BLM opposes change in UNLV land deal

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, May 7, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Bureau of Land Management does not support a Senate bill that would allow the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to collect money from land sales or leases in its research park.

Bob Anderson, a bureau deputy assistant director, told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that the change, proposed by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev, goes against the original intent of setting the land aside for the university.

The bill would change the federal law that set aside 115 acres for the UNLV research park in 2002 to allow all money from leases or sale of land from the park to be used by the university.

But Anderson said if land in the research park were sold or leased under current law, 85 percent of money would go to conservation purposes, 5 percent to state education programs and the remaining 10 percent to the UNLV Research Foundation, modeled after similar formulas in the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act.

The land is at Sunset Road and Durango Drive.

Anderson said the administration's original support for the research park in 2002 was based on the idea it would use the land to develop research facilities and anything not used would be sold, with money divided up accordingly. It did not support all money going to the university or the land to be sold for any purpose other than research.