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Craig Ranch Golf Course owners envision a land swap that would turn the course into one of the region's largest municipal parks. Photo by John Gurzinski. A rabbit enjoys dinner on the course's No. 9 fairway. Photo by John Gurzinski. Click above for enlarged image. Graphic by Mike Johnson.

Wednesday, June 19, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Developers oppose swap plan

Golf course owner wants city to have 132 acres as park

Developers of the largest master-planned community in North Las Vegas are resisting a proposal that could create one of the largest municipal parks in Southern Nevada.

Craig Ranch Golf Course owner Donald Nelson last month proposed swapping the 132-acre golf course at the southeast corner of Commerce Street and Lone Mountain Road for a 640-acre parcel owned by the Bureau of Land Management north of the Las Vegas Beltway route.

The proposal suggests the BLM would turn the golf course over to the city to be used as a central park.

The City Council last month postponed action on the measure when Mark Brown, a Craig Ranch Golf Course representative, asked the council for time to inform North Valley Enterprises of the proposal.

But American Nevada Corp. and Del Webb, partners in North Valley Enterprises, have voiced objections to the swap and have said they do not want the 640 acres adjacent to their 1,900-acre development privatized.

"They want it for themselves," Mayor Michael Montandon said. "It's selfish, but they're a business, and I understand."

North Valley Enterprises, to build a master-planned community, bought 1,900 acres in May 2001 at a BLM auction for $47 million.

Montandon said that because the city is a partner of the North Valley Enterprises project, he is working with the golf course owners to find an alternative site for the swap.

Brown said Nelson is considering a different 600-acre portion of federal land north of North Las Vegas that the government plans to auction.

"It's as far east as you can go," he said. "We don't want to go up against ANC and have to fight every step of the way."

Montandon and Brown said they want to find the easiest way to get the golf course into the city's hands to develop as a park.

The 40-year-old golf course is one of the few open spaces in Southern Nevada that is shaded by thousands of pine and oak trees.

Golf course managers said the site would be a spectacular place for cultural events and would provide enough room for several uses, including ball fields, picnic areas and an amphitheater.

"You don't get an opportunity to create a central park very often," Montandon said. "I often look at New York and wonder how they got the most valuable piece of land for a central park. You've got to start early and get it while you can."

Michael O'Donovan, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the deal would hinge on local consensus of city officials, the BLM and other parties. He said no one in the congresswoman's office had yet been informed of the proposal.

BLM spokesman Phillip Guerrero has said that if a swap between the BLM and Nelson were to occur, the BLM could give the 132 acres to North Las Vegas under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act. Under that law, the city would be required to manage the land as a public park. If it became anything else, the parcel would revert to the U.S. government.