County reschedules neighborhood casinos meeting

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 9:38 a.m.

A little more than a month after abruptly canceling a meeting of an embryonic group that was to look at rules governing development of so-called "neighborhood casinos," Clark County has rescheduled the group's first meeting for Friday.

Clark County Planning Manager Chuck Pulsipher said Monday that the meeting had been rescheduled for Friday at 10 a.m. The county will alert all of those on its mailing list for meetings of the county's Growth Management Task Force of the new date and time for the meeting, he said.

Clark County Comprehensive Planning originally planned to conduct the meetings in private, closed-door sessions with 11 members selected by the County Commission. Community activists objected, arguing that because the neighborhood casino group had been formally approved by the elected county commission, it would be subject to the Nevada laws requiring open meetings with prior public notification.

The commission in January asked for the group to meet and come back with recommendations on rules governing the design of new casinos within 90 days, a deadline the group now is unlikely to meet. Pulsipher said county staff will likely come back before the commissioners in April to inform them of the progress of the group and ask for direction in developing a new timetable.

The meeting of the neighborhood casino group originally scheduled for Feb. 11 was canceled as some of the group members arrived at the county government center. Pulsipher said at the time that based on advice from the District Attorney's office, Comprehensive Planning had decided to cancel, notify the public and have the group to conduct public meetings.

"Basically, our district attorney, in the interest of ensuring we were in compliance with the NRS (Nevada Revised Statutes) statute in the open meeting law, suggested we should notify the public," Pulsipher said. "He wanted us to err on the side of caution."

County commissioners in January, following the lead of Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, directed staff to convene a group to look at the development rules for neighborhood casinos. Boggs McDonald noted at the time that while a 1998 state law established where new casinos could go near residential communities in Clark County, the state law failed to say how big those new casinos could be and did not set other design criteria.

Boggs McDonald is a former member of the board of directors of Station Casinos Inc., which has 13 casinos in the Las Vegas market and five more sites approved for development under the 1998 law. County approval for the company's Red Rock Station casino over the last several years brought with it significant controversy over the height of the project, signs and other issues.

Boggs McDonald wasn't available for comment Monday, but said previously that she and her colleagues on the board always anticipated that the neighborhood casino group would hold meetings that would be open to the public.

Chuck Arkell, a community activist and co-founder of Summerlin Residents for Responsible Growth, a group that challenged Station Casinos over the height of the Red Rock Station project, said he is happy that the county is now opening up the meetings to public scrutiny.

Arkell said he would look to the group to allow the public to comment on the design issues affecting neighborhood casinos.

"I'm very glad to hear that they will be holding the meetings publicly," he said. "I hope there's going to be an opportunity for public comment."

Pulsipher said the public would have an opportunity to comment at the close of the group's meetings.

Arkell, who said he hopes to attend Friday's meeting, said he would have liked the group to have included more representatives from neighborhoods throughout the unincorporated county.

Carolyn Edwards, a community activist and a member of the advisory group, said she is mostly just happy that the delay is over. She withheld judgment regarding the composition of the group.

"It's good that it's finally getting going," Edwards said. "The commission directed this ordinance to be looked at, and I'm anxious to have it looked at... We'll see how the meeting goes.

"The meetings are now open, which they should be."