Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

BLUE DIAMOND HILL: Red Rock overlook long way off

Proposal to buy mining land from Rhodes faces big hurdles

Hiking trails, picnic tables and a scenic overlook could be situated atop Blue Diamond Hill if Clark County buys 2,400 acres from a developer who wants to build homes in the area overlooking scenic Red Rock Canyon.

However, since the county proposes using federal funds to acquire the mining property, it would take at least five years before the public could use the land for hiking, picnicking and other activities, said Phil Guerrero, spokesman for the local office of the Bureau of Land Management.

Also, based on a lengthy process the federal government requires for land sales, it will be about 18 months before the county knows what the government is willing to pay for the land, and whether developer Jim Rhodes is interested in selling for that price.

"It's easily a five-year process from today to the time that people will be checking out the views from atop Blue Diamond Hill," Guerrero said.

The County Commission on Tuesday is scheduled to consider applying for tens-of-millions of federal dollars from the sale of public lands to buy and rehabilitate Rhodes' scarred mining property and prevent the area from ever being developed.

U.S. Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday proposed the purchase, which was applauded by county commissioners, the Sierra Club, residents in the village of Blue Diamond and the author of state legislation aimed at protecting land near Red Rock from development.

Rhodes is the second developer in less than a year to propose building homes on the property, and the senators recommended the sale to end months of public unrest over the prospect of homes taking root on Red Rock's doorstep.

After the county applies for the funding, the request will be reviewed by a committee of administrators within the U.S. Department of the Interior.

They will recommend the proposal to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, and the county should know by year's end whether it will receive initial funding it needs before it can have the property appraised, Guerrero said.

The federal government's appraisal process could take as long as a year, and Rhodes could derail the deal at that time if he isn't willing to sell for the appraised value the federal government is required by law to offer him, Guerrero said.

"What Rhodes paid for it is what Rhodes paid for it. What we will pay for it depends on an appraisal," Guerrero said.

Rhodes in late March paid about $53.8 million for the land, according to Rhodes' spokeswoman Lynn Purdue. Originally, Rhodes had announced that the sale price was about $50 million.

The nearly $22,500 per acre that Rhodes paid is slightly more than the per-acre value placed on land that the Howard Hughes Corp. owns next to Red Rock and is proposing to swap with the BLM.

An appraisal in June on the Hughes land put the value of its 1,082 acres at $24.1 million or $22,273 per acre, according to the appraisal. However, unlike Rhodes' land, Hughes' acreage hasn't been used for mining since the late 1920s.

Approximately 865 acres of Rhodes' land needs to be restored according to federal laws that require owners of mines to rehabilitate land after it is mined, said Alan Pinkerton, assistant director of Comprehensive Planning for the county.

County officials said the restoration will cost about $2.3 million in federal funds, but Guerrero and Mike Ford, spokesman for the local chapter of the nonprofit Conservation Fund, said that seems low. Pinkerton said the property's former owner, James Hardie Gypsum, put $633,000 into a cleanup fund for a portion of the acreage.

The $2.3 million estimate to restore the remaining acreage is based on the same per-acre rate paid by the mining company, Pinkerton said.

Ford not only criticized the estimated cost, but questioned why public money should be spent for restoration efforts that are Rhodes' responsibility.

"As a taxpayer, my No. 1 concern is why should the federal government, me, you and everybody else, pay for that restoration?" Ford said.