Editorial: Looking to the future

Friday, Jan. 23, 2004 | 9 a.m.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas soon will run out of room on its landlocked campus located on Maryland Parkway. University officials predict that UNLV, which now has 26,000 students on its 337-acre campus, will have 35,000 students within just five years. So, in an effort to plan for the long term and keep pace with steep enrollment growth, university officials sought and received approval Wednesday from the city of North Las Vegas to reserve 640 acres of desert land near the northern leg of the Las Vegas Beltway to build a second campus. Now that it has the city's blessing, the next step is to get final approval from the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land.

It's not uncommon for universities in major urban areas to have more than one campus, and this is part of Las Vegas' natural evolution as the city continues to grow. We're pleased to see such forward thinking and planning for the future, a move that would allow the university to continue to be a vital part of the Las Vegas Valley. Financially, the deal makes sense, too. The university system would eventually be able to buy the land for just $6,400, property that North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon believes could be worth $100 million. It's hard to think of better ways to use that federally owned land than to build an institution of higher learning on it.