Judge lets lawsuit against Coyote Springs proceed

WASHINGTON -- Two public land advocacy groups can move forward with a lawsuit challenging a federal land deal that helped the developer of Coyote Springs, a federal judge ruled this week.

The Western Lands Project and the Nevada Outdoor Recreation Association allege that the Bureau of Land Management violated environmental and public land laws when it agreed in 2005 to convey 6,881 acres for a segment of the community being built 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Brian Sandoval in Reno declined to dismiss the lawsuit at the urging of the federal agency and prominent developer Harvey Whittemore.

The agency and the developer, along with Pardee Homes of Nevada, a Coyote Springs homebuilder, raised a series of legal arguments that Sandoval rejected in a 25-page order.

"It seems we did clear a major hurdle," said Janine Blaeloch, director of the Seattle-based Western Lands Project. "We basically established the legitimacy of the case with the court, and we now can move ahead with it."

Attorneys for the developer were reviewing the order.

"While we are disappointed our motion to dismiss was not granted. We are confident the federal government followed the law," said Michael Hillerby, executive vice president of governmental affairs for Wingfield Nevada Group, a company headed by Whittemore.

"The reconfiguration of the land at Coyote Springs is beneficial to the desert tortoise, and we have adhered to both the spirit and letter of the law, as well as the direction given to us by the federal agencies," Whittemore said. "Our development activities are ongoing."

Christopher Krupp, an attorney for the advocacy groups, said the next step would be for the BLM to file a response with the court on the issues raised.

The lawsuit contends that a land patent the BLM issued to Coyote Springs Investment LLC was the result of a land exchange carried out without an environmental impact study or appraisals required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Public Land Management Act.

In the acre-for-acre swap, the government obtained property on the eastern edge of the planned real estate project.

The BLM and Coyote Springs argue the transaction was a reconfiguration that was achieved after the BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined it would be in the best interest of the federally protected desert tortoise.

The advocacy groups are seeking to overturn the land patent.

It is not clear what effect that would have on the project, where construction is under way on what is envisioned as a community of more than 150,000 homes on 43,000 acres in Clark and Lincoln counties.