LASN is a photographically oriented, professional journal featuring topics of concern and state-of-the-art projects designed or influenced by registered Landscape Architects.
Issue link: https://landscapearchitect.epubxp.com/i/320919
The Las Vegas Sun reports the 2,600-acre Park Highlands master planned community, originally approved by the North Las Vegas City Council back in 2006, is moving forward, with construction projected to start in late 2014, or early 2015. It's reported that over the course of the Park Highlands project, eight companies have owned parcels of land in the development. The recession and bankruptcy of several of the developmental partners put the project on extended hold. The developers plan to build 15,000 homes in North Las Vegas, which would make it one of the largest housing developments for the Las Vegas Valley since the recession. But wait a minute. Didn't (doesn't) Vegas have one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the U.S.? Why build a new housing development when there's already a surfeit of vacant homes in the Las Vegas Valley. What's going on? According to a 2013 fourth-quarter report from the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at the University of Nevada, there are 40,481 vacant single-family homes in the Las Vegas Valley, a vacancy rate of 8.4 percent for the 482,272 single-family homes in the valley. The report adds that Vegas also has 16,542 empty condominiums (20.6 percent of total inventory), and 5,137 vacant townhouses (12.2 percent of total inventory). Among these vacancies are so called "zombie foreclosures," vacant or abandoned homes in some stage of foreclosure. Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, an online listing service, estimates half of the foreclosure inventory in Las Vegas is vacant. The new plan is to split Park Highlands into two separate master-planned communities, and built in separate phases. The first phase will be 4,000 homes on a 600-acre parcel. An amended development agreement goes to the North Las Vegas City Council in May. If that is approved, construction on the first phase would begin within a year, according to an attorney for the developers. A second phase—11,000 homes on 2,000 acres—would be developed later. The ballpark figure of both phases is $3.2 billion; the time projection is 15 years of construction. John Lee, mayor of North Las Vegas, told the local media, "Wall Street investment bankers are coming back into this valley... We're showing America ... that we're open for business again." June 2014 87 Large Master Plan Community Coming to North Las Vegas Below Park highlands…coming soon to North Las Vegas. I n f o r m a t i o n R e q u e s t # 5 3 2 86-87.indd 87 5/21/14 1:05 PM