BLM seeks input on leasing southwest Las Vegas land for school

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comments about a proposal to lease 10 acres of public land in southwest Las Vegas to the Clark County School District for a new elementary school.

The proposed two-story school with about 45 classrooms would be built near Meranto Avenue and Teepee Lane, next to a residential subdivision bustling with home construction and surrounded by sagebrush-covered land. It’s not far from the busy intersection of Blue Diamond and South Fort Apache roads.

A 45-day public-comment period ends Jan. 6. If the proposal moves forward, it will initially be a 25-year lease agreement, with the opportunity for renewal.

Because the school district is a public agency, it would receive special pricing of $2 per acre per year, said Kerri-Anne Thorpe, supervisory realty specialist with the BLM’s Southern Nevada District Office.

In the future, the school district could seek to buy the property at a discount, Thorpe said, but there are stipulations.

“It’s not a free-and-clear title,” she said. “They must continue to use it for the purpose of a school.”

There’s no start date for building a school on the site, school district spokesman Bryan Callahan said. The school district is aquiring the land as part of long-term planning since it’s a high-growth area, he said, adding he anticipates a school will be needed there in the future.

Leasing or selling the land to the school district “does not affect public access to outdoor recreational opportunities on public land,” the BLM said in a Nov. 20 statement.

It’s fairly common for the BLM’s Southern Nevada District Office — which includes Clark County and the southern tip of Nye County — to lease land, Thorpe said.

The district office has 170 leases with groups such as schools, churches, post offices, fire stations and parks. And the BLM already has 51 recreation and public purposes leases to the school district, BLM Southern Nevada District spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon said.

Once public comments come in, the BLM will respond to them, Thorpe said. After that, the next step is performing an environmental site assessment to make sure there aren’t any hazards.

Then, that information will be submitted to the school district along with the lease and “all the stipulations they’d need to follow,” Thorpe said.

There’s typically 30-45 days between when the public-comment period ends and when the lease is signed, Thorpe said. Once the lease is signed, the school district would be able to start construction.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.

How to submit a public comment

Written comments can be mailed to BLM Las Vegas Field Office, Assistant Field Manager, Division of Lands, 4701 N. Torrey Pines Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89130. Comments can also be faxed to 702-515-5010.

Your entire comment — including any personal identifying information you include, such as a phone number, email address or mailing address — may be made publicly available.

For more information, contact Sheryl May at 702-515-5196 or smay@blm.gov. Reference lease number N-96474.

The deadline for leaving comments is Jan. 6.