Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 | 11:24 a.m.
Station Casinos received zoning and a go-ahead for design of its planned Durango Station casino at the Las Vegas Beltway and Durango Drive on Wednesday, a move the Clark County Commission made over the appeals of some nearby residents.
The motion to approve the zoning for the long-planned project came from Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, a board member of Station Casinos until her appointment to the county commission earlier this year.
Boggs McDonald rejected Spring Valley and Rhodes Ranch residents who argued that the county had the legal ability to deny the project, and that the construction of a school in 2002 -- five years after the county first permitted the casino at the Spring Valley site -- made the site unsuitable for a casino.
Boggs McDonald said the county's earlier approval had the force of law, and the county commission could not renege on a development agreement it approved in 1997. She noted that the county commission had reaffirmed the earlier approval in subsequent votes.
"A deal has been struck," she said. "If we were to renege, especially after this body has made seven affirmative votes, that would be very bad public policy."
Boggs McDonald also said that Rhodes Ranch residents signed disclosure forms indicating that they knew the 61-acre site was slated for a casino when they purchased their homes.
"Anyone who lived within Rhodes Ranch knew of this disclosure," she said. Tanaka Elementary School was the epicenter for the residents' concerns about mixing a casino with a school about a quarter-mile away.
Boggs McDonald, reiterating comments from Station Casinos' representatives, said the company warned the county and the school district that the nearby site would be a casino when the county commission approved the school in 2002.
"There have been numerous examples where this board has made decision in siting casinos in proximity to schools," she said.
While Boggs McDonald supported the right of Station Casinos to build the casino and hotel, she did not grant the company everything it wanted. Land use consultant Greg Borgel and Station Casinos Vice President Scott Nielson asked for approval of a 196,000-square-foot casino floor, equivalent to the floor space at the MGM Grand.
New development had to be weighed in deciding how big the casino should be, Boggs McDonald said. She proposed 120,000 square feet, and added that she hoped the eventual design would be less than that.
Boggs McDonald also made a motion to deny a design review for the casino, which Station Casino representatives have said is likely years away from construction.
"How can you approve a design you've never seen?" Boggs McDonald asked.
Her colleagues supported Boggs McDonald's motion with three unanimous, 7-0 votes.
Some of the planned casino's neighbors were not as supportive.
"The casinos belong on the Strip," said Anna Radford, a Spring Valley resident who said her son drives daily to nearby Sierra Vista High School.
Like other residents, she said the southern Spring Valley area has changed with substantial development, so the commission should find a way to deny the project.
"We need to take our children into consideration," she said. "We need to protect them and give them something other than a casino to deal with."
Radford said the debate reminded her of another contentious casino approval four years ago. In that case, a neighborhood casino was proposed by Triple Five Development and Boyd Gaming. A special state board authorized by a law designed to limit the spread of neighborhood casinos eventually nixed the Triple Five project. Radford is a veteran of that effort.
Keith Oliver, another Spring Valley resident, said his children would attend Tanaka.
"Alcohol, gambling and children," Oliver said. "Those things do not mix."
Radford and other neighbors had dozens of supporters in the commission audience, many of them from the Culinary Union, which had lent financial support to the opposition. The union has been at odds with the non-union Station Casinos over the company's land-use requests before the county commission, including the Red Rock Station casino approved over protests earlier this year.
Culinary representatives declined comment on the commission decision, but Nielson, with Station Casinos, said the union's effort represented harassment. He said the union's issue was not with the land-use plans, but with the union status of the employees.
"If our team members were represented by Culinary, they would be down here asking that the towers should be taller and the casino should be larger," he said.
Culinary Union members also were present earlier in what was a very long day for the county commission zoning meeting. Station Casinos came before the board to ask for approval of its plan for signs and lights at the Red Rock Station casino on West Charleston Boulevard.
The request was opposed by some Summerlin residents, who argued especially that an animated, illuminated sign on Charleston was inappropriate and out of character for their west side, upscale neighborhood.
Opponents to the lighting plan argued that the public had not been properly notified that the issue was coming up. County counsel Rob Warhola said that although he did not necessarily agree that the signs at the heart of the debate were not properly noticed on the zoning agenda, he said there was enough ambiguity to err on the side of caution. He urged the county commission to set a new date for consideration of the Red Rock Station requests.
The county commission set a Dec. 14 special meeting date to consider the request.
Nielson said the objections on the notification issue were "just a stalling tactic."
Nielson engaged in a long conversation with two land-use activists whom the company had cut off from dialogue last week on the Durango Station and Red Rock Station issues. Lisa Mayo-DeRiso and Carolyn Edwards had led opposition efforts.
Nielson said following the meeting that the activists would be included in future conversations on the design of Durango Station. Mayo-DeRiso and Edwards said they were asked by residents to represent them on during the debate.
"We want to talk to people," Nielson said to the pair. "We're very aware of the issues. We want to reach out."
Station Casinos, representatives said, have made efforts to communicate with residents both in Spring Valley and Summerlin on the casino projects.
The design of the Durango Station project will take into consideration neighbors' concerns, including the proximity to schools and parks, Nielson said.
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