Error puts highway land into hands of Vegas man

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

You've seen the bumper stickers motorists display boasting that, yes, they do own the whole road.

Meet Las Vegas real estate agent Neil Ohriner. He really does own a piece of the Desert Inn Super Arterial -- in fact, he bought a part of the road from Clark County.

Ohriner's land is two lots located two blocks east of Valley View Boulevard on what once was a four-lane street.

Today, the property holds the six-lane super arterial, an east-west highway completed in 1996 that bypasses Interstate 15 and Las Vegas Boulevard traffic and extends from Valley View to Paradise Road.

Ohriner's ownership of the land started last year when two lots, appraised at a total of $190,000, were auctioned as surplus property by Clark County.

When county officials sold them to Ohriner for $340,000 on July 21, they knew the land went to someone who wanted it badly.

Now county officials know why.

The property line on the lots designated in the county assessor's office as 162-17-110-003 and 162-17-110-004 extends 150 feet from north to south, according to a county map of the property Ohriner has. That places the north boundary along the left westbound lane of the highway.

Ohriner speculates that when the highway was built, someone at the county failed to update the maps.

At one time, a two-story building stood on the lots Ohriner purchased. When Ohriner received a tax notice assessing the land with a two-story building, his theory was pretty much confirmed.

Ohriner said he bought the property, which has an eight-unit warehouse along the south end of it, as an investment.

He knew about the county's mistake going into the deal but did not tell the county about it during the bidding process. He hoped to capitalize on the county's error by selling the highway land back to the county at a profit, he said.

Other bidders apparently spotted the mistake as well because other real estate agents bid up the price to almost twice its appraised value before Ohriner was finally declared the winner.

Now, Ohriner has a new problem -- he can't insure the property because of the liability problems that come with owning four lanes of road carrying vehicles traveling at more than 40 mph.

"I don't know whether to charge the county with trespassing or to build a toll booth," Ohriner said during a recent visit to the site.

"I don't know how much liability I need on a highway -- or how much coverage I need on a toll booth."

But the Clark County attorney's office believes Ohriner doesn't have to worry about trespassing or toll booths.

"It was just a clerical error in the preparation of the legal description of the land," Mary Anne Miller, county counsel on the matter, said.

County officials learned of the problem when Ohriner brought the matter to their attention. Now they're giving him two options to resolve the issue.

Miller said Ohriner could agree to a reformation of the deed to include the correct legal description of the property. Or, she said, the county could just give him his money back.

Ohriner has asked for a meeting with the county manager and the county attorney's office to clarify some of the issues raised by the offer.

"We're trying to get this resolved this week," Miller said.

"They knew what they were bidding on."

But Ohriner doesn't plan to give in and resents that county officials haven't been in contact with him sooner to resolve the matter.

"All they've given me is aggravation and heartache," Ohriner said.

"They made a mistake and didn't do their homework. I think I deserve reparations."

Ohriner also wants to resolve the matter quickly -- but he isn't going to be charitable.

"I gave up playing Santa Claus a long time ago," Ohriner said.

"They just want me to go away. They've acknowledged to me that it's my land. If this isn't resolved, I'll just have to build a fence."