Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005 | 9:53 a.m.
Three years after North Las Vegas turned down a request by the Clark County School District to build a new middle school near City Hall, the district is preparing to sell the 18.6-acre site to the city.
The School Board will vote Thursday on whether to go ahead with the $6.8 million sale -- $4 million more than the School District paid for the property in 2001.
In 2002 the City Council denied the School District's request to place a school on the property, saying the property at the southwest corner of Carey Avenue and Hamilton Street is too close to Mahoney's Silver Nugget.
The district postponed considering the sale at its Aug. 25 board meeting because of the city's plans to sell it to a developer for a shopping center. North Las Vegas and the School District had agreed on a $5.2 million sales price -- the average between two appraisals -- but now that the land won't be used as a park, bus transfer center and police substation as initially proposed by the city, the district has now demanded the highest appraisal price.
"Our concern was not that it was being converted to private use, but that we had discounted it for public use," said interim schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes. "After we learned of the flip for private purposes, the only way we could recommend it is if we got the full appraised value."
The issue arose after a July 20 meeting when the City Council directed staff to start negotiations with Mike Bradshaw, a representative of a development group, to sell the property for a shopping center that would include some large retailers and restaurants.
School Board member Mary Beth Scow said that if the city goes ahead with plans to sell the property to a developer, it had an obligation to get the highest price possible, especially when it needs fund to acquire land for additional schools.
In turn, the district is asking the city to work with it in identifying property to purchase for school sites and give tacit approval beforehand so it doesn't invest millions of dollars in property, only to have the City Council reject the plans.
Rulffes said school officials also want city officials to require developers who submit projects to set aside land for schools the district could purchase.
"Henderson does that on a routine basis," Rulffes said. "We want to work together for the district's needs and accommodate the needs of North Las Vegas."
State laws require the School District auction property to the highest bidder if it is sold to the private sector, but it can negotiate sales with the city, officials said. Because the land falls in the city's redevelopment district, North Las Vegas can sell the land without a public auction, city officials said.
North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon said the district's asking price of $6.8 million for the site instead of $5.2 million doesn't affect the city's interest. The council will consider going ahead with the purchase at tonight's meeting.
"We always had every intention of paying market value," Montandon said.
The plans for the shopping center haven't been detailed, but city officials said any deal would prevent the developer from purchasing the land for speculation. Bradshaw didn't return calls for comment.
North Las Vegas officials see the commercial use of the site as an opportunity to provide residents more eating and shopping options and help redevelop one of the older sections of the community. The vacant site is one of the few remaining large parcels available for redevelopment in the city's downtown commercial corridor, city officials said.
Before the council's attention turned to using the 18.6-acre site for a commercial development, North Las Vegas had been working with the Regional Transportation Commission on selling it 6 acres for a bus terminal.
Council members said they are willing to reimburse the RTC its $300,000 spent for a feasibility and environmental study and have urged the developer to work with the RTC on finding an alternative location.
The development group owns 13 acres south of the school site and plans to combine it with the 18 acres for the shopping center.
David Swallow, a civil engineer with the RTC, said the developer and the transportation agency have identified a 3.7-acre site along Las Vegas Boulevard North, west of Hamilton Street, that would work as a bus transfer center.
The 8,000-square foot terminal building would serve as a center allowing bus riders to have a central point in North Las Vegas where they can transfer between routes. Transfers are currently done on North Las Vegas streets, but routes would be altered to funnel into the transfer center that would have 14 bus bays and sheltered cover, Swallow said.
The RTC will have between $6.5 million and $7 million for purchasing the land and building a terminal. Eighty percent of the funds will come from the federal government, Swallow said.
The likely change in sites will delay plans for the bus transfer center by several months. Swallow said it will take another nine months for new environmental reviews. Once that is completed, the design will take nine months and construction will take one year, he said.
archive
