Friday, Aug. 10, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.
A Clark County district judge Wednesday declined to dismiss a 1999 lawsuit filed against the county by the owners of the Alexis Park Resort and Spa, 375 E. Harmon Ave., over air space.
District Judge James Mahan said granting a summary judgment would be inappropriate because he still has many questions about the scope of the ordinance the parties are arguing about.
Hotel Nevada LLC filed a lawsuit against Clark County in July 1999 over an ordinance that would prohibit the company from building structures that would exceed 39 feet. The ordinance was passed to prevent potential problems with flights into and out of McCarran International Airport.
The ordinance was passed without compensating the company, the lawsuit alleged. Prior to its passage, a height restriction of 90 feet existed.
In court papers, the county responded: "This lawsuit is about a landowner in pursuit of an undeserved windfall at the public's expense."
Clark County has been adopting airport zoning regulations since 1955 and all are intended to prevent aviation hazards and are compatible with Federal Aviation Agency's regulations, the county's attorneys argue.
On Wednesday, Hotel Nevada attorney Mark James told Mahan that if the county wanted to ring the county with road improvements, it would be forced to condemn the property and compensate property owners. It's only because the space in this case is "ethereal" that the county is balking, James said.
Kirk Lenhard, an attorney for the county, noted that Strip properties negotiated for the right to exceed height restrictions. Hotel Nevada, an off-Strip property, has never done so, he said.
Instead, Lenhard said, Hotel Nevada immediately filed a lawsuit upon learning it couldn't build a 22-story structure.
Lenhard noted that fire lanes aren't condemned and property owners aren't compensated for the loss of that space.
"That's just the price of living in an organized society," Lenhard said.
archive
