The North Las Vegas City Council approved a six-month moratorium on the filing and acceptance of land use or business applications for transitional living facilities, used by former inmates trying to re-enter society.
Referring to the abodes as any "facility for transitional living for released offenders," the council enacted the interim ban during its July 6 meeting.
Council members said the move will allow the city time to create an ordinance designed to control the occurrence of the transitional living facilities. Such an ordinance wouldn't prohibit such facilities, but would enable the public to participate in the application and approval process for the structures.
The ordinance would seek to ensure that public comment regarding transitional living facilities would be heard by the council before the facilities are licensed to be located in residential areas of North Las Vegas.
"There has been a breakdown in communication in laws and regulations of this market at the state and city level," Mayor Michael Montandon said. "It is important to us to put a moratorium on it until we get regulation and process in place."
North Las Vegas resident Joyce Harris said there is a need for transitional living facilities, but she believes certain areas of the North Las Vegas community are being flooded with too many of them.
"What happens in prison trickles down to neighborhoods," she said. "We're not trying to dodge our responsibilities, but some neighborhoods don't have to have the burden of these types of housing ... our neighborhood does."
Harris also said she wonders if the motivation for opening so many of the transitional living facilities is the "love of people or the love of money." Councilman William Robinson said it was "greed" when Harris asked that question of he and his colleagues.
Councilman Robert Eliason added that because the "city to the south of us" isn't allowing transitional living facilities anymore, the city of North Las Vegas is ending up with too many of them.
Flora Mason, another North Las Vegas resident, said she is grateful for the work the North Las Vegas Police Department has done to make the city's streets safer, but she still feels fear due to the numbers of transitional living facilities in the downtown area.
"I want to be able to be outside with my grandchildren," she said. "Right now, there are so many men outside in my neighborhood -- it's like a prison camp."
Mason and Harris said they have never been notified when new transitional living facilities opened in their neighborhood, west of Martin Luther King Boulevard near Lake Mead Parkway. They also believe at least one of the facilities in their neighborhood is unlicensed.
Both said they believe there are 11 facilities on Lawry Street alone, and brought to the council's attention the fact that at least one of the facilities in their neighborhood is unlicensed.
"We appreciate everything that's been done on our behalf," Harris said. "We hope for a resolution, and not just in our neighborhood. Homeowners should be notified (of plans to add transitional living facilities) -- they are too close and there are too many."
Phil Stoeckinger, finance director for North Las Vegas, said after the meeting that there is no way to know how many transitional living facilities are now operating in the city because there is only one licensing category. That category includes both transitional living facilities and group homes, which are for citizens with a variety of needs, from the blind to the elderly with Alzheimer's disease.
The new ordinance would create a distinction, Stoeckinger said.
Still, Stoeckinger said he doubts that there are 11 transitional living facilities on any one street.
In other business, the council approved zoning changes to allow the Olympia Group to move forward with the development of its 2,675-acre master planned community.
The unnamed $1 billion community is set for Clayton Street and Grand Teton Drive near Aliante on land the Olympia Group bought from the Bureau of Land Management for $639 million.
The community is set to include 16,000 residential units, a post office, a library, fire and police stations, and six possible school sites, as well as 130 acres of parks and trails. The community could accommodate about 50,000 residents.
The community also could include a casino site on 56 acres at Losee Road and the Las Vegas Beltway.
The area is zoned for resort commercial, but hasn't been approved or denied for gaming.
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