New Vegas suburb: northwest Arizona
Amid all of this week's gloom about rising gasoline prices, job losses and the housing industry's struggles came some news you might have missed -- news that signals the long-term prospects of Southern Nevada and the desert Southwest remain strong no matter the current economic conditions.
On Monday, about 100 miles southeast of the Las Vegas Valley in Kingman, Ariz., the Mohave County Board of Supervisors gave Clark County developer Jim Rhodes the go-ahead to begin building a master-planned community that could one day have 25,000 homes and more than 75,000 residents. The board approved a development agreement and zoning plan with Mr. Rhodes that should allow him to have construction well under way by the first quarter of 2009.
The builder's final hurdle could be cleared by the end of summer, when the Arizona Corporation Commission weighs in on Rhodes Homes' requests for water and wastewater service for the community, a 5,000-acre development called Pravada that will rise just west of Kingman and feature a mix of residential density, commercial areas, a golf course and green belts designed to encourage residents to walk their neighborhoods.
Since Mr. Rhodes first announced this project in 2004 -- when housing prices in Southern Nevada were quickly rising beyond the reach of the valley's service-industry workers -- it has been alternately denounced and dismissed by a variety of interests. Many residents of Mohave County were horrified by such large-scale development, hoping their area would remain little more than a highway stop for travelers and truckers. Others said there wasn't enough water to support tens of thousands of new residents. The environmentalist set bristled at the thought of people buying homes that create two- to three-hour commutes to Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Southern California.
And when home values plunged from the stratosphere, skeptics agreed Mr. Rhodes' projects would never be built.
"We have addressed every issue that's been brought up repeatedly by the detractors of the project and we feel it is time to send a message to the development world that Mohave County is open for business," Rhodes Homes representative John Gaul said Monday.
Mr. Rhodes' project won't turn Kingman into Arizona's third-largest metropolitan area overnight. But a handful of undeniable factors make its growth in the coming decades a safe bet.
Foremost, the completion of the Hoover Dam bypass bridge in two years will significantly shorten travel times between Kingman and Las Vegas. Worsening traffic congestion throughout the valley will make a longer, less-stressful drive into town more and more appealing.
Additionally, the supply of privately owned land in Clark County will only tighten in the years ahead. The tens of thousands of new workers needed to staff the billions of dollars in resort developments under construction will have to live somewhere.
Finally, the region's relatively low taxes and the quality of life the desert affords -- warmer winters, year-round sunshine and little fear of natural disasters -- will continue to draw Americans suffering fatigue from high-tax and cold-weather states. The country's demographics all point toward a Southwest that will keep growing faster than the nation as a whole.
Local and state planners need to pay close attention to this story and the challenges it will bring. Arizona is far ahead of Nevada in improving U.S. Highway 93 on its approach to the Hoover Dam bypass bridge. When the span opens in 2010, traffic into Nevada will clog the snaking route into Boulder City. The Nevada Department of Transportation and the Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission need to figure out a way to build a proposed Boulder City bypass quickly -- a public-private toll road must be on the table.
By the middle of this century, residential communities and businesses will line the empty desert floor between Las Vegas and Kingman. That's the big picture, no matter how bad today's news is.
