Lincoln County officials leery about Mesquite’s plan to annex 5,320 acres

At the height of the housing boom, fast-growing Mesquite found itself pushing against the boundaries of its own geography.

Surrounded by federal land and squeezed against both the county line and the state's border with Arizona, the biggest little city in Clark County was running out of places to grow.

Now Mesquite is coming out of its corner.

The city of 21,000 people 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas is in the process of annexing more than 5,300 acres of private land in neighboring Lincoln County. The City Council approved the first parcel, totaling almost 2,600 acres, last week. The entire 5,320 acres could be added to the city limits by mid-January.

But the move is drawing questions, in part because nothing like it exists in Nevada -- one city in two different counties.

"This is a very novel thing that Mesquite is doing," said Nevada historian and former State Archivist Guy Rocha. "I don't know of another city like that."

That's exactly what worries Paul Mathews, chairman of the Lincoln County Commission.

He questions the need for such an unprecedented annexation, particularly now when the property stands vacant and its owner has no immediate plans to start building on it.

Mathews said there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered -- crucial details about police and fire protection, schools, court jurisdiction and utility services.

"All these things that have to be negotiated still have to be negotiated, whether it's annexed or not," he said. "We're being cautious and wanting all the steps followed properly."

The first step, according to Lincoln County District Attorney Gregory Barlow, is to determine whether Mesquite is even allowed to do what it is doing. His research says no.

"Annexation is a creature of statute," Barlow said. "The only places (in the nation) that it's been allowed is where there is specific authority to do so. We don't have that in Nevada."

The former Las Vegas Municipal Court judge plans to challenge Mesquite's action in court in coming weeks.

The land in question is owned by a Las Vegas company called C&O Holdings, a subsidiary of the developers of Southern Highlands. C&O requested annexation in August, even though it has no active plans for the land it is calling Lincoln Highlands.

"I think it will be a few years before you see any kind of development there," said Chris Armstrong, vice president of planning for both C&O and Southern Highlands Development. "It's completely a function of the market."

That market could not have been hotter in 2005, when C&O bought the property at a Bureau of Land Management auction that turned into a feeding frenzy. More than 13,000 acres in Lincoln County sold that day for $47.5 million, nearly four times the appraised value for the scrubby desert hills just north of Mesquite.

Armstrong said company officials decided to seek annexation now so they would have all the pieces in place when housing market rebounds.

"It's sort of the first step in a multitude of steps that need to be taken before this land can be developed," Armstrong said.

Adding their property to the city limits makes sense, because that is where most of the services and infrastructure are likely to come from, he said.

The nearest Lincoln County town is Alamo, almost 100 miles away. The fastest route from the proposed development to the Lincoln County seat of Pioche cuts through parts of Arizona and Utah and takes almost three hours by car.

And Mesquite has dealt with large developers before. Lincoln County has not.

"Mesquite has got a number of master-planned communities. They've gone through this process a number of times," Armstrong said.

There are fewer than 4,400 residents in all of Lincoln County, where Caliente ranks as the largest town with a population of 1,106.

Armstrong said Lincoln Highlands could easily become Lincoln County's largest population center one day. With more than 15,000 homes and at least 30,000 residents, it also would more than double the population of Mesquite.

City Planning Director Catherine Lorbeer called the annexation "a very natural extension of our community."

The county line would stay where it is -- no one has seriously suggested moving it -- but Mesquite would be free to spread northward in Lincoln County, albeit within the confines of the housing market and the availability of water and private land.

Mesquite's population has increased more than tenfold in the past 20 years, but development slowed to a crawl when the recession took hold.

"In the long term, it gives us the opportunity to continue to grow," Lorbeer said. "We really view this as a very long-term project. They're not going to be turning dirt next week."

Mesquite City Councilman David Bennett said it is important to note that the city did not go out looking for more land to add to its boundaries. The annexation process was triggered by C&O Holdings, and "we're simply responding to a request from private property owners," he said.

Mesquite has some experience with cross-border agreements. The city already provides services to the communities of Beaver Dam, Littlefield and Scenic just across the border in Arizona.

"It's not new for us to have relationships with our neighbors," Lorbeer said.

Mathews said Lincoln County and Mesquite officials may disagree on how best to proceed, but they all have the same goal in mind: Both sides want to see the property successfully developed.

What his rural county must avoid at all costs, he said, is winding up on the hook should a project of that size fail.

Something like that could "bankrupt the county," Mathews said. "If we don't plan this out very carefully, we don't have the tax base or the population to cover it if we make a mistake."

Dozens of communities nationwide lie in more than one county. The most prominent example is New York City, which extends into five different counties.

Aside from Mesquite, the only Nevada communities that come close are the unincorporated Nye County towns of Pahrump and Tonopah, Rocha said.

Pahrump's boundary butts up against the Clark County line. The line between Nye and Esmeralda counties cuts through Tonopah's cemetery and an apartment complex at the western edge of town, though the township boundaries do not extend into Esmeralda County.

Several years ago, there was a push for Nevada's West Wendover to annex its sister community of Wendover, Utah. The state boundary change never happened, but for the sake of interstate commerce West Wendover was officially added to the Mountain Time Zone in 1999.

The first phase of Mesquite's annexation in Lincoln County is scheduled to take effect Dec. 10. Barring a court order or a change of heart, the City Council will vote Jan. 11 to annex the second phase, another 2,722 acres that would expand the city deeper into Lincoln County.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.