Christopher DeVargas
Lone Mountain overlooks the Las Vegas Valley. The Lone Mountain area is primarily rural, but has become controversial due to the city's approval of a temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Thursday, August 8, 2024 | 2:00 AM
In the northwest corner of the Las Vegas Valley lies Lone Mountain, far from the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas Boulevard, and its residents enjoy just that.
There are few sidewalks, only scattered streetlights, and enough space for children to play in dirt patches and for residents to spot the occasional wild animal in their yards.
Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick told The Sun that the area is one of many rural preserves created in Clark County at a time when once-rural areas were engulfed in rapid urbanization.
The fight to protect rural areas has pitted local governments, like those in Las Vegas and Henderson, against local residents over what kind of development should be allowed in those agricultural areas. The issue has been at the heart of a fight that has raged in recent months in the Las Vegas City Council over plans to build a temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Lone Mountain.
“We have a real agricultural history, and there's no reason we can't have both,” Kirkpatrick said of Las Vegas' balance of rural and urban lifestyles. “It's our history, it's Nevada, it's a great thing, and kids today still want to have that.”
The Nevada Legislature passed Senate Bill 391 in 1999, amending zoning districts and regulations to establish rural conservation districts.
The bill defines these districts as “zoned or developed areas consisting of 10 or more dwelling units, where the outer boundary of each lot used for residential purposes is within 330 feet of the outer boundary of any other lot used for residential purposes, where there are not more than two dwelling units per acre, and where residents are permitted to keep or raise animals for non-commercial purposes.”
The act also seeks to “protect rural conservation districts,” authorizing counties and cities to adopt zoning regulations and restrictions to preserve the “character” of rural areas and ensure orderly transitions in land use. The act was enacted in response to the growth Southern Nevada experienced at the turn of the century.
Currently, there are many rural neighborhoods surrounding the area, including the Lone Mountain neighborhood within the Las Vegas city limits, and the Foothills and Mission neighborhoods in southern Henderson toward Boulder City.
But over time, the laws protecting these areas were “watered down,” and local governments began setting their own rules regarding rural conservation overlays, said Robert Eastman, junior manager of the city of North Las Vegas' planning and zoning department.
A lack of land for development may be part of the reason for encroachment, but it doesn't necessarily mean there's conflict, Eastman continued.
Documenting the problem
The Clark County Commission unanimously passed a resolution in April to create the Rural Alliance Advisory Committee. Six people were appointed to the committee last month.
The committee was originally proposed by Kirkpatrick, who covers northeastern Clark County, including the area around Lone Mountain Road and the towns of Mesquite and Moapa Valley. The committee's goal is to gather input from rural residents about county-related issues that may directly affect the areas where they live.
“You know, most of the rural areas in our community have declined over time, but there's still a demand for them,” Kirkpatrick told The Sun in an interview. “If you have a McDonald's across the street, it changes the character of the area. So what we want to do is preserve what we have, but we also have to figure out where all the areas across the valley are and do our best to preserve those.”
Kirkpatrick, who lives in the Rural Preserve, said many people who move to Las Vegas are not from the area but are interested in continuing the rural lifestyle, whether that be keeping multiple animals at home or getting their children involved in agricultural programs like 4-H or FFA (formerly known as Future Farmers of America).
According to UNR, which runs the national 4-H program, FFA and 4-H are national programs in which people ages 5 to 19 learn “leadership, citizenship and life skills” through a variety of club activities, including raising different types of livestock to show or sell at county fairs.
According to the university, 49,000 young people participate in 4-H programs in Nevada alone.
The Las Vegas Valley is home to seven 4-H clubs and four FFA chapters, based in the Northeast at Canyon Springs High School, and in the Southwest at Northwest Career and Technical Academy, West Career and Technical Academy and Sierra Vista High School.
Kirkpatrick said it's becoming increasingly difficult for families to find space to house these farm animals.
She also wants to ensure there are local recreation areas, such as equestrian facilities, near existing neighborhoods so residents don't have to transport their animals and all their equipment to another part of town.
The goal of Kirkpatrick's resolution is to begin documenting where these rural areas are and what their biggest issues are, “so (the county) can maintain the quality of life for the people who moved there so long ago and for those who want to stay there,” she said.
Kirkpatrick said he would like to work across jurisdictions in the future to address differences in zoning codes that people may not be aware of when they move to a particular area.
She gave the example of differences in regulations between local cities and counties: One side of the road may be classified as rural and allow multiple animals or certain types of livestock, while the other side of the road may have restrictions on the number and types of animals that can be kept on the property.
