Convenience store project gets shelved

In the face of stiff neighborhood opposition, a would-be car wash and service station development in northwest Las Vegas was scrapped Wednesday and the developer must go back to square one.

Grand Teton Lodge LLC wanted to build a 4,000-square-foot convenience store, an 800-square-foot car wash and a 2,700-square-foot restaurant on the northeast corner of Grand Teton and Durango drives.

Nearby residents sent up howls of protest, though, concerned about the amount of activity the project would bring to what’s mostly a neighborhood of single-family homes.

Councilman Steve Ross, who represents the area, told residents and the developer to reach a compromise.

That was about a year ago. Ross said Wednesday he was “surprised” to see the project back before the council, substantially unchanged.

“The applicant has not mitigated the concerns of the neighbors in the area,” Ross said. “Now they’re asking to go back on what was originally promised to the neighbors.”

Several people showed up to speak against the project, but representatives of the developer were not at the Las Vegas City Council meeting.

The developer’s lawyer, John Moran Jr., sent a letter Tuesday to Mayor Oscar Goodman asking that the project’s application be withdrawn.

Moran blamed the media.

He wrote that there had been “inconsistencies, inaccuracies and misconceptions in the media as well as voiced by certain neighborhood representatives” regarding the scope of the project.

He later said in an interview that news reports unfairly characterized the motives of his client, property owner Stuart Apollo. “Stuart has had that property for 20 years. He’s not trying to flip it,” Moran said.

Moran’s letter said Apollo had five neighborhood meetings. Ross disputed that, saying there were only two. Moran insisted his client tried hard to address concerns.

“He bent over backwards to make all these different changes. Every time he’d make an agreement with these people, they’d move the goalposts on him,” he said.

Still, he said, efforts to develop the property will continue, even if they have to start over.

Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a community activist who lives in northwest Las Vegas, said she and the neighbors were pleased. “At a time when politicians get a bad rap, you’ve really made us proud,” she said.

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