The Las Vegas City Council yet again delayed action on a controversial proposal for a large residential development on the Badlands golf course, after a more than seven-and-a-half-hour session Wednesday that turned testy and dramatic at times.
The housing complex was the only part of a larger luxury housing development proposed for the Badlands golf course that wasn’t withdrawn from city consideration earlier this month. The proposal for 720 units at the eastern corner of the Badlands golf course will return to the council in January.
The council voted 4-3 earlier Wednesday to allow developers proposing controversial residential units on the Badlands golf course to withdraw a substantial part of their plan without certain restrictions, but urged negotiations toward a compromise with neighbors.
Councilman Bob Beers, who represents the area of the city that includes Badlands and surrounding neighborhoods, warned that council members would “frown on” an application for development of that portion of the course returning to the council sooner than six months from now.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and other council members chided people — both in favor of and against the development — for failing to work together and compromise. Goodman directed Attorney Shauna Hughes, who represents the Queensridge Homeowners Association, and EHB Companies President Frank Pankratz to lead the negotiations.
“Nothing would make the seven of us happier than that accord being reached,” Beers said.
A clearly frustrated developer, EHB Companies CEO Yohan Lowie, addressed the council toward the end of Wednesday’s meeting, which led council members to question whether their earlier calls for negotiations between the two sides would happen.
Residents in neighboring developments have fiercely opposed Lowie’s proposal to develop on the golf course, located southwest of the intersection of Alta Drive and Rampart Boulevard.
The original application covered a much larger area of the golf course, totaling nearly 2,700 multifamily and assisted living units and larger single-family estates.
The application for all but the 720 units was withdrawn earlier this month, after the Las Vegas Planning Commission shot down that part of the proposal.
Opponents continued to rail Wednesday against the project for traffic and drainage concerns, the density of the proposed development and the removal of the golf course as open space.
They lamented what they said are declining property values since the new development was proposed, and the sides continued to butt heads over whether residential units can be developed on the golf course. That concern is one of the issues in a pending lawsuit opponents filed nearly a year ago.
Goodman said she felt as if she had returned to the time of her grown children’s youth during her interaction with project proponents and opponents.
The mayor had to quiet crowd members who were shouting that they wanted to lengthen the timeline for the withdrawn part of the application to return to the council.
A crowd of roughly 150 people gathered in the council chambers, some wielding signs that read “Hear Our Voices” and “Not the Select Few.”
Councilman Stavros Anthony called the past year “unproductive” in working through the Badlands issues and called it one of the most “toxic land use discussions” the council has had in his time in office.
“I think we need to use a mulligan on this whole thing,” Anthony said. “I think we need to start completely over.”
Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian said she was “disappointed” that more efforts weren’t made to try to bring the two sides together.
Councilman Bob Coffin noted he hadn’t been in a meeting where both sides had been present and at least willing to “give an inch.”
Gaming attorney Frank Schreck, one of the Queensridge residents leading the charge against the golf course development proposal, said the developers have approached city staff about a different plan to develop another segment of the golf course.
City planning staff and City Attorney Brad Jerbic acknowledged a pre-application conference about the potential for developing a subdivision on part of the golf course, as an alternative to a development agreement with the city for the entire 250 acres.
Tarkanian, who said she fielded many calls about the development proposal, said council members should have known about that.
“Our own staff should be letting us know what they’re talking about doing,” Tarkanian said. “And I feel really badly about that.”
LAS VEGAS – (Sep. 14, 2016) – James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, founding partners of Pisanelli Bice PLLC, announce that Brittnie T. Watkins has joined the firm as an associate attorney. Ms. Watkins will primarily practice commercial litigation.
Prior to joining Pisanelli Bice, Ms. Watkins was a judicial law clerk to Justice Michael L. Douglas of the Supreme Court of Nevada for the 2014-2016 term. During her term, Ms. Watkins assisted the Court in making precedential legal determinations in a variety of matters, including corporate and contractual, gaming, constitutional, intellectual and real property, medical malpractice, and construction defect.
While earning her juris doctor and doctorate degrees at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Ms. Watkins served on the Nevada Law Journal, Boyd’s nationally recognized Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition team, and as a member of the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition team. Ms. Watkins also served as a public interest fellow and graduate research and teaching assistant. Ms. Watkins gained experiential learning as a student attorney in the Family Justice Clinic, legal extern for the Children’s Attorney Project of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, and law clerk for the Office of the Clark County Public Defender. Amid extra-curricular activities, Ms. Watkins achieved a top 30% ranking and Dean’s List honors. Upon graduation, Ms. Watkins received the Barbara Buckley Community Service Award and the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Leadership. Ms. Watkins’ dissertation focusing on courtroom stress in witnesses was recently bestowed the Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award.
