Rift between Wynn, estates residents grows

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.

A feud between Las Vegas homeowners and casino mogul Steve Wynn has grown more bitter, as Desert Inn Estates residents contend Wynn is trying to cut off access to their neighborhood.

Wynn's company, Valvino Lamore, recently dedicated part of Country Club Lane to Clark County for the widening of Sands Avenue.

The 10 homeowners who remain in the neighborhood that borders the site of Wynn's $1 billion Le Reve resort say the private road wasn't Wynn's to give, and the deed takes from residents their access to their homes.

"This eliminates ingress and egress to our houses," said Sharon Greenbaum, who has lived in the neighborhood 20 years. "How this can be approved is beyond me. It not only takes our property rights away, but it landlocks us."

In the past two years residents who rebuffed Wynn's offers to buy their homes have fought against a wall blocking their view of the Desert Inn golf course, a proposed batch plant near their homes and Valvino taking over their homeowners association.

In the latest squabble residents claim a 1957 decision by the Clark County Commission gave them possession of Country Club Lane. Now the county is taking it without compensating the residents, according to John Netzorg, the homeowners' lawyer.

"I suggest anyone who lives in the county watch their front yards and streets; they might disappear in the middle of the night under this precedent," Netzorg said.

Valvino Lamore attorney Marc Rubinstein said the company owns all of the lots along the stretch of Country Club Lane offered to the county. Therefore, he said, the company owns the street and can hand it over to the county without other residents' input.

Besides, Rubinstein argued, the county could have used its eminent domain powers to take the road.

The county, according to public works spokesman Bobby Shelton, will use about four feet of Country Club Lane to widen Sands Avenue. The project will allow Sands to accommodate more traffic once Le Reve opens.

"By working with Le Reve we're getting early acquisition of this property to widen the road," Shelton said.

Netzorg said the county recorded the change in ownership of the road in the middle of the residents' appeal. Homeowners might not have any other option than to file a federal lawsuit, claiming their civil rights were violated, he said.

"The whole process in front of the county has been a farce, and that is being charitable," Netzorg said.

Homeowners have fought Wynn since he purchase the Desert Inn in June 2000. Valvino Lamore purchased the majority of the lots within the subdivision, becoming the supermajority vote on the homeowners association board.

It subsequently did away with all the covenants, codes and restrictions.

A wall was built between residents' open back yards and the golf course, then the company sought to build a batch plant -- a cement and gravel mixing facility -- on one of the vacant lots in the neighborhood.

Residents have also sued Valvino over the manner in which it took over the homeowners' association, saying they should have been permitted to vote on the change.

While homeowners believe Wynn will continue to impose on them until they surrender their homes, his attorneys claim residents like playing the role of victims.

"They want to portray themselves as victims taken advantage by a big bad millionaire when each of them is a millionaire in their own right," Rubinstein said.

Valvino Lamore attorneys add that the residents' court actions amount to harassment. They tried to convince the court to impose sanctions against resident Stephanie Swain, who filed her second lawsuit questioning ownership of road easements and the golf course.

Rubinstein said the court directed Swain to drop the golf course from her complaint. She expunged the action, then refiled earlier this month, a day before Le Reve was to secure financing.

"The timing of Swain's latest abusive recording is not coincidental," Nikki Baker, another attorney representing Valvino, wrote in a rebuttal. "With full knowledge that Valvino is on the eve of closing the financing necessary for the funding of its multimillion dollar project, Swain has come out of the woodwork in an attempt to subvert Valvino's project yet again."

Greenbaum said her intent is not to stop Wynn's project from moving forward. She simply wants to keep her property intact, even if it is in the shadow of the Las Vegas Strip's newest attraction.

"We want him to build a hotel; we want him to build the most beautiful property in the world," she said. "We just don't want him to take over our road."