Las Vegas officials ready to study another Badlands plan

Plans to stretch more than 230 single-family homes across a large swath of the former Badlands golf course are headed for this week’s Las Vegas Planning Commission.

At the Tuesday night meeting, the commission also is slated to weigh in on a new public engagement program for developers who want to build on parks and golf courses that sit in the middle of existing residential developments.

Representatives of Badlands developer EHB Cos. have argued the city putting forth those new rules unfairly targets their project.

“We’re done with the games,” EHB Cos. CEO Yohan Lowie said Friday.

Past plans to put homes and condominiums on the 250-acre Badlands course have drawn the ire of some residents in the surrounding upscale Queensridge development. The course winds through parts of Queensridge, where homes are perched over the closed golf course.

The city’s public engagement plan, if passed, would require developers to hold neighborhood meetings and design workshops for their plans and send neighbors an “alternatives statement” detailing what would happen to the land if a golf course stops operating or an open space isn’t maintained. The statement also would need to outline why the developer wants to build there and whether there are changes to flood control and drainage easements.

Queensridge Owners Association attorney Shauna Hughes said Friday she expects to ask the Planning Commission to delay the new Badlands development plans so they will fall under a new citywide development ordinance.

“I think that makes perfect sense when this is the project that made the need for that ordinance in the first place,” Hughes said.

A new development policy would apply to 23 master development plan areas and special area plans in the city, 11 of which include golf courses, city planning officials have said.

The Las Vegas City Council has considered multiple development proposals for the golf course, amid intense urging from the developers and opponents.

The council approved in February the building of 435 condominiums on the course’s eastern corner, but has rejected or delayed the other Badlands plans over the past two years. EHB Cos. continues to work on those plans for the condominiums, Lowie said.

“They’ve rejected every proposal we’ve come in with,” Lowie said of the opponents to the development.

Representatives from both sides contend the other has been unwilling to work with them.

“I think the feeling is frustration,” Hughes said. “This is the third Christmas in a row, the third holiday season, neighbors have been brought to meetings, and it’s wearing.”

“They haven’t come back with an overall plan for the golf course as they’ve been instructed to do by the mayor and other members of council,” Hughes added.

The Badlands issue drove the rhetoric in the spring’s heated Ward 2 City Council race, which cost Bob Beers his seat to political newcomer-turned-City Councilman Steve Seroka. Christina Roush, a contender in the council race who was knocked out in the primary, opposed the Badlands development during the campaign. Seroka then appointed Roush to the Planning Commission. Roush couldn’t be reached for comment last week.

The council in September shot down Seroka’s pitch to put a moratorium on accepting plans for golf course and open space development to create a new citywide policy, but officials said they wanted to pursue the new policy without a moratorium.

A Planning Commission vote is the precursor to City Council consideration of the development plans. City planning staff recommends approval for the new Badlands plans.

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