Nevadans push panel for BLM land deal

Paul Kane

Thursday, May 7, 1998 | 10:38 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A united congressional delegation from Nevada pushed a key Senate panel Wednesday to pass legislation that would make it easier for local officials to approve purchases of thousands of acres of federal land in booming Southern Nevada.

The lawmakers have won the support of Senate Republicans in charge of land issues, and they received a general show of support from the Bureau of Land Management -- with a few strings attached.

If approved, they contend that local planners in Las Vegas and throughout Clark County will be better able to cope with the massive growth and sprawl of housing developments, roadways and sewer projects that have gripped the region for the past decade.

"The Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act is a direct response to the greatest challenge facing the Southern Nevada community -- the need to promote responsible, orderly growth in the Las Vegas Valley while protecting our surrounding environment," said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., the original author of the legislation.

Bryan was joined by Sen. Harry Reid and Reps. John Ensign and James Gibbons, who helped shepherd the land act through the House last year.

The bill would allow for 27,000 acres of land in the Las Vegas Valley owned by BLM, land that is needed for development and water and sewer projects, to be auctioned off in a competitive bid to ensure the federal governments gets a fair market value.

Some 85 percent of that money would then be funneled into an account for BLM to buy other environmentally sensitive land in Nevada, perhaps at Lake Tahoe. The other 15 percent would go to the local governments, 5 percent for education costs and 10 percent for water and sewer projects.

The current land exchange process, by which equal amounts of land must be identified before the exchange is approved, has been lengthy and cumbersome, while not getting the best value for the land, said Ensign. "It's virtually impossible to design a good exchange process."

Gibbons said that exchange process often gobbled up wide swaths of land in rural parts of the state, which he represents, giving the land to the federal government and destroying the tax base for local communities. "No longer were ranches farmed, taxes paid or workers hired," he said.

"I'm very sympathetic to what you're trying to do," said Sen. Larry Craig, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on forests and public lands. "When you get into a growth environment, it becomes a very impossible thing."

While BLM and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt share that sympathy, they also have some concerns. Particularly, there seems to be a hang-up over how much say local planners should be given in approving the auctioning of federal lands.

"The (Interior) secretary, just like a corporation or a private homeowner, should have the discretion to dispose of lands without having to wait for the local government to approve that transaction. ... We believe strongly in consultation with local governments, but do not believe they should have veto power," said Tom Fry, BLM deputy director.

"I strongly disagree with the notion that BLM is just like a corporation or a business," Mary Kincaid, chairwoman of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, countered. "We do not want BLM in charge of master planning our communities," she added.

Afterward, however, the lawmakers and Fry downplayed the disagreements, and Reid held out hope that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would soon approve the bill, possibly leading to a unanimous approval from the full Senate later this year.

"There's nothing to object to (in the bill)," Reid said.

"We are on board for this bill," Fry added. "Most of all these areas we've raised will be worked out."

Ensign, however, stressed the need for them to worked out without amending the current bill -- because that would then require House and Senate negotiators to work out the differences between the two bills, a sometimes lengthy process that could kill chances for passing the land act this year.