BC land issues look like no-goes for the ballot

By Mike Trask (contact)

Monday, April 9, 2007 | 8:33 a.m.

Rather than asking voters to decide two major ballot questions with incomplete information before them, Boulder City officials are expected to withdraw the land measures from the June general election.

One of the measures would give voters the option to sell part of Dutchman Pass, along the edge of Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, to Clark County, which would use the land as a preservation area for the Mojave Desert tortoise.

A second question would ask voters to use the revenue from that sale to buy 700 acres in Eldorado Valley, west of U.S. 95 near Railroad Pass, where developer Larry Canarelli plans to build a 3,800-home development.

But the ballot questions posed more questions for voters: among them, how much Canarelli wanted for his land, how much the county could afford and how much land the city would sell.

With those questions expected to remain unanswered through Election Day, County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who was instrumental in crafting a deal among the county, the city and Canarelli, has recommended pulling the measures off the June ballot. Mayor Bob Ferraro said the city probably will take that advice.

"It's becoming clear that people are going to want more details than we are going to have prior to the election," Woodbury said.

Woodbury said the county could spend $10 million to $12 million on Dutchman Pass land. Canarelli values his land at about $200 million.

"It's become very clear Mr. Canarelli's property is worth way more than the city is going to be able to come up with through selling the conservation area to the county," Woodbury said. "It would make only a minor dent."

Critics of the ballot questions had expected this outcome for months.

"It was going to lose and it was a goofball idea in the first place," said Sherman Rattner, leader of the Coalition to Protect the Future of Boulder City. "Any rational person knew it wasn't going to go down like they said it would."

Boulder City requires voter approval to buy or sell land, part of the reason it has remained a small town despite being a 30-minute drive from the Strip.

The city also maintains strict growth restrictions. However, many fear property like Canarelli's near the city's edge will soon become high-density housing developments. A county moratorium on development in the area ended last month. Locals worry that building would lower the quality of life in the quaint town and could stretch the city's resources, particularly in public safety.

If the pair of questions is pulled, it would mark the third time in about six months that plans to sell or preserve a part of the city have fallen apart.

"We're right back at square one for the moment," Ferraro said.

Last year Rattner's group fought to put a pair of questions on the ballot that would have given voters a choice about the future of 107,000 acres of Eldorado Valley: Either preserve it as open space forever or, if the land were sold for development, divide most of the profits among residents. However, the state Supreme Court removed that proposal from the ballot.

Earlier this year, the city pursued a three-way land swap with the Bureau of Land Management and Canarelli under which the developer's land would have gone to the city and the BLM would have taken Dutchman Pass. That idea was scrapped, though, because the BLM did not have any large parcels to trade to Canarelli.

Now, Woodbury said, the county, city and developers will have to try to negotiate some sort of a compromise. He said he's confident an agreement can be reached.

The county will continue to try to acquire some of Dutchman Pass for preservation . And with the county about to start a land-use plan update in the area, that is a perfect time, Woodbury said, to talk to landowners about the future.

But it will be difficult to allay residents' fears about development.

Woodbury himself told residents at a community meeting months ago that if the ballot questions failed, development would be inevitable.

Yet Woodbury cautioned not to hit the panic button quite yet.

"I still feel good about our prospects of preserving Dutchman Pass and developing plans for the unincorporated parts of the county," he said. "We do have time to continue working on this."