City seeks time to address issues of conservation

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2005 | 8:53 a.m.

North Las Vegas has asked the Bureau of Land Management to consider an August auction of 2,900 acres north of the city as part of a strategy to deal with rare plants and fossils that held up a land sale earlier this month.

North Las Vegas withheld 2,300 acres from the BLM land auction on Feb. 2 to give the city more time to resolve environmental concerns that will limit development on the property. City officials plan to outline that conservation strategy in May with the help of a California consulting firm that will be paid up to $75,000.

The North Las Vegas strategy so far includes asking the BLM to combine the 2,300-acre site east of the 1,900-acre Aliante Master Planned Community with 600 acres west of Aliante. The city had originally asked BLM to auction off the 600 acres by itself in August.

Selling the two parcels as one would enable developers to spread out costs to deal with transplantation or other steps needed to protect the rare plants and prehistoric fossils, according to Michael Majewski, the city's economic development manager. The 2,300-acre site has fossils, Las Vegas bearpoppy and buckwheat. The 600-acre site has buckwheat only.

North Las Vegas may face an uphill battle to get the BLM to approve a combined auction at the planned Aug. 17 sale of the 600 acres.

Judy Fry, the BLM's supervising realty specialist, said it's not the agency's practice to combine properties that aren't contiguous. That would make the parcel so large that it would exclude bidders who may be interested in the 600-acre site but couldn't afford the 2,900-acre site, she said. That combination may also reduced the sales price, Fry said.

"If there are good reasons to combine parcels, we would do so," Fry said. "This is not something we really want to do."

Some federal officials estimate the amount of land potentially lost to development at 1,400 of the 2,300 acres, Majewski said. Already less than 400 acres of the site can't be developed because of a drainage basin and the Las Vegas Beltway, he said. That would leave about 500 acres for development, he said

"We know we are going to be losing acres to preservation," Majewski said.

The economic impact on the city from the loss of developable land pegged for residential, office and retail isn't known. Aliante is allowed up to 7,500 housing units in addition to retail and other uses on the 1,900 acres, Majewski said.

North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon said the city would like the 2,300 acres on the market as soon as possible. He said either a combined sale or separate sale would work, but larger sites tend to be better for the city.

"Someone developing a small parcel may get in and get out, and developers of a large parcel are more concerned with the long term ramifications," Montandon said.

At a Wednesday City Council study session, city officials outlined some of their goals in addressing the environmental issues. They don't want the city to pay anything for the mitigation, and they will encourage the BLM to appraise the environmentally sensitive land at no value.

City Manager Gregory Rose said he sent the Nevada Division of Forestry a letter calling for more study before the buckwheat is listed by the state as a critically endangered species. The bearpoppy is already listed as a critically endangered species, which requires a state permit from the Division of Forestry before they are removed and destroyed, said Amy LaVoie, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

City officials are meeting twice a month with state and federal officials on developing a map that will ultimately determine how much land can be developed and what measures must be taken to preserve plants and fossils.

North Las Vegas pulled the 2,300 acres from sale because developers wouldn't know how much to bid on the site because the environmental issues were unresolved.