Las Vegas is heating up, drying out and running out of land, experts say
A chunk of land within Southern Nevada that’s bigger than the size of the city of Henderson could potentially be available for infill commercial and residential development, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said at a recent panel on public lands in the region.
“The Las Vegas metro currently has over 82,000 acres of underutilized land that could be used for infill development and affordable housing,” said Titus, citing a recent report from the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.
But the biggest barrier to accessing most of this land is the federal government, Titus and Tina Frias, chief executive officer for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, said on the Tuesday panel.
Clark County previously confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the federal government owns 88 percent of all land in the county, and the Bureau of Land Management manages more than half of that. The BLM’s Southern Nevada District Office confirmed that it manages 2.6 million acres alone in Clark County.
The BLM has been slow to release land for private use dating to 1998, when the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act was passed. Titus said she would like the BLM to be a regular part of discussions like Tuesday’s panel, however has not had any luck yet.
“I would point out that we invited BLM, and they told us they had to get permission, and they never got back to us, so they are not here,” Titus said.
Frias said the private sector would love to get a hold of the available public land to build homes and help alleviate the valley’s housing crisis, which has home prices and rents at or close to record highs.
A recent UNLV Lied Center for Real Estate recently found that the valley has been under-building residential projects as far back as 15 years.
Frias also pointed out a study from financial consulting firm Applied Analysis that said the valley is projected to run out of land for development by 2032. “So we know we have a major concern,” she said.
Water and climate change
Other panelists said the top priority for the Las Vegas Valley should be water and fighting climate change.
Clark County is expected to break 3 million residents by 2045 and is currently adding more than 100 people a day to its population base. Nevada will get a 7 percent cut of its share of the Colorado River based on a projection released in August, which marks five consecutive years of cuts.
Las Vegas is one of the fastest-warming cities in the country, according to Climate Central, a nonpartisan group of climate scientists which found that the valley’s average temperature has risen by 5.9 degrees since the 1970s. Las Vegas is also covered in asphalt, which contributes to heat, and guests touched on potentially outdated zoning requirements in the county which require adjacent parking lots along with residential or commercial projects.
Olivia Tanager, the Director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter said the footprint of a proposed Clark County Lands Bill would allow for the development of up to 25,000 acres for residential and commercial projects over the next 50 years. She said this would make the valley’s water situation “quite dire.”
The Lands Bill would urge Congress to advance federal legislation that would expand conservation of public lands and economic development opportunities in Clark County, according to the county.
“It’s astounding I believe (the proposed lands bill would total) a fifth of our current water usage every day in the Las Vegas Valley,” said Tanager. “So when you think about that and think about the scale of the water that would be required to feed that sprawl instead of supporting existing communities in the Las Vegas Valley, I really think that’s a choice we should not make.”
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.