County may reverse Wal-Mart OK

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 | 11:40 a.m.

Clark County airport officials are seeking grounds to reverse approvals for a 200,000-square- foot Wal-Mart that has generated opposition from nearby residents.

County Commissioner Rory Reid, who represents the area at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Russell Road, said Tuesday that he has directed the staff of the county's Aviation Department, which controls the land, to find a way to start over on the planning process that led to the approval.

Last year the county approved the zoning for the land that would allow a "big-box" store. On March 16 the commissioners approved a lease on 20 acres for the store based on zoning approved last year. But last week the commissioners said they hadn't realized they were approving a lease for Wal-Mart.

Last week residents and union members objected to the project when the developers came back with what would have been a final design review prior to construction. The commission delayed approval of the design review, which included a traffic study, for 45 days.

Reid said he met Tuesday with Aviation Department Director Randy Walker to discuss the lease for the property, which is part of a larger 155-acre parcel purchased from homeowners for $25 million.

"I asked him to use whatever legal means are available to us to make sure the developer starts over," Reid said. "This is 155 acres in the middle of one of the oldest parts of the community and the public owns it.

"We don't have a master plan for it, and we haven't had sufficient public input, and that's not how we do things," he said.

Plans for the land were drawn up by Marnell Corrao, a Las Vegas-based property management and development company that is the master leaseholder of the 155 acres. Marnell Corrao's lease follows the airport's standard practice of requiring the company to: pay for all development work; draw up a master plan for the development; and split profits from subleases 50-50 with the airport.

Although Marnell Corrao subleased the land to Wal-Mart, Reid said the county should have ultimate say on what goes where on the land.

"This is our land. We are the landlord," Reid said. "This is not a typical situation where the developer is the owner of the land. We're going to make sure that we require that this be properly planned and public input be provided."

Walker, with the Aviation Department, did not return phone calls Tuesday or Wednesday.

Marnell Corrao's Guy Amato, vice president of business development and marketing, declined to comment on whether the sublease with Wal-Mart could be thrown out.

"We're kind of caught in the middle of this," Amato said. "We followed all the policies and procedures that were laid out. The approvals were at each stage provided."

Until the controversy sparked a week ago, Marnell Corrao believed that the sublease was complete and binding, he said. Now the company is waiting for information from the Aviation Department.

"We'll sit here and wait," Amato said. "We'll do whatever they ask us to do in terms of helping to ameliorate the situation."

Chris Kaempfer, attorney for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said the deal should be done -- the zoning is in place, the lease was approved, and the final hurdle of the design review should not block the project. At the county's land-use hearing for the design review, Kaempfer raised the possibility of a lawsuit.

"There's a provision in the lease that has a buy-back provision (for the land), but I would assume there would be some cause that would have to trigger that," he said. The county also should think "very carefully" about exercising that option, Kaempfer said.

"It seems to me they would be paying twice for the same ground," he said.

"What we plan on doing is what the commission asked us to do, which is to hold meetings with the neighbors on traffic and other design issues."

One provision in the master lease with Marnell Corrao could give the county some flexibility. The county would equally split any revenue with the developer for subleases, such as the one for Wal-Mart, but the county potentially could take back the land for public use if it paid Marnell Corrao for any expenses.

The "county may, in its unlimited discretion, at any time during the term of this agreement or any extensions thereof recover all or any part of the premises for other airport or public uses, except for commercial facilities purposes," the lease reads.

This would apparently bar the county from using the land for the commercial purposes originally intended if it took back the land from Wal-Mart. It was not clear Tuesday how the county could implement the provision or what the final costs of such a move might be.

Reid said that his goal is not to sanction Wal-Mart, a company that has provoked strong resistance from neighbors and union members who have battled for years to organize the company's workers.

The size of the project is just unsuitable for a residential area, Reid said.

"This is because there is a 200,000-square-foot facility within 300 feet of people who live in homes in my district," he said. "I wouldn't care if it were a Wal-Mart or a Krispy Kreme doughnut store. Anything that is 200,000 square foot, I would have a problem with."