County has a handle on growth issue
To the editor:
Recently, the Review-Journal published several articles concerning Clark County’s population surpassing 2 million people. Understandably, growth is an important issue in Clark County. Growth touches everyone who lives in this community, whether they are newcomers or long-term residents.
It also impacts the millions of visitors Clark County receives each year.
The challenge in dealing with growth from a public policy perspective is to strike a balance between the economics fueled by growth and its impact on the quality of life we enjoy as residents. Research done by UNLV estimates that every new hotel job on the Strip creates at least one more elsewhere in the community. With population and job growth come subsequent needs for housing and public infrastructure improvements, including roads, fire stations, police stations and parks and recreation facilities.
The Clark County Commission and county management have been, and continue to be, committed to meeting that challenge by managing growth responsibly. Voters have approved funding for transportation, flood control and public safety improvements that have helped us deal with growth as a community.
In addition, the county has spearheaded many initiatives, including the Community Growth Task Force, which was organized in 2004 and resulted in a year-long public discussion about growth. The County Commission adopted several measures as a direct result of those discussions, including two affordable housing pilot projects now under way using provisions of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. County-led efforts to improve air quality and manage species native to our Mojave Desert have become models for other communities. The county’s mixed-use ordinance, adopted in 2005, also is considered a model planning tool for projects that blend homes, jobs and transportation into cohesive new developments. Clark County, in partnership with the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, is collaborating on using new wastewater treatment technology, ozonation and new disposal options to ensure improvements to the long-term quality of our drinking water from Lake Mead.
The County Commission has taken numerous steps to deal with land-use issues, which often require the need to preserve the rights of individuals to enjoy the highest and best use of their property and to mitigate the impacts of growth from new development. In June 2007, for example, the commission adopted a high-impact ordinance, which is intended to guide development of projects in intensely developed areas such as the Strip and to ensure adequate public infrastructure is in place to offset effects from significant new projects.
Since 2003, seven new land-use plans designed to protect the integrity of our neighborhoods have undergone updates in unincorporated Clark County with significant amounts of input from residents.
Clark County has been one of the fastest-growing communities in the nation for more than 20 years. There are many challenges associated with our rapid growth, and the county will continue to encourage public input and involvement in balancing the needs of our community.
Rory Reid
LAS VEGAS
THE WRITER IS CHAIRMAN OF THE CLARK COUNTY COMMISSION.
Freedom and God
To the editor:
I am always amazed that those who profess to understand history, such as Geoff Schumacher, really understand so little (Sunday column). In response to Mitt Romney’s speech, Mr. Schumacher states that freedom does not require religion but that “religion inherently inhibits freedom.” Mr. Schumacher ignores that his beliefs of secular humanism is itself a “religion.”
He also states, “Logic and experience suggest that freedom thrives in the absence of religion.” By Mr. Schumacher’s definition, the atheist Soviet Union and the cult of new age thought of by Nazi Germany would be the “experience” that Mr. Schumacher cites as his idea of thriving freedom.
But by trying to cite “freedom from religion” as the intention of the Founding Fathers, and wanting to quote Thomas Jefferson, maybe Mr. Schumacher should do more research and consider this quote by Thomas Jefferson
“And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.”
CRAIG PYPER
LAS VEGAS
