Sun editorial:

Zoning not for sale

If arena project fails, Las Vegas should retract zoning that OKs gambling

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 | 2:08 a.m.

A private plan to get owners of dozens of Las Vegas properties to agree to sell their parcels to a specific developer appears to have been radically altered.

The plan had been to use the combined downtown acreage to build an arena, a casino, and upscale stores, hotels and condominiums.

Fifty-six acres for which agreements have been secured, however, are now for sale, either in whole or in part, to anybody.

The acres are listed on the Web site of TR Las Vegas, the brokerage that spent years obtaining agreements from downtown property owners. While securing the agreements, the brokerage was creating a vision that enthused Mayor Oscar Goodman and the City Council.

All the parcels would be sold to a Michigan developer, REI Neon, which would build a sports arena and ancillary developments that would unify all of the city’s downtown features, including Las Vegas Boulevard, Union Park, the World Market Center and the Fremont Street Experience.

Listing the properties on TR Las Vegas’ Web site, however, places the arena development in doubt. Because this has been a private venture, there is little the city can do to salvage the vision if it begins unraveling.

The city should, though, definitely retract the conditional zoning it granted for this specific project. Las Vegas Sun reporter Joe Schoenmann reported Monday that the Web site’s listing notes the 56 acres are zoned for mixed uses, including gambling.

“These past entitlements still exist today and have the potential to be negotiated with the sale of this project,” the listing boasts.

As Schoenmann reported, it was clear when the valuable zoning for gambling was approved that if the proposed development fell through the zoning would fall through, too.

If the land is sold to any company other than REI, and for any purpose other than an arena project, the new owners should not under any circumstances inherit the previously approved gambling zoning.