High-rise growth threatens historic Las Vegas neighborhood
Did you know that the first neighborhood listed as an historic district on the City of Las Vegas Historic Register is located just a couple-hundred feet east of Las Vegas Boulevard between the Strip and downtown?
The area, also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is called the John S. Park Historic District and includes 444 homes (view a PDF walking tour map from the City of Las Vegas).
It lies east of Las Vegas Boulevard between Charleston and Oakey, and is home to single-family homes dating back to the 1930s with tree-lined streets, where neighbors know each other and frequently gather. In fact, twice a year the streets are barricaded for neighbors to share a pot luck meal on adjoining front lawns. There’s even a neighborhood cookbook.
In a town that’s barely 100 years old, and one in which newer is almost always deemed better, the John S. Park neighborhood, despite being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is struggling to maintain its quaint sense of community, protect its sunlight and the community’s small-town feel.
You see, a number of high-rise condominium projects are proposed, and some have begun springing up around the historic district.
To the west, many strip clubs, adult sex toy shops, wedding chapels and adult bookstores line Las Vegas Boulevard, just a stone’s throw away from the happy historic neighborhood. Bob Coffin, a state senator who lives in a 50-year-old John S. Park home, said in Sunday’s Review-Journal that Las Vegas needs to preserve the historic neighborhood.
"We haven't complained about the sex toys and the noise of the existing property as it is," he said. "We left them alone. But we feel we have some rights."
And what exactly are the neighbors campaigning for? They want high-rise construction projects along the neighboring strip of Las Vegas Boulevard kept to a minimum.
In today’s Las Vegas City Council meeting the neighborhood homeowners association urged council members to limit the height of buildings along the nearby stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard to five stories or 60 feet.
“Like Mayor Goodman, we feel there is a place in downtown Las Vegas for high-rise condominiums,” said Chris Giunchigliani (giunchigliani.com), veteran legislator and candidate for Clark County Commission, District E.
“The recently completed Soho Lofts on Las Vegas Boulevard is a good example. Older and fully developed residential neighborhoods can co-exist near well-planned high-rises, but we shouldn’t give the green light to tall buildings which intrude on existing neighborhoods,” Giunchigliani said.
Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese (garyreeseonline.com), whose ward includes the historic neighborhood, said he supports the height restrictions. "This may be Las Vegas Boulevard, it may be an extension of the Strip, but it's a neighborhood. People are living within a couple hundred feet of that," he said.
A neighborhood resolution was passed in 2001 calling for a height restriction along the nearby stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard. But, as the Review-Journal reported Sunday, “that plan was merely a vision of what the community wanted, without teeth to force property owners to comply. So while the neighborhood successfully has fought proposals to build towers on their stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, they now want something firmer in the form of the proposed height limit.”
With so little that’s truly historic, we salute the John S. Park homeowners and elected officials like Chris Giunchigliani and Gary Reese who are standing up for a bit of tradition and preservation in the face of developers with dollar signs in their eyes.
After all, it’s a good neighborhood. There’s a strong sense of community there, one that is not easily duplicated despite the dozens and dozens of master planned communities popping up around the Las Vegas valley.
Let’s work to protect and learn from what works instead of eagerly tearing down history for the sake of progress.
