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complex was the only part of a larger luxury housing development proposed for the Badlands golf course that wasn’t withdrawn from city consideration earlier this month.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The application for all but the 720 units was withdrawn earlier this month, after the Las Vegas Planning Commission shot down that part of the proposal.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.”
Pisanelli Bice was named in Vegas Inc.’s “The Notes: Law Firms, Nov. 6-12, 2016″.
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LAS VEGAS – Founding partners James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice announced today that the firm earned six Tier 1 rankings in Las Vegas by U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” for 2017.
The firm’s top-level designations are in the areas of Appellate Practice, Commercial Litigation, Construction Law, Construction Litigation, First Amendment Litigation, and Real Estate Litigation. The firm was also ranked in Tier 2 for Land Use & Zoning Litigation. Pisanelli Bice has long been a fixture in the U.S. News – Best Lawyers rankings. The firm earned five Tier 1 awards in both 2015 and 2016.
Pisanelli Bice was named to the top tier based on a comprehensive evaluation process that includes client and peer evaluations of the firm’s responsiveness, client needs assessment, integrity, competitiveness, civility and cost-effectiveness, as well as a review of additional information provided by law firms themselves as part of the submission and application process. To be eligible, firms must have at least one attorney in the current edition of Best Lawyers in America©, which is one of the oldest and most respected peer-review publications in the legal profession.
“Recognition by our clients and colleagues is especially gratifying as it reinforces Pisanelli Bice’s approach to personal service and comprehensive representation,” said Debra Spinelli, the firm’s managing partner. “We believe our decision to remain a small, boutique firm concentrating on litigation enables us to focus our resources on delivering customized legal solutions for our clients.”
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Pisanelli Bice has been recognized by the Las Vegas Business Press, On the Move, with their newest associate, Brittnie Watkins.
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LAS VEGAS – 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.
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