Land approved for medical school

Thursday, May 6, 2004 | 9:54 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday agreed to provide the University of Nevada School of Medicine with 8 acres to develop an academic medical center on the former Union Pacific Railroad property.

But two controversial matters took some of the spotlight away from that decision:

The western downtown medical school deal is contingent on approval in June by the university system Board of Regents and the signing of an agreement with the city by the end of October.

The city is holding 10 acres of adjacent property for the development of a hospital, as it continues its efforts to woo the Cleveland Clinic to Las Vegas.

Dr. James Lenhart, vice dean of the medical school, told the council of the need for an academic medical center.

"We need a healthier Nevada," he said. "We need ... world class medicine. ... We need a physician force to meet the booming population."

Two council members said that while they support the concept, they wanted to build records for future talks on the matter.

Weekly's message was don't leave him out of "the loop," and Councilman Larry Brown's was for the school not to forget about returning to the city the land near Tenaya Way and Cheyenne Avenue that was donated 10 years ago by the city for a proposed academic medical center.

When Mayor Oscar Goodman turned to Weekly during the meeting and asked for a recommendation, which is customary when the project is in a councilman's ward, an obviously miffed Weekly said he was "not in the loop on the memorandum of understanding" and would be abstaining. Goodman then made the recommendation to enter into the deal, which was approved by four other council members.

City Manager Doug Selby said, "Proper protocol was to brief him (Weekly) on the item. I did not. It was my oversight."

Brown also brought to the council's attention that the same project was to have been built just south of MountainView Hospital and that the medical school had received extensions but currently is in default on the most recent extension.

After the meeting Selby said the intent is for the medical school and the city to, in effect, swap properties.

School officials have estimated the first phase of an academic medical complex, including clinics and research, academic and administrative space, will cost $65 million over five years.