Failed stadium idea yields 3 new Las Vegas parks
A dead downtown soccer stadium could soon give birth to three new Las Vegas parks.
City Council members on Wednesday gave preliminary approval for some $26 million in bonds to help build those projects and spruce up seven other city parks, pools and community centers over the next decade.
The bonds — which would be paid down through future hotel room tax revenue divvied up by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority — count as the last vestige of a now abandoned blueprint to build a $200 million, 24,000-seat downtown soccer stadium.
An eerily similar bond-backed effort to add parks in the city‘s older, poorer wards was weaved into the final iteration of the defunct stadium plan — a move widely seen as a last-minute deal sweetener meant to secure Councilman Bob Coffin‘s swing vote in support of the project.
Officials hope to put a little more than one-third of the city‘s proposed eight-figure bond offering toward a pair of new parks in Coffin‘s ward and a third park planned for the ward represented by Councilwoman and vocal stadium opponent Lois Tarkanian.
Red Rock Park, to be on Alta Drive near the Charleston Heights Art Center, would cost the city $1.9 million to build. Construction of Mayfair Park, near 15th Street and Charleston Boulevard, and Washington Las Vegas Wash Park, near Lamb Boulevard and Washington Avenue, is expected to cost a combined $7 million.
City leaders plan to circle back to those proposals on Aug. 5. Bonds to pay for the moves could go to market by the end of August.
Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Find him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven.
