Wal-Mart approval may spur changes

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 11:30 a.m.

Clark County commissioners said they will likely change the way leases for county land are handled after being caught off guard by a proposal to build a 200,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter at Russell Road and Eastern Avenue -- a lease that they unknowingly approved in March.

Representatives for Marnell Corrao, which holds the master lease to develop 65 acres at McCarran International Airport, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which holds a sublease to put its combined discount and grocery store on 20 acres, asked for but did not immediately receive final approval for construction Wednesday. The commission by a 6-0 vote sent the developer back to talk to the neighbors and try to resolve traffic issues.

The issue is scheduled to come back to the commission next month.

Representatives for the Marnell Corrao and Wal-Mart say they have the lease, they have the zoning, and there is nothing the county can do to block the store.

Several commissioners, however, suggested that the planning process should have included the neighbors earlier. Commissioner Myrna Williams said that process should have taken into account that Wal-Mart stores already exist a few miles south and east of the site.

"Enough already," she said.

A Wal-Mart spokesman told the Sun earlier in the week that the corporation plans to close the traditional Wal-Mart at Tropicana and Pecos once the new Supercenter is open.

Williams said the commission didn't know what it was approving when Wal-Mart's lease came up on the board's consent agenda March 16.

"We should have had more information or we should have pursued more information," she said.

Commissioner Rory Reid, who represents the area, expressed frustration over the issue -- not, he said, because the lease went to Wal-Mart, a company that often gets activists and unions riled up, but because a busy "big-box" store at the site could create long-term planning problems for the entire area.

"The commission should have been more informed about what was being done on property the county owns," Reid said. "It's partially our fault. We maybe didn't ask the right questions. But I also think the airport staff could have done a better job advising us on what was going on with that property.

"I've asked for a meeting with the airport staff to find out where we are and what our rights are as the owner of the property," he said.

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said one change that could help avoid these kinds of problems in the future would be to move the airport's business leases off the consent agenda, which frequently receives minimal attention and no detailed discussion.

"For these commercial leases it might be a good idea to put them on a business agenda and look at them one at a time," Woodbury said.

Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield noted that the commission regularly requires developers on private property to go through extensive discussions with neighbors before a final "design review" request comes before the board. He said that process didn't occur with the proposed Wal-Mart.

"It needs to be clearly stated and understood: Clark County and they (the developers) have to go through the same process we require of any developer," Maxfield said.

Some would like a more radical solution to the issue. Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates suggested Wednesday that the county should get out of the business of leasing airport land altogether, an opinion echoed by community activist Lisa Mayo-de Riso.

Mayo-de Riso suggested that the airport could sell the property rather than develop it through leases and still prevent unwanted development, such as residential uses in the airport high-noise areas.

"All you do is in your deed, include deed restrictions," she said. "How tough is that?"

Clark County Aviation Department Director Randy Walker, who oversees the leasing process, said that approach might work in some areas, but not at the site in question, the former home of a busy residential subdivision before the airport spent $25 million to acquire and demolish hundreds of homes.

The county needs to maintain ownership to both provide room for airport expansion and to ensure that the commercial uses on the eastern side of the area are compatible with the industrial activities associated with airport operations, Walker said.

Walker noted that the zoning for the area, which allows a big retailer such as Wal-Mart, was established by the County Commission several years ago. The airport does not have the legal flexibility to deny Wal-Mart a lease if the company stays within that zoning and is compatible with the airport's master plan, which the project is, Walker said.

Walker said the commission may have acted appropriately in ordering more complete site plans and traffic studies for the project.

"Whatever the normal planning process is, that's what the developer has to go through," he said. "That's why they (the commissioners) sit as a zoning board. That's certainly legitimate."

Reid, particularly, has the right to question the compatibility of the project in the area and find a resolution that works for the developer and the neighborhood, Walker said. He noted that any big-box store raises compatibility issues.

"I don't think anyone can fault them (the commissioners) for taking that responsibility seriously," Walker said.

Walker said the airport staff will work with whatever procedures are established by the County Commission. But if the Wal-Mart is a hiccup, neighbors to the proposed store want some powerful medicine. Mary Cooke, a resident in the neighborhood across the street from the Wal-Mart site, said the commission has to find a way to nix the proposed retail operation and anything that is similar.

Her concern, echoed by other residents, is that any similarly sized retail operation will draw tens of thousands of cars to an area already choked with traffic. Cooke said she can't envision a solution that allows a Wal-Mart to exist on the site.

The developer is talking about trees to buffer the appearance of the project, but the project itself is too much, she said.

"How can you make cars disappear?" Cooke asked.

She said the county failed to let people know that the zoning was coming that would allow such a store, then failed to let them know that a Wal-Mart was coming, then failed to inform them formally that the design review for the project was up Wednesday.

"When you start out with a Wal-Mart Supercenter, you're going just about as big as you can," Cooke said. "How can the county, regardless of what they've done, allow that? How does the county get around that? How do they justify that they are allowing that to happen?

"What does the county have to do to get them out of there, because the county screwed up?"