Friday, May 9, 2003 | 2:49 a.m.
Developer Jim Rhodes, whose plan to build homes at a gypsum mine near Red Rock Canyon has ignited a political firestorm, said Thursday he was in the process of buying the property for two years before closing the deal in March.
Rhodes' statement, made Thursday during "Face To Face With Jon Ralston," on Las Vegas ONE, Cox cable Channels 1 and 39, may raise more questions about the involvement of former Commissioner Erin Kenny with the developer.
The County Commission has begun to re-examine its ethics rules because of Kenny's lobbying of commissioners on Rhodes' proposed development of up to 5,500 homes at the James Hardie Gypsum Mine. The county's ethics task force is being re-formed to begin the task.
The county rules prohibit former county officials from lobbying on issues that came before them for a year after they leave the county. Kenny has argued that the Rhodes project never came before the commission during her terms, a contention that county counsel Mary Miller has refuted.
The latest revelation "may be academic," county spokesman Erik Pappa said today, because the county ethics code does not include any consequences.
"Currently the ethics guidelines don't have any teeth," he said. "If there were an issue with it, I'm not sure we could do anything about it."
That will be an issue the task force addresses, Pappa said.
Kenny, who chose not to seek re-election after two terms on the commission so she could run for lieutenant governor, left the county job in January.
When asked on the show about the commission's policy of a one-year cooling off period for former county employees and officials, Kenny said that the board had never considered the Rhodes proposal.
"I'm following the policy," she said. "As part-time employees, there is life after the commission."
Kenny said as a commissioner she considered an architectural protection plan for Blue Diamond Village and the Red Rock area along State Route 159, but it did not include the mine property.
John Laing Homes last year had sought zoning approval for about 8,500 homes on the property, which is surrounded on three sides by Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The proposal was rejected by the Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council but withdrawn before it got to the County Commission.
Rhodes said he closed escrow on the 2,400-acre property March 21, but had initiated efforts to buy the James Hardie Gypsum Mine two years ago. The purchase price was $53 million.
Rhodes told host Jon Ralston that it was a boyhood dream of his to develop the property so he could live in a home atop Blue Diamond Hill and commute to Las Vegas in a helicopter.
"I no longer dream of doing that," he said.
Commissioners Rory Reid and Bruce Woodbury brought the ethics item before the commission after two events that arose from Rhodes' proposal to develop Blue Diamond Hill.
Rhodes last month sued to keep Commissioner Mark James from proposing a county ordinance that would keep high-density residential or commercial development off the property. Rhodes alleged that James had a conflict of interest because he had advised the developer on how to get zoning approval for the mine site.
In his response to the lawsuit, James wrote in an affidavit that Kenny had lobbied him heavily, with veiled threats, on the issue.
A District Court judge ruled that James could introduce the ordinance, saying it was too early for the court to intervene. James has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The developer said that James had supported his efforts to develop homes in place of the mine.
"He told me it was a disaster," Rhodes told Ralston on what James had told him about replacing the unsightly mine with homes.
James declined an invitation to appear on the program. Earlier he said he had spoken to Rhodes while campaigning for the commission.
Meanwhile, the Legislature is considering a bill that would freeze zoning in the area.
Senate Bill 358, pushed by state Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, would keep the zoning at one house per two acres, limiting Rhodes to about 1,400 homes on the property.
A hearing on the bill has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at the Grant Sawyer State Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., near Las Vegas Boulevard North.
Titus said she also supports a plan for the county commission to buy the mine and transfer the restored site to the Bureau of Land Management as part of the Red Rock Conservation Area.
"It's not a choice between a mine and a development," Titus said, noting that a hilltop community would require roads, schools, utilities and would create more environmental pollution in one of Southern Nevada's most popular natural scenic attractions.
Rhodes countered, "I think they want to devalue my property so I can't build it"
In a letter to the commission, Titus said she supported the county's plan. "First, the current owner is much more likely to be a willing seller if he is denied the ability to more densely develop the land." The second point, she said, addresses local development limits that would "prevent the site's fair market value from skyrocketing."
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