Thursday, April 17, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
County urges BLM to buy developer's land; agency balks
By FRANK GEARY
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Clark County officials said Wednesday the federal government should purchase developer Jim Rhodes' 2,400 acres near Red Rock Canyon, but the federal Bureau of Land Management isn't interested in the land.
The site has been mined since the late 1920s, and the scarred landscape would be more of a liability than an asset because of public safety concerns in the area, said Phil Guerrero, spokesman for the BLM in Southern Nevada.
"This land has been extensively disturbed. It's been ripped to shreds. ... There would be unknown and untold amounts of restoration and reclamation," Guerrero said. "If we were in a position to buy that property, what would the public interest be?"
County Commission members said the best way to permanently protect the land east of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area from dense development would be for the BLM to purchase it.
Under the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, the BLM sells its surplus land in the valley to the highest bidder at auction. It then uses those funds to benefit parks and recreation, infrastructure development and schools.
Federal land management agencies in Nevada are seeking public comment through May 19 on how to spend $296 million collected from land sales in the valley. Another public land sale is scheduled for June 5.
County commissioners said Wednesday the federal government should spend those funds to acquire a stretch of land the public wants off-limits to developers.
"That is the ultimate situation, to get the land in federal government hands," Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said. "This is local property they (BLM) are selling to acquire this money, and it should be spent in ways the local citizenry thinks is important."
The comments came moments before the commission introduced an ordinance from Commissioner Mark James that would lock in rural zoning on Rhodes' land, allowing one home to be built on every two acres of land. The matter was scheduled for a May 21 public hearing.
Woodbury said he plans to place on the agenda for the commission's May 6 meeting a resolution urging the federal government to acquire the land that Rhodes purchased March 21 from James Hardie Gypsum for $50 million.
