BLM to sell 400 acres in June

Friday, Feb. 4, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

The Bureau of Land Management is preparing to put 400 acres up for sale at a June 8-9 public auction.

The auction is the second authorized by the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act of 1998, a federal law that will ultimately sell 27,000 acres of Southern Nevada land, mostly within the Las Vegas Valley. An equal amount of land will go to government agencies and nonprofit agencies under the act.

In November, the BLM sold 105 acres for $9.4 million.

The act passed after some criticized the agency's sale or swapping of federal land. Under the law, the minimum bid must be at least appraised fair market value.

"The new process allows the market to set the value of the land," said Mike Dwyer, the BLM's land sale manager. The bureau plans to hold two sales per year until all 27,000 acres have been sold.

Many of the largest tracts for sale in June are in the quickly growing areas south of the city of Las Vegas and west of Henderson, near the southern Las Vegas Beltway, Maryland Parkway, Windmill Lane and Wigwam Avenue.

That part of the Las Vegas Valley was identified as an important area for controlled development because of the "checkerboard" of federal and private land, said Ron Gregory, a Clark County environmental planner.

The sale will include four pieces of land that were not sold at the November auction. One of those pieces, a 42.5 acre tract near the northeast corner of Wigwam Avenue and the Beltway, is the largest single piece up for bid in June.

But many of the 93 pieces the BLM will sell are only one or two acres, and are scattered throughout the valley.

The most important benefit for the region is "room to grow," Gregory said.

Under the Public Land Management Act, sales of federal land outside the urban periphery -- which is nearly all owned by the federal government -- are largely prohibited. That restricts new development largely to areas already served by roads and other improvements.

Proceeds from BLM land sales in Southern Nevada benefit the state. Eighty-five percent goes towards the purchase of environmentally sensitive land in Nevada, with a priority given to land in Clark County, or to capital improvements in the county's federal recreation areas, wildlife refuges and conservation areas.

Dwyer said the income from the auctions is necessary to relieve the federal recreation sites as they are overwhelmed by explosive growth.

"The revenue generated from these sales will be a big help in our ability to meet these demands and provide a better quality of life for all Nevadans," he said.

Ten percent of benefits from the BLM sales go to the Southern Nevada Water Authority and 5 percent goes to the Nevada State Permanent School Fund. The water authority has already received more than $6.6 million and the school fund $3.3 million from land sales in the pipeline before the law was passed in October 1998.

Before the land is sold, prospective parcels are vetted by local governments -- the county and cities -- to find whether the tracts are better suited for use as public facilities and to make sure that private development is appropriate for the sites.

"Our goal in privatizing these lands is to allow the community to grow at a pace and in a manner consistent with the plans of local government," Dwyer said. "The new law keeps the BLM from managing islands of public land within the city."

Each parcel at the June auction is offered through sealed bids and oral auction. Sealed bids must be delivered to the BLM by June 6.

For details on the tract locations, size, fair market value and for the complete rules of the auctions, call the BLM at 647-5114, go to the bureau office at 4756 Vegas Drive, or check the Internet at www.nv.blm.gov.