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August 17, 2005
Wang development pannedLAS VEGAS RESORT BUILDER RESUMES LENGTHY EFFORT TO BUILD
By PHILLIP GOMEZ
It was, though few in the room knew it, a case of déjà vu all over again. They were listening to Las Vegas developer Jerry Wang and looking very much like petrified deer on a dark highway in the sudden glare of a fast-approaching wayward vehicle barreling down. Wang and his Forum Group "designer," Ronnie Gabriel, had come to the microphone to explain the developer's plans for his latest "product," the 20-acre St. Thomas Place planned development encompassing an 881-unit residential condominium subdivision, hotel, restaurant, timeshare condo, casino, tennis courts and underground parking garages. The centerpiece of Wang's proposal is at least one high-rise residential tower going up 130 feet, or 10 stories - and he's been before the RPC and Nye County Board of Commissioners with the same ambitious plan or something very similar to it for more than a decade. The property is located across Highway 372 from Wang's earlier proposal, the still un-built Shangri-La water park, on Woodchips Road. Commissioner Sheldon Bass asked Wang where his civil engineer was; such professionals are customarily present for answering commissioners' technical questions about planned developments. Wang has gone through several engineers over the 14 years he has been before the county planning commission. His project would generate 11,000 vehicle trips per day, according to Assistant Planning Director Cheryl Beeman. But Wang's multi-family residential tower requires 3,000 square feet per dwelling, according to county code for residential developments, and his 20.41 acres doesn't contain enough land to meet this stipulation. Problems emerged when it was learned that over the years Wang's project has been before the RPC, Pahrump had changed in both its physical layout and in its growth management processes. Wang's development had begun at the Nye County Planning Department as a planned unit development when planners were just starting to shape their long-range goals, but today would have only been allowed as a master-planned residential development with certain development agreements firmly in place. Bass objected to the many waivers from county requirements that Wang was requesting. In particular, he questioned Wang's plans to build within 10 feet of adjacent residential neighborhoods on the south side of St. Thomas Place. "I can imagine people in your towers looking down into people's backyards," Bass said. "There's no buffer, none whatsoever." Forty-eight feet is the maximum Nye County allows buildings to be constructed, for reasons of fire control. Wang's tower would be 130 feet. "The only high-rise is in the center core on Highway 372," said Gabriel. Wang and Gabriel said they were willing to make amendments to please the planning board. "We're not equipped to fight a fire in this valley over three stories high," said Commissioner Butch Borasky, recalling the Mountain View Casino inferno in 2003. "There's no way we could protect the residences of that (Wang's proposed 10-story) building with the equipment we have right now." Bass said that Nevada Deputy Fire Marshal Tony Capucci made a long list of requirements for fire safety if Wang went ahead with his building plans. Beginning with emergency access to the buildings, he said, there were many inadequacies with the plans as they presently exist. "Tony spent about two hours listing everything he required," said Bass, rattling off from memory essentials such as 17-inch water mains, a huge emergency water supply and internal fire-protection systems. He said Capucci covered it all with Wang's former engineer. Wang haltingly replied that each residential unit had a balcony with a fire-escape ladder "for safety reasons." He added that he had worked on the project for the past 12 and a-half years. Commissioner Cary-Ann Jubinsky said the sheriff of the county and the town fire chief ought to have comments entered into the record on "something of this magnitude (affecting) the community." Wang argued that the reason he had taken more than a decade in developing the project was because of "market changes" and hold-ups by the planning department. Commissioner Charlie Dupre said afterwards that Wang's marketing scheme for his condominiums called for local occupancy of only 20 percent of the units; second-home investors would be targeted for 55 percent of the condos and international investors would be targeted to fill 25 percent of Wang's "five-star product." "How is this going to help Pahrump?" Dupre wondered out loud. When Commissioner Garry Warner asked Gabriel about the tower he plans to build and its glaring impact on the skyline of Pahrump, Gabriel responded that people would still be able to see Mt. Charleston and the mountains across the Nevada line in California. Wang also said he did not have documentation from a public utility company guaranteeing future water and sewer connections with his project. In his original plan, or an incarnation of his first outreach to Nye County officials, Wang said he would build his own utility company. Bass read from a letter, dated July 14, from the Nevada Public Utilities Commission saying that unless Wang showed evidence of obtaining such guarantees, "they're recommending we do nothing" on his project applications. Wang suggested that the matter was a minor dispute over an "expired permit," which he said was not expired. He also said that a soils report had been submitted. "This has all been done; some we have done twice," insisted Wang, who seemed to have expected the RPC to grant him quick approval. "(Planning Director) Ron Williams knows this." Finally, Warner said, "I don't think we have near enough information for something of this size." "It has cost us a lot of time and money," Wang came back. "We have 48 other projects; this is just one. It (the legal documentation) all has been done. It's all in the possession of Nye County." Beeman, talking to Williams at home on a cell phone, relayed word that "those documents don't exist." Also revealed was that when the planning department circulated a request for comment on Wang's project from the sheriff's office and the Pahrump Valley Fire-Rescue Service, nothing was provided by either agency. "I just wish the agencies would take a little more time (with the request for information) because they're the first ones to complain that they didn't get their input," said liaison RPC board member Patricia Cox. Wang agreed to continue the hearing until Sept. 14, when professional opinion from the sheriff's office, the local fire chief and the state fire marshal could be presented. |
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