Former DI homeowner tells of decline of golf estates

Heather Rawlyk

Monday, Nov. 10, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.

A Desert Inn Estates homeowner said the neighborhood has deteriorated so much since Steve Wynn bought the neighboring property that she moved.

"I moved because there were several burglaries and because of the deterioration of the neighborhood," Sharon Greenbaum, who moved into the neighborhood on Paradise Road in 1974, testified Friday. "The conditions of the streets, and all of the workers in the residential areas. We had no control over them."

Greenbaum was the first homeowner to testify in a civil trial in which homeowners are asking a judge to allow them 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 countersuits that followed Wynn's purchase of the Desert Inn in April 2000. By June of that year Wynn had bought out four-fifths of the historic neighborhood, making way for his newest megaresort, Wynn Las Vegas.

Greenbaum testified 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.

Greenbaum said the community has gone downhill. She recently moved to a new home but still owns two properties in the neighborhood.

While residents are paying for security at one end of the street, Valvino has security on the other end that lets just anyone into the neighborhood, she said.

In addition, Greenbaum said, Wynn never told residents he was going to block their access to the roads.

"The only way we found out was because of the noise one day. They tore up the road, the trees and everything. A portion was gone."

Access to the golf course was also denied, Greenbaum said. Security guards have tried to arrest her for walking on the golf course after Wynn purchased the land, she said.

Along with the destruction of Country Club Lane, many residents also lost their views of the golf course, Greenbaum said. Several 10- to 20-foot dirt hills block the view many homeowners had of the golf course, she said.

Wynn testified last 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 rundown motels nearby 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.

Greenbaum's testimony ended with a slideshow of before-and-after pictures of the community. Greenbaum pointed out the properties and what had been demolished in the past few years.

The trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday with testimony from several other homeowners.