Erin Neff

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000 | 10:35 a.m.

Las Vegas Sun

The wall was supposed to unite Bonanza Village residents against intruders set on stealing property or littering the neighborhood.

Instead, the wall has divided residents in the area near Bonanza Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard and led to charges that the only unification will be that every household is someday forced into a homeowners association.

"Once this wall is built, it really just kicks people into the homeowners association," said Anthony Caruso, a Las Vegas resident who is fighting to reform problems with homeowners associations. Caruso, who was once embroiled in his own fight with a homeowners association, works as a volunteer on homeowners association issues for state Sen. Mike Schneider.

And while Bonanza Village's wall is stalled awaiting a decision by the Nevada Supreme Court, some residents say their voluntary homeowners association is hard at work trying to turn their diverse working-class neighborhood into another cookie-cutter development with its associated amenities.

"I think they are trying to force us into improvements," Bonanza Village resident Lois Mack said. "After the wall, who knows what's next. Sidewalks? Street lights?

"It's like they want to make this Summerlin," Mack said.

Mack's husband, Cuthbert, is leading the legal opposition to the City Council's 1998 decision to impose a special improvement district on the residents to pay for the wall.

Opponents of the wall, who have filed documents with the city clerk claiming they now make up the majority of homeowners in Bonanza Village, say their voluntary homeowners association misled them about the cost of the project.

Dan Contreras, who says he was originally told the wall would cost each resident $2,300, signed an easement giving part of his property to the city for construction of the wall.

Now that each resident will be assessed more than $5,300, he questions how many of the homeowners will be able to pay. The figure is payable over 10 years.

"And how is this homeowners association going to pay to maintain the wall with voluntary dues?" Contreras asked.

Each month the homeowners association sends each resident a bill, even if they aren't members.

Jackie Phillips, president of the homeowners association, denies that the wall will give her group incentive to make membership mandatory and require everyone pay the dues.

"This is only about security, and a majority of residents want the wall," Phillips said.

The dispute between association loyalists and opponents has spilled into the streets with residents wrapping type-written personal notes to rocks and leaving them at doorsteps to attempt to clarify positions in what has become a neighborhood war.

Mayor Oscar Goodman has come to listen to the dispute, but has told residents the matter is best decided by the courts.

In addition to the case before the Supreme Court, Cuthbert Mack is awaiting a decision in District Court on his suit against the homeowners association and its officers.

Gerry Topacio agrees with Mack's suit because he says he questions the group.

"They're an illegal homeowners association and they didn't even file paperwork until this year, two years after the wall was approved," Topacio said.

On April 7, the homeowners association filed with the secretary of state's office as Bonanza Village Homeowners Association, Inc.

Before that, not even the covenants, conditions and restrictions for the 1946 subdivision, mentioned the association.

Resident Christine Monroe has asked the state's homeowners association ombudsman, Mary Lynn Ashworth, to investigate.

Douglas E. Walther, senior deputy attorney general, has been asked whether such an association could be created without the approval and consent of all property owners in the community when there is no legal documentation to otherwise form one.

Walther responded in writing, saying that since the matter is in litigation, his office would wait for the court's decision.