Land Rush

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

Land sale

The Nov. 4 sale will be a combination of sealed bid and oral auction. Registration of bidders for the oral auction is 8 to 10 a.m. at the Las Vegas City Hall. Those unable to attend the oral auction may submit sealed bids to the BLM Las Vegas Field Office, 4765 W. Vegas Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89108. The sealed bids must be received by 4:15 p.m. Nov. 2.

Parcels will not be sold for less than the appraised fair-market value.

For information, to view maps or for a copy of the bidding form, go to the Internet website at www.nv.blm.gov or call 647-5114.

Potential homeowners, developers and land speculators are lining up for the Great Las Vegas Land Rush, courtesy of the federal government.

The Bureau of Land Management is preparing to sell hundreds of acres in the Las Vegas Valley in the coming months, starting with a scheduled Nov. 4 sale to be held at the Las Vegas City Hall.

The sale represents less than 1 percent of the 27,000 acres to be eventually sold by the federal government under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act that President Clinton signed into law a year ago. The BLM will sell off the rest in the next two decades.

Potentially, the sales could take the better part of three decades to complete, Phillip Guerrero, BLM public affairs officer, said. A June 2000 sale will follow next month's auction; the federal agency plans to offer two sales per year.

Although the upcoming sale covers only a fraction of the total land to be auctioned, initial interest from the public "has been very positive," Guerrero said.

"More and more folks in the developer community as well as private homeowners are calling, and that will just increase as the date of the sale nears," he predicted. He said phones at the BLM's Southern Nevada office already are ringing nonstop.

Those in the private sector who want a share of the land will have to take seconds -- Clark County, the Clark County School District, cities and other government agencies get first crack at the land. The local governments will use the property for all kinds of "public purposes" under an accompanying federal law, the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, which will turn over another 27,000 acres to governments for parks, schools, fire stations, flood control and other uses.

The local governments will get the land for very low cost, usually about $10 per acre, according to the BLM.

All told, the transfer will include about 54,000 acres of land. In the city of Las Vegas, planners have already identified 4,300 acres that will be needed for public use now and in the future, said Chris Knight, Las Vegas comprehensive planning manager.

About half of that is slated for parks, he said. The rest is for schools, flood control, police and fire stations, and other needs.

About 85 percent of the proceeds from sales to the private sector will go to the acquisition of "environmentally sensitive lands" and help provide a buffer for public recreation sites such as the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The Southern Nevada Water Authority will get 10 percent of proceeds and the final 5 percent goes to the Nevada State Permanent School Fund.

Under the federal law mandating the sales, all the proceeds must be used in Nevada, a change from sales in past years in which proceeds went into the U.S. Interior Department's general fund.

Roy Morris, BLM project manager for the sale, said Congress is now considering two more bills modeled after the law creating the Southern Nevada sale. One would authorize sales in other parts of Nevada and the other would sell land in other areas of the country.

The land for sale Nov. 4 isn't worthless desert. It includes parcels totaling 170 acres along the Interstate 215 -- near Beltway and Windmill Lane -- and a 12-acre parcel adjacent to the Summerlin Parkway and Buffalo Drive.

One of those considering bidding on the BLM property is Bruce Parker, who works in commercial real estate in the valley. His father bought land from the BLM in the early 1990s.

"It worked out well for him, so I've always kind of had my ear to the ground thinking of it," Parker said.

He's interested in buying 20 acres or less as an investment or a place to build a home. On Tuesday he looked up maps of the parcels on the Internet and plans to drive out to the properties this week.

Ron Gregory, Clark County planner, said the land for sale in November is well within the urban perimeter, already served or easily connected to utilities.

"The focus, at this point, is on infill," he said. One of the goals for future development in the county is to avoid -- at least for now -- expanding the urban perimeter. Targeting areas within the perimeter will help avoid increasing air pollution from cars making long commutes, he said.

It will also save money for government agencies that after past BLM sales have had to provide services such as sewers, police and fire protection in areas that they hadn't planned to serve.

The BLM worked with planners from the valley's cities and county government to identify which areas should be developed, federal and local officials said.

"That's a very, very good thing for us," Jory Stewart, county planning manager, said. "In the old days, we had no role. ... You didn't know what was coming down the pike until a developer came to your door."

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