Clark County postpones action on resort appeal

Thursday, March 7, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.

Attorneys for Station Casinos Inc. and MGM MIRAGE will meet this month with a lawyer for a proposed hotel-casino and timeshare property to attempt to reach a compromise on differences over the 24-story project planned at Tropicana Avenue and Industrial Road.

Bill Curran, who represents the proposed $115 million South Beach resort, told the Clark County Commission Wednesday that his client would meet with Station and MGM MIRAGE representatives to consider traffic and density concerns raised by the two casino companies in their appeal of approval of the plan.

The commission, acting as an appellate board to the Planning and Zoning Commission, which unanimously approved the plan, agreed to delay action on the appeal until its April 3 meeting.

Station, which owns and operates the Wild Wild West hotel-casino across the street from the South Beach site, and MGM MIRAGE, which has two properties fronting Tropicana Avenue just east of Interstate 15, oppose the development because of the increased traffic flow it would produce and because they say the 460 units planned are too much for a three-acre parcel.

Gold Rush Casino & Hotel LLC, owned by entrepreneur Marvin Lipschultz, won approval for the South Beach development on land presently occupied by a six-story, 150-room Howard Johnson hotel, an International House of Pancakes franchise and a 5,000-square-foot casino known as the Golden Palm.

Lipschultz said the increase in traffic would be minimal because the number of hotel rooms would be about the same as what currently occupies the site and timeshare units won't add many motorists because most owners won't bring their cars.