Interactive park planned for Aliante

Construction is under way on the 20-acre Nature Discovery Park at Aliante, a 1,905-acre master-planned community in North Las Vegas.

The park will combine play activity with elements of nature, discovery and education, according to Daniel Cleland, principal with the Cleland Group. Cleland said the park was designed by the "creative participatory" process. The process relies not only on input from the developer and park planners, but from the users, such as the children and parents.

Engineers at URS Corp., along with landscape architects and creative strategists from the Cleland Group, worked closely with the city's parks department on environmental and maintenance aspects of the park.

"The (park) has been developed to provide a unique play experience," Cleland said. "It will be a play environment that provides children with physical exercise and expands their creative play opportunities within an educational setting."

Within the park is a dinosaur dig area, situated near a man-made lake with waterfalls and rapids in a wooded setting. East of the lake will be a "swamp" play area with spraying alligators and a water serpent. Another area will feature "workers living quarters" -- play structures resembling archaeological worker huts with slides and faux grass roofs towering above a "jungle" floor.

The entrance to the "dino dig" will resemble the head and ribcage of a triceratops.

More contemporary amenities will include a group picnic area, amphitheater, soccer fields, and tennis and volleyball courts.

About 428 acres of the community is designated for recreational and public purposes. Along with Nature Discovery Park, a more traditional 15-acre park will feature lighted ball fields, soccer fields and a play area, while a 10-acre sports park will feature ball fields, a play area and a picnic area. The community will also feature more than 24 miles of lighted concrete trails and linear parks and a 36-acre natural arroyo. There will also be a 6,900-yard, par-72 municipal golf course. Also planned is an information center, two elementary schools, a middle school, a fire station, library and 100 acres of commercial development.

Aliante will consist of two villages encompassing as many as 7,500 homes. The site is bordered roughly by Grand Teton Drive, Centennial Parkway, Decatur Boulevard and Clayton Street.

The first builders have opened temporary sales offices. Presales have begun at Manor and Estates by D.R. Horton Homes; Vialetto and Serenata by Pulte Homes; San Destin Ravello, San Destin Tivoli and San Destin Palazzo by KB Home; and Seasons by Pardee Homes. Prices at these subdivisions range from the $100,000s to the $270,000s.

In addition, Del Webb is developing an age-qualified village, Sun City Aliante, where homes range from 1,155 to 2,105 square feet and are priced from the mid-$140,000s to more than $230,000. The temporary sales center is located at 7891 Tropical Parkway, Suite 120, in the Centennial Marketplace at U.S. Highway 95 and Centennial Parkway.

The community's grand opening is slated for spring.

It is being developed by North Valley Enterprises, an affiliate of American Nevada Co. and Del Webb Corp.

To visit, take Interstate 15 to the northern leg of Interstate 215 and go west.

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