Growth squeezes township

      Drawn by its remoteness and beauty, Charlie McManis anchored his family in Sunrise Manor 26 years ago.
      Back then the mountainy northeast Las Vegas township was still quite virgin: Dirt paths were as common as roads, horses abounded and it was a short hop from home to Nellis Air Force Base.
      "It was as rural as you could get," the retired airman remembered. "It was like a piece of the Old West."
      It's the New West now, with growth having crept to the base of Frenchman's Mountain, bringing with it palatial homes, apartment complexes, trailer parks, government subsidized housing, businesses and traffic.
      McManis is fighting to preserve what's left of the sanctity; as is Anita Laruy. The two are sentinels of Sunrise, or more plainly, members of the Sunrise Manor Town Advisory Board.
      "We want to enjoy our quality of living just like everyone else," said Laruy, library director for the North Las Vegas Library District. She and her husband moved to Sunrise Manor in 1986 to enjoy their horses.
      Each of the board's five members is a volunteer concerned with the direction of the 154,000-resident township.
      Board chairman Mike Dias says urbanization has already spoiled much of the beautiful landscape that attracted him to Sunrise Manor more than 20 years ago.
      "This is now the most densely populated area of the valley," said Dias, president of Stratus Construction, whose knowledge of zoning laws is often helpful. "We have more R-3 residences (which allow for 18 units per acre, typically an apartment complex) than anywhere in the city. Growth keeps on encroaching into the township. We're not totally against it but it has to be positive."
      Dias knows growth is inevitable. At the Aug. 10 board meeting, he and other board members voted for a developer's plans for another R-3 designated property.
      "We are trying to limit apartment density and (the amount of) trailer parks in Sunrise, but unfortunately we don't make the final decision, the County Commission does," said board member Patricia Leavitt, an office administrator at Andrew & Leavitt.
      She and her husband were drawn to the area's openness and remoteness three years ago and joined the board after contacting county government and asking how she could get involved with township issues.
      Leavitt said the board spends a lot of time tussling with developers trying to sneak extras in their plans.CQ
      Laruy said infrastructure needs should have grown with growth.
      "We've been a growing township and have long needed more parks, more fire services and better access to freeways for some time," she said. "At least now we have a voice to express those needs."
      At the meeting, the board OK'd a letter of recommendation supporting a group's plans to turn 45,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land into a multiple-use recreation area.
      The recreation area -- proposed by Citizens for Active Management of Sunrise Mountain along with other groups -- would include trails and mark geologic highlights of the Frenchman and Sunrise Mountains. Highlights include Gypsum Cave, where the remains of sloths, camels and ancient horses were found in the 1920s, and the Great Unconformity, which represents a 1.2 billion-year gap - about 1/4 of the Earth's geologic history - that appears to be missing between the rock layers.
      Board members say secretary Aggie Roberts is their engine.
      "We couldn't function without her," Leavitt said. "She makes our jobs a lot easier."
      "Nonsense," Roberts said, "they do all the work."
      The board meets at Sunrise Manor Town Hall, 1106 N. Nellis Blvd.