Residents near route oppose proposal for Strip monorail

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999 | 10:23 a.m.

As plans for a proposed monorail system glide along, homeowners neighboring the fixed-rail route are continuing their battle against the $400 million mass transit system and Clark County.

Representatives with MGM Grand-Bally's Monorail LLC appeared before the Clark County Commission on Tuesday to request amendments to its route boundaries. And right there with them were residents who strongly protest the project.

"These are desperate people who are not worried about giving me a ride to save gas, that is not what this project is about," said Paula Quagliana, president of the Desert Inn Estates Homeowners Association. "They can't pay for damages to property because they're a desperate corporation."

The Homeowners Association has filed a lawsuit against the Monorail LLC and the county to block the project, saying the system will invade their privacy and destroy their property values.

Attorney Kris Ballard, who represents the monorail group, said the company adjusted the route boundaries to keep stretches of the rail off rights of way and on private property where landowners have given permission.

"These are important changes, but they're not substantial changes to the franchise agreement or to the route," Ballard said. "There will be no use of eminent domain; anytime we touch private property, we do it with the owners' permission."

The monorail group also wants permission to someday turn the franchise over to a nonprofit organization that would maintain and operate the system. The group's agreement with the county says any changes to the original plans require a public hearing. The hearing was scheduled for Oct. 20.

Ballard said the boundaries of the rails were expanded in some areas to give property owners more flexibility if they wish to build a monorail stop in the future.

None of the proposed changes affected Desert Inn Estates residents, who live just off Paradise Road.

Quagliana and Jon Twitchell, an Oakland, Calif.-based consultant helping the homeowners association, repeated concerns that MGM Grand-Bally's Monorail doesn't have the financial backing to complete the 4-mile long system and taxpayers will be stuck with the bill.

Twitchell also complained that the group has failed to include neighboring property owners in its design process or its decisions on routes.

"This has become so expensive and obnoxious, they're trying to rush this thing through and not show anything to anybody," said Twitchell, who noted that when the project was introduced in 1997, the cost was said to be $65 million. In the group's bond application supplement to the state, the cost has grown to $650 million.

Ballard said the group has hired URS Griner to prepare an investment grade ridership study that will allow it to obtain investment financing.