Presiding over growth

As chief planner for the fastest-growing city in North America, Mary Kay Peck avidly follows civic planning issues. Her peers nationwide are ready for her to lead those issues as well.

Members of the American Planning Association recently elected Peck, director of community development for the city of Henderson, as its next president. Already a member of the organization's board of directors, she becomes president-elect this month and will begin her two-year term as president a year later.

The 30,000-member organization, based in Washington, D.C., mainly comprises city planners from throughout the country. Members discuss better ways to build and re-build cities, and advise courts and Congress on matters affecting people at the community level, such as housing law, air pollution, eminent domain and zoning.

In high-growth communities such as Henderson, city planning takes on even greater meaning. Master-planned communities are the latest model for city building, and Henderson is dominated by them. Much of the city's acreage falls within the borders of Green Valley, Seven Hills, MacDonald Ranch, Lake Las Vegas Resort and Anthem, among other communities, allowing planners to consider large areas at a time, rather than the checkerboards of infill parcels that many older communities have to use.

"It's an opportunity a lot of communities would like to take, but they don't have the large tracts of land to do these things," Peck said.

These large-scale projects make things a little easier on Peck and her staff, providing a sense of continuity and coordination between residential and commercial areas, and ensuring that areas are set aside for other functions, such as parks. They also make it easier to expand basic infrastructure, such as utilities and roads.

More than anything, Peck said it is the pace of development and the way the community keeps up with civic services that impresses her peers. They just can't help but take notice of how Southern Nevada manages growth issues.

"They're amazed. They're amazed that we can grow so quickly and for such a sustained period," Peck said.

"When you tell them how many applications we process in this valley, their jaws drop. They're amazed that we can keep up with it all as well as we can."

As president, her goal is to stimulate similar growth within the planning organization. She believes membership could triple by allowing associate members -- lay people with an interest in city planning -- to join. The goal, she said, goes beyond the association, encouraging citizens to take a greater role in shaping the content and style of their neighborhoods and communities.

"Planning is very egalitarian. The more people we have who support planning, the better off we are," she said. "Citizen participation is one of the principles of planning. It's why we have hearings. It's the law. Citizen participation is one of the principles of this country."

City planning, which dates back to the earliest municipalities, tends to polarize a community. Some residents wish it were stronger; others think it shouldn't exist at all.

"In a lot of places -- not here -- city planners are Rodney Dangerfield. We don't get no respect," Peck said. "Fortunately, (that's not the case) here."

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