Judge will allow Save Red Rock lawsuit to go forward

A Clark County District Court judge on Thursday declined to dismiss a lawsuit aiming to prevent the development of atop a hill bordering the Red Rock National Conservation Area.

Judge Jerry Wiese’s ruling came three weeks after hearing Clark County’s request to quash the case, which was filed in December.

The county and Gypsum Resources, the company that plans to build a master planned community on Blue Diamond Hill, want the case thrown out. Environmental nonprofit Save Red Rock wants to take it to court.

Initially a defendant in the county-initiated suit, Save Red Rock now claims the county commission violated open meeting laws during a February zoning meeting.

Save Red Rock is also challenging whether it was proper for commissioners to allow Gypsum Resources to withdraw a new concept plan to build on Blue Diamond Hill with the understanding that a similar plan approved in 2011 had never expired.

“The point of this process is to make sure if this ever goes back before the county commission it’s a fair fight in which all parties are allowed to present their arguments and not be shut out of the process,” said Save Red Rock attorney Justin Jones, who is also running for the commission in 2018.

On Aug. 17, county attorney Robert Warhola argued before Wiese that the lawsuit was premature because the county commission had not approved Gypsum Resources development plan, only its concept plan.

The judge rejected that in his ruling.

“Although the Court acknowledges that there are several contingencies which must be met before homes can actually be built, or the Red Rock land developed pursuant to the 2011 Specific Plan, the County and Gypsum admittedly are pressing forward with the processing of that Plan in the attempt to develop the property which Save Red Rock is attempting to protect,” Wiese wrote.

County spokesman Dan Kulin previously said that the county commission chambers were at capacity during the February zoning meeting and that TV monitors in the Clark County Government Center’s halls and cafeteria were livestreaming the meeting. The Save Red Rock supporters who watched from outside were briefly allowed to into the chambers to testify.

Still, Wiese wrote in his ruling, “if in fact, members of the Save Red Rock group were refused admission to a public meeting, this is concerning to the Court.”

“If there were in fact safety and overcrowding issues that required the County to limit the number of people in the Commission Chambers, that is a determination that will have to be made after an analysis of the facts, and consequently, that is an issue of fact that cannot be decided at this stage of the litigation,” Wiese wrote.

The county and Gypsum Resources did not return requests for comment.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477- 3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.

Red Rock Ruling by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd