Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Station Casinos pitches tower

Residents express opinions about plans for 300-foot building near Red Rock

Click above for enlarged image. Kathie Grigg and Mark Zartarian, both with the Culinary Union, stand outside Ober Elementary School, where Station Casinos officials presented information Tuesday night about the proposed Red Rock Station. Photo by John Locher.

Chuck Arkell isn't convinced Station Casinos' proposed 300-foot high tower in Summerlin will ruin views of Red Rock Canyon, and he's not worried that the 1,500-room resort will increase traffic in his neighborhood.

However, the 30-year-old salesman said he opposes the proposed resort because the casino company wants to bend zoning regulations that prohibit tall buildings while he and his neighbors are required to live by strict homeowner association rules.

"The issue is fairness," Arkell said Tuesday. "If I can't put a basketball hoop in my neighborhood without getting a fine, it doesn't seem fair that Station can come in and build a 300-foot high tower."

Housewife Libby Cammiso, 43, said she was betrayed when a Summerlin developer proclaimed last year that buildings on the planned casino site wouldn't be taller than the 100 feet that is currently permitted.

"We were never told we were going to have skyscrapers," she said. "We thought we were moving into a suburban area, and now it seems like we actually moved into an urban area."

Arkell and Cammiso echoed comments from some of the nearly 250 people who attended an open house at Ober Elementary School that Station Casinos hosted to sell the community on its plan to erect a 300-foot tower as part of a 67-acre resort near Red Rock Canyon.

On Thursday, the Clark County Planning Commission is expected to consider Station's request for a waiver to zoning regulations that would allow the company to proceed with plans to build the tower.

The County Commission is expected to give the request final consideration Nov. 19.

The proposed Red Rock Station resort is planned for the southeast corner of Charleston Boulevard and the Las Vegas Beltway, about 3 miles from the northern entrance to Red Rock Canyon.

Plans include a separate 200-foot-high tower, a 90,000-square-foot casino, an 82,000-square-foot meeting area, restaurants, retail shops, a health club and an outdoor pool with a water feature.

Station representatives said the project will complement development already planned in the area, and that the 300-foot tower is not much higher than the 250-foot high buildings already approved on land east of the casino site.

Opponents to the project include the politically influential Culinary Union, the local chapter of the Sierra Club and the nonprofit group Scenic Nevada. They say the project will destroy the view of Red Rock from the east and will increase traffic in the area.

While Station representatives handed out literature and answered residents' questions inside the open house, the opponents waited outside the meeting to speak with people and distribute stickers that read "Don't Bring The Strip to Red Rock."

Station spokeswoman Lesley Pittman said the open house went well, but opponents said it was a one-sided "dog and pony show" that wasn't intended to sincerely gauge the sentiments of the community.

Summerlin residents Gary Weingardt, 64, and Patrick Denison, 40, said they support construction of the resort, and they don't buy critics' arguments that the proposed tower will destroy views of Red Rock.

Everyone in Summerlin will take advantage of the proximity of the resort and the amenities it will offer, such as round-the-clock dining, movie theaters and other services customary at neighborhood casinos, they said.

"The 300-foot tower doesn't bother me a bit," said Denison, a land surveyor who said he rides his bike in Red Rock Canyon about twice a month. "If you want to enjoy Red Rock, get in your car or get on your bike and go enjoy it. You can't enjoy it from your yard."

Others at the two-hour open house disagreed.

Longtime Las Vegas resident Samantha Sheldan, who declined to give her age, said the proposal is an "atrocity," and New York transplant Howard Goldstein, 60, said he didn't move to Summerlin to live near a 300-foot tall building.

"The Suncoast and Rampart aren't that big. A 300-foot tower is ridiculous. One hundred feet is fine," he said.