Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Rancho-Sahara battle is dragged into court

A court battle is brewing over the controversial site at Sahara Avenue and Rancho Drive, the latest lawsuit filed because the City Council rejected a high-profile project.

Would-be developers of a 12-story medical office tower and two commercial "pads" at the site claimed in their lawsuit that the council's rejection of two different proposals robbed the land of its full economic potential.

Developers are asking District Court to either order the council to approve their plan or pay them for the losses they incurred by keeping the land undeveloped.

"The city's denials, and the reasons stated for the denials, have, in effect, made it impossible for plaintiff to make any economic use of a portion of the property," attorney Mark Fiorentino wrote in the six-page complaint.

"The City Council's actions and the comments of the members of the City Council evidence a clear intent to deny all proposed projects for the property," Fiorentino added.

Some council members, who said they denied the project primarily because of the traffic it would add to what has been called the city's worst intersection, said they stood by their decision.

"(Property) rights as opposed to pure greed are two different things," said Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who noted the zoning on the land has stayed the same despite tremendous changes in the surrounding area. "That should be left to a council to decide on the impacts of those changes."

Developers had presented a traffic study that said the impacts of the development would be low so long as several improvements were made, but the council rejected the study's conclusions.

Councilman Michael McDonald, who represents the area, said he wants the city to fight the lawsuit.

"If that's what's entailed in doing my job, then I don't have a problem with it," he said. "We're doing the right thing for the neighborhood.

"For so long, it has been status quo to give the developer anything he wants ... but I am pro-neighborhood," McDonald added. "I will be the shield for the neighborhood."

"I think this is going to be a difficult lawsuit for the plaintiff," agreed Councilman Matthew Callister, an attorney. "The City Council is well within its constraints to say, for reasons of traffic, we can't put more development on this site."

Callister said he was "troubled" by judges making land-use decisions that second-guess the rulings of the council, but added "I trust the system."

In his own ward, however, the system has gone against him twice: Two apartment projects that were rejected initially by the council were later restored by District Court judges, prompting Callister to sponsor a formal temporary ban on apartment-building in his northwest district.

In those cases, the judges found that the council had improperly exercised its authority to deny projects that were permitted under the general plan and zoning, which is considered a property right. The Sahara-Rancho project is allowed under the zoning that exists on the site, according to the lawsuit.

Last year, another developer proposed three high-rise office towers of 30, 20 and 15 stories on the site, a plan that was handily rejected at City Hall in July. The newer proposal, which the council nixed March 20, was drastically scaled back, but still generated opposition from residents in the neighborhood.

archive