Resident: Wynn didn’t tell neighbors of plans

Christina Littlefield and Heather Rawlyk

Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

Casino developer Steve Wynn never told remaining residents of the Desert Inn Estates that he was going to block access to the new golf course he is building next to their homes, a resident testified this morning.

Shannon Greenbaum, who moved into the neighborhood on Paradise Road in 1974, said all of the neighbors had free access to the old Desert Inn Golf Course through a gate near her house, but that is no longer open. It has been replaced by locked gates.

Greenbaum testified this morning in the lawsuit of her neighbor, Stephanie Swain, against Wynn's company, Valvino Lamore. Swain is suing on behalf of the remaining 10 residents who refused to sell to Wynn when he bought the Desert Inn and adjoining golf course to build his new Wynn Las Vegas, which is due to open in 2005.

"There was absolutely no consent," she said. "We were never notified that they would do it. If they had, we would have sought to stop them."

This morning was the fourth day of testimony in a civil trial in which homeowners are asking a judge to maintain access to their neighborhood roads and their view of the golf course.

The trial is the culmination of three years of suits and counter-suits that followed Wynn's purchase of the Desert Inn in April 2000. By June of that year, Wynn also bought out four-fifths of historic neighborhood, making way for his newest megaresort Wynn Las Vegas.

Greenbaum said this morning that she and her husband fell in love with their home when they found it in 1974. She said it was perfectly located near their work on Highland Drive and included a panoramic view of the golf course.

"For 30 years I've been on this land, and there's always been public access," she said.

Something is being built on vacant land that once was grass, Greenbaum said. "Now it's all turned out and it's nothing but dirt," she said, noting that part of Country Club Lane was destroyed for the construction.

In addition 10- to 20-feet dirt hills currently block the view many homeowners had of the golf course, while the neighborhood roads they used to walk on such as Country Club Lane have been torn up for construction of new resort.

Wynn testified Thursday that the berms are to protect neighbors from flying golf balls and not to shut them out. He said he wants to create an inner-city oasis with the newly redesigned golf course, and that means shielding it from the view of some of the run-down hotels and the support beams of the new overheard monorail.

Wynn and his lawyers have repeatedly denied that the homeowners have any legal rights to the easements under dispute and that the multiple lawsuits against Valvino are harassment.

The neighbors have wrangled with Valvino over a block wall separating them from the golf course, a proposed cement plant and Valvino's takeover of their homeowners' association.

Wynn testified Thursday that he has no intention of running the remaining homeowners out.

"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.

Wynn also testified Thursday morning that as a resident at the Desert Inn Country Club Estates himself from 1967-1968 he was told by his landlord that walking on the golf course was prohibited for safety reasons.