Rent-controlled apartments for northwest Las Vegas?
Elected and appointed City of Las Vegas officials are pondering a proposal by a Phoenix-based developer to use cheap BLM land for the construction of rent-controlled apartments in Northwest Las Vegas.
Under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, in effect since 1998, land can be sold to the city by the Bureau of Land Management at a cut-rate price. The city can turn around and sell the land at cost to a developer who would build rent-controlled housing on it.
That?s the crux on an agreement approved March 15 when the City Council granted Tapestry Group, a private nonprofit organization from Phoenix, an exclusive right to negotiate on two parcels of land, according to the March 20 Review-Journal.
One piece of land consists of 20 acres west of Floyd Lamb State Park, off Fort Apache Road, north of Highway 95. The second is 14 acres south of Summerlin Parkway near Tenaya Way. Each site would have about 240 units, the R-J reported.
Occupancy of the apartments would be for those making less than 60 percent of the average median income. According to the R-J, a single person could make up to $33,100 a year to qualify, and pay $830 monthly rent.
A family of four could make up to $47,300 a year and pay $1,065 monthly rent.
If such a scheme were to go forward, the city would have to reach a final agreement with Tapestry Group and obtain the blessing of the BLM and Department of Housing and Urban Development.
It would be the first time the City of Las Vegas used the cut-rate portion of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act. In November, Clark County set aside the first land for affordable housing through the BLM when the County Commission approved a seniors apartment complex on Harmon Avenue and Jones Boulevard, the R-J said. The five-acre site will have about 100 units.
Our take: Rents of $830 and $1,065 hardly are ?affordable housing? in the Las Vegas Valley, even at today?s demand-inflated rent levels for apartments or houses. Moreover, enclaves of rent-controlled apartments in the Northwest almost certainly will degenerate into slums within five years or less. Who wants to build or live next to a rent-controlled development?