One place grappling with the issue is the Lone Mountain area, part of which is in Las Vegas City Councilman Francis Allen Palensky's district and a small “county island” overseen by Commissioner Ross Miller.
Division over the temple
The Las Vegas City Council last month voted 7-0 to approve a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in the Lone Mountain neighborhood that has sparked controversy among neighbors. The council's decision also involves rezoning the property.
The three-story, 70,194-square-foot temple, to be built on the southeast corner of 20 acres of unpaved land between Hickam Street and North Grand Canyon Drive, will include a nearly 16,000-square-foot meeting hall, a 1,807-square-foot maintenance building, an 1,800-square-foot pavilion and a spire that will rise three stories from bottom to top and be 216 feet tall.
The land on which the temple is to be built is not located within the Rural Reserve itself.
According to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' website, Nevada is home to more than 182,000 Mormons and currently has two temples: one built in Las Vegas in 1989 and another in Reno, with two more temples planned for Elko and the Lone Mountain area.
Supporters said the temple would “enhance and beautify” the Lone Mountain area without damaging the natural landscape, and would be a welcome alternative to “a trash-filled, unsightly vacant lot.”
“Life is busy right now and it's hard to get to the temple across the valley. If they built a temple in the Fourth Ward, I'd be able to go more often,” Carly Barton, a nurse with two young children who grew up in the Northwest, said through tears during the City Council meeting July 17. “The temple would appeal to both members and nonmembers and would be a good neighbor in our community.”
Local residents accused the church of treating them unfairly during the permitting process, which sought neighbors' input, and argued that building the church would increase traffic, block views of nearby Lone Mountain, cause flooding by using “less porous” concrete, and allow for vegetation on the site that would affect water use and provide larger, brighter lighting.
As originally planned, the temple's design included 24/7 lighting around the perimeter of the building, parking lot lights that didn't indicate whether they would be dimmed at night, and a spire so tall it would require approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Allen Palensky was particularly troubled by the height of the spire, saying he would not approve the building application for a temple “with a flashing red FAA beacon at the top of the spire. FAA experts said the spire's original height did not require a red beacon.”
After hours of deliberation and public input, Allen Palensky approved the project with several conditions: the church must turn off the parking lot lights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.; street lights can only be installed on Grand Canyon Road; the steeple height must be reduced to 196 feet from base to top; and the Hickam Street entrance will be closed off to traffic.
“If this had happened 15 or 20 years ago, the building wouldn't have been an issue because there was planning and development going on there then. The people here now are families who settled in this area decades ago, and if they knew this was going to happen now, they could have made a choice about whether or not to live there,” said resident Patricia Reed at the same city council meeting. “It has to be something that serves what's already going on here. This has nothing to do with religion.”
During the meeting, the Rev. Allen Palensky said he plans to propose a “dark skies” ordinance for his ward in the future, which would prevent lights in outdoor buildings like those at temples from being left on all the time.
Henderson similarity
Lone Mountain isn't the first community in the valley where a potential new neighbor has stirred up controversy.
Henderson found herself in a similar situation in September 2022 when the American Hindu Association received permission to build a Hindu temple on more than five acres of land near Race Track Road at Berlin Avenue and North Miller Street for roughly 300 devotees in the area.
The proposed Anand Utsav Mandir temple was to be built to serve Hindus living on the eastern side of the valley who find it difficult to travel across town to the only Hindu temple in Samarlin.
Residents of a rural conservation area in east Henderson argued the temple violated SB 391, but the Henderson Planning Commission cited the Religious Land Use and Institutional Persons Act, a federal civil rights law that “protects individuals and religious congregations and institutions from discriminatory and overly burdensome land use regulations.”
A Henderson city spokesman said at the time that the law “takes precedence” over any local land use regulations in the case of disputes like the one that arose over this project.
The Henderson City Council voted 4-1 in October 2022 to uphold the Planning Commission's decision, with Mayor Michelle Romero, then the city council member for Ward 1, where the rural neighborhood is located, voting only against it.
But nearly a year later, just before the American Hindu Association's conditional use permit was set to expire, the Henderson City Council approved an amendment to the city code that would ban the building from being used as a public safety facility, cultural facility, day care center and 24 other uses.
The report also noted that buildings used for schools and religious meetings “must demonstrate compatibility with adjacent uses in terms of size, site plan and operating characteristics,” but did not provide any further specifics about what the compatibility requirements would be.
The temple was never built, and the Hindu Association accused Henderson of discrimination in a letter to the Department of Justice.
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