Cranes stand poised Thursday beside Red Rock hotel-casino, which is scheduled to open in April. Developers now are pursuing plans for adjacent condo towers. Photo by John Gurzinski.

More than two years ago, Station Casinos executives and Summerlin homeowners engaged in a contentious battle over the height of the new Red Rock hotel-casino before both sides finally agreed on 198 feet.

Left undetermined in the months of talks between residents and the casino company was whether the 198-foot cap applied to future projects or only the casino, which is scheduled to open in April.

As Station Casinos embarks on Round 2 of its development at the resort -- two 227-foot-high condominium towers -- Gabriel Lither, who helped organize Summerlin Residents for Responsible Growth to fight the original casino plans, said he believes the condominium proposal violates the 2004 agreement approved by Clark County commissioners.

"I was thinking it was 198 feet from the ground to the top of the building; that's what we envisioned," Lither said. "I was slightly disappointed to see 227 feet."

Lither added, however, that he's unsure whether residents are up for another bout with the gaming company. "I'm trying to get the word out to residents to see if they care," he said.

Station Casinos has entered a partnership with Polo Towers developer Stephen Cloobeck and developer Steven Molasky to build the two condominium towers with a total of 392 rooms adjacent to Red Rock Station.

The towers will be built on property 29 feet lower in elevation than the land on which the hotel-casino stands. Because of the different land elevations, the condo towers will be no higher than the casino's rooftop despite being 29 feet taller when measured from base to roof.

Residents' primary concern with Red Rock Station was that the building would block views of the mountains.

"They (Station Casinos) said it's more aesthetically pleasing for the (tops of the) buildings to be at the same level," Lither said. "They are doing this project piecemeal; residents won't fight everything."

Clark County planners have made no formal recommendation on the condo project to commissioners. The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the proposal during its March 23 meeting.

Commissioner Chip Maxfield said the 198-foot limit approved by commissioners in January 2004 applied only to the hotel-casino proposal before the board.

The condo proposal shows that Station Casinos and its partners are respecting residents' concerns about obstructing mountain views, he said. "I think they've done a commendable job, saying they'll hold it to that size," Maxfield said. "They'll hold it to that so you won't have anything taller than the hotel."

The condominium developers have met with Summerlin residents and have not had any negative reaction, said Cloobeck. He said he and Molasky are second-generation developers whose families have built a reputation on respecting community members' opinions.

"I've built many towers in town, and we've been good neighbors," Cloobeck said. "We've tried to do the right thing. We'll continue to listen to people's comments. We're not guys who haven't been to the dance before."

Residents and Station Casinos representatives clashed in 2003 over the gaming company's proposal to build a 300-foot-high hotel-casino. Commissioners settled the dispute with a compromise in 2004 and directed Station to confine the hotel tower to 198 feet.

The debate triggered changes to proposed projects on nearby property. For example, the Howard Hughes Corp. initially had rights to build 250-foot-tall office buildings in Summerlin. Officials with the development company since have indicated they will limit the height of buildings to 200 feet, according to the Clark County Planning Department.