NLV officials want land sold for master-planned community

Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1999 | 10:49 a.m.

North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon remains optimistic that a 7,500-acre parcel of Bureau of Land Management land in the city limits will one day be turned into a master-planned community.

Montandon will be meeting with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in Washington, D.C., next week to continue negotiations as the BLM prepares to sell almost 200 acres in the Las Vegas Valley next month.

Next month's sale represents less than 1 percent of the 27,000 acres to eventually be sold over the next 15 years by the federal government under the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.

The North Las Vegas parcel will be one of the largest chunks up for sale, although there is no date set for its sale.

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.

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

"North Las Vegas has lots of vacant land, but what we lack is a big enough piece to do a Green Valley," Montandon said.

But Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said in February that he wants to maximize the taxpayers' value by chopping up the acreage into hundreds of smaller parcels and selling them over time.

The city is trying to convince the BLM to sell to one developer.

"A master-planned developer has a greater investment in the community," Montandon said. "They have similar goals to us, as far as schools and parks that make for a better community."

In May Montandon and City Manager Pat Importuna met with Babbitt and members of Nevada's congressional delegation about a compromise for the land, but were unable to reach an agreement.

The mayor will meet with Reid in Washington on Tuesday to discuss dividing the land into four or five pieces, instead of hundreds. Babbitt has the final say on how the land is divided.

"We're in the process of working out something that works for both sides," Montandon said.

Reid agrees, and said Tuesday that there is room for a compromise.

"The secretary of the interior has indicated he will take a look at the possibility of five or six parcels," Reid said.

The Interior Department is conducting an "absorption survey" to determine how the local real estate market will react to various models of selling.

Jacque Risner, city economic development manager, is also working with the BLM to negotiate parcel size.

"The BLM favors a master-planned community, and we think it will best serve the residents there," BLM acting project manager Ray Morris said. "But we have to balance that with earning the best revenues we can for the land."

The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act allows for the sale of public land in the Las Vegas Valley by the BLM. An important provision of the act is that money generated will remain in Nevada.

Under the legislation, 85 percent of money is returned to the BLM to buy environmentally sensitive land elsewhere in Nevada. The law also calls for 10 percent of the money to pay for Southern Nevada water projects and 5 percent to pay for public education in the state.

Montandon said residents have continually voiced their desire for a master-planned community in the area.

"Everyone wants to live in a master-planned community," he said. "Not just in Henderson and Green Valley ... but across the United States. That's where everyone is moving. (The city) is just trying to do what people are telling us they want. We're just trying to be responsive."

The city has already spent $100,000 on a conceptual master plan for a single community. Developing final plans could cost the financially strapped city millions of dollars, Montandon said.

If a developer were to purchase the land, he would assume creation of a master plan, Risner said, taking the financial burden from the city. Another option could be having a consortium of planners purchase the land and create a master plan together.

The land will border the proposed Las Vegas Beltway, which, when completed, will link U.S. 95 and Interstate 15. The first stage of the North Las Vegas segment of the beltway should be complete at the end of 2001, said Bobby Shelton, a spokesman for the Clark County Department of Public Works.