FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED SEPT. 21, 1999
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Another 'eminent domain' property seizure goes wrong
Once again, a local government entity in Nevada is in trouble over a
"third party transfer" of condemned property.
Las Vegas taxpayers, of course, are still paying legal fees as their City
Council and Redevelopment Authority (same folks, different hats) maneuver
to avoid giving back to the Pappas family the downtown commercial acreage
which -- according to a 1996 district court ruling -- the city improperly
seized and turned over to the well-heeled downtown casino owners of the
Fremont Street Experience LLC.
(In the meantime, the new private owners continue to use the property --
zoned for unlimited gaming -- as a part-empty parking garage.)
But this time it's Clark County that finds itself paying $180,000 per
month -- indefinitely -- to "rent" empty and decrepit mobile homes on the
29-acre site of the old Treasure Lodge and Las Vegas Mobile Home Parks,
just north of McCarran Airport.
The county originally condemned the property in early 1996, citing
federal air safety regulations which left the residences too close to the
airport's new, north-south runway.
But after the condemnation, county officials announced that a private
firm, J.A. Tiberti Construction, had come forward seeking to acquire the
land for a private golf course -- an allowable use even in such close
proximity to the air field.
That brought a lawsuit from original property owners Marilyn Kelch Gubler
and Robert Kelch.
The plans to allow new private development meant the condemnation was
not truly an eminent domain taking, "but rather an impermissible
'redevelopment' that can only benefit the private parties who have curried
favor with McCarran Airport and the Clark County commissioners," alleged
attorney Terry Coffing, speaking on behalf of the original owners.
No such "inside dealing" with or by the Airport Authority has ever been
proven. Nonetheless, court-ordered damages upheld by District Judge Sally
Loehrer Monday mean the county already owes $2.7 million to the owners of
the site for lost rents and revenues, in addition to the $13.7 they were
originally paid for the land. That's in addition to the $7 million the
county spent to build a new mobile home park and relocate the mostly
elderly residents of the original 200 homes.
Oh, did I mention the county ended up giving the land back to the Kelch
family, as well?
Deputy District Attorney Mike Foley contends the county did nothing
wrong, and actually may have avoided additional costs by simply handing the
land back to the Kelches -- avoiding another trial to determine its real
value.
But one can't help but suspect attorney Coffing is indulging in
understatement when he says the county could have saved millions by
settling the matter earlier -- or simply allowing the original landholders
to go into the market and seek a buyer or developer anxious to redevelop
the land for a compliant use.
A few million here, a few million there: pretty soon you can be talking
real money.
(The county, of course, will claim these funds don't come from local
taxpayers at all, that it's all "airport fees." But higher fees mean fewer
taxpaying tourists. And who do we suppose will make up the difference, when
those overcommitted fees finally coe up short?)
There may have been no way to avoid paying the Kelch family something for
the extent to which their land was devalued by the construction of the new
runway. That's fine: private land owners should be made whole, even for a
partial "taking."
But why must our government agencies always choose the high-handed course
of eminent-domain seizure, stating in essence: "Here's your check; if you
don't like it we'll see you in court" -- especially when it so often ends
up costing so much more in time and money, as well as ill will?
Why not, instead, give the private property owners a fair chance to come
up with a new use that's in compliance, on their own?
Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. His new book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the
Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $21.95 plus $3 shipping
through Mountain Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, Nev. 89127. The
500-page trade paperback may also be ordered via web site
http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html, or by dialing
1-800-244-2224.
***
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John
Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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