City’s gaming zone plan comes under fire

Steve Sebelius

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

You won't be able to see a change in downtown Las Vegas if the City Council decides to throw acres of property out of the gaming enterprise district, but in this debate, it's the intangibles that matter most.

Property owners insist that redrawing the lines of the district could drive their property values down, as the land would no longer be in the area planned for casino development. Instead, it would be tagged for less lucrative office buildings.

But city officials maintain that no casinos are being built there anyway, and that hotels and offices each belong in a different place downtown. In fact, they say, the current map encourages artificially high prices as owners try to exact casino rates for their land.

Either way, it's a matter of perception. At a public hearing Monday, property owners let the council know they perceive big problems.

"If the office projects you intend for this area can't co-exist with gaming, then this town is entirely doomed," said William Potter, an attorney for Ann Meyers, who owns the Queen of Hearts hotel and other properties downtown. "The downtown area is based on gaming."

Potter suggested that eliminating a swath of downtown land bordered by Bridger Avenue on the north, Coolidge Avenue on the south, Sixth Street on the east and the Clark County Government Center parcel and Union Pacific railroad tracks on the west, would be an illegal taking of property rights. Councilman Arnie Adamsen, who sponsored the bill, hotly disagreed.

"I'm not going to allow you to build a record for takings, because you are absolutely, positively wrong," Adamsen told Potter. The map also calls for a few parcels near City Hall and a zone from U.S. 95 north to the city limits to be expelled from the gaming district.

Adamsen said no zoning will be changed if the council approves a pared-down map, no current casino projects will be stopped and landowners are still able to ask the council to put a casino in the office area. But, he said, the city's general plan will be changed to show offices, not hotel-casinos, in the zone.

Juanita Wilson, who operates the EconoLodge on South Casino Center Boulevard, said hotels bring people in to the downtown 24 hours a day, while offices only keep people during business hours.

"You can go down to Fourth Street at 6 o'clock at night and there's not a soul on Fourth Street," she said.

The council is acting to reduce the amount of casino-approved territory downtown based partly on a study that recommended paring it down to avoid what Adamsen called "pennies from heaven" -- the hope that someday a casino will decide to locate on downtown property, making millionaires of the owners.

Adamsen said the city created a huge gaming zone when the state law authorizing such areas was approved in 1989, because city leaders didn't know where gaming would grow. He denied the downsizing action was being contemplated to make it easier or less costly for the city or private developers to buy the land after removing the casino hopes.

"Simple inclusion in the gaming enterprise zone does not have any impact on property value," he said.

City staffer Bob Hasegawa said it's unlikely a casino would be built downtown because several small lots would have to be assembled and at least 200 hotel rooms -- with the requisite parking and infrastructure -- would have to be built as well.

"I think past history shows we're not going to get much casino development," he said.

What it finally comes down to, Adamsen said, is putting similar businesses together. "This is more (an issue) of suitability than anything else," he said.

The gaming district revisions will return to the council in December for action.

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