Stadium gets county go-ahead

Raiders gain time for parking strategy

After an hour of presentations, questions and answers Wednesday before the Clark County Commission, the only suspense in commission chambers was whether the vote on use permits, waivers and design reviews for the Oakland Raiders’ planned 65,000-seat, domed football stadium would be unanimous.

And it was.

The 7-0 affirmative vote, which included a yes from longtime stadium critic Chris Giunchigliani, enabled the Raiders to clear another hurdle in the team’s pursuit of relocating to Southern Nevada for the start of the 2020 football season.

County staff had recommended approval, and Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, a candidate for governor in 2018, has shepherded the project through government reviews for months. The final outcome never seemed in doubt, though the Raiders have yet to solve the problem that has dogged them since the first day the site was purchased by the team for $77.5 million on May 1 — a lack of adequate parking on the 62 acres at Russell Road and Interstate 15.

The approval by the county gives the Raiders a year to develop a parking strategy as construction starts.

Parking a priority

Stadium construction consultant Don Webb, a principal and co-founder of California-based Cordell Corp., and project principal John Wood of Mortenson Construction, Minneapolis, said reaching a conclusion on the parking issue is a priority to the Raiders, not because regulators are demanding it but because the team sees solving it as a critical piece to the team’s tailgating culture.

“It will be solved,” Webb said later in the presentation, adding that building a parking garage isn’t a viable solution because of the tailgating experience.

STADIUM

The county vote approved permits for 20 uses on the land: retail sales and service, restaurants, offices, live entertainment, alcohol sales and a museum among them.

The “museum” is for the development of a Raiders Hall of Fame.

The vote also approved a series of nine waivers, the most critical of which was the 85.4 percent reduction

in the number of required parking spaces from 16,250. The county is giving the team time to develop a strategy to determine where fans will be able to park their cars offsite and deliver that strategy before stadium construction is complete.

Team officials that gave presentations to the board admitted the parking issue was the most concerning for the project.

The staff analysis of what has been determined as a high-impact project affecting traffic, parking, utilities,

emergency services and storm drainage for the adjacent neighborhood explained the Raiders’ pedestrian circulation plan, which includes new pedestrian overpasses from the east side of I-15. The team also is planning mass transit from shuttle buses and the Las Vegas Monorail, which would need to be extended to Mandalay Bay, as well as taxi and ride-hailing options.

Earlier Wednesday, Las Vegas Stadium Authority staff issued a memorandum recommending that

a final construction and design contract targeted for October approval be delayed, probably until February. The delay isn’t expected to affect the construction timeline.

A drainage channel relocation issue discovered last week also appears to be a nonissue for the project.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702477-3893. Follow @Rickvelotta on Twitter.