Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005 | 11:13 a.m.
The Clark County Commission on Wednesday took the first step to retake hundreds of acres that had been leased to developer Billy Walters for a golf course.
On a 5-0 vote, the commission, acting as the county zoning board, approved an ordinance to suspend construction of all new golf courses in the unincorporated county for up to three years or until drought conditions in the Las Vegas Valley come to an end.
Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who put forward an ordinance in July to suspend construction of courses that do not use reclaimed or recycled water, said last week that the board could ask Walters to forfeit the land at Durango Drive and Warm Springs near Rhodes Ranch.
Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, whose district includes the adjacent master-planned community but not the land on which the proposed golf course would sit, asked county staffers to begin discussions to transfer the land back to the county for use as a more water friendly regional park.
Commissioner Myrna Williams, who amended Woodbury's proposal and asked to suspend construction of all new golf courses, cited the need for conserving water.
"I think it's very important to understand what we're talking about," Williams said. "We're in a drought."
Addressing the board Wednesday, Walters Group President Michael Luce said only that the developer was "very interested in working out an arrangement for returning that (land) to the county."
County planners have estimated that the Las Vegas Valley's 50 golf courses use more than 8 percent of the region's water supply. Of those, 30 use reclaimed, or recycled, water, Southern Nevada Water Authority officials said.
"The only practical thing to do is to conserve this water until we can say the drought is over," Williams said. "... There is a difference between being politically correct and being right."
Giving the land back to the county would give the commission authority to create a regional park for Rhodes Ranch residents, who call Woodbury's district home, Boggs McDonald said. It was unclear Wednesday when the matter might come to the commission for a formal vote.
Existing facilities in Boggs McDonald's district, including Desert Breeze Park, are already "taxed beyond intentions," she said.
"In the southwest (valley) we have tremendous recreational needs," Boggs McDonald said. "... I personally want control of it (the land) back."
Walters' company, Nevada Links Inc., signed a lease on two county Aviation Department-owned parcels of land for the proposed golf course in 2001. The commission later changed the deal to allow for a part of the land to become a commercial development.
Rhodes Ranch homeowners were openly skeptical as to whether the golf course would be built, saying Walters acquired the land strictly to develop commercial property.
"It seemed like such a sweetheart deal," said John Sheehan, who sits on the Rhodes Ranch Homeowners Association. "It meant the county's in the business of being a landlord. They allowed Mr. Walters to conduct his request for the change as if he were the owner of the property."
The commission voted in March 2004 to give Walters two years to begin construction of a 200-acre golf course, provided that enough water was available to support the facility. Under that agreement, failure to comply with that timeline would cost Walters any commercial land not under construction and a $500,000 bond he fronted for the project.
Transferring the land back to the county would allow Walters to walk away from a plan to build a money-draining golf course that was unlikely to even take shape, Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said Wednesday.
Atkinson Gates criticized an earlier change to the agreement that allowed Walters to change zoning for part of the parcel from public use, under which the golf course was required, to more lucrative commercial development.
"I knew all along that a golf course wouldn't be built there," she said.
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