Development OK’d despite environmentalists’ concerns

Thursday, July 7, 2005 | 9:53 a.m.

The North Las Vegas City Council gave its blessing Wednesday to an agreement that will pave the way for developing nearly 2,000 acres, despite the objections of environmentalists, who said more of the land should be preserved to protect rare plants and prehistoric fossils.

The council, as expected, voted 5-0 to back an agreement struck by city staff in June with the Bureau of Land Management and other federal and state agencies.

The council chambers included members of the Southern Nevada group of the Sierra Club, who said even more land should be preserved to protect the environmentally sensitive area with buckwheat and Las Vegas bearpoppy.

The agreement sets aside 281 acres of a 2,300-acre site that would be contiguous with a 5,000-acre plant and fossil conservation area north of the site, along the Las Vegas Wash.

The BLM will combine the remaining portion of the 2,300-acre site east of the Aliante master planned community with 600 acres west of Aliante for a Nov. 16 auction.

Jane Feldman, conservation chairwoman of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, said she would like at least 700 acres of the 2,300-acre site preserved to provide better protection for the fragile plants and preserve paleontological fossils and archeological resources.

Feldman said her group is not giving up the fight despite Wednesday's approval. The Sierra Club will continue to lobby city officials to withhold the sale from the November auction and preserve more land when a development agreement is signed with the land owner.

"It is not the end of the trek," Feldman said afterward. "There is a lot of work to do."

Even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has signed off on the agreement, the federal agency has to undertake more study to show that the plant species are being protected, Feldman said.

A lawsuit remains an option, but Feldman said that is a huge undertaking and requires huge resources and one isn't planned at this time.

Fish and Wildlife officials said sensitive plants and habitat will be preserved under the agreement. The plan calls for relocating plants to the conservation area, even though Feldman said the track record for such relocations is poor.

City officials said science dictated the amount of land that will be set aside for conservation. The agreement is a balance that protects the plants and allows development, they said.