Parking structure approved

Stephen Curran

Thursday, May 5, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

The Clark County Commission on Wednesday approved plans for a 15-level parking garage expected to settle a long-standing dispute between competing casino moguls.

The structure will provide parking for employees at the Venetian resort and the yet-unbuilt Palazzo tower on its top 11 levels, and will reserve the bottom four levels for workers at the neighboring Harrah's resort.

At 3,994 parking spaces, the garage will provide the much-needed parking that has become a bone of contention between Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn, whose newly completed namesake -- Wynn Las Vegas -- sits across Sands Avenue.

The commission, acting as the county zoning board, approved a design application for the parking structure, located about 1,000 feet east of the Strip behind Harrah's, 6-0. Commission Chairman Rory Reid, whose law firm represents a party in the matter, abstained.

No completion date for the structure has been set.

Wynn's lawyers have long contended that Venetian employees were not using a designated off-site parking lot and were instead taking available spaces from guests at neighboring resorts.

Wynn Resorts attorney Todd Bice told the commission he was pleased with his competitor's plans for the new structure.

"Obviously our objective is to get the garage built as soon as possible," he said.

Adelson, whose Palazzo project is part of a $1.6 billion expansion just north of the Venetian, received approval earlier this year for a plan that would divvy up on-site and off-site parking at the resort. Lawyers for Wynn had argued that Adelson's Venetian has never provided adequate parking and the new plan would be unlikely to correct the situation.

The issue came to a head in August, when customers destined for the Venetian sought parking in neighboring resorts as the parking lots at the Adelson property were full. A Venetian spokesman blamed the increased traffic on a surplus and merchandise dealers trade show that brought 55,000 convention-goers to the city, many of whom drove from Southern California.

Richard Bryan, the former U.S. senator and Nevada governor who represents Adelson, said the newly approved parking garage will solve what he called a "central issue" of parking that had haunted the resort.

The brief and relatively uneventful hearing marked a departure from the drawn-out sparring sessions that had occurred in past meetings, which at one point in June became so heated that then-Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield warned Bice and Venetian land-use consultant Greg Borgel to quit making personal attacks against each other or he'd remove both of them from the meeting.

The companies later sat down for a series of "frank" discussions to iron out concerns.

The meetings appeared to have worked, Commissioner Myrna Williams said, adding, "I'm happy to see such congeniality on this item."