Making a Visible Difference in Communities Home

Las Vegas, NV

The Las Vegas Valley was among the nation’s fastest growing regions in the last 20 years. Growth was mostly uncoordinated and land use patterns became disjointed, creating longer commutes, greater impacts on the environment, and financial burdens on jurisdictions serving new communities well outside city centers.

Through the Southern Nevada Strong collaborative of area cities, the county, local agencies, and the region received a $3.5M HUD Sustainable Communities Regional Planning grant in 2011 and is now seeking to implement its resulting vision for a more sustainable southern Nevada.

Las Vegas residents wait to board one of the Bus Rapid Transit lines serving the downtown area. 

EPA is providing a suite of technical assistance to the metropolitan planning organization and its local government partners to implement the Southern Nevada Strong regional plan, which includes:

• transit oriented development
• complete streets
• other sustainability projects

We also convened reuse, recycling, and organics experts to assess existing Las Vegas area reuse, food donation, recycling, and anaerobic collection and processing facilities and are working to improve the food recovery rate.