Thursday, September 08, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Developer to return land leased in deal with airport
By ADRIENNE PACKER
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Golf course developer Bill Walters has agreed to return to Clark County 280 acres of land he leased from McCarran International Airport to build two golf courses.
Commissioners had pushed to take back control of the land after a proposal to ban golf courses until the drought is over was introduced last month. On Wednesday, that ban was approved.
"The Walters Group, in an effort to work with the county, would very much be interested in that land being returned," said Mike Luce, president of the Walters Group.
Commissioners and neighbors of the property at Durango Drive and Warm Springs Road applauded Walters' decision. But Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates was not satisfied.
She questioned whether Walters would contribute to the construction of a regional park at the site.
Walters signed a lease with the airport in April 2001, taking control of about 320 acres of public land at no cost with the understanding he would build two golf courses.
A year later, he returned to the commission and successfully lobbied to rezone 40 acres of that land to commercial and office/professional, considered a more lucrative use.
The commission is not asking Walters to return the 40 acres, where he plans to build an upscale shopping center.
"I knew all along a golf course was not going to be built there; that is not news to me," said Atkinson Gates, the most vocal critic of the airport's land deal with Walters.
"He was glad to give that land back. He was never going to develop it," she said. "He walked away with a huge commercial piece that he initially said was going to be a golf course. Taxpayers end up with the short end of the stick."
Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, another opponent of Walters' contract with the airport, said she is pleased he will return a chunk of the property to the county for a park.
"Good for Mr. Walters for giving this land back to the community," she said Wednesday.
Commissioners said they hope to build a water-conservative regional park in the southwest, which is in need of a recreational facility. Desert Breeze is the only large-scale park in a district that is larger than the state of Rhode Island.
A park is a far better use than a golf course, said Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, who oversees much of the area surrounding the land.
"In the southwest, we have tremendous recreational needs," she said.
"Golf courses are not only a large consumer of water, they serve a narrow area of the population. If we can get control of that land again, I see it as a win-win. Desert Breeze is being taxed beyond its intentions."
Commissioner Myrna Williams called for a ban on new golf courses because of the need for water in the Las Vegas Valley.
Clark County is home to 50 courses, she said, which typically use about 267 million gallons of water a year.
That is enough to supply water to 1,600 homes, she said.
"I think this is the right thing to do," Williams said.
