City searches for deal over redevelopment suit

Steve Sebelius

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Lawyers for a longtime Las Vegas family will meet with lawyers for the city next week to work out the details of temporarily halting a judge's controversial order that threatens a key segment of downtown redevelopment.

Attorneys for Carol Pappas and her family are asking the city for $365,000 in back rent, $250,000 in attorneys fees and $500,000 as compensation for the city's demolishing their building to erect the Fremont Street Experience parking garage.

In addition, they are seeking future rents for their portion of the property on which the red, five-story garage was built, said Glade Hall, an attorney for the family.

Dan Polsenberg, an attorney representing the city, said his side has offered the Pappas family more than $400,000 set aside as the down payment for compensating them for the land taken to build the garage. Property owners must be compensated when their land is appropriated by the government, an action known as eminent domain.

But taking the money usually means owners waive all future rights to challenge the eminent-domain action in court. Polsenberg said the city had agreed to let the Pappases take the money without waiving their legal rights.

"The city's attorneys and attorneys for the Pappas family have worked well together in this case," Polsenberg said.

Hall said Carol Pappas rejected the offer, however, saying it would lend legitimacy to the city's original eminent-domain action. "We considered it, of course, but we didn't consider it for long," he said.

After the city began eminent-domain proceedings in 1993, District Judge Stephen Huffaker signed an order allowing the city to take possession of the land. City officials demolished the buildings on the block bounded by Las Vegas Boulevard, Carson Avenue, Fourth Street and Fremont Street.

But the Pappas family sued, challenging the city's use of eminent domain, and District Judge Don Chairez, in a strongly worded opinion, ruled that the city acted improperly. His ruling returned the property to the Pappas family.

However, attorneys for both sides are working out the details of a stay -- or temporary suspension -- of Chairez's order while the city appeals to the Nevada Supreme Court. The Pappas family's demands for back rent, compensation and attorneys' fees are part of those negotiations, Hall said.

Meanwhile, Hall acknowledged that the Pappases are considering setting up a snack-food kiosk near the parking garage or offering free or discount parking on those portions of the garage built on their land.

"If Carol is put to that kind of a choice, that's some of the things she's considering," Hall said.

Polsenberg said the city would oppose those measures.