Las Vegas restates preference for compact conservation area

Las Vegas reiterated its support Wednesday for a compact, 2,900-acre conservation area in the north and northwest part of the city, saying it's the option that best balances conservation and the city's future growth needs.

Not everyone feels that way. In fact, the city decided to restate its preference because of support from some groups for setting aside 13,000 acres for the Upper Las Vegas Wash Conservation Transfer Area.

That position has already been communicated to the Bureau of Land Management, and "what we're doing is strengthening that comment," said Chris Knight, director of the city's administrative services department.

Jill DeStefano, a North Las Vegas resident who founded Protectors of Tule Springs to support creation of a larger conservation area, said she's disappointed with the city's choice. "That is absolutely amazing. It's ridiculous," she said, and then predicted, "It will never happen."

The BLM is looking at potential boundaries for the conservation area, which at its largest could stretch from northern North Las Vegas to the northwest corner of the Paiute Indian Reservation. Comments on six proposed alternative plans were due last month, and the agency is expected to issue a preliminary proposal next year.

The area is home to rare plant life and numerous fossils dating to the Ice Age. The larger conservation area is the best way to protect what's there, said Jane Feldman, a Las Vegas resident who is the Sierra Club's Southern Nevada conservation co-chair.

"It seems to me the city of Las Vegas is just totally fixed on one answer, and there's no room for any other way of thinking," she said. "They've thrown their lot with the developers."

Las Vegas expects to grow to the northwest, said Knight.

"If we don't grow in this area, we have limited opportunities for growth in other areas," Knight said, and predicted the city could lose $61 million a year if growth stops.

Las Vegas' preferred option would include the majority of the paleontological sites as well as protecting rare plants like the Las Vegas buckwheat and bearpoppy, Knight said.

Some surface mammoth sites would not be covered, he added, and would be excavated before development or otherwise mitigated.

DeStefano and Feldman scoffed at that statement, noting that surveying, excavating, storing and curating the remains would be a massive undertaking.

"Those fossil remains have been on the books 60 years, and no one has been able to organize the money to do that," Feldman said. "To say that that's what we're going to do is really disingenuous."

Councilman Larry Brown said any option is better than the current situation. "No one's managing it," he said. "It's being used for illegal dumping, shooting, off-roading."

If that is what the council wants, DeStefano said, it should have done it five years ago and avoided all the studies and expenditures incurred.