Friday, March 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Mirage Resorts has yet to dedicate right of way to Clark County so it can extend Harmon Avenue west of the Strip -- and appears to have the county over a barrel until it gets air rights for a private monorail.
But Caesars Palace -- which sits between the two properties that Mirage Resorts wants to link with a people mover system -- is also holding up the county's road construction plans. It won't relinquish air rights without some assurance that the county won't transfer those rights to Mirage Resorts.
Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who opposed the county's decision three years ago to relinquish the Harmon right of way through the old Dunes property, said Mirage Resorts has the upper hand.
"We can't force them to give up Harmon, so we need their cooperation," Woodbury said.
However, he said Caesars is equally at fault for holding up the county's plans.
"There's a vast transportation network at stake here," he said. "We need an agreement on both sides or nothing goes forward."
That network includes a frontage road from Russell Road north to Industrial Road behind the westside properties and running parallel to Interstate 15. Included is extending Harmon west of the Strip through Mirage Resorts' Bellagio property.
"They've indicated everything is part of the overall system there, that it's all linked together," Woodbury said. "Just like Caesars felt everything was linked together, even the pedestrian overpass."
Caesars is the only one of four properties that has not signed an agreement to build a $21 million pedestrian tunnel under the intersection of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard.
County Manager Pat Shalmy outlined three options for the board to consider Tuesday:
* Urge Caesars to sign the underpass agreement and pay its $2.1 million share.
* Notice Caesars regarding its obligation under the approved use permit and north tower phase development agreement to pay $1.4 million in stipulated cost participation and property rights.
* Renegotiate the cost-sharing participation on the project with the other three properties -- Bally's, Barbary Coast and Bellagio.
Rand Araskog, chairman of ITT Corp., which owns Caesars, said the county has given Mirage Resorts an unfair advantage on the tunnel, the frontage road and Harmon.
Araskog also criticized the commission for approving an agreement requiring Caesars to give up its air rights to go forward with its south tower. The commission rejected a request to give Caesars the right of consent on any future conveyance of the air rights to a private entity, saying the board gives preferential treatment to Mirage Resorts.
"It's not as if we're dreaming things up, or taking a position against one hotel in favor of another," Woodbury said. "It's in favor of a whole resort corridor transportation system wherein we are treating everybody exactly the same."
Mirage Resorts officials said the development agreement doesn't convey any rights to them, and that they have made no official proposal for a monorail. However, the company's master plan shows a monorail linking The Mirage, north of Caesars, with Bellagio, to the south.
Mirage Resorts spokesman Alan Feldman said Caesars is holding hostage the frontage road network. But some Caesars representatives said it's Mirage Resorts that has the county over a barrel -- and may have more influence over commissioners.
Woodbury called that "utter nonsense." He received $20,000 from Mirage Resorts last fall for a virtually uncontested re-election race, but he has voted several times against the company in the past.
And Araskog's comments don't help the negotiating process, Woodbury said.
"Obviously he got mad and grossly overreacted," Woodbury said. "That hasn't helped the process along by doing this, and probably set back our chances of resolving this in the near future by making the accusations that he did."
If the matter can't be resolved, the county may have to use eminent domain proceedings to acquire the property for millions more than by voluntary relinquishment of right of way, Woodbury said.
Woodbury said he has written a letter responding to Araskog's letter of last week, and has urged both sides to reconcile their differences.
"I don't have any ideas to resolve it," Woodbury said. "We're trying to get them all at the table."
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