BLM plan rush could endwith court fight

Lawsuits might stall land-use decisions

Local Bureau of Land Management staff members are rushing to finish their updated land-use blueprint for Southern Nevada to meet a new deadline set by the Trump administration.

But at least one Clark County official expects the BLM to get sued over the accelerated planning process, which could stall federal land-use decisions in the region for years to come.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued an order in August aimed at streamlining federal reviews conducted under the National Environmental Policy Act. His directive limits environmental impact statements to no more that 300 pages in length and requires them to be completed within one year.

A follow-up directive from Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in April gave BLM planners in Las Vegas until April 27, 2019, to complete a revised Southern Nevada District Resource Management Plan that they weren’t expecting to finish until 2021.

Clark County Air Quality Director Marci Henson cited the new deadline on Tuesday in urging the County Commission to quickly approve a resolution seeking federal legislation

LAND USE

to address a host of public lands issues in Southern Nevada. The commissioners heeded her urgency and approved the resolution 6-0.

Key provisions of the resolution seek to open more than 44,000 acres of public land for new development south of Las Vegas and set aside more than 300,000 acres of new conservation land in the county.

Approval of the request for congressional action came despite strong opposition from off-roading groups and some conservationists.

Henson, who headed up the drafting of the resolution, said county officials “were anticipating having more time” to help shape the BLM’S management plan revision and suggest legislation to address any lingering land issues.

Now, she said, “time is of the essence.”

If the county fails to act, it could see land-use designations it doesn’t like made permanent in the rushed plan. Or it could see all action on federal land management bogged down in court.

Henson added that she expects someone to challenge the Interior Department’s new rules in court on the grounds that its deadlines and page-length restrictions are “arbitrary and capricious.”

Such a lawsuit could strand federal land-use planning in legal limbo and make it hard for the county to find the land it needs to grow, Henson said.

John Asselin, spokesman for the BLM in Las Vegas, confirmed the accelerated schedule for the management plan revision in an email Wednesday.

‘A positive opportunity’

As recently as January, local bureau officials said they expected to release a draft of the plan in 2019 and the final version in 2020, with implementation to follow in 2021. Asselin said the draft plan will now be published late this summer, and the final version in February.

“The BLM sees this expedited