|
Situated
in the northern part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area, North Las
Vegas is a separate city of 117,000 people, with its own Mayor/Council
form of government, police and fire departments, planning commission,
water system, and Chamber of Commerce.
The
city shares the Clark County School District with other incorporated
and non-incorporated entities throughout the county and cooperates with
regional entities in water, sanitation, transportation and certain
other services.
While
gaming is the main engine that drives the economy of Southern Nevada,
North Las Vegas is less directly dependent on gaming for its economy.
Incorporated as a separate city
in 1946, North Las Vegas served primarily as a lower cost bedroom
community for several decades, as other parts of the Valley began to
grow. In the 1990's several substantial gaming  properties have appeared (Fiesta and Texas hotel/casinos, and quality neighbor-
hood casinos such as Jerry's Nugget, The Poker Palace, The Gambler, The Bighorn, and others.)
By
the late 1980's, the high cost of land and developing traffic gridlock
apparent in Las Vegas, Henderson and unincorporated Clark County
(including all of the Strip) caused new interest in North Las Vegas.
Costs were reasonable, traffic was tolerable with access to the I-15
traffic corridor which bisects the city, and City Hall was easier to
deal with than elsewhere. Also, there were large amounts of
Federal (Bureau of Land Management) acreage available for development.
Simultaneously,
the Boyd Group of Princeton, New Jersey, completed a study comparing
southwestern locations in terms of suitability as a warehousing and
regional transportation hub. It found North Las Vegas best suited over
Salt Lake City, San Bernardino, San Diego, Phoenix, Riverside and other
locations . This triggered the advent of numerous new and relocating
companies, and when coupled with developers discovery of North Las
Vegas land values, the city began to explode in population.
That boom has continued unabated to the present. The 1990 census of 48,000 is projected
to
reach 120,000+ at the census in this year 2000. First an influx of
people, then an influx of commercial in fill to serve them. This makes
North Las Vegas among the very fastest growing cities in the entire
United States! |
|
