Planners OK Spring Valley hotel-casino proposal

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

The Clark County Planning Commission approved a zoning change to allow a 300-room hotel and casino in Spring Valley Thursday evening.

The proposed hotel-casino, to be built by subsidiaries of Triple Five Nevada Development Corp., would be the 20-acre heart of a planned 100-acre shopping mall off the Interstate-215 beltway near the intersection of Grand Canyon Drive and Flamingo Road. The surrounding mall already has been approved by the county.

The company building the mall and 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.

Mark H. Fiorentino, the Las Vegas attorney who represented Triple Five at the planning commission meeting, said the company's total investment in the mall and hotel-casino would be around $500 million.

The planning commission decision must be seconded by the county commissioners. The issue should be on the agenda for the commissioners' Oct. 6 regular meeting.

At least one neighbor promised that he would attend the Oct. 6 meeting to protest the hotel-casino proposal.

Charles Richardson, who said he lives less than a mile from the proposed development, said he believes the proposed eight-story hotel will block views in the largely undeveloped area. He also is concerned that the project will bring in heavy traffic to an area that is near a planned school.

"The traffic that's going to be on the beltway is going to be excessive," Richardson said.

Richardson said many of his neighbors would have come out to the Planning Commission meeting to oppose the project, but were not aware the hotel-casino was on the drawing boards. He said there will likely be many more people at the Oct. 6 commissioners' meeting opposing the project.

Fiorentino said the company did not have a legal obligation to inform residents of the proposals because the nearest homes are more than 2,500 feet away from the project. He said he would be happy to meet with anyone with concerns about the project, however.

The project will provide jobs and a put tax dollars into public coffers, Fiorentino told the planning board.

Four developers and owners of nearby undeveloped property disagreed with Richardson, however. They spoke in favor of Ghermezian's development, arguing that it will help bring business to the spur off the beltway.

If the commissioners approve the project, the hotel-casino would still have to go through a design review process with the county staff. Fiorentino said no construction on the hotel-casino is likely within a year and work on the surrounding mall wouldn't begin for at least six months.

Triple Five has other retail centers in the valley under construction, nearing completion or approved by the county. The projects include Boca Park at Charleston and Rampart and Village Square at Sahara and Fort Apache, Colonnade Square at Pebble and Eastern.