Faith Lutheran, residents go head-to-head over road relocation

It may take faith to move mountains, but Faith Lutheran Middle School and High School is out to move a street. The school wants Clark County to relocate Homestretch Drive, the east-west-running street at the southern end of its campus buildings.

The school, 2015 S. Hualapai Way, owns the 10-acre parcel south of Homestretch and said it wants to have a contiguous 49-acre campus for future buildings. The county Planning Commission is set to consider the issue at 9 a.m. Nov. 4 at 500 S. Grand Central Parkway.

Earlier this year, Faith Lutheran sent letters to area neighbors that read, in part, "You may recall that last year we communicated to you our plan to rezone the 10 acres of land south of our current campus; that rezoning is complete. We also invite you to come to our school to learn more about that process. At that same meeting, we promised to come back to you with future plans. We are fulfilling that promise to you with this letter and invitation.

"Our plans are moving along for the use of those 10 acres; the first of those plans includes moving Homestretch Road (sic) to the south end of our undeveloped 10 acres providing us with a contiguous 49 acre campus while maintaining a connecting road between Sandstone Bluffs and Hualapai. The master plan also incorporates most of the pick up and drop off of our students internally within our campus making life easier for you, our valued neighbors. Moving the road will allow us to have one contiguous campus and create a much safer situation for drivers and students alike."

The letter did not sit well with some neighbors, such as Pat Riede, who said that she nearly tossed the letter as junk mail but was glad she didn't once she'd read it.

"I thought, 'What? This is not good.' They say it's all for the safety of the children, why they want to move this road. Well, first of all, Faith Lutheran is a middle and high school. So we're not talking about very small children. It would create a very awkward traffic pattern, and it's not going to guarantee the safety of anybody."

Riede suggested the school build a bridge over the road to access the lot on which it plans to build, saying that it would be more cost-effective and eliminate the need to inconvenience area residents.

She and others have set up a website, neighborsforhomestretch.com, to debate the proposal.

The request to move a road is not the norm, said Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown.

"It doesn't come up that often, especially in a master-planned community," he said. "I'm guessing — this is speculation — but the growth and success of Faith Lutheran might not have been anticipated to be this large when they first reserved that land and purchased it."

County Commissioner Susan Brager, in whose district Faith Lutheran sits and who lived in Peccole Ranch for three years previously, said she is getting input from residents who support each side of the issue. She said a time study showed it would take drivers an extra 20 to 30 seconds to utilize Homestretch Drive if it were moved.

She said, at first glance, moving the street would be a safety precaution for the students, but that she was open to hearing other ideas.

"I asked people to tell me why there's a better solution to this," Brager said. "It's a challenging one. I absolutely do not think a walkway over the street is the (solution) because some teens are lazy; they'll dart across. I absolutely believe that will happen. But no decision is made. We will listen to the people speak."

The school held three meetings with its neighbors to explain its plans and reasoning behind moving the road. It cited a traffic study it had commissioned.

Realtor Dolly Panagopoulos lives less than two blocks away and said she is opposed to the street being reworked. She said the traffic study the school referred to at its June 10 meeting had been done before Downtown Summerlin was up and running. Sandstone Bluffs, she said, is used by residents to access that popular shopping and dining destination.

"We went door knocking, and honestly, no one knows what's going on," Panagopoulos said. "They're all, like, 'What are you talking about?' There's nothing wrong with Faith Lutheran — it's a great school — but if you take that road out, they want to put in a three-story aquatics center and tennis courts and all that. But the problem is, neighbors in Peccole Ranch and Summerlin will have a lot of traffic issues. We already have traffic issues on Sandstone Bluffs."

How would she answer people who say it's not a big deal?

"We're a bike-friendly neighborhood, and there are a lot of people who run or walk that use Homestretch to get to Sandstone Bluffs," Panagopoulos said. "The folks who come out of that neighborhood, Pine Bluff, on Sandstone, they use it (Homestretch) to get to Charleston (Boulevard), that main artery road. And who knows if we get the baseball center on Sahara (Avenue) and Town Center (Drive), so that would make traffic more of an issue. I don't think people understand that they're not just going to close it, but there's another street that's going to happen."

The school recently broke ground on an $8.75 million athletics complex on that plot of land. Plans show the complex will include a 1,150-seat gym, a weight room, locker rooms, offices, concession stands, bathrooms and storage areas.

Some of the residents who would be affected by the change are rallying against the school with a petition.

