North Las Vegas Mayor to lobby D.C. on land deal

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, Dec. 16, 1999 | 11:47 a.m.

What city officials consider the future of North Las Vegas -- the sale of 7,500 acres of federal land -- may have hit some snarls. So Mayor Michael Montandon plans to head to Washington after the New Year to talk strategy.

His colleagues on the North Las Vegas City Council approved Montandon's travel plans Wednesday night after the mayor told them the U.S. Department of Interior plans soon to release a study on how the sale will affect the local real estate market.

That study, he said, could greatly affect the way the land is divided. The city's plan for the 7,500 acres -- whenever it is finalized -- will have to be melded with the study, he said.

For more than a decade city officials have been pushing for the government to sell the parcel as one piece to a private developer for a master-planned community. The property has an estimated value of between $100 million and $150 million and is bound by Decatur Boulevard, Grand Teton Drive, Lamb Boulevard and Centennial Parkway. It will eventually be auctioned off by the federal government under the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

Officials hope the parcel will do for North Las Vegas what Green Valley has done for Henderson.

But Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has said he wants to maximize the taxpayers' value by selling the acreage over time in hundreds of smaller parcels. And he doesn't appear to be budging.

The city has been working with the Bureau of Land Management to negotiate parcel sizes, suggesting the land be divided into four or five larger chunks.

Montandon told the council that a letter from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the city's alternative won't likely be accepted. Reid suggested in the letter that the the legislation allowing for the land sale could be changed to give the city more control over the sale of the 7,500 acres, the mayor said.

Montandon will head to Washington to lobby for Reid's support and assistance on a such a change.

"They're saying we can not divide the land up into a reasonable amount of pieces or allow the city to master-plan it," Montandon said. "We would never consider selling it in 100 parcels."