Pedestrian bridge proposal heads to County Commission

Adrienne Packer

Monday, Sept. 17, 2001 | 10:48 a.m.

After five years of negotiations, Clark County officials say property owners are finally satisfied with the proposed placement and design of three new pedestrian bridges on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip.

The Fashion Show mall, Treasure Island and Steve Wynn's new project -- formerly the Desert Inn -- will benefit most from the bridges that will span Spring Mountain Road, the Strip and Sands Avenue.

Public Works officials on Tuesday will pitch their plan to the Clark County Commission and hammer out an agreement on how the cost -- $12 million -- will be shared by the county and property owners.

"We talked to property owners and have a conceptual plan," Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton said. "Hopefully, we'll come to an agreement."

County administrators are congratulating themselves for working closely with "land owners" affected by the bridges, but some say the county has a different definition of property owners.

"They've talked to major players, that's a better definition," Steve Badilla, a controller for Budget Car Rental, which has an office on the southeast corner of the intersection, said.

The property on which Budget sits belongs to the Roselle Estate. The estate doesn't want to surrender its property, and a Las Vegas attorney said at least a large portion of the property is needed for the Sands Avenue bridge landing.

Attorney Jeffrey Sylvester said the county discussed plans with him months ago, but had not contacted him about the most recent proposal or Tuesday's meeting.

"We're not OK with this; we haven't had much of a voice," Sylvester said. "(The Budget property) is the center of the universe once Steve Wynn is finished with his project. That's a hot corner, and I'd prefer not to lose it through condemnation."

Badilla said Budget has leased the land since 1980 and that the office is one of the company's busiest in Las Vegas.

"They've done this to us all along," Badilla said of county public works officials. "The last meeting I went to was a year ago, and apparently they've been having conversations with everyone but us."

Budget won't be the first company adversely affected by the system of pedestrian bridges at that intersection.

A bridge has already been built 900 feet south of the intersection that blocks the sign and pedestrian traffic of the Rosewood Grille, next to the Venetian. The bridge leads directly from inside the Venetian to the Treasure Island and Mirage properties.

The Rosewood Grill filed a lawsuit against the county in May 2000 after commissioners approved the bridge, but it lost a request to the Supreme Court last year to delay construction of the bridge.

Shelton said the bridges, by removing the 80,000 to 100,000 pedestrians who cross that intersection using crosswalks each day, will allow twice as many vehicles to get through each traffic light. Fewer cars will be stopped at intersections, which would also help air quality.

"This gets more cars and more people in and out," Shelton said. "That's our bottom line, to eliminate the conflict between pedestrians and vehicles."

Battles over the design and location of the new bridges took five years to resolve because ownership of the Fashion Show mall and the Desert Inn changed so often.

Shelton said the appearance of the bridges had to change with the themes and designs of buildings near the intersection.

"Fashion Show mall once wanted an industrial-type look, but that didn't fit in with the casinos," Shelton said.

The new, simple design -- done by the Louis Berger Group -- shows a concrete bridge with Fiberglas sides. The county will pay for its portion of the bridge using room tax revenues.