Neighbors say development's retail plans will have a negative impact
By BROCK RADKE
VIEW STAFF WRITER
Northwest resident Brigitte Solvie stands in her front yard on North Conquistador Street. In the background is open desert that soon will be part of the 23 acres planned for Providence Square, which will include retail anchors of a grocery store and a fitness club. Solvie and some of her neighbors believe the plans are not right for the area.larry cruikshank/View
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Differing opinions on what is appropriate in a growing northwest neighborhood have resulted in opposition to the development of Providence Square, a 205,000-square-foot commercial center planned adjacent to the master-planned community Providence at Hualapai Way and the Las Vegas Beltway.
Like Providence, the center is being developed by Focus Property Group, the company behind other Las Vegas master-planned communities such as Mountain's Edge and Inspirada. The current plans for the 23-acre Providence Square, scheduled to be presented to the Las Vegas Planning Commission this month, call for retail anchors of a grocery store and a fitness club, along with other shops and restaurants.
While the developer has held several neighborhood meetings seeking public input on the project -- the most recent being Jan. 29 at the Centennial Hills Community Center -- an impassioned group of neighbors believe Providence Square is not only inappropriate for the area, but also the result of a manipulation of land use documents.
"This project is a bit of a quagmire. It's going to have a much larger, negative impact to this area than the developers are addressing," said Brigitte Solvie. She lives directly north of the site on Conquistador Street. Providence Square is bound by Conquistador to the east, Deer Springs Way to the north, Hualapai to the west and the Beltway to the south.
"(Focus) has acquired this parcel outside Providence, outside the peripheral, and now they're claiming it as an enhancement to the development," she said. "I live in a county section where all the (residential) lots are a half-acre or greater, and this area is zoned PCD (Planned Community Development). This parcel has been given special consideration."
The Providence Square site was annexed into the city in 2007 and has been zoned PCD, which permits planned communities and developments and commercial and mixed-use projects. Across Deer Springs is county land with density limits set by the Lone Mountain Centennial Hills Land Use Plan.
No matter the governing land use documents, Solvie believes the plans won't serve the community well.
"Less than a mile away, we have a grocery store and other service businesses, fast food and restaurants, and there's a 24-Hour Fitness within four miles," she said. "We have no objection to a small community development in this area, but this is bad planning."
Mark Fiorentino, senior vice president of government affairs for Focus Property Group, said reactions to the plans have been mixed.
"Some (residents) think the use is completely inappropriate, some are happy with what we have, and some are in the middle and like what we have but would like to make some changes," he said. "We've made a number of significant changes from the initial plans. We've shifted buildings around, made sign standards more strict and increased buffers, just to name three. At this point, we feel this is the most appropriate use of this property."
Las Vegas Ward 6 City Councilman Steve Ross said the struggle between urban sprawl and rural living is a recurring theme in the northwest area of town he represents.
"I made a commitment to protect our rural neighborhoods from the day I took office, and there are a lot of challenges like this project," Ross said. "It's especially challenging when someone wants to do a project right off the freeway like this, right next to a high-density residential area like Providence, to regulate it and keep it rural. Providence is a beautiful neighborhood, but it's right next to this rural neighborhood."
The growth in the northwest valley has a big impact on such land use decisions, and if there wasn't a Beltway off-ramp or a large master-planned community at the site, "we wouldn't even be having this conversation," Ross said.
Fiorentino said Providence Square is planned to fit the expected growth of the region.
"The area has changed drastically in the last seven to 10 years and will continue to change," he said. "Deer Springs will continue to change. Providence will be built out in the next couple of years, and Hualapai will become a major carrier of traffic between (U.S. Highway 95) and the 215 (Beltway), and not just for the Providence master plan, but for Kyle Canyon, as well."
More growth may be on the horizon, but Solvie and her like-minded neighbors are ready to fight to preserve the zoning in their area.
"We've all kind of grouped together to oppose this shopping center, and our main concern is if that goes to commercial, it's going to have an impact in the surrounding area," said Denise Halvorson, who has lived in the area for eight years on a 21/2-acre lot. "Most people have more than a half-acre out here; some people have horses and they actually ride their horses around the neighborhood. So commercial is just not appropriate here. This is less than two miles away."
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