NEVADA VIEWS: It’s time for Las Vegas to grow in a different direction
At a recent rally in Las Vegas, former President Donald Trump made a campaign promise to “open up large portions of land” for housing and other economic uses. The land that Trump is referring to are public lands, owned by the American people and managed by federal government agencies. Las Vegas is surrounded by public lands used by wildlife and for a variety of recreation and economic uses. This idea of privatizing these public lands to benefit private corporations is not new in Nevada.
For decades, Clark County and the City of Henderson have planned to expand the Las Vegas metropolitan area from its current boundary — just past the M Resort — all the way to Primm. The latest excuse for this urban sprawl is affordable housing and economic development. Sprawl pollutes our air, destroys open space (including desert plants and soils that absorb large amounts of carbon), wastes tax money and increases water consumption.
This summer, Henderson and Clark County released a joint land use study that examined the potential for sprawl development between Henderson and Jean. Less than half of the homes built would qualify as “affordable,” and they would not be connected to transit. Rather than helping lift folks out of poverty, it would make climbing the economic ladder much more difficult.
On the economic development front, the study proposes a massive logistics and warehouse complex on Interstate 15. The goal for this would be to attract more trucks from Southern California and cargo shipments from a new airport. The study did not examine the potential travel and tourism impacts from any of this activity. If economic development threatens the main economic anchor of our state, is it actually worth pursuing? Of course not — we need to make it easier for tourists to come enjoy Las Vegas, not leave them sitting in the heat on I-15. How many times do we think folks will keep coming back if we keep making the trip longer?
Southern Nevada also has one of the most apparent signs of climate change in the entire world: the white ring around Lake Mead. We get nearly all of our water from the lake. Because of climate-change induced drought, it is currently only 33 percent full. The study suggests that the sprawl to Jean would consume 49 million gallons per day. Lake Mead is continuing to shrink, and our allocation of Colorado River water will continue to be cut. This sprawl would make it more difficult to conserve our most vital resource.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Las Vegas can continue to grow without sprawl. We can redevelop thousands of acres of vacant lots, empty commercial centers and condemned buildings into vibrant, mixed-use development that is accessible by walking, biking and mass transit. Taller buildings generate more tax revenue, and are less expensive to connect to infrastructure. Because they need less landscaping, they save significant amounts of water.
Mixed-use development is also best for affordable housing. We have tried other approaches in the past, and they didn’t work. In the late 1970s through the ’80s, America experimented with building public housing “projects.” Because of the concentration of poverty in a single area, businesses fled and local tax revenue dried up. Drug traffickers targeted these areas, and crime skyrocketed. Nowadays, we have learned that the best policy is to integrate affordable housing into other types of development. A single mixed-use project can include housing of all different types, sometimes quite literally on top of businesses and services, walking distance from parks and other amenities.
These developments are safe, and allow for lower income individuals and families to begin climbing the economic ladder. It is much easier to save money if the barriers of car ownership — with gasoline prices, registration fees, and maintenance — aren’t in the way of getting to work.
Las Vegas is going to continue to grow. But that doesn’t have to happen in a way that endangers those of us who already live here. We can develop our city without more pollution and traffic. We can build housing and protect our desert without over burdening our water supplies. All it takes is a different and evidence-based approach. Elected officials at every level in Nevada take campaign donations from developers and deliver sprawl for them in return. We locals need to make our voices heard, and make sure that Las Vegas’ growth is a benefit to all of us.
Vinny Spotleson is the volunteer Chair for the Toiyabe Chapter of the Sierra Club. He previously served as the Energy and Lands Manager for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the District Director for Congresswoman Dina Titus. He currently teaches high school social studies.