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Kyle
Gateway to grow: 3,000 more homes planned for Focus project
As
Reported Las Vegas Sun
LAS VEGAS,
Nevada - The Kyle Canyon Gateway development will have thousands
more homes than previously thought, along with its own downtown
area featuring a park lined with condo and apartment buildings,
a shopping district and a casino.
One year
after purchasing a massive tract of desert in the northwest
corner of Las Vegas, the Focus Property Group is wrapping up
negotiations with city planners for the master-planned community,
which essentially will create a community the size of a small
city on the edge of Las Vegas.
City and
Focus representatives expect the development plan to go before
the City Council in April.
Environmentalists
and Mount Charleston residents have expressed concern about
development encroaching on the area - worries unlikely to be
alleviated by the proposed addition of 3,000 homes to the plan.
Developers,
though, insist that steps will be taken to minimize traffic
impacts and note that open space will be incorporated into the
development.
Focus purchased
the 1,710 acres at a February 2005 Bureau of Land Management
auction for $510 million. The land is south and east of the
Kyle Canyon Road exit off U.S. 95, with about 70 percent of
the project on the west side of the highway and the rest on
the east.
A planned
new highway interchange and bridge at Horse Drive just south
of Kyle Canyon Road will link parts of the development, enhancing
residents' access to the freeway.
Originally,
the new development was expected to have about 12,000 homes,
but the proposal now is expected to call for about 15,000, said
Focus Chief Executive Officer John A. Ritter.
Condos and
apartment buildings - most about five stories tall, with some
possibly as high as eight stories - will surround the center
of the development. The housing density will decrease the farther
from the center of the development homes are, with the most
spacious neighborhoods having four or five houses per acre,
Ritter said.
Ritter said
the first homes could be finished by late 2007. Prices have
yet to be determined.
The development's
downtown area will be centered around a long, narrow park, part
of which is being modeled after Barcelona's Las Ramblas, a spacious
outdoor mall in the Spanish city. Here, the area will be about
60 feet wide, and three-quarters of a mile long. Small parks
and seating areas will dot the park, which will have one-way
streets on both sides.
A casino
is planned for the north end of the downtown space.
Ritter said
he expects the proposed casino "will have very little impact"
on the surrounding area, in part because it will be built next
to the highway.
Other open
space in the project includes two arroyos, which are natural
storm-water washes. The two major arroyos that will be incorporated
into the development are about a mile long, and 30-70 feet wide,
and 10-30 feet deep in places. A trail system and several small
parks will be situated along the arroyos.
Las Vegas
Councilman Steve Ross, whose ward includes the area, likes what
he has heard about the development so far.
The higher
density of the homes will make the area "more pedestrian
friendly," Ross said.
Ross, who
has long talked about protecting the rural character of the
northwest, said he believes the development will not hurt the
character of the area or adversely impact nearby Kyle Canyon.
But university
Regent Thalia Dondero, who has a cabin up Kyle Canyon at Mount
Charleston, expressed concern about the number of residents
who would be moving so close to the canyon's entrance.
"That's
a lot of homes, and I think it's important to remember it's
the entrance to the forest," she said.
Ross, though,
said the development will be relatively "far away, along
the highway." Potential traffic impact from the development
will be lessened by the new highway interchange, he added.
"The
residents up there want to make sure their access to the highway
is unaffected, and I think it will be," he said.
Ross said
the project and future development make it more important for
local governments to work on the so-called outer beltway highway.
The Focus development sets aside land for that planned highway.
"We're
trying everything we can to minimize the impact" from traffic,
Ritter said. The development will include a transportation center,
expected to be served by bus service.
The Kyle
Canyon Gateway development is one of four major local projects
that Focus is working on.
Focus' Providence
development covers about 1,200 acres just south of the Kyle
Canyon Gateway land; the Mountain's Edge development is being
built on 3,500 acres in the southwestern edge of the Las Vegas
Valley; and the company's Inspirada development occupies about
2,000 acres in Henderson.
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