Tentative deal made with Rhodes on new school

Friday, July 9, 2004 | 9:20 a.m.

A tentative agreement has been reached for developer Jim Rhodes to provide land for an elementary school within the new Rhodes Ranch community, Clark County School District officials said.

Matt LaCroix, assistant director of real property management for the School District, said the deal for the 12-acre parcel at Grand Canyon Drive and Ford Avenue hinges on Rhodes satisfying another promise to the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

In addition to providing a $4 million pump station, Rhodes must agree in writing to be responsible for supplying the school with water, LaCroix said.

The agreement comes after years of bickering. In June Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald instructed county staff to no longer accept building permits for Rhodes Ranch until a deal on a school site was reached.

Rick Magness, manager of forward planning for Rhodes Homes, said his organization was "very pleased" that a deal had been reached. The stay on building permits should now be lifted, Magness said.

The conflict originated in the late 1990s when Rhodes decided to switch his residential development from an age-restricted community to conventional use. Since then the school district and the developer have wrangled over potential sites.

LaCroix described himself as "cautiously optimistic" that the latest deal would settle the issue.

"If he (Rhodes) deviates from this agreement and does not follow through with his commitments we're going to be right back at square one," LaCroix said. "And we still have to deal with the middle school. We don't have site yet and we're going to be busing kids out."

School District officials say the elementary school near Rhodes Ranch should be open for the 2007-08 academic year.