Battle heating up over Spring Valley casino plan

Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999 | 11:43 a.m.

A proposed hotel-casino for a Spring Valley shopping center drew dozens of neighborhood opponents carrying hundreds of letters and petition signatures to a Clark County zoning meeting Wednesday.

The opposition was the first serious stumble in the road to build the hotel, which Triple Five Nevada Development Corp. wants to build in the heart of a 100-acre shopping mall off Interstate 215 near the intersection of Grand Canyon Drive and Flamingo Road.

The 300-room, eight-story hotel had received go-aheads from the Spring Valley Town Advisory Board and the Clark County Planning Commission. The surrounding mall has already been approved by the county.

Opponents of the casino were frustrated in their efforts to kill the proposal at the zoning meeting. Mark Fiorentino, a Las Vegas attorney representing Triple Five, asked that the necessary zone-change approval be delayed until Jan. 5, a request granted by Commissioners Erin Kenny, Mary Kincaid, Myrna Williams and Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury.

Opponents had asked the commissioners to immediately consider the proposal, but Woodbury said he and Williams had to abstain from voting on the zone change because of a conflict of interest.

Triple Five "is a significant customer" with First Security Bank, of which the commissioners are stockholders, Woodbury said.

Fiorentino said Triple Five wanted the postponement in order to meet with community residents to allay their concerns, many of whom complained that they weren't contacted by Fiorentino after the Oct. 9 Planning Commission meeting, as the lawyer had promised.

"Absolutely, we are going to meet with them," Fiorentino said after the postponement.

Others said they had received calls from company representatives, but the calls had been heavy-handed efforts to stop the protest. Charles Richardson, a community resident who spoke against the proposed casino, said Triple Five Vice President Don Davidson had threatened him with legal action if he continued opposing the project.

"Emotions are high on all sides" of the issue, Fiorentino said. He added that it did not sound like a comment that Davidson would make.

Fiorentino, responding to concerns expressed by residents that the commissioners already had made up their minds, said Triple Five had nothing to do with Commissioners Williams and Woodbury abstaining on the issue.

Opponents promised that they will be back with more letters, more petition signatures and more warm bodies when the issue comes back before the commissioners.

The opponents fear that the hotel-casino would bring traffic, crime and other problems into their neighborhood. They have formed an organization dubbed Citizens of Spring Valley and the Surrounding Area to fight the proposal.

"We don't want a casino in the neighborhood at all," homemaker Gaylene Teshima said. "Any casino is a detriment to a family neighborhood."

Teshima said she fears that sexually oriented businesses would follow a casino. Other gaming businesses also would come into the neighborhood, she said.

"It would set a precedent," she said.

Cheralin Zaugg, a registered nurse, said she and other concerned residents went door-to-door in the area and found nearly unanimous opposition to the casino proposal. She said her citizens group found that many residents in the area weren't aware that the casino is planned for the shopping center.

The group gathered more than 350 letters and 250 petition signatures in a campaign that lasted under two weeks, Zaugg said.

The group also has some legal help. Ron Madson, a lawyer who said he lives near the proposed mall site, said he will attend meetings between the developers and residents. He said a legal challenge to the casino is possible if the proposal is approved by county commissioners.

The company building the mall and would-be hotel-casino is owned by the Ghermezian family, a Canadian family that developed the West Edmonton Mall -- the world's largest -- and the mall of America in Minneapolis -- the largest mall in the United States. The company also owns smaller malls scattered around the Las Vegas Valley.