Red Rock cleanup begins

Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 | 8:54 a.m.

Cleanup work at the former gypsum mine surrounded by Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area has begun.

A steady stream of dump trucks has been coming from the mine site on Blue Diamond Hill in recent weeks, a site where Jim Rhodes, one of Las Vegas' most prominent developers, wants to build thousands of homes.

Rhodes' plan, which ran into strong opposition and spurred legislation to limit the development there, is now mired in lawsuits.

Bill Marion, a Rhodes spokesman with a Las Vegas public relations company, said the work on the 2,500-acre site does not signal that homes will soon be going up outside the conservation area.

"Basically, the mine has been temporarily closed," Marion said. "Whenever a mine is closed, temporarily or permanently, the Nevada Division of Minerals has standards that require cleanup and remediation. This is strictly to be in compliance with Nevada regulations requiring cleanup."

The work on the mine, to take care of safety issues, has been a concern to nearby residents and environmentalists.

"Trucks are rolling out of there constantly during the day," said Evan Blythin, a Blue Diamond resident, member of the county's land-use advisory committee for the area and an opponent of development plans for the site. "That has to make you wonder what is going on.

"I fear that he (Rhodes) will play with it long enough and it will end up developed ... What I fear is that little by little, this canyon is turning into another roadside attraction."

Residents have long complained of traffic and development near the conservation area, which was created in 1990. The mine, though, is private property and sits south of the loop drive and visitor center in the conservation area.

The 197,000-acre conservation area sprawls across much of the Spring Mountains to the west of the Las Vegas Valley, and surrounds the mine site to the north, west and south. To the east of the mine site is the Las Vegas Valley.

Although much of the hilltop has been scarred by decades of gypsum mining, tours conducted by Marion on behalf of the developer three years ago also showed pockets of almost untouched desert life. The tours were part of an effort to win support for Rhodes' plan to develop the property he bought in 2003 from an Australian gypsum mining company for $50 million.

But in the same year, the Nevada Legislature and the Clark County Commission passed laws to limit any future development to the area's existing allowable housing densities of one house for every 2 acres. The laws would allow construction of up to 1,200 homes, although Rhodes has indicated he would like to build more homes than the law would now allow.

Rhodes sued in federal court in May and in state court in September to overturn the restrictions.

Rob Warhola, deputy district attorney and counsel to the Clark County Commission, said even if the state and county laws are overturned, approval of higher densities at the mine site would be a discretionary decision of the commission. County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, who represents the area, endorsed the county's restrictions on development on the hill. The restrictions were passed before she took office in 2004.

"I feel that the Red Rock overlay was a very thorough land-use exercise," she said. "It was one that received a lot of public support. Where we left off, you could build one home every 2 acres.

"The county was well within its jurisdiction to create this overlay district. From my position, that needs to be maintained."

Launce Rake can be reached at 259-4127 or at lrake@lasvegassun.com.