Ms. Watkins received two bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice, with high honor, and psychology, with honor from Michigan State University. She also received her master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
About Pisanelli Bice
Pisanelli Bice is a Las Vegas-based firm focused primarily on commercial litigation. The firm, founded by attorneys James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, represents clients ranging from single entity developers and entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies, municipalities, public agencies as well as some of Nevada’s largest gaming companies. For more information, please visit pisanellibice.com.
The founding partners of Pisanelli Bice PLLC, James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, announced that the boutique law firm has been named among the best litigation firms in the country by Chambers and Partners. In addition, Bice has been selected Las Vegas Lawyer of the Year in the Litigation-Land Use and Zoning category by the Best Lawyers in America rating service, based on attorneys’ peer reviews.
Chambers and Partners ranks attorneys and firms based on interviews with their clients and legal colleagues. Pisanelli Bice is one of only three Nevada firms honored in Band 1 of the Chambers USA 2016 guide for General Commercial Litigation. The firm, which has represented Caesars Entertainment, Bally Technologies, MGM Resorts, City National Bank and Wynn Resorts, rose from Band 2 in 2015 to Band 1 distinction this year based on its handling of pre-trial negotiations, documentation and preparation for trial, summary judgment motions, trial, appeals and commercial enforcement proceedings in state, circuit and federal courts.
Bice achieved the highest rating in this year’s Litigation-Land Use and Zoning category for his familiarity and skill in handling the complex litigation surrounding public and private construction and development. Attorneys listed in Best Lawyers in America are voted into practice areas as a result of the votes they receive from their peers. Best Lawyers assigns the subspecialties based on analysis of information from a variety of sources.
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James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, founding partners of the litigation firm Pisanelli Bice PLLC, were recently selected by their legal peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America 2017, a nationwide peer-review publication.
Managing Partner Debra L. Spinelli was also selected for the fourth consecutive year by her peers for inclusion in the publication.
Best Lawyers listed Pisanelli in the category for commercial litigation, a primary focus of the law firm. The publication also listed him in four additional legal categories, including bet-the-company litigation, construction law, litigation – construction and litigation – real estate.
The publication listed Bice for the third consecutive year in the appellate practice category. The publication also listed Bice in four other legal categories, including commercial litigation, litigation – first amendment, litigation – land use and zoning and litigation – mergers and acquisitions.
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LAS VEGAS (June 28, 2016) – Four attorneys from the Las Vegas boutique litigation firm Pisanelli Bice PLLC have been named to the prestigious Mountain States Super Lawyers lists, the firm’s founding partners announced today.
Firm founders James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice and Managing Partner Debra L. Spinelli were selected to Super Lawyers’ “Top” lists, which recognize outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas.
Pisanelli and Bice both were once again honored as two of the elite Top 100 lawyers in the region that includes Nevada, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. Pisanelli has earned Top 100 Super Lawyers distinction every year since 2013. The 2016 listing marks Bice’s third consecutive year on the Top 100. Both have been designated Super Lawyer – an honor accorded to fewer than 5 percent of all attorneys in the region – for 10 straight years.
Spinelli was selected one of the service’s Top 50 women lawyers in the region. She is a Super Lawyer for the fourth consecutive year.
In addition, Ava M. Schaefer earned Super Lawyers’ “Rising Star” status.
Fewer than 5 percent of Nevada’s attorneys receive Super Lawyers designations after undergoing a comprehensive, multi-step nomination and evaluation process. This process includes a statewide survey of colleagues in the state’s legal profession, peer reviews, consideration of professional achievements, and independent research conducted by Super Lawyers’ parent company, Thomson Reuters, the world’s most respected source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.
Super Lawyers state and regional listings are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines, leading local and statewide publications and metropolitan newspaper supplements across the country. Super Lawyers magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For more information about Super Lawyers, visit superlawyers.com.
About Pisanelli Bice
Pisanelli Bice is a Las Vegas-based law firm focused primarily on commercial litigation. The firm, founded by attorneys James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, represents clients ranging from single-entity developers and entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies, municipalities, public agencies and some of Nevada’s largest gaming companies. For more information, please visit pisanellibice.com or on Twitter @pisanellibice.
