Regents vote helps push land swap for Del Webb

CARSON CITY -- Another hurdle has been cleared in the plans by Del Webb Corp., to acquire 3,000 more acres for home development at the south end of Henderson.

Webb, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service are involved in a $50 million land swap, with Webb giving up 140 acres of prime undeveloped forest land on the shores of Lake Tahoe in exchange for the property in Southern Nevada.

Scott Higginson, vice president of government and public affairs for Webb, said Thursday he expected the exchange to be completed by the end of the year.

His statement came after the board of regents voted to allow the University of Nevada, Reno to buy the palatial home on the Lake Tahoe land for $10 million.

The Tahoe property belonged to the late millionaire George Whittel who built a mansion. The Forest Service wants the unspoiled land but not the building. So the Reno university is going to raise private funds to buy it from Del Webb.

It would be used as a research center, for scientific conference and there is a possibility of allowing public tours. Higginson said the university has 23 research projects at Tahoe but there are spread all over.

Reno President Joe Crowley said the $10 million would be raised from private donations and the university would not ask the state for any operating money.

Higginson said development has started on the first 2,000 acres in Henderson. When the company gets the remaining 3,000 acres, there will be a build-out of 13,000 homes.

Before the final 3,000 acres can be acquired, Congress must approve a bill or federal administrative procedures must be started. The bill in Congress has passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate.

Regent Nancy Price of North Las Vegas, the lone dissenter, said this may be a good deal but these always seem to take place in northern Nevada and not in the South. She said she objected to the purchase because there's no policy on siting new campuses or programs for the university system.

Price also questioned Crowley about the appraisal of the property. He said the lone appraisal done by the federal government was higher than he expected. But he said that appraisal governs, no matter how many other appraisals might be done.

In other action, the regents approved a plan to keep a closer watch on the School of Medicine which is having financial troubles. The system will lend the school $1.5 million to get it through the next fiscal year.

Tom Anderes, vice chancellor for finance, blamed the problem on the hiring of more than a dozen physicians in southern Nevada and the purchase of a new billing system.

The new doctors, mostly pediatricians, had to wait for state licensing. In the meantime they were being paid but not bringing in any revenue. At the same time, a new computer collection system was installed in Southern Nevada. Because of problems with the computer, the collections in Clark County for treatment fell almost in half.

Anderes said the medical school should be back in the black by the end of next fiscal year.

Today (Friday), the regents will receive the latest figures for the its proposed budget for 1999-2001 which calls for spending $289 million, up 37 percent from the present biennium.

The budget for UNLV would be $88.8 million, up 38 percent and the spending program for the Community College would total $59.4 million, up 59 percent.

Anderes said there have been some changes since the preliminary budget request was released at the last meeting. He said $2 million is being added to UNLV and $1 million to the Community College of Southern Nevada to turn out more school teachers.

The Clark County School District has complained that there aren't enough teachers available to take care the growing student population.

The board is expected to give the go-ahead to the Community College of Southern Nevada to allow the Nevada School of Arts to use five acres on the Charleston Campus. The arts school would build a 60,000 square foot facility.

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