Southern Nevada Home Builders Association: Making More Federal Land Available for Development #1 Goal
LAS VEGAS, NV – To address the housing crisis that is currently ongoing in Las Vegas, the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association (SNHBA) announced that petitioning the government to release more federally-controlled land for development would be the group’s main priority in 2025, a goal that’s looking now more than ever closer to becoming a reality.
SNHBA CEO Tina Frias last week said that her organization has been working with the office of Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto on bipartisan efforts to make 25,000 acres of federal land available to Clark County for the development of both affordable housing as well as growing local business interests. In addition, an additional 2 million acres will be set aside for conservation.
Along with the above-mentioned acreage being made available, Frias expressed hope that additional land will be released in the near future as well.
From the folks that have been involved in federal lands in the state for 30-plus years and are part of my membership, they said this is the most momentum they have seen on a lands package ever,” she said. “I’ll tell you in my opinion I’m both excited but also nervous because I think we will see something come to fruition.”
One of the primary reasons for the housing crisis in Southern Nevada, according to a growing number of those in the real estate industry, is due to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), with the federal agency currently managing nearly three million acres in Clark County; the U.S. government currently owns 80 percent of the land in the state of Nevada overall – the most out of any state in the country – and 88 percent of Clark County.
In 1998, the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act was passed that set aside approximately 67,000 acres out of the 2.9 million available in the Las Vegas Valley for development of residential housing units or commercial uses, with an additional 33,000 acres that have also been earmarked for potential developing that have not yet been released.
Frias also referred to a proposal by the Trump Administration to give a joint task force the ability to identify and release lands in the state for development, but said that the process involved can be very convoluted and slow; as a result, she’s hoping for an act of Congress – in addition to the continued efforts of local government – to streamline and speed-up things.
We need to recognize there’s an elephant in the room and that’s the land constraints,” Frias said. “That’s going to take coming together at the federal level and working collaboratively with our delegation. That will take continued leadership from the governor’s office and local government will play a key role in that as well.”
Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.
Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management