Badlands settlement talks do not appear to be going well

After Las Vegas was ordered to pay $34 million to the owner of the defunct Badlands Golf Club course, one city lawmaker reiterated calls for officials to settle the ongoing land use dispute in order to protect taxpayers from potential further hemorrhaging.

Nearly two months later, settlement talks between the city and developer EHB Cos. do not appear to be going well.

EHB CEO Yohan Lowie has expressed frustration. City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman, who represents Ward 2 where the defunct golf course resides, urged Lowie to remain at the table.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the developer last week filed requests in court for nearly $57 million in fees from the city — largely prejudgment interest — raising potential costs related to the late September verdict to $91 million.

‘No way to settle’

In interviews this week, the two sides offered divergent views on the state of talks occurring behind the scenes to potentially end litigation: Seaman is still optimistic; Lowie is not.

“There is no way to settle this with them,” Lowie said by phone Tuesday. “They don’t want to settle.”

A week earlier, city officials had called Lowie and his team of lawyers into City Hall to make an offer, according to Lowie, who characterized the proposal as unreasonable: “It was not an offer, trust me.”

He said city officials had sought for EHB to dismiss its bundle of lawsuits against the city and invited EHB to file applications to construct housing on the 250-acre former golf course. EHB would get significant discounts on development fees and be required to meet certain conditions, including holding a public meeting for each planned project, according to Lowie.

EHB, however, wants entitlements to build — not merely a greenlight to apply — and to be reimbursed for costs it has spent over the past six years, he said.

The city declined to comment this week when asked to confirm the reported recent settlement offer or to address the talks in general, citing its practice of not publicly speaking about ongoing legal matters.

But the recent proposal would seem to indicate that the two sides are far apart.

“I’m hoping this is not the end of our negotiations,” Seaman said by phone Thursday.

Pushing for resolution

Seaman, who is not directly involved in the talks, has repeatedly publicly underscored that her position remains unchanged since being elected in 2019, when she first pushed to resolve the high-profile and expensive legal battle. That stance has taken on renewed urgency in recent months since a Clark County District Court judge ruled in late September that city actions were tantamount to it taking the company’s 34-acre parcel.

The ruling, which the city has appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court for being “legally improper,” agreed with EHB that city interference had made the land impossible to develop despite residential construction being permissible under city zoning law.

EHB has three unresolved lawsuits in district court that make the same claim regarding different parcels. In total, the cases account for the 250-acre property’s remaining 215 or so acres, meaning that city taxpayers could be vulnerable to more damages depending on how other judges decide those cases.

EHB had tried to construct housing on the closed golf course after its 2015 purchase of the land, but nearly all plans subsequently stalled in City Hall amid concerns over density, piecemeal development and zoning suitability from project opponents that included council members and a coalition of nearby Queensridge neighbors.

Seaman, who joined the council after finger-pointing and court filings were well underway, said that she was still optimistic that the city and EHB would come to terms on an agreement to end all litigation, believing that talks should not break down because Lowie was dissatisfied with one offer.

“That’s what negotiation is all about,” she said.

Messages left for an attorney representing EHB were unreturned this week.

Lowie stopped short of declaring a settlement an impossible prospect. But he also questioned whether the company would continue efforts toward a deal that it deems to be acceptable because “I think we know what (the city’s) answer is,” pointing to the recent offer he said had been made at City Hall.

“We are not going to put ourselves in that position again,” he said.

Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.