Las Vegas Stadium Update: Land Use and Zoning Meeting.
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On Wednesday evening Clark County held a meeting with local leaders and members of the Las Vegas Stadium development team discussing zoning and land use. Of all the meetings on the Stadium, and the Winter Report has watched them all, this was by far the best paced and informative of the lot.
The Raiders development team spoke first about the challenges facing the stadium project. The biggest issue of the evening was parking. Also mentioned were construction schedule and planning.
Construction timeline and architecture were discussed.
The project expects to break ground in November of this year. Concrete will begin to flow early spring 2018, and steel work begins late 2018. The entire project should be completed no later than July 2020.
Manica, partnered with HNTB, the architects for the project, then discussed the evolution of the stadium design. It will have smoke tinted windows and a black exterior. The roof will be non-retractable glass, but the field will be retractable. The seats, at all levels, will be very close to the action on the field. The design of the stadium will not make any significant alterations; however, it is only about 25% complete.
The next item discussed was the rest of the property and parking itself. The site currently is being designed to have 2375 parking spots, with over 13,000 spots to be considered “off site.” Â This issue is seen as the biggest challenge facing the project. However, there was plenty of alternative plans being considered to overcome this. Within walking distance, which was defined as one mile, there is enough undeveloped land available to account for 16,000 parking spots. Moreover, if Bali Hai golf course were to come into play, it alone could support over 13,000 vehicles.
Other forms of transportation were also examined. The northwest part of the site will handle all buses and shuttle service. And the north-east will handle all ride drop offs, Uber and Lyft type services. Also discussed was the Mono Rail, RTC, and even a pedestrian bridge.
Infrastructure responsibilities, who pays for what?
The development team made it crystal clear that they would be financially responsible for any off site infrastructure costs that needed to be made specifically due to the stadium. Except for any and all projects that were already planned for and budgeted. The Raiders currently have 300 million dollars left in their infrastructure budget, which should more than cover their infrastructure responsibilities.
After the presentation, the forum was opened up to local leaders. This was smooth and on point with great questions and suggestions from experienced local leaders. The one that stood out the most was Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, someone who had opposed this project from the start. She asked good questions about the site drainage and seemed to flip 180 on her previous stance. She was even un-phased by the parking challenge saying:
“Its Vegas we will get it done” – Chris Giunchigliani on the parking concerns for the Las Vegas Stadium.
Some other points brought up were:
- Parking goal is 16,250 spots within walking distance.
- Local leaders want Raiders to own Pedestrian Bridge because of solicitors, vagrants, etc.
- Getting to and from the stadium is where the fan experience begins and ends, huge priority.
All in all, this was extremely informative for being a zoning and land use meeting, and the next big meeting will be the Las Vegas Stadium Authority meeting on August 17th.
