City OKs streamlined process to purchase faulty Windsor Park land

jim miller/viewWooden tresses, carpet remnants and shingles lie next to a crumbled house foundation in the Windsor Park community, located near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Avenue in North Las Vegas. The community was built on fissures in the earth and unstable clay soil in the 1960s. jim miller/viewA crumbled house foundation sits on Larey Street in the Windsor Park subdivision in North Las Vegas. The city has been trying to relocate these residents for years, but many of them will not move from the area. Advertisement

A drive through the Windsor Park subdivision near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Avenue reveals a strange landscape of tiny houses set among a wide patchwork of vacant lots and lots occupied only by the exposed foundations of the houses that once stood there.

The homes in the subdivision were built between 1964 and 1965, but it wasn't until the early 1980s that fissures in the earth and unstable clay soil began to cause ground subsidence that affected foundations of the homes built there. Roofs caved in and windows cracked. The homes were slowly, but quite literally sinking.

By that time, the builders responsible could not be found.

In 1991, the city of North Las Vegas began receiving federal grant money for the Windsor Park Housing Revitalization Project. Since that time, the city has been engaged in a long process of buying land from residents and helping them to relocate, if they are willing.

Today, some of the remaining houses show signs of subsidence, such as cracked cement. Others look pristine with well-manicured landscaping. Some are boarded-up. Some are for sale.

Some streets in the area appear to be freshly paved.

At a Nov. 7 North Las Vegas City Council meeting, the council voted to streamline the process whereby the city manager's office can purchase properties in Windsor Park, waiving the need for city council to approve each plot purchased. The approval of the city manager and city attorney is enough.

"Basically we're able to speed up the closing time by 30 to 40 days," senior executive to the city manager Kenny Young said. Young heads up the office of housing and neighborhood services for North Las Vegas.

He said in 1994, the city moved four families into nearby Cibola Park. In June of that year, the city built 45 homes on an approximately 14-acre area nearby and relocated 45 residents into them.

"In the meantime, we've been doing nothing but buying people out and relocating them and paying for their moving costs," he said.

At this point, the city owns half of the sites in the 44-acre subdivision that originally contained 241 houses, Young said.

Young explained that it is such a slow process because the city has chosen not to use eminent domain in this case, and so it must find willing sellers. It isn't always easy in a neighborhood where many residents rent and many houses are owned by absent investors.

Under the Uniform Relocation Act, the city must negotiate for the property after its value has been appraised. The residents are to be compensated for the fair market value of their property.

Young said that can be difficult to determine in a situation where homes are degrading and the land is unsuitable for housing, but the city is trying to accommodate residents and help them find satisfactory new homes if they do sell.

"In most cases, we are trying to find a comparable property," he said.

He said some older residents are unwilling to move to a new house with a new mortgage. For those residents, Young said, the city tries to find a senior-oriented apartment complex or other living situation suitable to their needs.

"They would most likely get a better situation than what they have now by far," said Young of Windsor Park residents who choose to relocate.

Young also said that more often than not, Windsor Park residents are able to relocate within North Las Vegas.

North Las Vegas resident Tommie Knight relocated from Windsor Park to another house in 2000. She said she chose to leave because so many of her neighbors were leaving and property values were going down. She wanted to move before she was too old for it to be an option.

She said she got $50,000 from the city for her old house, which went toward the cost of her new house. Knight said her new mortgage is higher than the old one, but she has been fortunate. She hasn't missed a payment.

Edwina Richardson is the first lady of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 2600 Clayton St., located adjacent to Windsor Park. Though she has never lived there, Richardson knows others in her church who have left Windsor Park and others who have stayed. She knows one woman well who will not relocate and who is making plans to improve her property. Richardson understands why some would choose to stay.

"This has been their home. This being an older area, there are many who are retired or near retirement who are not prepared to move to another area financially because of the difference in property values," she said.

As for the revitalization part of the project, Young couldn't say much.

"The issue we have is we can't even talk about mitigating the land until the land is clear," he said.

Windsor Park is an unlikely site for future housing because the cost of mitigating the land, or making it suitable for building, is too prohibitive.

Young did say a park was one possibility.

The revitalization project may be a lengthy one, but from Young's perspective it is something the city must do.

"We have a fiduciary responsibility to assist in areas that are in need of revitalizing," Young said.

He added, however, that the issue is complex because, while the city is working to relocate everyone in the subdivision, it also must continue to provide infrastructure to those residents who choose not to leave.