The urban eyesore once known as Badlands Golf Course sits vacant on the city’s west side, a monument to bureaucratic mismanagement, political pandering, and municipal malfeasance. How deep will the sinkhole be for Las Vegas taxpayers?
The debacle stems from a landowner’s effort to turn part of the golf course, which has been closed since 2013, into a housing development. In 2017, the City Council moved to comply with the zoning that applied to the area near Alta Drive and Rampart Boulevard, despite one council member’s prescient warning that the move would put the city in legal jeopardy. However, the proposal was rejected. The vote upset vocal protesters who live in the upscale Queensridge neighborhood, which surrounds much of the 18-hole layout.
Since then, the court has humiliated the city at every turn. The developer, Johan Loewy of EHB Cos., has filed a series of lawsuits over the city’s land use ordinance for four different parcels that make up 250 acres. He has won three of these cases, and a fourth is pending and has secured judgments totaling more than $235 million, at the expense of the city council members and lawyers who went down this foolish path. Instead, it should be borne by the city’s taxpayers, who have been dragged into the corner by them.
On Thursday, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled on the first Badlands case to enter the docket process, a case involving 35 acres that led to a $48 million judgment. As always, this was bad news for City Council members and city councilors and the lawyers (in-house and outside) who spend taxpayers’ money advising them. The justices unanimously upheld the lower court’s ruling, finding that the city had sacrificed Lowy’s property rights to appease homeowners living near the golf course.
“This case requires determining whether the city’s actions destroyed the economic value of the land and amounted to expropriation, based on both the state constitution and the Fifth Amendment,” the decision states. There is. The justices quickly considered the city’s arguments, finding that the denial of Mr. Lowy’s application and the “discussion of the application at various City Council meetings do not provide any meaningful indication that the city would permit the development of the 35 acres.” concluded. …Just compensation must be paid when government agencies act in a way that removes all economic value from private property. ”
Given its track record of futility on this issue, the city has a better chance of winning the remaining lawsuits involving Badlands. Ultimately, the total liability for this avoidable travesty could soar to more than $500 million, representing more than 70% of the city’s revenue in 2023. This is a blow to City Council members, especially Mayor Carolyn Goodman, and officials who brazenly chose to roll the dice with the state Supreme Court rather than reverse, clean up, and reduce taxpayer losses. After all, it’s not their money.
The path forward is clear. City officials should fire all the lawyers who didn’t see this coming. They need to contact Mr. Loewy as soon as they have the resources to reach a deal that minimizes the damage. Then they have to explain it to the taxpayers of Las Vegas, who hope to find millions of dollars to clean up the mess they made.
The final step? It’s in the hands of urban voters.
