Sun, Sin Suburbia by Geoff Schumacher

Author:Geoff Schumacher [Schumacher, Geoff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, United States, State & Local, West (AK; CA; CO; HI; ID; MT; NV; UT; WY), Social Science, Sociology, Urban, Travel, West, Pacific (AK; CA; HI; OR; WA)
ISBN: 9780874179880
Google: d9bIsgEACAAJ
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Published: 2015-09-01T00:35:02+00:00

CHAPTER 7

North Las Vegas: Two Cities in One

Mike Dyal was a management services coordinator for Clark County when he came up with an idea to jumpstart the city of North Las Vegas. Studying maps of the valley, Dyal noticed a large “regional park” north of Craig Road, which was then “the middle of nowhere.” Dyal’s idea was to acquire the 1,080 acres, owned by the federal government, and use it for development.

When North Las Vegas hired Dyal as city manager in 1982, he immediately went to work to acquire the park property, which was desert except for a paved landing strip used by remote-control airplane enthusiasts. “I knew that if we could turn that land into development, we could turn the corner,” he recalled. At first, Dyal’s plan was for North Las Vegas to purchase the land, but the perennially cash-strapped city couldn’t find the money, even with the great price it was getting from the feds ($5,000 per acre).

The city was in a constant fiscal bind for a variety of reasons, but primarily because state sales tax revenues were distributed to local governments using a formula that favored growing cities. North Las Vegas wasn’t growing much at that time, so it received less tax revenue than other cities. When Dyal started as city manager, just one residential development—Palomino Estates—was under construction in the city. “When they finished that, there were none,” he said. “North Las Vegas was like a rock in the river and all the water went around it.”

North Las Vegas wasn’t growing for several reasons, but none more so than its reputation for a high crime rate. Many North Las Vegas officials insist to this day that the reputation was undeserved—that the city was blamed for a lot of crime that actually occurred in neighborhoods across the border in Las Vegas. But the city’s abundance of low-income housing and its high minority populations also fueled the perception. “I always felt it was a city on the wrong side of the tracks,” said Dyal, who went on to become the city manager of Medford, Oregon. “People were afraid to come to North Las Vegas. I once had a woman who was middle class, educated, who said she was afraid to come to City Hall to meet with me.”

After several frustrating years of being unable to buy the federal park land, the city changed its strategy. It invited major home builders to bid on the opportunity to buy the property and develop it as a master-planned community. “We asked them to make presentations to the City Council as to why they should be given sole rights to acquire the land from the city,” Dyal said.

In 1988, the city received responses from three developers: Pardee Construction, Lewis Homes and Northern Meadows Development Corporation. Dyal recalled that Lewis, a respected local home builder, put together an impressive presentation but Pardee got the nod because of its extensive local track record, including the planned community of Spring Valley. “Pardee at that time

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