This Is How Neighborhood Associations Help
All of the really good, and potentially great Neighborhoods Associations came about because of proposed development or political controversy that impacted the adjacent homes.
I started the Southridge Neighborhood Association in 2001 in response to the Stratosphere’s Scorpian Tail Roller Coaster Ride. Later, we split it into two groups and the Beverly Green Association became a separate group.
John S. Park got organized because of the “Titanic” hotel project which had been proposed for where the Aruba and Holiday Inn sit on LVBS. The Huntridge East and West Associations have rekindled themselves over the issue of the closure of Circle Park.
Every home in the county or the city is eligible to be part of a neighborhood association. The City and County both have people in their planning departments to help get them going, or to help make them better.
If you don’t have one, then you can start one. Energized citizens, who organize can create change as well as preserve what we have. I encourage you to get involved, and to come to the Planning Commission Meeting Tonight.
I’m cutting and pasting some of the comments about the 6th and Sahara Hi Rise project that have been flying thru the tubes in email messages from many of the leaders of the Southridge and Beverly Green Neighborhood Associations.
I’m offering the comments section for this post to all the people on the list that have been email each other to use it as a forum until we get a myspace or yahoogroups or whatever started to deal with the 6th and Sahara project.
If you want to read some of the comments, or add your own, just click on the “read the rest of the post” link below.
Greg Brown said at 7 am this morning:
The thing is, they had a meeting in Dec, (EDITORS NOTE: this meeting was only to tell us that the project existed, and was an open house) we came and they answered none of our questions. After that, the developer (he told me this himself) decided not to meet with us because he was advised by Strategic Solutions not to do so. Yes, it will be tabled tonight and meetings will be held, but I think we should not be the ones to ask for an abeyance; they decided to go forward without a meeting, the staff report recommends denial (the opposite of how the Stratosphere started off) and I think the Planning Commission is likely to vote against it if there is a vote. More time only allows them to lobby the City Hall more. And the developer has already told me he has no interest in trying to adhere to the Neighborhood Plan or to existing adjacency standards.
We need a big turnout and we need to be clear about the adverse impact this would have on our neighborhood and it is completely unsuited for this site.
Uncle Jack said at 12:50am Thursday Morning:
I know they won’t give up on building SOMETHING just because we show up tomorrow. Let’s go for the stall to give them the time they do need to meet with us. All of our concerns have a little, if not a lot of validity, and we have to agree that all of the issues need to be discussed.
The first airing of those concerns MUST be conducted prior to a planning committee meeting. This is exactly the state of affairs, timing and sequence of events that occurred when the very first announcement of the Stratosphere Scorpion Tale Thrill Ride happened 6 years ago. http://VeryVintageVegas.com/category/Southridge/
We got that project killed completely. We got the big shot and the umbrella thing instead.
The ONLY message the commission needs to hear from us is that we DO have issues and the planning commission should table it till there have been real meetings with the community, or at least the leaders and those of us concerned enough to actually be reading or participating in this email thread.
The Stratosphere proposal from 2001 is what caused me to start the Southridge and Beverly Green Neighborhood Association in the first place.
This proposal could cause the 2 associates to really come of age and really be a proactive, upbeat, and organized group. Trust me, there’s all kinds of new people to the neighborhoods that we don’t know
See you THURSDAY 6:30ish (according to Gregg). For the planning commission hearing.
Michael Hanratty Said on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 7:51 PM
Subject: Re: Update on proposal to build high-rise on 6th Street
To the E-mail gang of Southridge N A and beyond,
It is becoming clearly evident as different E-mails are filtering in that there are various and mixed views on the purposed high-rise at Sahara Ave. and Sixth St. As president of Southridge N A, I have maintained neutrality on this issue and will support the majority when that has been established. That’s where the problem lies. There has not been enough time to come to a conclusion. I contacted the liaison ( Strategic Solutions ) and told them I would help them to organize a meeting where both Southridge and Beverly Green neighborhood associations would be given ample notification to attend. They told me that due to the holidays it would be near impossible to get it all together. They said they’d get back to me. They never did. It seems to me that Strategic Solutions’ strategy is to get this pushed through without any fanfare or opposition. There have been other developers and businesses that have bent over backwards to accommodate the neighborhood associations for lesser projects.
At this time I am going to recommend that they deny approval of this project until the full perimeter of both neighborhood associations have a fair and equal voice.
S. G. Said on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 4:57 PM
I think all of us agree that expensive property going up is better for us than low rent but I don’t see how we are sure what this is. Low rent comes in high rises too. Plus it would dump an enormous amount of traffic onto sixth street and St’ Louis just after we’ve gotten the street narrowed to discourage a lot of through traffic. And I’m not so sure that we all want the high rise view of our backyards which are pretty private right now.
