BLM asked to scale back land auction

Monday, Oct. 31, 2005 | 8:25 a.m.

The Sierra Club has called on the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw 2,300 acres in North Las Vegas from a Nov. 16 land auction, saying the agency is endangering rare plants by allowing development to go forward.

If the sale proceeds, 300 acres of the site would be set aside for conservation of bearpoppy and buckwheat, with 2,000 acres east of the Aliante Master Planned Community being auctioned for development.

The 300 acres will not be enough to protect the plants if development is allowed so close to the preserve, said Jane Feldman, the conservation chairwoman of the Sierra Club.

The Southern Nevada group of the Sierra Club favors dedicating more than twice as many acres -- at least 700 -- for conservation.

The BLM plans to review the request before deciding whether to proceed with the auction, said Jeff Steinmetz, the BLM's environmental protection specialist.

The 2,300 acres originally were scheduled to be auctioned in February, but North Las Vegas canceled the sale to give the city more time to resolve environmental concerns that could limit the property's development.

The 2,000 acres of the 2,300-acre site would be combined in the auction with 600 acres west of Aliante.

North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon said the city has and will continue to work with the Sierra Club, but he said the auction should proceed as planned.

The BLM will take public comments through today on the planned auction as part of environmental review. Feldman questioned, however, the appropriateness of soliciting public comments on the sale when the BLM is running radio ads promoting it.

"This engenders no confidence in an expectation that public comments will be considered, have an influence or result in better land use decision-making for the BLM or for the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas," Feldman said. "This is a travesty of the public process, and a worse travesty for the natural resources of the Las Vegas Wash."

BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton insisted there is nothing inappropriate about advertising the sale while soliciting public comments on it. Past sales have been withdrawn or canceled while advertisements promoting it were running, she said.

"I could see it being a problem if the sale were set in stone and would definitely be sold, but we are still taking comments, and the process is open to evaluation," Patton said.

Feldman said no legal action is planned to prevent the land sale, but she added that she hopes the Sierra Club's concerns cause developers to shy away from bidding.

The group wants at least 700 of the 2,300-acre site set aside for a conservation preserve, to be tied in with a 5,298-acre conservation area that the BLM has proposed to the north along Las Vegas Wash.

Feldman also criticized a portion of the current plan that would allow the proposed 300-acre preserve to be divided from the larger conservation area by Grand Teton Drive.

"That's a major transportation corridor, and it is going to have intensive development around it," Feldman said. "You can't do that in a middle of a nature preserve."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, BLM and Nevada Division of Forestry have accepted the conservation plan, said City Manager Gregory Rose.

Water flows will be channeled to the site and other steps are being taken to protect not only the rare plants but prehistoric fossils, said Mike Majewski, North Las Vegas' economic development director.

Officials said the density of homes will be limited near the preserve, and wrought-iron fences for homes will be used to allow for better air circulation for plants.

Not everyone, however, thinks that is enough.

"I think the 300 acres (are) useless as far as habitat," said Hermit Hiatt, a botanist and member of Red Rock Audubon. "They should wait to sell, or it should never be sold at all. It should be included in the conservation area."

Majewski said he expects developers to bid on the property. Among those considering bids are the developers of Aliante, a partnership that includes American Nevada Company, which is owned by the Greenspun family, the owner of the Las Vegas Sun.

Brian Wargo can be reached at 259-4011 or at [email protected].