Big housing project near Red Rock Canyon could break ground this year

Las Vegas developer Jim Rhodes has cleared another hurdle for his massive housing project atop Blue Diamond Hill and could break ground this year.

The Clark County Planning Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved design reviews and a tentative map for around 830 acres with more than 1,000 single-family homes on the hilltop site off Blue Diamond Road west of Las Vegas.

A tentative map shows where homesites, roads and other components of a community would be built.

Rhodes’ vision for a sprawling hilltop community near Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area was controversial for years, marked by opposition and litigation. But after an $80 million settlement with the county last year, and with project approvals rolling in, he is getting closer to building the long-envisioned project.

Work ahead

The property, which Rhodes acquired more than 20 years ago, has long been the site of gypsum mining operations.

Overall, his project site spans roughly 2,000 acres and calls for 3,500 homes, and the plans that went to the commission this week cover the first phase, project manager Ron Krater told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Krater said the development team is on schedule with its engineering work to let them break ground on the project later this year, with the majority of construction underway by early 2026.

He said that Rhodes’ group will build a 4.5-mile connector road from the new community to Blue Diamond Road, funneling drivers to and from a point miles away from the scenic stretch of State Route 159 that cuts through the conservation area behind the hill.

He said his team is still working with the county to secure a right-of-way from the Bureau of Land Management for the new roadway, as it would be built through federal land.

Court clash

Rhodes, founder of Harmony Homes and the original developer of the Rhodes Ranch community in the southwest valley, previously sought to build more houses on top of Blue Diamond Hill than he does today.

He faced opposition from environmentalists, and he took government agencies to court over the project.

Through his entity Gypsum Resources, he sued Clark County and its board of commissions in 2023, citing their alleged “decades-long efforts to keep privately-owned property undeveloped” in breach of their legal and contractual obligations.

According to the lawsuit, the county maneuvered to “preclude timely development” of Rhodes’ property and “frustrate” a previous settlement with him, and officials “destroyed evidence, including public records, to conceal their scheme.”

This newer lawsuit was settled last year. As part of the deal, the county agreed to pay $80 million to Gypsum Resources and locked in the option to acquire around 190 acres of land — located in the national conservation area — from Rhodes for $1.

The county also approved 3,500 homes for Blue Diamond Hill and noted that previous approvals called for more than 5,000 homes.

According to a staff report last year, the county and Gypsum Resources had been involved in various litigation over development near Red Rock Canyon since 2005.

‘A lot of wins’

Krater, the project manager, said the hilltop community will feature custom-home lots and high-end housing tracts from builders.

He also said it will have commercial space, including, in the first phase, a plaza with restaurants, a small market and the like.

All told, Rhodes’ project took a long time to come to fruition, and some people may continue to view it as a “difficult pill to swallow,” Krater said.

But he noted that the planned number of homes has shrunk and that the spread of land the county can acquire has not been mined.

“There are a lot of wins for the community,” he said.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.