Panel rejects plan for hilltop homes

Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002 | 10:53 a.m.

Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council, following the lead of dozens of angry opponents to a proposed development outside the conservation area, on Wednesday unanimously recommended denial of a plan that would put thousands of homes on top of Blue Diamond Hill.

After the vote architect Calvin Champlin of Quadrant Planning said the developer would delay bringing the issue to the Clark County Planning Commission and County Commission. John Laing Homes will try to hold the issue for 15 to 30 days to provide time to answer the numerous and pointed criticisms, he said.

"We're asking basically for a timeout," Champlin said.

The council's vote serves only as a recommendation to the county leadership.

John Laing Homes has an agreement to buy about 2,650 acres above the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the tiny village of Blue Diamond -- but the $50 million deal with James Hardie Gypsum, which now mines the land, goes forward only if the developer gets a go-ahead for the community.

"Cielo Encantado," which could hold up to 8,400 homes and 20,000 people, has drawn vehement opposition from both those who live in the mountains west of the city and Las Vegas Valley residents who visit Red Rock.

Evan Blythin, chairman of the advisory board, echoed some of the harsher denunciations made by opponents, accusing the developer of fraud, saying the plans should not have included about 350 acres the developer hopes to get through a swap for adjacent Bureau of Land Management property. The swap would affect 1,000 acres of public land.

"This is not their property, it is 1,000 acres of our property," he said. "I see that as fraud."

The BLM is considering what the agency characterizes as an independent land exchange with James Hardie to protect the hilltop's Blue Diamond cholla, a rare cactus. The swap would tie together several pieces of land on top of the hill into one parcel, which would make it easier to develop.

But John Laing Vice President Paul Kenner said that the development could go forward without the BLM swap. That did not mollify Blythin or the crowd.

"James Hardie Gypsum and John Laing Homes should worry about a boycott," Blythin said.

They also may need to worry about the County Commission, which would give final approval. Commissioners, including three who are running for various offices, have lined up against the proposal. Chip Maxfield, whose district is immediately north of the affected area, and commission Chairman Dario Herrera, who is running for Congress, attended the Wednesday night meeting in Blue Diamond.

"Nothing I heard today mitigates my opposition to this proposal," Herrera said after the vote.

Maxfield said he also did not hear anything to make him support the project.

"There's a lot of valid issues that were raised here tonight," he said. "Without more information, I have serious concerns about the viability of this project."

Those concerns were emphatically detailed by people in the audience at the council meeting. Among the primary issues:

Champlin tried to address many of those issues. The impact on the conservation area would be mitigated by ridges, obscuring direct views of the homes in the development from the Red Rock scenic loop and Blue Diamond, he said.

Services would come from the east side of Blue Diamond Hill, lessening impact on the village, which is to the west of the existing gypsum mine.

And the plans for providing services would be provided in much greater detail later in the development process, the developers said.

But efforts to mitigate the impact did not win any support in the raucous audience of about 100, most of them sporting "Save Red Rock" buttons.

Opponents repeated a charge that the BLM had a conflict of interest with the engineering company working for both James Hardie and John Laing. BLM officials two weeks ago said G.C. Wallace Engineering had a contract with the federal agency to study the land exchange.

BLM and Wallace officials say the agency does not have a contract with the engineering firm and, therefore, no conflict exists.