Despite residents’ protests, project gets OK

Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002 | 11:17 a.m.

A controversial proposal to build a 64-acre commercial development on land planned for a golf course, approved by the Clark County Commission Wednesday, could find its way back before commissioners.

Commissioner Chip Maxfield this morning said he was giving more thought to the 5-2 approval for a request by golf course developer Billy Walters to build a shopping center on the county-owned land in the southwest part of the Las Vegas Valley.

His "yes" vote Wednesday would allow him to ask that the item be reconsidered if he changes his mind.

"I haven't made up my mind as to anything yet," Maxfield said. His vote to approve the commercial zoning "was for me to keep my options open, make a decision on what is the best course."

When asked what he needs to make a decision, he said simply, "Time."

Nevada Links, a development company owned by developer and gambler Walters, received the 5-2 approval despite pleas from Spring Valley residents, the Clark County School District and three commissioners to delay the zoning vote.

Commissioners Bruce Woodbury and Yvonne Atkinson Gates voted against the project.

The three-hour debate over the issue mirrored the Nov. 20 one, when the board approved an amendment to the Spring Valley land-use plan that allows intense commercial uses on land previously planned for public-facility purposes -- specifically, the golf course that Walters said he would build when McCarran International Airport, through the county's aviation department, gave Walters 99 years of use those 70 acres and the surrounding 170 acres of the land.

Richard Bryan, a former governor of Nevada and a former United States senator, represented Walters before the board. He said the project had gotten a bad rap.

The project would put money into county coffers through a 50-50 revenue split from the rent collected from any companies that move into the 700,000-square-foot commercial project, he said.

And, anticipating arguments that Walters and the county have an unfair advantage over developers who had to buy their own land to build commercial centers, Bryan said that the county's rules require the developer to charge tenants "fair market value."

Most of the speakers against the project did not focus on the project directly, but on traffic problems the commercial center would bring to roads surrounding the effort -- Warm Springs Road, Cimarron and Durango drives and the now-blocked off Robindale Road.

County staff said the expected traffic at the site, across Cimarron from a high school, would be about 25,000 car trips a day.

Sierra Vista High School Principal Bill Garis said he is concerned about the traffic.

"The problem is being able to get into the school safely and exit the school safely," he said.

Garis said he would prefer that the property be a golf course, but if it does become a major commercial center, traffic should be a major concern.

Bryan and land-use consultant Greg Borgel, however, agreed that the developer will do a thorough traffic study and will open up Robindale if the traffic study indicates that will ease traffic congestion and safety concerns.

Maxfield said several aspects of the project troubled him, but would not be specific.

"There's elements in the zoning that were addressed and acted on, and there are elements that may be better suited to change," he said. "I have the need to reflect and think about and decide if it's fine the way it is or should be reconsider."

He said he would talk to other commissioners, the developer and county staff members. The opponents, he said, made their position "pretty apparent."

The project was championed by commission Chairman Dario Herrera and Commissioners Erin Kenny, Myrna Williams and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey. The quartet rejected calls to hold off consideration on the issue until next month, when two of the board members -- Kenny and Herrera -- will be replaced with new commissioners elected last month.

If the vote is reconsidered by the board, however, Rory Reid and Mark James, both considered moderates, will be sitting on the dais in place of Kenny and Herrera.

Those asking for the issue to be postponed had an ulterior motive, Herrera said.

"There seems to be an obvious intent to delay the project so it never gets done," he said.

Kenny also did not agree that Robindale should be affected by the zoning approval.

"It is an accident waiting to happen," she said, arguing against opening Robindale, a move supported by the school principal and other speakers. "Somebody is going to get hurt."

Attorney Jeff Silver, representing competing developer Ed Nigro, faulted the county's approval process, arguing that procedural problems tainted the zoning application and approval.

Revisions of the original application submitted last spring on top of what was planned as a golf course raise questions about possible violations the state's open meeting law, he said. Silver and other opponents said Nevada Links, at a minimum, should have reapplied for the zone change after the board approved the amendment to the underlying master plan last month.

"I think if we have no proper application before us, then I think we need to start from scratch," Silver said.

Nigro has stoutly opposed the approval, arguing that he would have competed for the lease to the land if he had known the county would boost the zoning from rural estates-residential to business and office-professional.

Walters' shopping center is expected to be anchored by an Albertson's supermarket which would directly compete with Nigro's planned Vons market across the street.

Sun assistant Metro editor

Jean Reid Norman contributed to this report.