The Howard Hughes Corp. weighed in on the matter with a letter of its own, saying that in its current location, Homestretch "creates a potentially dangerous conflict between students crossing the street to access future playing fields and vehicular traffic as Faith Lutheran continues its expansion of classrooms and recreational facilities south of its existing campus. Relocating the street will eliminate this conflict. In addition, the new roadway with typical Summerlin streetscapes on either side will provide an enhanced buffer for the existing residential neighborhood to the south. The revised boundary edge along the school's property will also enable Faith Lutheran to more easily secure its grounds." The letter was signed by Kevin Orrock, president of Summerlin and vice president of master planned communities for Hughes Corp.

Riede asked if Hughes Corp. had a financial stake in the school.

Tom Warden, senior vice president of community and government relations in Summerlin for Hughes Corp., weighed in by email: "While Howard Hughes has no formal financial ties to Faith Lutheran or any other of the 23 schools in our community, we do indeed support them all. Summerlin's public and private schools are vitally important to our community's quality of life. On each and every campus, student safety is the No. 1 issue. The expansion of Faith Lutheran will allow the campus to grow and better serve more than 1,700 young people. We agree with (Faith Lutheran CEO) Dr. (Steve) Buuck that in order to insure student safety, moving Homestretch, a street that currently cuts the campus in two, is appropriate.

Additionally, the unified campus will allow student pick-up and drop-off functions to take place on Faith Lutheran property rather than in the public right of way."

Faith Lutheran acquired the lot in February 2014 and opted not to give the price, saying only it was "several million dollars."

The school bears the cost of moving the street and estimated it would cost $1.8 million.

The cost of a bridge has not been investigated, said Buuck, although it would be "cheaper than moving the road, but … we're $22 million in debt here, lest (anyone) think we're swimming in cash, but, to me, a student's life is going to be worth that money. So I hope people can see this is 100 percent a student safety issue, that we're willing to spend money to potentially save a student's life."

The possibility of an underground tunnel, Buuck said, came with its own issues — 6 feet underground are cables for nine utilities, everything from gas and electricity to cellphone companies. At 18 feet in depth is the sewer system, and blasting through caliche with those utilities in such close proximity could be disastrous. He said the possibility of flash flooding was a concern as well.

"For all of those reasons, I don't think we'd really consider that," Buuck said of the tunnel idea. "I just know that now's the time to ask the question. What we don't want to do is build buildings over there, and 15 years from now, somebody go, 'Did you ever think about moving the road?' "

Another possible solution, Buuck said, was a flashing crosswalk with a full-time guard.

He said Summerlin hierarchy indicated they were not in favor of a bridge but did not say why.

"They just said, 'We would much prefer that you move the road,' " Buuck said. "I called them in June and asked if we could build a bridge, and it took them a while to, you know — I just wanted to know was it even legal, was it in the regulations, can I, as a school, build a bridge? I mean, you've got trucks that have got to get under that thing and questions on who controls the air space directly below that and the space directly above it — is it county or who is that? Is it Faith Lutheran because we have the bridge there? And you've got height restrictions and trucks that aren't going to be able to get through unless you build a monster, and I'm not convinced that Summerlin, a master-planned community, wants that.

"What they told me verbally was that, 'You can build a bridge, but we want to remind you that we really don't want you to do that. We want you to move the road.' So, a bridge is not off the table, but the preference would be that we relocate it (the street)."

The school sent letters to 950 homes in the area with about 40 people representing about 25 households showing up at the meetings, Buuck said.

"I don't want to tick the neighbors off," Buuck said. "We've tried to be good neighbors. If you look at our plan — if indeed we do this — we're giving up a lot of land on our campus to get hundreds of cars inside our campus for pick-up and drop-off. You know, to be good neighbors, so we're giving up a lot of land to do that. So, I'd like to remind you that there are neighbors out there who think this is a good idea and support the (idea of relocating the street). I am charged with keeping kids safe, and there is no road at Sig Rogich (Middle School) ripping right down the sophomore hallway. There's no road at Palo Verde High School running down by their gym. It's dangerous for children. We have sixth-grade kids on this campus, and it's dangerous."

He said if the commissioners decide moving the road is a bad idea, then the school would consider other options.

Residents opposed to the idea were still rallying support to keep the road as is but acknowledged it was an uphill battle.

"It's like a David versus Goliath kind of thing," Panagopoulos said.

— To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.