Effort to Urbanize Las Vegas Hits a Political Wall

In the Town Center area of northwest Las Vegas, planners aimed to transform an auto-oriented environment to one with a mix of pedestrian-friendly uses. As Benjamin Spillman reports, those plans were dashed when developers "won a major modification to add a suburban staple, the gas station/convenience store/car wash, on land where city planners had called for a more urban multistory development."

"For opponents it meant a potentially fatal blow to an effort to encourage more tall buildings and sidewalk retail in the northwest corner of the city, where more retail and office space could provide more jobs close to tens of thousands of residential rooftops," he adds.

“It is a sprawl complex with the convenience store pushed way back and the gas pumps out front,” said Councilman Steve Ross who represents the area and opposed to the zoning change. “My vision and the city’s vision and the city planners’ vision for that area on Durango was something bigger and better.”