Mount Charleston residents come down on resort

Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

Fresh air, alpine meadows and meandering trails through dense forests of pine trees seem the perfect recipe for a mountain resort.

But a proposed resort for Mount Charleston's Lee Canyon is raising the hackles of would-be neighbors and Clark County planners.

Opponents say the planned resort - a 24,400-square-foot building with 53 guest rooms, restaurant-bar and activity rooms, including a spa - has no place on the mountain's far slopes.

Lee Canyon is home to Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort and a few dozen homes on private lots within the Toiyabe National Forest. The resort does not offer any rooms. U.S. Forest Service concessionaires run a few campgrounds off the winding road up the mountain, but there are no rooms for rent.

Land-use consultant Lucy Stewart, working for the developer, says the resort would provide amenities now absent from Lee Canyon, could serve as a base for emergency or firefighting personnel in the area, and would be sensitive to the environment of the surrounding forest.

Stewart is representing Las Vegas attorney John Bailey, who explored getting commercial zoning for the project last year. He is scheduled to bring his proposal to the Mount Charleston Town Advisory Board on Monday and then the Clark County Planning Commission on Wednesday. The planning commission could approve or deny the project, although either side could appeal the decision to the full Clark County Commission.

Stewart said the developer has tried to address his neighbors' concerns that the project would not be compatible with the isolated mountain environment. Although private landowners have houses and lots nearby, the hilly, tree-covered terrain will block most direct views of the resort, she said.

"We're happy to work with them, but we don't have any residents immediately around us," she said. "It's not raping and pillaging. We're trying to be very sensitive to the materials we use."

Bobbye Fitzgibbons, a neighbor whose family has lived in Lee Canyon for nearly 20 years, said such commercial activities are inappropriate for the area, which has limited ground water, limited access and no electricity.

Becky Grismanauskas, chairwoman of the Mount Charleston Town Advisory Board, lives on the Kyle Canyon side of the mountain but expressed similar concerns.

"Anytime there's a proposal for commercial development in the Spring Mountain range, all the communities - Deer Creek, Kyle and Lee canyons - are concerned," she said. "Any kind of commercial development that we do up here could disturb the quiet alpine setting, disturb the residents and visitors."

Clark County planners, in the preliminary report for planning commissioners, have recommended denying the permit needed for construction. They noted in their draft report that the primary purpose of the project appears to be a hotel. The land-use plan for the area calls for residential uses - up to one home per two acres.

A hotel would not be appropriate for the area, county planners said in their draft report.

Lee Canyon "is a unique, fragile mountain environment" that severely limits public facilities and services, planners said.

Stephanie Moore Myers, a Lee Canyon resident and Las Vegas trial-jury consultant, said that if planning commissioners approve the project, opponents will appeal to the full County Commission.