Wynn defends use of golf course berms

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2003 | 11:50 a.m.

Casino developer Steve Wynn said this morning that berms he had built between the redesigned Desert Inn Golf Course were put there to protect neighbors who refused to sell their homes for his expansion, not to block their view.

Testifying in the civil trial of Desert Inn Estates homeowner Stephanie Swain against Wynn's Valvino Lamore company, Wynn said the berms are a safety buffer to protect residents from flying golf balls, as well as an aesthetic element of the course.

It was all part of a grander plan to remake the Strip's first golf course into something worthy of his resort, Wynn Las Vegas, which is to open in 2005, he said.

"It had to be special," Wynn said. "It couldn't be a little muni golf course. There was nothing special about the Desert Inn Golf Course."

Swain's lawsuit is a key element of a fight about 10 homeowners who refused to sell to Wynn have been waging to retain their golf course views and access roads since Wynn bought the Desert Inn and adjacent land in April 2000.

The neighbors have wrangled with Valvino over a wall blocking their view of the golf course, a proposed cement plant and Valvino's takeover of their homeowners' association. Swain has personally filed so many lawsuits against Valvino that the company unsuccessfully asked the court to impose sanctions for harassment last year.

Wynn and his lawyers maintain that the homeowners have no rights to any of the roadways, views or the golf course.

"This is a harassment lawsuit against us," Wynn said outside the courtroom after he finished testifying. "This is an attempt to shake us down.

"It's sort of like blackmail. They think they have a guy willing to pay anything."

Wynn said he offered all of the residents in the neighborhood 10 percent above the appraised value.

After multiple suits and counter-suits by both sides, the civil trial over the disputed right of ways began Tuesday.

Wynn, who helped design Shadow Creek Golf Course, said he and his fellow designers wanted to create an inner-city escape that would draw more tourists to the casino, just as Shadow Creek drew tourists to Bellagio and The Mirage.

Besides separating the homes and course, the berm acts to shield the view of golfers from rundown hotels nearby and the monorail that now runs on both sides of the course, Wynn said. Evergreens will be added to it later, he said.

"We just want to be left alone to do the best we could on our own property and leave them alone to do whatever they want on their own property, commensurate with the zoning and the law," Wynn said on the stand.

The star witness for the homeowners Wednesday was former U.S. Sen. Chic Hecht, a homeowner in the neighborhood from the 1960s through 2000. Although Hecht, who also served as ambassador to the Bahamas, was one of 41 homeowners who sold out to Wynn, he testified as to the historical use of the neighborhood and the intent of the original developers for the land.

"It was a social club in those days," Hecht said, describing how neighbors used to walk around the golf course at night, visiting others who would sit out in their back yards overlooking the greens.

Hecht testified that he and his neighbors had full access to all of the neighborhood streets and the golf club after hours until the property changed owners in 2000.

The land was premium real estate when he bought the property in 1960 or 1961, Hecht said. Homes bordered the golf course, were close to the Strip, and boasted celebrity inhabitants such as Betty Grable and Englebert Humperdinck.

Free lawn care was also a big plus then as it is now for people who own homes adjacent to a golf course, Hecht said.

"It's a wonderful thing to have 200 feet of greenery and not do anything to keep it up," Hecht said.

Hecht's former neighbors want to regain the benefits they say they signed up for when they purchased homes in the golf course community. Wynn bulldozed the homes he purchased and has torn up the adjacent streets for construction, particularly along Country Club Lane, Swain said.

His future plans for the property will also cut the three entrances to the neighborhood down to one, she said.

Swain, whose late husband bought their home in 1959, said dirt mounds "the size of Mount Charleston" currently block her view of the golf course.

"He's excommunicated us from our view of the golf course," Swain said outside of the courtroom Wednesday.