LV to wait a month before voting on Lamb Park’s future

Dan Kulin

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005 | 9:59 a.m.

Discussion and a decision on an agreement that would make Las Vegas the owner of Floyd Lamb State Park was put on hold Wednesday, as expected, after some City Council members expressed concern about the management and cost of taking over the large park.

Councilman Michael Mack said he has concerns about the park's operations and management, specifically what would happen to the park's current employees. Mack requested the council postpone discussion of the matter until March 2, and the council voted 6-1 to do so.

Councilman Gary Reese reiterated his long-standing opposition to the city taking on the additional cost of running the park and was the lone vote against delaying action on the issue.

"I feel like we've killed this horse many times," Reese said about the yearslong discussion over whether the state park should be given to the city. "I feel like let's go forward and maintain the existing parks we have."

Reese said he has been told the city doesn't have enough money to put more staff at the existing city parks, and so he wonders where the money would come from to take care of the park if the city took it over. City officials estimate maintenance and security at the park would cost the city $1.3 million a year.

The state-owned 680 acres of the park have a restriction that allows for only passive uses there, which prohibited adding sports fields to that part of the park. The proposed agreement would lift the passive-use restriction on all but the 60 acres that make up the core of the park that is focused around ponds and historic buildings.

The 680 acres is surrounded by 1,050 acres of federally owned land the state leases and would turn over to the city under the proposed agreement. Land use on the federal land, and 620 acres of the state land, would still be limited by what's allowed in the federal Land and Water Conservation Act, which allows for outdoor recreation only.

The agreement would also prohibit the city from changing the name of the park. In 1977 the city, with the help of then-state Sen. Floyd Lamb, gave the high-maintenance park that was then called Tule Springs Ranch to the state. Lamb was later convicted in a bribery scheme but then regained his civil rights.

City and state officials have talked for years about the city taking over the park, thinking the city would spend more money on it and so do a better job of maintaining the park. The 2003 Legislature passed a bill authorizing the city and state to negotiate a deal for the park.

The park also made the news last year when a private company proposed putting a zoo there, but later dropped the idea after their consultant told them a large zoo wouldn't work without a large public subsidy.