Las Vegas council OKs pared-down condo project at edge of Badlands course

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday narrowly gave the green light to a pared-down proposal to put hundreds of condominiums on the eastern edge of the shuttered Badlands golf course, a late-in-the-game reduction that drew a 4-3 favorable vote.

The council split in favor of the smaller proposal by EHB Cos., unveiled at that meeting, to put 435 for-sale condominiums rather than 720 rentals at the corner of Alta Drive and Rampart Boulevard.

Those were changes that “imposed on us” by Councilman Bob Beers, said attorney Chris Kaempfer, who represents the developers.

The change came at Wednesday’s meeting, three months after the council last considered for nearly eight hours the proposal for 720 rentals on the site. The development proposal has generated abundant acrimony with a number of homeowners in the Queensridge community. Some of the homes line the golf course, which closed in late 2016.

Some City Council members were pushing for a general development plan for the Badlands site, rather than developing the 250-acre course piece by piece.

“I don’t think we should be doing this as a puzzle,” Councilman Stavros Anthony said.

Anthony, Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian and Councilman Bob Coffin cast votes against the Badlands development measures.

EHB Cos. CEO Yohan Lowie countered that a “holistic” development proposal for the 250-acre course, which city officials pushed for to begin with, was up for consideration at City Hall last year.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman called the unit reduction “good progress,” after urging the sides to compromise in November.

Beers, who represents that part of the city, said he sees an issue with continuing to chase a “global plan.”

“The homeowner contingent has not been negotiating in good faith,” Beers said. “They’ve been fueled by a false legal assumption that no development can take place.”

Shauna Hughes, the attorney for the Queensridge homeowners association, met several times in the past three months with EHB Cos. President Frank Pankratz, read the council a letter about a lack of progress for much of that time between the council meetings.

Hughes said she was aware of the proposed reduction in condos last week in a meeting with representatives from EHB and the city, but said she was asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement about the meeting. Hughes wasn’t sure hours before the council heard the application Wednesday whether the reduction would come forward.

“We were not allowed to talk about it, and we were not allowed to pursue it,” Hughes told the council.

A number of Queensridge homeowners, including some well-known Las Vegas names, filed a lawsuit against the city and the developer in December 2015 over the development proposal on the golf course.

City Attorney Brad Jerbic later said Wednesday that with pending litigation, the reason for confidentiality was so the parties could speak “freely” at that meeting despite being parties to that lawsuit.

Hughes told the council she didn’t mean to sound “negative,” but concerns persist about the golf course being developed in a piecemeal way. Wednesday’s session on Badlands lasted roughly four hours.

The council is slated to consider a separate application to put 61 lots for custom single-family homes on another section of the course, after the city Planning Commission voted 4-2 Tuesday night in favor of that proposal.

The 61 lots would be spread across 34 acres of the former course near the corner of Alta and Hualapai Way. Goodman said Wednesday she has “no appetite” for that proposal until there’s a general development plan for the site, which drew raucous applause from development opponents.

A twist of fate and city planning coincidence landed the developers proposing residences on the golf course and the plans’ staunch opponents in City Council chambers together for three hours on Valentine’s Day.

Despite the holiday, a spirit of compromise was decidedly absent. The two sides continue to clash over the development proposal, as they have for more than a year in neighborhood meetings, at City Hall and in court.

Attorney Stephanie Allen, representing EHB Cos., said the proposed subdivision would be gated with access to Hualapai Way and a street network separate from the existing Queensridge neighborhood street network. One side of each street would have sidewalks, and building heights of the single-family custom homes wouldn’t surpass 46 feet, Allen said.

Commissioner Vicki Quinn said a lack of detail around some elements of the plans bothers her “immensely.” She and Planning Commissioner Cedric Crear cast the votes against the development.

“I have no idea what the hell I’m even voting on and what it’s going to look like,” Quinn said.

Multiple opponents implored the commission to demand the developers present a “comprehensive application” for developing the golf course, although there was a strong wall of opposition before the commission last year when development plans for the whole course were presented.

Ward 2 City Council candidates Steve Seroka and Christina Roush, who are challenging Beers for the Ward 2 seat, both spoke against the development proposal at both the Planning Commission and City Council public hearings this week.

Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @JamieMunksRJ on Twitter.