Agreement paves way for casino OK

Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

Station Casinos and residents who have battled over the size of the proposed Red Rock Station hotel in Summerlin struck a deal Tuesday night that opens the door for the Clark County Commission to approve the project today.

Station agreed to scale back the project by about a third, eliminating 500 of the 1,500 rooms originally proposed and lopping 102 feet off the 300-foot tower the company originally proposed.

The height of the 300-foot central tower had been a key issue dividing supporters and opponents of the project.

"We're very satisfied with the outcome," said Gabriel Lither, a Las Vegas attorney and a founder of Summerlin Residents for Responsible Growth, a group that sprang up to fight the original proposal. "Overall, it's a pretty good deal for all those concerned."

Station Casinos representatives also welcomed the compromise, which will likely forestall a potentially bruising showdown before the County Commission this afternoon.

"We're very pleased and looking forward to starting this project," Lesley Pittman, Station Casinos vice president, said. "I think what this demonstrated is that we were willing to listen to the residents, that we want to be a positive community partner."

The company had designed the project to be the biggest and best of Station Casinos' local empire of "neighborhood" casinos. Unlike most of the others in Las Vegas and the suburbs, this project is designed to be a destination resort, just a few miles outside the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

But opposition came from several quarters. Environmentalists said they were concerned that the project's central tower would affect views from the urban area to the mountains on the west side of the valley.

Summerlin and other nearby residents said they were concerned about the impact that the project would have on their neighborhoods.

On Dec. 7 the County Commission held the first zoning meeting to consider approving the project, including a special use permit for the central tower. The commissioners collectively said they would not support a 300-foot tower and sent the issue back to Station Casinos and project opponents for more talks.

The compromise is the fruit of those talks.

But as of Tuesday afternoon there was uncertainty on whether today's vote would happen. Commissioner Mark James, who represents many of the residents and the site of the planned casino, is sick and told staff at the county he would not attend today's commission meeting. He asked for a hold on the issue.

Other commissioners said they would not support a hold, but residents who opposed the size of the project said they would support a hold if James, whom they regarded as an ally, did not attend.

Lisa Mayo-De Riso, a community activist who has opposed the proposed tower and has been involved in the ongoing negotiations with Station Casinos, said the opponents could support the issue going forward if a compromise was in place by 1 p.m. today

"If we come to an agreement, and we are now in round three of the back-and-forth, then I think it's OK if he's not there," Mayo-De Riso said. "If I thought we were going to be in a battle, then it would not be OK if he was not there."

Lither and Pittman agreed that not everyone would approve of the deal, and that some complaints are still likely today. They also agreed, however, that the compromise represents a workable solution.

Pittman said other elements that were included in the compromise were agreements to limit light and sound coming from the property, moving entrances to the casino's movie theaters and other elements.

"Every request that they had, we did agree to -- for the most part, everything they asked for," she said. "It's going to cost us many millions of dollars to make these changes."

Pittman said that with a commission go-ahead today, the company could begin construction on the $400 million project about the middle of this year and open to the public in late 2005 or early 2006.