Plan for Harmon Avenue extension gets nod

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2000 | 11:22 a.m.

It took legal action, postponements and months of intense meetings before Clark County reached an agreement Tuesday with Las Vegas Strip landowners on the Harmon Avenue extension.

"This is a great way to start the new year," said Commissioner Mary Kincaid after the board unanimously approved about $45 million in land deals and the final design for the east-west thoroughfare.

Clark County Public Works Director Marty Manning said Harmon Avenue should be completed by the end of 2001. It will link the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard to Polaris Drive west of Interstate 15.

Once the road extends across the Strip and stretches over the freeway, Manning said about 65,000 motorists are expected to use it, giving commuters another route across the boulevard.

"The vehicles that will use Harmon would otherwise be using Tropicana and Flamingo," Manning said.

When the project was introduced two years ago most battles were over the road's design and whose property would accommodate it.

The county lost one fight in court. A District Court judge ruled in August 1998 that county officials broke open-meeting laws when they met with Mirage Resorts representatives and hammered out an agreement that gave the county a sweet deal on land and preserved Mirage Resorts-owned property.

Neighboring properties, such as the Aladdin hotel-casino -- which is scheduled to open in late summer -- and the Harley-Davidson Cafe expressed concern about how the construction would affect access to their properties.

Executives from major resorts to small restaurants met dozens of times and mulled different designs that ranged from a traditional intersection -- which would have destroyed Mirage Resorts' property by splitting it in half -- to tunnels below the Strip.

A surface street that will jog slightly to the north at the Strip before continuing west was the final agreement.

Manning said the county will work in front of the Aladdin first, building a drainage ditch. By the time the Strip's newest megaresort opens construction workers will be out of the way, he said.

"We won't be digging any holes in the middle of the road when the Aladdin opens," Manning said. "We will minimize the impact on properties and motorists on Las Vegas Boulevard."

At no time will the Strip be completely closed to traffic, Manning said. Most of the construction across the Strip will be done at night.

The county also promised the Harley-Davidson Cafe that crosswalks on Harmon will remain in place until pedestrian bridges are built.

Chris Kaempfer, an attorney for the cafe, said the county's commitment is vital because most of the restaurant's customers are pedestrians who just come upon the motorcycle-themed restaurant.

"All pedestrian movements will be maintained until such a time when pedestrian bridges are up and operating," Kaempfer said. "Without that, we are dead."

The county will buy from the Reynolds Trust about four acres on the northeast corner of the Strip and Harmon, where a shopping center was to be built. Harmon will slice through the land and sweep across the Strip just south of the Jockey Club.

Commissioners also approved an agreement with Mirage Resorts that allows Frank Sinatra Drive, an Interstate 15 frontage road, to continue north to Industrial Road.

Frank Sinatra Drive will ultimately link Russell Road to Industrial using underpasses at Tropicana, Flamingo and Harmon.