm working with the developer is conducting a swap feasibility study for the federal land bureau, residents were indignant. ''If their feasibility study comes back positive,'' pointed out resident Ellen Anderson, ''then they have really paved the way for themselves to make a lot of money on this project.'' The writer notes that a Laing consultant had trouble answering 12-year-old Ray Gudeman, who asked, ''Can you give us a good reason to do this besides money?'' and that concerned about ''leap frog'' development, state Senator Dina Titus thought it might be time to revive her proposal to establish a ring around the Las Vegas valley to prevent development in outlying areas. Opponents created their web site www.redrock.org. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   8/15/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/

Developer Unveils Plan for North Las Vegas Mixed-Use Community

Pledging to create ''a tranquil development based on nature and discovery,'' American Nevada Corp. president John Kilduff unveiled his master plan for a 7,500-home Aliante community on a 1,900-acre tract in North Las Vegas, with three schools, a fire station, 100 acres of commercial space and 418 acres of public and recreational space, including a trail system and a 20-acre nature park based on a Disney concept. A joint venture with Dell Web Corp., reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Hubble Smith, the huge project for a projected 20,000 residents, was facilitated by North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon, who had fought hard to have the Bureau of Land Management sell the land as one contiguous tract rather than follow an earlier idea of chopping it into five-acre lots. Describing the ensuing talks about the Aliente design, the mayor said officials walked ''that fine line between how much (land) we leave on the table for the developer and how much do we extract so the community of North Las Vegas benefits 10,15, 20 years down the road.'' The writer notes that the builder plans to spend $7.4 million on community parks, with the discovery park featuring an archeological-theme playground, a picnic area and amphitheater at an artificial lake, soccer fields and tennis and volleyball courts. A nearby 18-hole municipal golf course will offer tee-time priority to city residents. The construction of the first 1,750 homes -- most priced from $130,000 to $200,00 and some at $270,000 -- will start in October, with the grand opening slated for April. -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   8/14/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/

Editorial: Environmental Groups Crusade Against New Road Projects

''Local environmentalists continue (their) crusade to stop more road-building,'' laments a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial, learning that Sierra Club consultants found a 15-percent underestimate of tailpipe and other emissions in a three-year traffic and pollution control plan devised by the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), an error the club considers big enough to obfuscate the Las Vegas area's risk of violating federal pollution standards and losing federal highway funds. The editorial disparages the club's ''seemingly public-spirited message,'' seeing it as a pretext for a possible lawsuit against RTC, which would make the agency miss its deadline for submitting the plan to Washington and really lose a portion of federal road money. Advising skepticism ''any time the Sierra Club introduces 'science' into its lobbying pitches,'' the editorial blames it for a similar ''delaying tactic'' in an April suit against widening of U.S. Highway 95. ''The anti-car crowd wants no new highway construction,'' the editorial seethes. ''Instead, they demand that money be diverted to rail-based mass-transit boondoggles -- and are willing to use the threat of litigation to bog down new-road building projects unless their tribute is paid.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   8/9/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/

Small Parking Spots Causing Big Problems for SUV Owners in Urban Areas

With SUVs accounting for almost a quarter of national vehicle sales, their owners complain about small parking spots in many urban areas, writes Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Michael Squires, observing that there are ''studio apartments with less square footage'' than a Ford Excursion and that parking such a ''behemoth'' on a crowded lot is like ''fitting a cow with a spandex unitard,'' but also sympathizing both with the frustrated SUV addicts and other drivers facing the task of extracting themselves from normal cars inched in between the monstrosities. The columnist finds that area jurisdictions keep hands off the current parking codes, which set a standard space minimum at 9 by 18 feet, with a compact space one foot slimmer, because most planners wonder if the SUV trend is going to last. Clark County zoning administrator Chuck Pulsipher says, ''For a long time, we resisted reducing the (parking spot) size even when there were a lot of compact cars being sold. Now it's going in the opposite direction.'' Las Vegas planning manager John Koswan adds, ''It really gets down to the building, and parking lots are going to be there a lot longer than any fad in the size of vehicles.'' The columnist doesn't think SUVs are a fad. Quoting a BMW sedan owner, Geoffrey Marsh, who calls backing out from between a Lincoln Navigator and a Chevrolet Suburban a ''very delicate operation'' and asks if, or when, officials will ''provide special parking for these SUV behemoths like they used to for compacts,'' the columnists responds'' ''Maybe when they realize bigger vehicles are here to stay.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal   7/7/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/

Groups Urge Annual Cap for New Housing Units in Douglas County, Nev.

