Laughlin's 9,000 Acres To Be
Available for Development
The Town of Laughlin has received control of 9,000 acres that border the Colorado River on the east and the California state line on the south. Clark County and Laughlin town officials recently engaged the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which is interested in assisting Clark County officials and other stakeholders in creating a master plan for the area, known as Laughlin's Southlands.
Creating a sustainable community that incorporates the environmental aspects of the region and the need to provide for economic development, while crating a place that embraces the social, cultural and recreational elements of the community are understood as priorities in the planning process.
"There is tremendous potential for creating a community vision that includes technology, alternative energy, housing, employment, and open space and recreational components," said Laughlin Town Manager Jackie Brady. "The engagement of UNLV as a partner in developing the master plan is warranted so creative ideas from experts and faculty can be explored along with a private firm specializing in the development of such a master plan.
The overall goal of the master plan would be to evaluate the technical, regulatory, and market aspects of the project and to identify how best the Town of Laughlin would proceed in development. This would include identification of which portions of the 9,000 acres are useable, what major technical challenges would present themselves, soliciting public comment and identification of create ways a sustainable development would occur within legal, regulatory and institutional constraints.
The 9,000-acre site came out of 15,000 acres of federal land sold to the Colorado River Commission during the last half of the 20th Century. The purpose of this land was stated as in the Fort Mohave Valley Development Act of 1960, as amended. Parcels of land were to be planned and sold for development, the proceeds of which were to be used for capital improvements in the Fort Mohave Valley - now know as the Laughlin area in Nevada. In 2007, 9,000 acres remained of the 15,000 acres and the County intends to continue the purposes of the Act by master planning the land and using it for economic development so that it can be sold or leased for development. Land banking is not an allowed action when land is released into private ownership.
It is anticipated that a land master planning process will get underway during 2009.