COLUMN: Carmel Hopkins

The Las Vegas chapter of the Urban Land Institute flexed its muscles last year when it played host to the organization's national meeting.

As the fastest growing chapter in the United States, the local ULI has been active with seminars and associating itself with the planning departments of Clark County and the cities in the Las Vegas Valley.

A prime example of the benefits of urban planning was unveiled Sept. 30 to ULI members and interested parties by Dick Oglesby, project administrator of City Parkway, the downtown revitalization venture that Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman decided should be overseen by the city.

Oglesby introduced Chick Ware, an associate with DesignWorkshop, a Denver-based firm that specializes in landscape architecture, land planning, urban design and tourism planning.

DesignWorkshop was instrumental in the renewal and further development of downtown Denver, a massive project that brought urban living, shopping and recreation to the core of the city.

Ware walked us through the steps taken with city of Las Vegas personnel that involved several charrettes, then putting everything down on paper for consideration. Some ideas held, some were thrown out. What resulted was a master-planned project for the 61 acres north of Bonneville Avenue and east of Grand Central Parkway.

The planned urban village would include 25 acres of open space, including a park just east of the railroad tracks that would be accessible to the Main Street corridor and public transportation, high-rise apartments, shops, offices and boutiques. Acreage would be set aside at the north end of the acreage for a medical village and another parcel would be set aside on the southeastern boundary for a performing arts center.

"Why put the park near the railroad tracks?" Ware philosophized. "Because it opens the relationship of the parcel to the city."

Ware said there is a type of urban dweller who thrives living near railroad tracks and loves the sound of the trains rolling by. "There is a lure of railroad tracks to people willing to live in an urban area."

Pedestrian bridges over the tracks would link the existing downtown to the new urban project. Land architects believe that access would benefit the fledgling arts district along Main Street. Another incentive to urban renewal would be the monorail that is projected to go down Main Street with a major stop across the tracks from the new park.

Ware pointed out that public investment would range from $25 million to $50 million with the first phase of about $20 million being funded with a special improvement district, or SID, a type of creative financing that has been used successfully in master-planned communities valleywide.

City officials have signed off on the project and phase one of construction is expected to begin in mid-2004.

Anyone driving down Bonneville or Grand Central, or even on Interstate 15 going north into the flyover to U.S. Highway 95, will notice that dirt is being moved around and stakes are going up where the Furniture Mart is being built.

The complexion of downtown Las Vegas is undergoing serious changes and it's encouraging to see that city officials are taking an active role in steering that development.

Thanks, also, to the ULI for its stewardship of our urban concerns.

Carmel Hopkins, real estate product manager for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, can be reached at 380-4574. Her e-mail address is chopkins@ reviewjournal.com. Snail mail is P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.

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