The City of Henderson selected Boulder Highway at the Gibson Rd./Broadbent Blvd. intersection to be a Southern Nevada Strong (SNS) Opportunity Site for its potential to become a thriving transit-oriented neighborhood center and to identify opportunities and barriers and suggest projects, policies, and programs for achieving this goal. These findings were initially documented in the SNS Boulder Highway/Gibson Opportunity Site Implementation Strategy (SNS BH Implementation Strategy) (2015), serving as a guide to help the City of Henderson incorporate and implement SNS’s regional planning and policy goals into their local work.
As a living document, the SNS BH Implementation Strategy report was updated to reflect the changing conditions and progress that’s been made since its adoption. The Boulder Highway SNS Opportunity Site 5-year Progress Report (Boulder Highway Progress Report) (2022) assesses progress on these implementation strategies as well as provides updated ideas and strategies for continued implementation of SNS’s regional planning and policy goals in the Boulder Highway corridor and on the opportunity site.
About the Boulder Highway Opportunity Site
The vision for Boulder Highway at the intersection of Gibson Rd. and Broadbent Blvd. is to:
“Create a thriving transit-oriented neighborhood along the Boulder Highway corridor that includes pedestrian-friendly design and landscape and design elements that emphasize the site’s position as a gateway into the City of Henderson.”
Currently, Boulder Highway is an auto-oriented corridor characterized by under developed and undeveloped land. The corridor is home to a variety of industrial-type businesses, most of which are housed in strip malls and other forms of low-density, industrial-style buildings. The opportunity site itself remains undeveloped and is surrounded by a mix of single-family and multi-family residential units, which vary in age.
There are many opportunities for new and redevelopment along the Boulder Highway corridor and at the Gibson Rd./Broadbent Blvd. opportunity site. The corridor is a central arterial for northwest-southeast travel in the region and sees high ridership on RTC’s BHX (Boulder Highway Express) BRT route. Additionally, the City of Henderson recently received an INFRA (Infrastructure for Rebuilding America) grant that will fund transit and infrastructure improvements that support transformation of Boulder Highway into a true multimodal thoroughfare with center-running, high-capacity transit.
The Boulder Highway Progress Report identifies four updated “Big Actions” for continuing to progress regional planning goals along the Boulder Highway corridor and at the opportunity site:
- Continue public commitment to redeveloping the corridor and support implementation of the East Henderson Investment Strategy (2020).
- Increase coordination among internal and external stakeholders to sustain energy and take advantage of opportunities for redevelopment in the corridor.
- Create a branding and marketing strategy and invest in placemaking efforts throughout the corridor and near the opportunity site.
- Implement roadway improvements that will benefit all users of the roadway (pedestrian, bike, public transit, and personal vehicle) and catalyze transit-oriented development (TOD).
The Boulder Highway Progress Report provides suggestions and strategies, complete with case studies from other communities, for progressing these “Big Actions” as well.
