A NEIGHBORHOOD GEM: The center of it all

More to come in 2008 at Centennial Hills Master Planned Campus

steve Andrascik/ViewTate Horlcher, 3, jumps into the pool at the Centennial Hills Community Center/YMCA. Larry Cruikshank/ViewSince opening last year, the Centennial Hills Community Center, 6601 N. Buffalo Drive, has been embraced by residents for the variety of activities offered there, including the city-run Active Adult Center. special to viewThe Centennial Hills Campus Master Plan shows the future locations of the library, a proposed Metropolitan Police Department substation and a fire station. View file photoNick Eghoian and Vera Setjoadinata serve a meal at the Active Adult Center at the Centennial Hills Community Center. Advertisement

Rarely does a community center live up to the full potential of its moniker, exceeding the mediocre status of recreation site to become the true hub of its neighborhood.

But the community center in Centennial Hills has become that and more, developing into a sign of the progressive growth in northwest Las Vegas. Due to its multiple components -- a place for kids, a place for adults, a place for families and even for pets -- the master-planned campus has earned recognition from its surrounding neighbors, and now from the rest of the world, as signified by a recent award.

But that's just the opening act of 2007. There's more on the way.

The Centennial Hills Master Planned Campus arrived last year when the area around Cadwallader Middle School, at Buffalo Drive and Elkhorn Road, saw the opening of the initial phases of the Centennial Hills Park, the YMCA-operated, 98,000-square-foot community center and the city-run Active Adult Center along Deer Springs Way.

Those facilities, combined with Fire Station 41, a planned police station and library and Phase III of the park, will form the complete campus, which recently was recognized at the World Leadership Awards in London, a competition that celebrates the very best in modern city leadership. The Centennial Hills campus beat out projects in Lagos, Nigeria and Lima, Peru.

"I was unaware of these awards and this world competition, but when I found out about them, it's really pretty cool," said Las Vegas Ward 6 City Councilman Steve Ross, who represents the northwest area and has championed the development of the campus. "It is an international honor, and once your city or project makes the short list, you get to make a presentation. And we made that presentation and ended up getting recognized, and it's an incredible honor for the city of Las Vegas and quite an honor to have something like this in my ward."

But the residents of his ward don't need global recognition in order to appreciate the amenities offered at the community center and its surroundings, or to get excited about what's to come.

Centennial Hills Park will contain 120 acres when all phases are complete. It currently includes 10 picnic areas, sand volleyball courts, soccer fields, playgrounds, a water play area, jogging and walking paths, restrooms and plenty of open spaces, including two popular dog park areas.

Phase III of the park, which is expected to be finished in June along Deer Springs Way, between the current park and the community center buildings, will bring even more open, grassy spaces, parking, and an outdoor amphitheater.

"There's also going to be a completely accessible playground for kids with disabilities and a very unique inverted riverbed component," Ross said. "That's a natural element there. Years of erosion have created this plateau, and it's actually the bottom of the old river, so there are fossils there. The city is going to be partnering with UNLV to set up an educational trail system there so kids and entire classes can tour through it."

The Centennial Hills Community Center, which opened to much excitement last summer, houses two outdoor pools with water slides, two indoor pools, two gymnasiums, a fitness and aerobics studio, a cardio and weight room, computer lounges, a paint and craft room and other multi-use classrooms, a kitchen, a child watch area and locker rooms with restrooms.

The YMCA's partnership with the city allows for a variety of recreation, sports and fitness programming at the facility, and the adjoining Active Adult Center benefits, as well, with access to those facilities. That center, which operates from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday to serve adults age 50 and over with unique programming, has its own 2,000-square-foot multi-purpose room, a library, an eight-station computer lab, other classrooms and a kitchen.

"We have a lot we can do at this facility. We love to make use of the swimming pool for things like water aerobics classes," said Roney Fuller, leisure services coordinator at the Active Adult Center.

But the campus is not all about recreation, and that's where the Centennial Hills Library comes in. That project is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2009 on the corner of Deer Springs Way and Buffalo Drive, right next to the proposed spot for a Metropolitan Police Department substation.

The 45,000-square-foot library's design plans include a 300-seat theater, a reading lounge overlooking the park, an outdoor seating plaza, an art gallery, a bookstore and a cafe and several meeting spaces.

"I never really thought of it as a campus until this award, but that's really what it is, and what it will be when the library comes into the plan," Ross said. "Like the components that already are in place, the library is going to be something that not only serves the community, but draws in visitors from all over the valley."

Residents and planners alike are enthusiastic about the library's pending arrival because of the dearth of such facilities in the northwest.

"It's definitely an underserved part of the valley in access to library resources," said Patricia Marvel, director of marketing for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.

With many elements already in place and secure plans for those on the way, Centennial Hills has a central foundation for future growth.

"As with all of Las Vegas, managing growth in the northwest has been a challenge because there is so much change," Ross said. "But the residents of Ward 6 are patient and understanding, and as soon as you get these facilities open, they're there using them."