The Kyle Canyon Gateway development will house thousands more homes than previously thought, along with downtown areas featuring parks, shopping districts and casinos lined with condos and apartment buildings.

A year after purchasing a huge desert area in the northwest corner of Las Vegas, Focus Property Group is finalizing negotiations with city planners for a master plan community that will create a small city-sized community on the edge of Las Vegas.

City and Focus representatives expect the development plan to go to the City Council in April.

Environmentalists and Mount Charleston residents have expressed concern about the development encroaching on the area. Concerns are unlikely to be mitigated by the addition of 3,000 homes to the plan.

However, developers argue that measures will be taken to minimize traffic impacts and mention that open spaces will be included in the development.

Focus purchased 1,710 acres for $510 million at a Bureau of Land Management auction in February 2005. The land is south and east of the U.S. 95 exit from Kyle Canyon Road, with about 70% of the project on the west side of the highway and the rest on the east side.

A new highway interchange and bridge planned on Horse Drive, just south of Kyle Canyon Road, will connect parts of the development to improve highway access for residents.

Originally, the new development was expected to have about 12,000 homes, but now the proposal is expected to require about 15,000 homes, Focus CEO John A. Ritter said.

Condominiums and apartment buildings, most of which are about five stories tall and some eight stories tall, will surround the center of the development. Housing density will decrease as it moves away from the center of development housing, with the largest areas having four to five homes per acre, Ritter said.

Ritter said the first homes could be completed by the end of 2007. Pricing has yet to be determined.  파워볼사이트

The downtown area of the development will be centered on a long and narrow park, some of which are modeled after Barcelona's Las Ramblas, a sprawling outdoor shopping mall in the Spanish city. Here, the area will be about 60 feet wide and 3/4 miles long. Small parks and seating areas will be nestled in the park, which will offer two-way traffic on both sides.