At a rally against proposed growth-boosting amendments to the Douglas County master plan, the plan's Defense Coalition and the Sustainable Growth Initiative Committee launched a petition drive to put a growth-control initiative on the November ballot. The Associated Press reports that the groups, which gathered about 200 residents outside the county commission office in Minden, want to cap the number of new housing units in the valley at 280 a year. Organizers cautioned officials that allowing faster growth could strain county resources and services.   3/9/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/

Groups Urge Annual Cap for New Housing Units in Douglas County, Nev.

At a rally against proposed growth-boosting amendments to the Douglas County master plan, the plan's Defense Coalition and the Sustainable Growth Initiative Committee launched a petition drive to put a growth-control initiative on the November ballot. The Associated Press reports that the groups, which gathered about 200 residents outside the county commission office in Minden, want to cap the number of new housing units in the valley at 280 a year. Organizers cautioned officials that allowing faster growth could strain county resources and services.   3/9/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrej.com/

Water, Wilderness, and Energy Among Topics at Nevada Public Land Use Summit

A three-day Nevada Land Use Summit 2002, called ''Disarming Disagreement -- Cultivating Common Ground'' and focused on water, wilderness, grazing, mining and other disputed public land issues, revealed strong public and private support for developing ''green power,'' or geothermal, solar, wind and biomass-generated electricity. Noting that renewable energy not only reduces air pollution, but also helps stabilize consumer prices, Governor Kenny Guin's adviser and Energy Office director Carl Linvill hailed the 2001 legislature for requiring major utilities to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2013. The president of the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Larry Flowers, said the state legislation will force ''the system to develop renewables as a competitive source.'' The state director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Robert Abbey, pointed out that the agency has approved land leases for 132 geothermal projects in Nevada, with another 150 pending and with proposals for eight new wind farms under review. He added that Nevada's nine geothermal plants currently produce 165 megawatts of clean electricity, enough for about 165,000 homes.   3/5/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/

Nevada Hopes to Fund Traffic, Pollution Solutions With Tax Increases

In dire need of massive funds to fight Southern Nevada's growing traffic congestion and air pollution, the Regional Transportation Commission's public-private RTC3 Community Coalition proposed to raise $2.6 billion through increased taxes in the next 25 years, hoping to put the proposal on the November ballot and get it approved by voters. The ballot would need authorization from the regional commission itself and from the Clark County Commission, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Michael Squires. He quotes County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury -- chairing both the regional commission and its community coalition -- who says, ''If we really want to solve the problem, we're going to have to get more from the state and federal government and do more ourselves.'' The ''do more'' proposal is to increase the sales tax from 7.25 to 7.375 percent and the annual smog check fee from $5 to $11; add a penny to the jet fuel tax; start raising the 9-cent gas tax annually at the inflation rate; increase the residential development tax from $500 to $650 for each new home and the commercial development tax from 50 to 65 cents per square foot, continuing to raise them until they reach $1,000 per home and $1 per square foot by 2020; and redirect a portion of property tax revenue from bond repayments to transportation needs. The money would let officials build 425 lane miles of roads and freeways; synchronize the valley's traffic signals and implement the so-called Intelligent Transportation System; expand public transit by buying 225 new buses, adding seven Citizens Area Transit routes and building two CAT rubber-tire rail lines; extend the construction of the resort corridor monorail from the MGM Grand-downtown route to McCarran International Airport and the west side of the Strip; and create about 400 miles of bike routes. Regional Transportation Commission general manager Jacob Snow says all this will allow the area ''to keep up with where we are now;'' otherwise ''it just deteriorates into gridlock and into a thicker brown soup in the air than we have now.''   1/23/2002

