Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Lake Las Vegas golf course owner sues Henderson over water agreement

Lake Las Vegas

Joe Elbert

Pictured is The Falls Golf Club at the entrance to Lake Las Vegas with the Las Vegas Strip in the background.

Lake Las Vegas

Pictured are condos sitting along Lake Las Vegas. Launch slideshow »

A company that owns two golf courses at Lake Las Vegas is suing the city of Henderson for what it says was a breach of a 1991 water agreement contract.

Carmel Land & Cattle Co., which owns The Falls and Reflection Bay golf courses, said in a Clark County District Court document that Henderson’s plans to cancel the 1991 water agreement and replace it with new agreements was “coercive conduct.”

The company claims the city threatened to shut off its untreated water in January 2010 if it did not enter into the new agreement.

“City has refused to acknowledge Carmel’s rights...and has demanded that Carmel enter into the proposed new water agreements even though Carmel has no assurance that its interests will not suffer as a result,” the court documents said.

In the documents, Carmel claims the company made numerous requests in writing to the city requesting expert information that the city relied upon to reach the new water agreement.

The company claims it never received that information.

Henderson City Attorney Elizabeth Quillin said Carmel requested public information that the city simply did not have and sued when it could not be produced.

“I do not agree with their legal supposition,” Quillin said. “Yes, we’re going to fight this vigorously.”

“At this point, we’ve given them several opportunities to negotiate,” Quillin said, adding that Carmel representatives did not attend several water agreement meetings.

According to Carmel’s court filing, the city will not provide any water to them after June 17.

According to Henderson Utilities Manager Dennis Porter, the water agreement would allow Henderson to take over services that provide untreated water to all of Lake Las Vegas’ golf courses. Prior to the new agreement, the city had only provided water into the lake itself, he said.

Porter said the new agreement would provide stability in Lake Las Vegas. When Lake Las Vegas went into bankruptcy, many of its entities — such as the golf courses — were split up into parcels and took on new ownership.

When that happened, the Masters Association, which functions like a homeowners’ association, became the main water supplier and a private utility, Porter said. The association felt it wasn’t equipped to do that, so it approached the city of Henderson for help.

Under the new agreement, the Master Association will still be responsible for the lake’s maintenance, but it will no longer control much of the infrastructure that manages untreated water, such as lift stations and pipelines.

The water agreement was not reached easily, Porter said. It took nine months of discussion to reach terms most parties could agree upon.

Carmel had until June — 90 days from the day the agreement passed the City Council — to adopt the agreement, Porter said.

The Master Property Owners Association, Textron Inc., which owns Southshore golf course, the Lake Las Vegas Joint Venture and the city of Henderson, have signed the new water agreement.

Quillin said she wanted to express the city’s “disappointment and frustration, because obviously our concern is for the residents out there.”

Representatives from O’Reilly Law Group, which represents Carmel in the suit, said they could not comment on the filing.

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