Las Vegas Running Out Of Land

"The valley that Las Vegas and 1.8 million residents call home is nearly built out. Mountains, national parks, military bases, an Indian community and a critter called the desert tortoise have Sin City hemmed in. At the current building pace in the USA's fastest-growing major metro area, available acreage will be gone in less than a decade, developers and real estate analysts say."

"Yet growth pressure and housing demand won't abate. Greater Las Vegas will add 1 million residents in the next 10 years, state estimates say, and hit 3 million by 2020."

"Vast cookie-cutter subdivisions, as symbolic of Las Vegas' extended boom as its megacasinos, will be consigned to far-flung areas beyond the metro core, requiring hefty commutes to the Strip and other job centers, developers say."

In addition, "projects that planners in other cities call 'smart growth' and 'new urbanism' are on drawing boards across Clark County. That means more units to an acre and a variety of housing types and architectural styles, tiny yards or no yards but generous public spaces, narrow one-way streets that slow traffic, neighborhood designs that promote walking and old-fashioned alleys with garages in back instead of showcased out front."