City denies it has plans to alter state park

Friday, Sept. 13, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

Rumors abound about the future of Floyd Lamb State Park.

One neighbor says the city is planning to carve it up and put subdivisions on the 640-acre park in Las Vegas' far northwest. Another neighbor says no, the plan is to put golf courses or softball fields in the historic park.

Still another speculates that the city plans to take over the park and sell water rights and oil-drilling licenses in the park.

City Councilman Michael Mack, however, insists that no one at the city has any such plans.

While the state is interested in turning over management of the park to the city, Mack said he is committed to keeping the park what it is now: bucolic and rural, home to dozens of roaming peacocks and dotted with fish ponds.

"Our intent is to maintain the integrity of the state park," Mack said. "We have historic buildings on the site. This is a historic place."

Cynthia Sell, spokeswoman for the city's planning department, said she also does not believe there are any plans to change the character or size of the park.

The assurance did little to calm the fears of about 30 nearby residents who turned out to discuss the park's future Thursday morning.

"If the city does buy it, I have the strong feeling that they're going to be quiet for a couple of years, then start to cut it up and develop it," said Rita Ravin, who lives in the nearby community of Mystic Valley.

City and state officials met at the park Thursday to discuss the basics of what is in the park, what it needs for regular maintenance, and even what land constitutes the park itself.

The meeting was not supposed to be with the public, but state parks and city officials met with the group of concerned citizens.

"There is no plan for what to do with any of the park," said Larry Haugsness, Las Vegas director of field operations, the agency that runs city parks. "The city has absolutely no plan at this point."

That means no plans for softball fields, subdivisions or oil wells, he said.

Mack, who represents the area, said he would like to see an equestrian center to the east of the existing park.

While the park itself is about 640 acres, it is surrounded by another 1,100 acres the state leases from the federal Bureau of Land Management. Neighbors are concerned that the leased land could become residential subdivisions.

But homes, softball fields or soccer fields would not be part of the park's future, Mack said. Fields for those activities already are just a couple of miles away down U.S. 95.

Mack said the city could seek to acquire the BLM land for inclusion in the park or for other recreational purposes such as the equestrian park.

Residents whose homes abut the present park do not have to immediately worry about development blocking their views, said Allen Newberry, Nevada Division of State Parks operations and maintenance chief.

"All of the land adjacent to the homeowners is state land," he said.

The state is interested in transferring the property to the city, in large part because of the cost to the cash-strapped Nevada government. Newberry said a transfer was more likely than an actual sale to the city.

Turning the park over to Las Vegas would be the latest chapter in the colorful history of the property, which was marked as "Tule Springs" on maps going back nearly 150 years.

The present ranch at the center of the park began as a single adobe house in 1916. Over the years the property served as a cattle ranch, dude ranch and divorce ranch, as well as what some believe was a bootleggers' hangout during prohibition.

A transfer would bring the park back to the city that operated it for 13 years. The city bought the ranch in 1964, and operated it as a park until 1977. But Las Vegas, then cash-poor, sold the property to the state.

With the shoe on the other foot, it makes sense for the state to turn over a park that is 90 percent used by Las Vegas residents, Newberry said.

The park costs the state less than $500,000 a year for operating costs and salaries of five permanent staff and about the same number of seasonal employees, according to Park Supervisor Stephen Santee.

Newberry and Haugsness said the ultimate fate of the park rests with the Las Vegas City Council and the Nevada Legislature.

Haugsness said he will encourage the council to hold public meetings to discuss the park.

One of those speaking to the residents Thursday was Michael Slater, a Democratic candidate for Assembly in the district. Slater told the residents that if elected, he will work to keep the park rural.

But despite assurances, residents said they do not trust the city to keep the park as it is now.

"The first thing they are going to do is to build," said neighbor Bruce Nelson. "That is everybody's biggest fear."

"I do not want the city to get this land," Ravin agreed. "They'll sell it off."