Thursday, Oct. 30, 1997 | 11:22 a.m.
A legal feud over the closing of a golf course in the Seven Hills residential community in Henderson has been resolved for the moment with an agreement that it will be open to the public.
But with a $300 green fee, is the Rio hotel-casino's golf course really a public facility?
That question is the next one District Judge Mark Gibbons will have to answer as the convoluted lawsuits wind their way through the court system.
The lawsuits were filed by home builders and homeowners against developer, Silver Canyon Partnership, and several co-defendants over the sale of the golf course to the Rio at the same time home builders were telling their buyers they would have access.
The intent of the Rio, according to the lawsuits, is to limit the use of the 18-hole course still under construction at Eastern Avenue and Lake Mead Drive to hotel guests.
The parties were in court Wednesday seeking an injunction to force the Rio to keep the course open to the public until there is a resolution in the courts, which could take months or years. The Rio's concession made the court hearing unnecessary other than to set the stage for the green fees battle.
Under Wednesday's plan, Rio guests will pay $190 to play on the "high-end" golf course alongside nonguests paying $300 a round.
"The green fees sound a little high to me," said Gibbons, who will be asked to decide if the fees are designed to circumvent the "public" aspect of the course by pricing out all but Rio guests.
Rio attorney Thomas Kammer noted that Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn's exclusive Shadow Creek Golf Course charges $1,000 a round, but it was quickly pointed out that it is not open to the public.
Kammer said the Rio is "going to argue that it can set whatever fees it wants. It is its golf course."
But attorney Lynde Selden called the pricing structure "outrageous" and said the fees "can't be so high as to be prohibitive."
The first lawsuit was filed by the Helmer Co. of Nevada and a second lawsuit over the same issues was filed as a class action by homeowners Marshall and Susan Daniel and John and Diane Frisby.
Helmer purchased one of the development's subdivisions to build 152 single-family homes with the understanding that the golf course would be a "high-end daily fee facility open to the public," the lawsuit stated.
Publicity and advertisements referred to Seven Hills as a golf course community. Helmer alleged, however, that the defendants earlier this year published new advertisements "repudiating their prior representations and promises" and asserting instead that the status of the golf course was up to the new buyer.
Other co-defendants named in Helmer's lawsuit include Granite Silver Development Partners, a Delaware partnership owned by Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland; Silver Canyon Corp., owned by Canadian Terry Johnston; and American Nevada Seven Hills Limited Partnership. Each has a one-third interest in the development. American Nevada is a subsidiary of Greenspun Inc., which publishes the SUN.
The homeowners' lawsuit lists as defendants Rio Hotel & Casino Inc. and Durable Homes Inc. doing business as J.M. Peters Nevada Inc., as well as the partners in the Seven Hills development.
The homeowners allege that since at least July 1996 the defendants had advertised Seven Hills as a "golf course community." The plaintiffs added that the defendants also gave them a public disclosure form mandated by state law that promised the golf course would be open to the public.
The two couples are seeking unspecified damages as well as public access to the links. The class-action aspect of their litigation covers all owners who have purchased lots at Seven Hills since January 1996.
archive
