Friday, June 20, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.
Developers of Lake Las Vegas called on the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to "live up to its obligations and promises" after the agency on Thursday published the appraisal for land the resort community has been attempting to purchase for more than a decade.
But the BLM said the roughly 1,000 acres of government-owned land appraised at $41.6 million is a steal -- and would command a much higher price for government coffers at an auction.
Lake Las Vegas wants to pay $11.9 million, the price the land was originally appraised for.
The land in dispute is adjacent to Lake Las Vegas Resort, a 2,600-acre residential resort community, and has been the source of lawsuits, failed land exchanges, and ill-will between the company and the government agency for years.
The BLM published a notice of realty action in order to move forward with the proposed land sale with Lake Las Vegas and begin a 45-day public comment period and 60-day governor's review. The land, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday, was appraised at $41.6 million -- $29.7 million more than the original appraisal of $11.9 million in 2000.
"(The Department of the Interior) has contracted to transfer the land to Lake Las Vegas at an agreed price based on a previous (Interior Department)-approved appraisal, either through a direct sale or land exchange," Owen Blicksilver, spokesman for Lake Las Vegas, said in a statement. "The new appraisal can only be seen as an attempt to abrogate an existing and valid contract through actions that not only waste taxpayer funds but also seriously question the reasonableness of any private party's reliance on or trust in agreements with (the Interior Department)."
Phillip Guerrero, spokesman for the BLM, said a new appraisal had to be issued because the original two-year-old appraisal expired in November.
"We very much would like to consummate this deal with Lake Las Vegas and believe it is in the best interest of everyone involved to do so," Guerrero said. "In a competitive situation, there is no telling where the prices might go."
At a BLM land auction earlier this month, the federal government sold 997.5 acres of land in the Las Vegas Valley for $232.3 million, $102 million more than the appraised value of the property and about $232,000 an acre.
The newly appraised price for the roughly 1,000 acres near Lake Las Vegas is about $41,600 an acre.
In an interview this month with In Business Las Vegas, a sister newspaper to the Las Vegas Sun, Mark Morse, BLM field office manager in Las Vegas, said a new appraisal had to be conducted because they are only good for one year. He also said in the decade the two sides have gone back and forth over the land, its value has skyrocketed.
Guerrero said the original appraisal was renewed in 2001, extending it for another year.
Lake Las Vegas sued the BLM in March alleging the BLM deliberately delayed selling the land to Lake Las Vegas. That case is still pending and officials with the company said the suit would be "vigorously pursued."
In 1990, Lake Las Vegas and the BLM agreed upon a land exchange for the land adjacent to the resort community.
Under the terms of the agreement, according to Lake Las Vegas, the company would buy environmentally sensitive land that would be traded to the BLM in exchange for the land near Lake Las Vegas.
Third parties opposed to the land exchange filed suit, delaying the land swap.
By the fall of 2000, Lake Las Vegas and the BLM agreed to complete the exchange in two phases. In the first phase, completed in January 2001, 355 acres sought by Lake Las Vegas were exchanged for 5,801 acres, according to Lake Las Vegas.
The second phase of the exchange failed for numerous reasons, which included contested surveys and disputed water rights by third parties, which caused delays in completing appraisals for the land swap.
In July 2002, the BLM agreed to sell the land directly to Lake Las Vegas, according to the company.
"Lake Las Vegas has struggled for over 12 years to complete the transfer of the land," Blicksilver said. "... Lake Las Vegas insists that (Interior) live up to its obligations and promises and follow Congress' will."
Guerrero said the BLM has been moving forward with the land deal.
"We would very much like to come to an agreeable consensus between the government and Lake Las Vegas, and we are quite hopeful we will be able to do so."
archive
