Henderson: Seven Hills residents don’t get fee relief

Lisa Snedeker

Wednesday, April 14, 1999 | 11:13 a.m.

There will be no relief any time soon for Seven Hills homeowners who feel they are paying for special improvements that benefit adjacent property owners, including the Rio Secco golf course.

That's what the more than 50 residents who turned out for a special Henderson City Council meeting Tuesday at Frank Lamping Elementary School to discuss their concerns about the Seven Hills local improvement district were told by city officials.

Local improvement district fees, commonly known as LID fees, often are charged to homebuyers in new communities to help pay for roads, street lights, gates, common areas and other improvements. Money collected from within an LID is supposed to be spent solely within that area.

Projects financed by the $30 million district, which was formed by the city at the request of the developer in January 1996, include water, sewer, street and storm drains and four parks, city officials said. According to state law, all of the improvements must be publicly owned.

The average annual residential assessment for property owners in the Seven Hills LID is $850.

Residents told the council they believe that the Rio hotel-casino has not paid its share of benefits from the LID because only the 10-acre commercial parcel on which the clubhouse sits was assessed along with the amount of potable water used to irrigate the course's greens.

City officials, however, explained that the city has collected $687,000 -- the amount the assessment engineer determined if the commercial property had been included in the initial LID. Because the golf course was owned separately by one of the Silver Canyon Partnership partners when Seven Hills was initially developed, it was not assessed in the LID. State law does not require the golf course to be assessed as part of the LID after the fact.

When the golf course was subsequently sold to the Rio, the Rio requested the city create a commercial parcel separate from the golf course. The city then required the Rio pay what a 10-acre commercial parcel would have been assessed if it had existed at the time the LID was created.

Mayor James Gibson said, however, the funds would not be reimbursed to homeowners until litigation over the golf course is resolved, in case the city has to return the money to the Rio.

After a judge ruled last year that the golf course had to remain public because Seven Hills had been marketed as a golf course community, the Rio filed a counter suit, which has yet to be settled.

Seven Hills residents said they also are concerned about how the development of property the city recently swapped with Pacific Properties at the entrance to their upscale, master-planned community at Lake Mead Drive and Maryland Parkway will profit from homeowners current LID fees.

City Attorney Shauna Hughes reiterated that because the property involved in the exchange is not within the Seven Hills assessment area, the new landowners -- Pacific Properties -- will not be assessed any LID fees.

The concerns were voiced following the land swap earlier this year of about 120 acres at the entrance of Seven Hills for 144 acres known as the Sunset Village project adjacent to Whitney Ranch owned by Pacific Properties.