LETTER: Badlands and bureaucratic incompetence

This is my understanding about the events that occurred in the Badlands transaction.

First, developer Yohan Lowie of EHB Cos. purchases the Badlands golf course for somewhere around $15 million. The first proposal from EHB is to build five-story apartments/condos within 50 feet of the homes in Queensridge. The homeowners rejected that plan. Mr. Lowie sues the city of Las Vegas. All the while, EHB has yet to build roads or the infrastructure on the Badlands site.

Mr. Lowie takes the case to the Nevada State Supreme court and wins big. The Las Vegas city government offers Mr. Lowie $600 million to end the lawsuits. Mr. Lowie accepts the offer. The city immediately turns around and sells the site to Lennar Homes for $300 million. At the same time, the city approved Lennar’s request to build approximately 1,400 homes on the Badlands site.

This brings up the following question: If it is OK for Lennar to build approximately 1,400 homes on the Badlands property, why didn’t city officials let EHB build the same number of homes?

The failure of the city management team to negotiate a construction plan with Mr. Lowie and EHB cost the taxpayers more than $300 million. Generally, when a business loses this much money due to gross incompetence, people get fired. I guess when you work for the city of Las Vegas government, no one has to take responsibility.