Question of the Day - 17 September 2017

Based solely in terms of topography and having nothing to do with the politics and logistics of development, we’d say the spread of the city, in general, will continue the way it’s been going.

There’s still a little room left to the west before the sprawl butts up against the Spring Mountains (northerly), Red Rock Canyon (central), and Blue Diamond Hill (southerly). The Blue Diamond area has the most potential and a proposal to build a master-planned community containing 5,000 homes on some 2,000 acres has been floating around for a decade; it’s drawn resistance from outdoor enthusiasts that whole time, but it could happen eventually.

There’s also a little room left to the north, before bumping into the Sheep Range (a bit northwesterly), the Las Vegas Range (due north), and the Paiute reservation and Air Force property around Indian Springs (to the northwest).

We’d say very little topography is available to the east, where development butts right up against the Sunrise and Frenchman ranges.

The same is mostly true for the southeast, though it’s possible that the sprawl could climb a little into the foothills of the River Range.

Finally, to the south, the valley is pretty well hemmed in by the McCollough Range. However, if we had capital to invest in big real estate and, perhaps, three or four decades to wait for it to appreciate, we might put our money in this direction.   

For a time, there was a plan to build a huge housing development out in Jean, 25 miles southwest of the city along I-15, to support the two casinos (now one) out there. If that had happened, the sprawl would have conceivably, eventually, filled the space between Jean and Vegas. But that plan exited stage left (as you’re looking north).

Another fairly well-developed idea is to build a major international airport about five miles southwest of Jean in Ivanpah Valley. That’s been tabled, though at some point if Las Vegas tourism continues to inflate as much as the resident population, McCarran will run out of expansion room and Ivanpah Airport will leap off the drawing board.