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in Southern Nevada |
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in Southern Nevada |
Over the next twenty years, the population of Clark County is expected to grow from approximately 1.3 million people today to somewhere between 2.3 and 2.8 million. On average, 50,000 to 75,000 new residents will be moving here each year, or 4200 to 6250 per month, over an extended period of time. Growth at this scale presents a daunting challenge to all those public agencies that must provide the needed urban services and facilities for this fast-growing metropolitan area. How will these public entities meet this challenge?
A key to continuing to meet Southern Nevada’s needs will be to provide a legal and institutional framework within which those needs are met expeditiously in a fiscally responsible manner. The Urban Land Institute strongly recommended, in its January 1998 report entitled: “Livable Las Vegas: Managing Growth in the Las Vegas Valley”, the formation of a regional organization to provide leadership, strategic planning, and coordination of the Valley’s growth. The discussions of the Authority addressing this concern have highlighted the need to resolve the issue of regional governance. Opinions on regional governance have ranged from maintaining the status quo to the creation of regional government with strong authority. The most commonly held opinion seems to be that a regional planning entity is needed that would allow the local entities to collaborate on issues of mutual concern without infringing upon the autonomy of individual communities. Funding of the infrastructure needs to meet the rapid growth has also been a key topic of discussion by the Authority. Recognizing the reluctance of everyone to pay higher fees and taxes, the Authority has focused on how existing revenues might be better allocated and managed.
Finally, in developing land use and growth strategies, the Authority has concerned itself with quality of life. Growth without regard to whether people enjoy living here does not serve the public interest. Both the Growing Together Forum, held in August 1997, and the Urban Land Institute study, referred to earlier, emphasized the importance of maintaining and enhancing the livability of the Las Vegas valley. The challenge will be to define what “quality of life” means to the people who live here so that the right strategies can be pursued to protect and improve our lives.
OBJECTIVES STRATEGIES A. Plan, fund, design and construct the infrastructure needed to support the future metropolitan area. 1. Continue to use the most appropriate form of inter-jurisdictional collaboration (regional entity, voluntary cooperative agreements, etc.) to fund, construct and maintain infrastructure.
2. Create a regional entity that can provide oversight and coordination of infrastructure funding and development.
3. Encourage local governments in the Las Vegas Valley to:
a) adopt land use plans and policies consistent with the expected population growth of the region; and
b) work closely with service providers to link land use planning with capital facilities planning and programming.4. Develop regional strategies, to be adopted jointly by local governments, that: a) encourage development in areas where services already exist; and b) optimize the sharing of the costs of providing services in unserved areas between service providers and the real estate
5. Encourage the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition to undertake a study of the costs of growth, including analysis of who pays for the new infrastructure and public services that address the question, “Does growth pay for growth?”
B. Promote effective allocation and management of financial resources among governmental entities. 1. Encourage all local entities that do long-term capital planning to respond to community needs in a timely and effective manner rather than restricting their capital planning to available funding. This strategy is intended to encourage better financial planning and the bridging of identified capital needs with available revenues.
2. Encourage all local entities that do long-term capital planning to consider, if infrastructure needs are greater than available funds, the leveraging of funds, when permitted, prudent and appropriate and withproper financial planning.
3. Encourage all local entities that do long-term capital planning to consider alternative debt structures, when permitted, prudent and appropriate, in order to minimize costs, make funds available to complete projects, and to provide further leveraging opportunities.
4. Encourage all local entities that do long-term capital planning to establish reserve requirements that balance minimizing costs with minimizing the risk of revenue shortfalls due to volatility.
5. Review the optimization of existing revenues from a broad community perspective rather than the current practice of assigning revenues project by project or entity by entity.
6. Study the feasibility and advisability of establishing a Southern Nevada community bond bank to coordinate debt structuring opportunities for local governmental borrowing for infrastructure needs. This strategy could provide economies of scale savings for all borrowers and could provide smaller borrowers the opportunity to take advantage of debt structuring and cash management options that otherwise would be unavailable to them
7. Study what should or could be done to strengthen the existing Debt Management Commission.
8. Amend State law to allow bonds to be sold as needed to make project construction payments rather than selling bonds for the entire project before starting the project.
9. Encourage the Senate Bill 253 Committee to minimize new tax exemptions in order to prevent the erosion of revenue, while ensuring sufficient incentives to promote economic diversity to expand the tax base
10. Encourage all local entities that do long-term capital planning toperiodically review their cash flow projections to ensure adequacy offunding.
C. Design and implement a coordinated, effective land use policy and decision making system. 1. Support the creation of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition or similar entity that promotes effective, voluntary collaboration.
2. Continue to collaborate with the Bureau of Land Management on long-term strategies and plans for the disposal of federal lands within Clark County.
3. Promote better coordination of land uses with transportation and utility networks among local jurisdictions along boundaries.
4. Provide for the rational allocation and planning of locally undesirable land uses (i.e., high voltage power lines, aggregate mining, cellular towers, affordable housing, etc.) throughout the Las Vegas Valley.
5. Encourage local entities to include utility corridor and facility elements in their land use plans (including, but not limited to, electric and natural gas transmission facilities, communication systems, water systems, sewer systems, and flood control facilities).
6. Encourage all local entities to continue to coordinate local land use decisions with the Clark County School District.
7. Encourage local entities to provide buffer zones with appropriate development standards (e.g., low densities, maintenance of public access, appropriate street lighting, signage and street standards) where urban development meets permanent open space or natural areas.
8. Encourage local entities to adopt land use regulations that minimize the impacts of airports on surrounding land uses.
9. Encourage regional and local entities within the Las Vegas Valley to integrate planning issues, including, but not limited to, air quality, water quality, land use, flood control, transportation, and utility infrastructure.
OBJECTIVES STRATEGIES A. Continue to build the quality of life for the residents of Southern Nevada. 1. Through a collaborative, regional effort, identify the key quality of life issues for Southern Nevada residents. (Use the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition or similar regional entity.)
2. Through the regional planning and local government entities, develop and promote strategies that address the key quality of life issues.
B. Preserve or enhance the unique character of the individual communities of Southern Nevada. 1. Preserve to each local entity the responsibility and resources needed to perpetuate the unique character of their respective community.
2. Encourage re-investment in the urban cores and the elimination of barriers to investment therein.