To city leaders, the downtown redevelopment area is a way to encourage economic growth, replace aging buildings and rehabilitate the core of Las Vegas.

But to many residents at Wednesday's Las Vegas City Council meeting the expansion of the redevelopment area meant one thing: eminent domain.

About 350 residents turned out to hear plans to increase the size of the city's redevelopment area by nearly 25 percent. Such an expansion would allow city officials to provide incentives to improve existing businesses and lure new companies to the area.

City Council members promised, vowed and came just short of swearing oaths on holy books to convince residents that they would not use government's authority to forcibly purchase land to give it to a private owner.

"There are certain rules we will abide by," Mayor Oscar Goodman told the standing-room-only crowd. "This council, as long as I'm the mayor, will not take private property and give it to another private owner."

The extra 750 acres that could be added to the city's redevelopment area does not include any residences.

"We're just looking at commercial and industrial land in transitional areas," said Scott Adams, director of the Office of Business Development. And property owners that raise concerns have been and will be removed from the redevelopment area, he said.

After staff members and Goodman made clear that the council would not use eminent domain and that no residential property would be added to the redevelopment area, the packed City Council chambers began to empty.

The meeting showed a lingering uneasiness many residents in older parts of the city have about their local government.

Daniel Deegan, who lives in Rancho Manor which would be surrounded by redevelopment land under the proposed expansion, raised a specter: The city took land and gave it to the Stratosphere and Fremont Street Experience.

"The mayor before this believed in eminent domain, and the mayor after him could too," Deegan said. "It was a weak reassurance."

Deegan and others worried that community members will not have enough say about what could go up in their backyards.

"I'd like to see a clear direction of where they are heading," said Shondra Armstrong, president of the community group Save Ward 5. "Without a solid plan, it will be up to developers."

Councilman Lawrence Weekly had a section of West Las Vegas removed from the planned redevelopment expansion because of an outcry from residents.

Though the city has not used eminent domain for private development in more than 10 years, Weekly applauded the audience for making clear what a hot-button issue it continues to be. "In the future, when the guards of the gate change, things could be different," he said.

Land prices in downtown have increased eight- to 10- fold over the past decade, Adams said. He attributed some of that increase to the redevelopment agency.

The crowd came after 7,482 certified letters were sent, the result of a new rule requiring that everyone within 1,000 feet of a project be notified about a public meeting. But many in the audience were unsure whether their property would be inside the expanded redevelopment zone.

The city fielded about 400 calls about the expansion as of Wednesday morning.

The redevelopment agency was formed in 1986 to eliminate blight and spur economic development downtown. To do this, city officials use tax dollars to offer incentives to businesses. The incentives can be discounted land, tax rebates or other forms.

Adams said that no immediate projects were being planned for the area and that the boundaries could change.

The areas identified for inclusion were identified as blighted and as good candidates for the programs that the redevelopment agency offers, such as financing, fast-tracking projects through city bureaucracy and grants for aesthetic improvements to storefronts, officials said.

Critics argue that the incentives are mainly for big developers, and the smaller businesses, the ones who need help the most, often get short shrift.

"I see a lot of developers getting the cream off the top, and there's nothing for the community," said David Green, who lives outside the redevelopment expansion area but was mailed a notice on the proposal.

William Jones, pastor at New Life Christian Center who has had his church in the existing redevelopment area since 1994, was critical.

"Nothing is going on in our area," he said. "I think it's political, a thing for investors to make money."

But Adams pointed to the city's Visual Improvement Program, which provides grants for stores to fix up their facades. The agency has improved sidewalks and landscaping along roadways, he said.

The City Council unanimously voted to move forward with the plan.