“It’s Vegas, baby,” for an estimated 7,500 members of The American Planning Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to urban and rural planning issues. From April 27th through May 1st, The Entertainment Capital of the World will host the APA’s 100th National Planning Conference. It’s no wonder that Clark County represents two of the top 20 fastest growing cities in the country – North Las Vegas at No. 1 and Henderson at No. 18, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
From 1909 to 1950, Clark County’s population grew by a mere 48,589. This growth coincided with growth across the country which was happening primarily in American cities and followed an urban planning model. By the end of World War II, roughly 70 percent of Americans lived in central cities but with the aid of the G.I. Bill (officially titled the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944) home ownership for the middle class was expanded and by 1950, that figure dropped to less than 40 percent. Through the increase in home-ownership, significant road improvements and new mobility made possible by the automobile, America was officially transformed by “suburban sprawl.”
Ninety-seven percent of Clark County’s population growth occurred during the second half of the 20th century and followed the suburban planning model, rendering the county wholly suburban without dense downtown residential cores.
Fortunately by 2000, the tide began to change nationally due to congested roadways and overstressed infrastructures. Growth started trending closer to city centers and planners across the country sought a new, more sustainable planning model – a model that embraces denser mixed-use development with several environmental, economic and social benefits.
Clark County is home to some of the most beautiful master-planned communities in the country but Las Vegas is being applauded specifically for taking the forefront, grappling this new planning model and running with it as evidenced by the development of downtown high-rise residential towers, One Queensridge Place on the west side of the Valley, and Sullivan Square, a mixed-use project in the rapidly growing southwest part of the Valley, to name a few.
Clark County’s adoption of this sustainable planning model means that as the county’s population expands to a forecasted 2.7 million within the next 10 years, development will accommodate more people on less land allowing for fewer infrastructures, easier access to mass transit, decreased dependence on automobiles, slower depletion of natural resources, and less socially isolated communities.