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/

Nevada Group Seeks to Halt Development of Carson City Park and Fairgrounds

Having spent each Tuesday since June on picket lines at Carson City Hall, members of the Concerned Citizens to Save Fuji Park and the Fairgrounds group gathered over 3,400 registered voter signatures on their petition against the area's development -- a thousand more than needed and a month before the deadline. Nevada Appeal writer Amanda Hammon reports that although Deputy District Attorney Mark Fosberg declared the group's effort invalid because preventing commercial development is "not a proper subject for the initiative referendum process," City Clerk-Recorder Alan Grover will send it to supervisors after sampling the validity of the signatures. The group's attorney, Julian Smith says should supervisors refuse to hear the petition, he would ask the court to make them change their minds. And should they vote to develop the park and fairgrounds anyway, the group would put the issue on the November 2002 ballot.   11/15/2001

12,000 Trees Planted in First Step to Restore Truckee River

In the first phase of a long-term, $200 million effort to restore much of the 35-mile stretch of the lower Truckee River, improve its water and curb polluted floods in Reno's eastern plains, AmeriCorps volunteers planted 12,000 willow and cottonwood saplings along McCarran Ranch river banks, where army engineers sped up the water in the 1960s, halting the natural floods that had always re-seeded the once-thick forests. The Nature Conservancy's project coordinator, Michael Cameron, says the saplings will grow to 10 feet in a few years and the benefits will show quickly, as they start absorbing nitrogen and other organic matter from the river, neutralizing discharges from the Truckee Meadows wastewater treatment plant. Speaking for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which helped the tree-planting with $158,000 in fish recovery funds, Randi Thompson stresses the need to clean the river prior to restoring its native Lahontan cutthroat trout and ui-ui, because species "have to have a good place to live first."   11/13/2001

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com

Wildlife Society calls for greater coordination of national environmental laws.

The nation's environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, National Forest Management Act, Federal Land Policy Management Act and National Environmental Policy Act, should be improved and fully enforced to make efficient the unfairly-criticized Endangered Species Act, or ESA, said co-writer and former executor Robert Davison, a panelist at the Wildlife Society's eighth annual conference in Reno. The Wildlife Society, unlike the broad-based Wilderness Society, is a professional organization of wildlife and natural resource scientists, students and specialists working for governments, companies or special interest groups. A scientist, Davidson wrote many ESA amendments as a staffer on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in the 1980s and helped implement the law as a deputy assistant secretary of the Interior in 1993-96. He is now an ecologist for the Wildlife Management Institute, a professional conservation group in Washington, D.C., and its Northwest field representative in Bend, Oregon. In his presentation, he urged greater attention to "how effectively we are protecting the environment under the myriad other laws that supposedly have that as their goal." Society president Lynn Carpenter agreed, saying, "If those other laws were doing their job, the Endangered Species Act would not be viewed as such a bad fellow." Other panelists focused on positives. A former director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, John Mumma, pointed out that the act's impact can be grasped by realizing "how our views have changed" since the enactment of major environmental laws in the 1970s. And one of Governor Dirk Kempthorne's policy advisors, Greg Schildwachter, whose new Office of Species Conservation is the first of its kind in the nation, said, "We hope to show land management and conservation are not two separate things but one single thing. We see a day where endangered species work is not about conflict, but conservation: where we put dollars into land instead of lawyers."   10/2/2001

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com

Ideas about how to fill the huge ...

