State to keep land sale money

Scott Reeder

Thursday, Oct. 29, 1998 | 11:15 a.m.

More than 27,000 acres of federal lands in Clark County will be auctioned off within the next decade, accommodating even more growth in the nation's fastest growing metropolitan area.

The land sales are a result of federal legislation signed last week by President Clinton.

"This is land that basically rings the entire developed area of the Las Vegas Valley," said Mike Dwyer, manager of the Las Vegas field office of the Bureau of Land Management. "We may be selling off as much as $1 billion worth of land and the greatest part about that is that all of that money stays here in Nevada, in part to purchase ecologically sensitive areas elsewhere in the state."

A timetable has not been set up for selling off the federal properties, Dwyer said. But he added that he anticipates they will be auctioned off gradually during the next 10 years.

Unlike some previous land deals, the BLM will sell the land for cash rather than swapping it for land elsewhere in the state.

"This is a historic accomplishment and a legislative milestone. From a Nevada perspective, it is probably the single most important piece of legislation enacted in this Congress," U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said Wednesday.

Because the land will be sold in public auctions, it should dilute past criticisms that the federal government did not get fair market value for some land in property swaps, he said.

"We really don't know what piece of land we are going to sell first. We are still trying to determine that," Dwyer said.

But the North Las Vegas mayor hopes the first lot to be sold will be a 7,500-acre parcel in the northern part of the city. He wants a single developer to buy the land, develop a master plan and contract out its development.

"This is one of the most exciting things to ever happen to North Las Vegas," Mayor Mike Montandon said. "We have been working for nine years toward this goal and it is finally happening."

The goal was to get the federal government to sell the parcel of land along the planned Las Vegas Beltway so that it can be used for private development.

Within a year, he hopes the North Las Vegas land will be auctioned off in one chunk.

"Lets face it, very few companies can afford to buy the whole thing. We are guessing the value of the undeveloped land is somewhere between $100 million and $150 million," he said.

The criteria for qualified bids in the auction have not yet been determined.

But Montandon said the new federal law allows the county and municipalities to have a voice in the sale of lands. But the BLM has yet to create regulations for land sales under the new law. And what specific role the cities will play has not yet been determined.

"I can't say whether North Las Vegas will be first. They have been very aggressive in lobbying for their's to be early on in the process," Dwyer said. "I don't know if that will be the very first. We might want to do something a little smaller and work out some of the kinks before we really go for that big of a chunk."

Environmental studies of the land to be sold found there are no sensitive wildlife habitats or endangered species that would be disrupted in the area, Dwyer said.

"The significance of the legislation isn't that the BLM is going to sell land to the private sector. They have been doing that for years," said John Schlegel, assistant Clark County planning director.

"What makes this different is that the federal law requires the BLM to work with the county and municipalities. What exactly this means hasn't been determined yet. But the BLM already says it does not mean that municipalities can veto the sales.

"What we are hoping it means is that they will work with us to make sure the lands will fit into our comprehensive plans."

Schlegel said the speed at which land is sold can be used as a method of regulating how the metropolitan area grows.

"One of the things the county and the cities want to encourage is for more infilling of land," he said. "As a city grows, often land is skipped over. If the BLM holds off on selling land on the edge of the city, it can encourage the development of land that has been skipped over."

The federal lands bill calls for 85 percent of the proceeds from land sales to be used by the federal government to buy environmentally sensitive lands in order to protect them or to create recreational areas. Ten percent of the money would be used for Southern Nevada water projects and 5 percent would go for state education.

"It was a major accomplishment getting Congress to allow the money to remain in Nevada," said Brent Heberlee, an aide to Bryan. "When you think about it, that land belongs to all of the taxpayers of the United States. So it was quite an accomplishment being able to keep the money here."

While specific sites have not yet been targeted for acquisition, the federal government will likely use some of the proceeds to buy land in the Lake Tahoe area, he said.

The money for Southern Nevada water projects would go to the Southern Nevada Water Authority to help pay for a second pipeline from Lake Mead to serve the Las Vegas Valley, Heberlee said.

Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said another benefit of the legislation is that it allows the BLM to set aside land that cities can use for public purposes such as parks and public buildings.

Las Vegas Planning Director Theresa O'Donnell said the city is investigating whether it can create some parks in northwest Las Vegas in areas that the BLM now owns.

"What this new law basically does is allows for orderly disposal of land and provides for input from local government," she said. "In the past we have had no input on the sale of BLM land whatsoever. It is hard for a city to plan for their expansion or growth when they don't know how much land is going to be available. ... It's a lot like trying to budget when you don't know what your salary is going to be."