Plan hits snag over houses on Walters golf course

Dan Kulin

Thursday, July 7, 2005 | 9:03 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday voted to put off a decision on whether to allow residential development to replace a golf course that was sold six years ago with a deed restriction allowing only a golf course on the land.

The city sold 160 acres to developer Billy Walters in 1999 under an agreement that prohibited any other development on the land, which is next to a city sewer plant.

Walters is offering the city $7.2 million to lift the deed restriction on what is now the Royal Links Golf Club, east of Nellis Boulevard along Vegas Valley Drive, east of the city limits.

The offer represents the difference between the $894,000 Walters paid and the 1999 value of the land if it had no development restriction, plus 6 percent interest.

Mayor Oscar Goodman requested a vote on the deal be put off for two weeks because he heard that "one or more councilmen" received "inflammatory" briefings from city staff that may have included some inaccurate information about the matter.

Goodman refused to say who gave or received the briefings and the content of those briefings.

"I wanted to make sure there was a level playing field," Goodman said.

Councilman Steve Wolfson said some council members were briefed by different people from the city attorney's office, which resulted in different council members receiving different information.

"The information was a little inconsistent," he said, refusing to specify what information was inconsistent or who gave the briefings.

Councilmen Larry Brown and Lawrence Weekly also said there were some inconsistencies in the briefings.

"Bits and pieces of the history," Brown said. They too refused to elaborate.

Councilman Steve Ross, who was sworn into office at the beginning of the meeting, said he still needs to learn more about the issue, and Council members Gary Reese and Lois Tarkanian referred questions on the topic to the mayor.

Council members did not say whether they would support the proposed deal, although Reese has said he is leaning toward approving the deal.

"I don't own the land and someone else put so much money into it," Reese said during a interview earlier this week.

Tarkanian has said she wants an outside party to assess the present-day value of the land.

When Walters bought the land it was assessed at $5.6 million. Walters paid far less than that because of the deed restriction on land next to an odorous sewage treatment plant.

The city owned the land, next to the city's sewage treatment plant, and the land was originally envisioned as a buffer around the plant. The course was seen as way to use the buffer space.

Walters and city officials said improvements at the plant have minimized the smell, and they note that there are now existing homes near the plant.

Walters said he wants to build about 1,200 homes on the property.

Vacant land unencumbered by any deed restriction and which is in that general area is now worth a little more than $400,000 an acre, Clark County Assessor's Office Assistant Director of Assessment Services Rocky Steele said. Using that figure, the 160 acres would be worth more than $64 million on the current market.

Walters said the land may be worth about $300,000 an acre if it is approved for residential development, which would put the estimated value of the land at $48 million.

But Walters said it is unfair to evaluate his proposed deal without taking into account the roughly $51 million he says he has invested in the property to build the golf club.

Walters brushed aside any suggestion that his request would land him a sweetheart deal from the city.

"If I did get a sweetheart deal I never would have spent any money on it and would have just land banked it," Walters said.

Asked why he wanted to build homes on Royal Links, he said the golf business was a "challenging business."

The golf business has slowed in recent years.

In 2004 a judge upheld a decision by the Clark County Commission allowing Walters to build homes on two of the three golf courses at Stallion Mountain Country Club, which is south of Royal Links. At the time, Walters said three courses there weren't financially viable.

Within the last year, Walters has tried to sell Royal Links privately. Walters also made a deal with Henderson to trade another course -- the Wildhorse Golf Club in Henderson -- for 126 acres vacant land.

Walters and his partner in Wildhorse, American Nevada Corporation, also gave the city $5.8 million. American Nevada is owned by the Greenspun family, the owners of the Sun.