Ideas about how to fill the huge hole cut by terrorists "in the fabric of New York City" and redevelop this "immensely valuable piece of land," crucial to the local economy and symbolic to the world, range from grand to standard, immediate to long-term and concrete to conceptual, but urban and economic experts agree that "improving transportation to downtown, by adding rail connections, should be a priority." Suggestions, report New York Times writers Kirk Johnson and Charles V. Bagli, include a rail link from the Long Island Rail Road to Lower Manhattan, a PATH train system extension from New Jersey to the New York City subway at Fulton Street downtown and a subway Line 7 extension further downtown, to encourage development of the West Side north of the trade center. In this context, the writers cite three experts. Sociologist Richard Sennet, a Manhattan resident and chairman of the Cities Program at the London School of Economic, says, "We're going to have to invent something entirely new here, and it's going to mean rethinking the ways we use the city." Real estate executive John E. Zuccotti, former deputy mayor and city planning chairman, says, "This tragedy has given us an opportunity to rethink and rebuild all of Lower Manhattan," which requires "political leadership, compromise, planning and public-private cooperation at a pace unprecedented in the history of the city and state." The executive director of the nonprofit Manhattan-based Regional Plan Association, Robert D. Yaro, says, "The tension is between doing something quickly and doing it well."   9/28/2001

Resource(s): www.nytimes.com

Las Vegas' one-mile monorail between the MGM ...

Las Vegas' one-mile monorail between the MGM Grand and Bally, built by their jointly-owned LLC in 1995, will be extended 3.9 miles to the biggest casinos along the gridlocked Strip by January 2004, helping the state, said Governor Kenny Guinn at a groundbreaking ceremony, "with traffic congestion in our highest-populated metropolitan area, easier access to hotels and better air quality." Nevada taxpayers won't risk a penny on the $650 million project, the governor stressed, because the nonprofit Las Vegas Monorail company sold the state-backed bonds to private investors, through Salomon Smith Barney of New York. Its representative, Gregory Carey, said analysts expect 19 million passengers to use the new monorail in its first year, at $2.50 a trip, which will pay "all the operating costs, debt service, renewals and replacements, and at least $10 million in operating surplus per year." Regional Transportation Commission manager Jacob Snow promised to make the monorail accessible to area residents and casino workers by linking the regional electric bus MAX system with the end-of-the-line stops at the MGM Grand and the Sahara by 2008. Clark County Commissioner and Transportation Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury, who had advocated the monorail as an "absolute crucial part of our congestion relief plan as well as our air quality improvement program," called the extension "a huge step forward." He and other officials are hoping to bolster the monorail with two publicly-funded spurs to downtown Las Vegas and to McCarran International Airport, and eventually to expand the system to 18 miles.   8/20/2001

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com

While European leaders and congressional Democrats can't ...

While European leaders and congressional Democrats can't comprehend why the Bush administration would hesitate to support the Kyoto protocol on global warming, a prestigious, bipartisan group of environmental economists has suggested that the president has made a wise decision, says a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial, citing findings by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, which places annual American costs of the protocol implementation in the range of $140 to $1,000 per household. Noting also the view of the dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management, Richard Schmalensee, that even if the nation closed all its coal-fired power plants, it would meet only half of the protocol's emission reduction requirements, the editorial concludes, "The U.S. Senate was correct when it rejected the Kyoto accord in 1997 by a 97-0 vote."   8/16/2001

Resource(s): www.lvrj.com

Although growth, including its charged quality of ...

Although growth, including its charged quality of life issues, is "a hot topic throughout the fast-growing West," Nevada -- which tops the nation with a 66 percent population jump last decade -- expects no legislation to curb that rate, reports Rocky Mountain News writer Berny Morson, noting anti-sprawl bills sponsored by Senate Democratic Minority Leader Dina Titus have made "little headway against Nevada's tradition of local control." After her 1997 proposal for a Las Vegas growth boundary "went down in flames," she proposed "smart growth" measures, under which cities would receive financial incentives to plan well and create buffer zones, but they also fizzled. She adds that the city is strangled by traffic, but with little public transit, area residents are "chained" to their cars. The only growth-related bill showing progress deals with metro area air pollution, 90 percent caused by particles stirred up at development sites in the desert. Republican Senator Dean Rhoads, upset that Las Vegas growth is draining the state's school, prison and social service budget, says he and his party colleagues "are ready to bite the bullet" and raise some taxes at the next legislative session, but still opposes "a state mandate" to control sprawl, convinced "it should be a local city- county option." 05.15.2001   5/16/2001

Resource(s): www.rockymountainnews.com

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