Red Rock lawsuit stays alive

A Clark County District Court judge on Thursday declined to dismiss a lawsuit aiming to prevent the development of atop a hill bordering the Red Rock National Conservation Area.

Judge Jerry Wiese’s ruling came three weeks after hearing Clark County’s request to quash the case, which was filed in December.

The county and Gypsum Resources, the company that plans to build a master-planned community on Blue Diamond Hill, want the case thrown out. Environmental nonprofit Save Red Rock wants to take it to court.

Initially a defendant in the county-initiated lawsuit, Save Red Rock now contends the Clark County Commission violated open meeting laws during a February zoning meeting.

Save Red Rock also is challenging whether it was proper for commissioners to allow Gypsum Resources to withdraw a new concept plan to build on Blue Diamond Hill with the understanding that a similar plan approved in 2011 had never expired.

“The point of this process is to make sure if this ever goes back before the County Commission, it’s a fair fight in which all parties are allowed to present their arguments and not be shut out of the process,” said Save Red Rock attorney Justin Jones, who is running for the commission in 2018.

On Aug. 17, county attorney Robert Warhola argued before Wiese that the lawsuit was premature because the commission had not approved Gypsum Resources development plan, only its concept plan. The judge rejected that.

“Although the Court acknowledges that there are several contingencies which must be met before homes can actually be built, or the Red Rock land developed pursuant to the 2011 Specific Plan, the County and Gypsum admittedly are pressing forward with the processing of that Plan in the attempt to develop the property which Save Red Rock is attempting to protect,” Wiese wrote.