Sue Allen sits in the backyard of her Enterprise home Wednesday. Allen, a member of SouthWest Action Network, has worked to preserve rural areas in the southern end of the Las Vegas Valley. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

For three years, homeowners in the southern end of the Las Vegas Valley have fought to protect their rural lifestyle, regularly fending off aggressive developers hungry for open property.

On Wednesday, Clark County commissioners put an end to the feud between those defending their Old West life and those whose idea of a new frontier is a hotel-casino, strip casino or master-planned community.

Commissioners rezoned nearly 3,500 pieces of property to a Rural Neighborhood Preservation designation, which allows a maximum of one home per half-acre.

Property owners cannot apply for a zone change until 2007. At that point, they will have to prove their proposed project fits in with the protected rural neighborhood.

Sue Allen, a member of the community activist group SouthWest Action Network, had sought help from commissioners three years ago to protect her neighborhood's lifestyle as high-density developments began chewing away at the horse country.

She then decided to expand her efforts to help every rural community in southern Clark County, where the growth rate is highest.

The newly protected Enterprise Township neighborhoods are in pockets across the Las Vegas Valley, dotting the region from Durango Drive on the west to Bermuda Road on the east to Warm Springs Road on the north.

The Enterprise Township Master Plan designated those areas Rural Neighborhood Preservation, but because the hard zoning by the county was not in place, developers found ways to build tract homes or commercial buildings in the community. Allen said that, after three years, Wednesday's commission approval of the zone change was a huge victory.

"We still have substantial rural areas, and now we have them locked down," said Allen, who also served on the county's Growth Task Force. "In five years, that lifestyle option would not be available.

"I profoundly hope that this will put some boundaries on it (development). We in Enterprise desperately need to slow growth down there."

Allen worked with Commissioner Bruce Woodbury to bring the comprehensive zoning to fruition. Woodbury, who lives in a rural Boulder City neighborhood, said he appreciates the lifestyle that still exists in the crowded valley and is dedicated toward working to save it.

"I believe in trying to preserve rural areas as long as that's what the residents want," Woodbury said. "This zoning is to try to provide additional protection against incompatible developments that are destroying the rural lifestyle."

John Hiatt, who was chairman of the Enterprise Town Board for more than a decade, is familiar with the ongoing battles between rural residents and developers. Hiatt thought the horse communities would be protected when Rural Neighborhood Preservation designations were created in 1992.

But homeowners along Las Vegas Boulevard South have engaged in several battles with companies seeking to build condominiums adjacent to their neighborhoods, hoping to feed off tourists unable to find rooms on the Strip. Under the new zoning approved Wednesday, those homeowners are now protected.

"This is about making this zoning real zoning," Hiatt said. "This says, 'Your zoning is real and we respect it.' "

Some longtime residents of that area expressed frustration at past decisions to allow developers to change the zoning and build commercial centers or motels near their homes.

"You have people who have invested their whole lives and dreams into their homes, and our neighborhood is being taken away by developers and speculators who don't care about our lifestyle," said Terry Nelson, a resident of Haven Street, just east of Las Vegas Boulevard near Windmill Lane. "It would be nice to have you people represent us rather than the developers all the time."

Commissioners voted unanimously to rezone the different neighborhoods. The new zoning goes into effect immediately.