Columnist Jeff German: Casino projects in need of standards

Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004 | 12:48 p.m.

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

WEEKEND EDITION

November 27 - 28, 2004

With the battle over construction of Red Rock Station still fresh, neighborhood gaming giant Station Casinos has another fight on its hands a few miles down the Las Vegas Beltway.

Station Casinos hasn't even draw up architectural plans for its latest gaming venture on Durango Drive just south of the Beltway, and company officials say construction is probably seven or eight years away.

But opposition to the casino project, to be built a few blocks from an elementary school outside the gated community of Rhodes Ranch, already is brewing.

Sound familiar?

It's the same old debate, and it features some of the same old players we saw in the Red Rock Station fight last year.

The Culinary Union, which is trying to organize thousands of Station workers, is lending its muscle to the fight -- not necessarily because it hates the project, but because it wants to embarrass the non-union company it hates.

Community activists, such as Lisa Mayo-De Riso and Gabriel Lither, who don't live in the neighborhood, are helping residents with their political strategy -- not solely out of the kindness of their hearts, but because it also furthers their own political agendas.

Station Casinos once again isn't making a strong effort to provide assurance that the company has no desire to harm the quality of life of residents. Instead, with all of its political might, it's digging in to do battle.

And, of course, the Clark County Commission is back in the middle of it all.

These debates always put one or more elected officials on the hot seat, making them choose between their constituents or the politically connected casino company. This time newly elected County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, once a Station Casinos board member, will have her feet to the fire. The Durango Station project is in her district.

We are having this debate again because we have failed to address the issue of neighborhood casinos in a comprehensive way.

Several years ago, then-state Sen. Mark James shepherded a bill through the Legislature that designated certain parts of the valley as casino districts. The bill was supposed to limit neighborhood casinos, but it has been criticized for leading to a proliferation of them. It didn't fix anything.

Every time a company wants to develop a casino in a growing residential area, with new schools and hospitals, we hear the same complaint: It will lead to increased crime and traffic congestion.

And we struggle to come up with answers to resolve those issues.

We struggle because, despite added traffic and noise, neighborhood casinos also enhance the quality of life for many residents. They have turned into a type of social center with bowling alleys, movie theaters, restaurants, nightclubs, concert halls, meeting rooms -- and gaming.

We will never strike the right balance here until our elected officials come up with a uniform way to deal with neighborhood casinos. Let everyone know the rules up front -- before people move into a neighborhood earmarked as a casino district and before a company makes plans to develop a casino.

It's a simple matter of putting local ordinances or state laws in place to set limits on such things as the height of a hotel tower, the square footage of a casino or how far away a gaming property should be from a school.

If everybody knows the rules up front, there will be no reason to have these tiresome debates.

Predicting what's going to happen in the fight over Durango Station is pretty easy.

As with Red Rock Station, there's going to be some sort of compromise that will result in the eventual scaling back of the project.

All sides will claim victory, and the combatants will move on to the next fight.

And the issues associated with neighborhood casinos will still be with us.