Planners reject rezoning 40-acre parcel

Thursday, July 25, 2002 | 9:35 a.m.

North Las Vegas planners denied a project Wednesday that would have allowed investors caught in a mortgage company's fraudulent scheme to recoup some of their money.

The North Las Vegas Planning Commission unanimously rejected rezoning a 40-acre parcel from a partially built mobile home park to a single-family development because of questions about open space.

Woodside Homes, an Arizona developer, intends to appeal the decision to the North Las Vegas City Council.

The investors have been trying for almost five years to sell the 40-acre parcel on the corner of North Fifth Street and Washburn Road.

The parcel, known as the Greenpoint Mobile Home Park, is the last of 44 loans handled by the defunct Harley L. Harmon mortgage company, which has about 163 investors trying to get back almost $7 million.

In 1999 the Harmon scandal prompted the Nevada Legislature to tighten mortgage broker laws.

Hundreds of other Harmon investors have received some or all of their money from other loans as various Harmon investments were liquidated. Those other loans totaled $23.9 million when the company was shut down by state officials in December 1997.

The proposed mobile home park would have netted investors $4 million. The 250-home Cortez Heights development would get more than $6 million for the investors.

The parcel has roads, water and sewer lines, but the North Las Vegas building rules have changed since the mobile home park was first approved in 1995.

The permits for the site, which was originally zoned for ranch estate homes, expired in 1998.

George Garcia, representing the proposed development, said Woodside was prepared to meet the city's 38 requirements and add two acres to two sections of open space. That would reduce the original number of homes in the plan by about a dozen.

However, city planners objected because they said they had not seen plans showing the expanded open space.

The developer also plans to review water, sewer, road and flooding projects at the property, to see if the parcel meets stricter city requirements, Garcia said. It took Woodside more than a year to bring the project to the Planning Commission, he said.

The city council could approve the development in less than two months, Garcia said after the commission meeting.

Attorney John Netzorg, representing the investors, said that the Woodside offer was excellent, allowing the investors -- many senior citizens -- to recover most of their money.

While Woodside would pay $170,000 an acre, the average price of an acre in Southern Nevada is running between $250,000 and $280,000, Netzorg said.

In April 2001 a federal grand jury indicted Harmon, a former speaker pro tem and Democratic majority leader of the state Assembly, on fraud charges. He is facing both civil and criminal trials that could lead to 355 years in prison as well as $17.8 million in fines if convicted.