Residents worry over northwest land plans

Long-standing concerns about growth in northwest Las Vegas have found a focal point: a set of proposed public buildings, including a bus yard and a garbage transfer station, at the corner of Ann Road and the Las Vegas Beltway.

Area residents are wary, and in some cases angry, about the idea of placing the buildings on publicly owned land next to the highway. The worries include increased noise and traffic in a part of the city where residents have come to expect little of either.

At the same time, even critics acknowledge that growth in the northwest means there's a need for services and infrastructure.

"I'm sure there is," said Leland Williams, one of the organizers of Citizens of the Northwest, which he said attracted several hundred people to a recent meeting.

But that doesn't mean the Beltway and Ann location is the best place, he said.

"How could you possibly live where we live and want this to happen?" he asked. "They're going to need to work with us, persuade us that this is not going to ruin our neighborhood."

His group is planning to meet again at 7 p.m. April 30 in a ballroom at the Sante Fe Station casino to discuss the matter.

The city has also organized a meeting on the topic at 6:30 p.m. June 10 in the Centennial Hills Community Center.

According to city plans, the proposal calls for:

• A Republic Services building where garbage will be loaded from trash trucks to trucks that take it to the landfill.

• Training and office space for the city's department of detention and enforcement.

• A school bus yard.

• And a city vehicle yard.

The campus would be surrounded by light industrial development, park space and single-family homes.

The land is in Councilman Steve Ross' Ward 6. He said people need to look closely at the proposal, and said he's made it a goal to protect the more rural areas of the city.

"If we put it way out in the middle of the desert, there's no one around," Ross said. "But the problem is the infrastructure needs.

"Every city that grows like Las Vegas does is always in the need for the service yards, the bus yards -- the things that people don't like a lot but we have to have."

The thought of school buses and garbage trucks becoming a lot more frequent in the neighborhood was a common worry among the people who thronged renderings of the proposed campus Thursday night at a Ward 6 Town Hall meeting.

"This has the potential of vastly increasing traffic on Ann Road," said Martin Ehrlich, who lives near the site. "I have yet to meet a courteous Republic Services driver.

"It may turn out to be innocuous. I haven't made a decision. I just want to learn more."

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.