Last night, the Nevada Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections held a hearing on a bill that urges President Trump and the Congress to sign off on a federal plan to create urban sprawl from the Las Vegas Valley to Primm by selling off tens of thousands of acres of public land in Southern Nevada and elsewhere in the state.
This follows a 36-6 vote on the resolution in the Nevada Assembly, which never held a hearing on the matter. The hearing also follows pleas from Republican Governor Joe Lombardo to sell off federal lands. The proposal also comes at a time when President Donald Trump is urging public land sales for development as federal assistance programs are headed to the chopping block or halted.
In recent years, the push for federally-backed public land sales in Las Vegas has been controversial because of the impact to water, air pollution, urban heat, cost of living, utility bills, and because it would not actually create or preserve affordable housing (See Section 204 of SNEDCA). Across the west, residents are pushing back against federal land sales. And at the hearing dozens of opponents testified against AJR10, raising alarm about the plight of Lake Mead, the cost of living, and the threat of inequality throughout Southern Nevada. Bill proponents didn’t mention the word “water” one time, though developing South of Las Vegas would require pipelines of Colorado River going to places like Jean, Ivanpah, and Hidden Valley.
AJR10 references a longstanding effort by Senator Catherine Cortez Masto known as the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act (SNEDCA) — legislation enabling increased and expedited public land sales near Las Vegas. SNEDCA has been a hot-button issue in Nevada since 2017, raising questions about an influx of population, greater demands for water, higher prices for utilities, and other impacts to the quality of life in the region.
AJR10, sponsored by Majority Floor Leader Sandra Jauregui, mentions a “housing crisis” in Nevada. But the legislation makes no mention of how selling off public lands will guarantee affordable housing in the state. Reporting by the Las Vegas Review Journal shows that there is an influx of available homes on the market. For whom is there a crisis currently? Powerful lobbyists from building associations and developer interests testified in support of the bill. They also spoke of a crisis, but offered no meaningful data about what community members the bill would benefit.
Nevertheless, in December of 2024, RTC Southern Nevada released the results of a study that found tens of thousands of acres of infill available in Las Vegas Valley, Henderson, and Mesquite, further demonstrating that our public lands do not need to be sold off for housing development.
Senator Cortez-Mato’s bill will allow for approximately 30,000 acres of land to be sold. A current provision under federal law allows the Bureau of Land Management to sell off select lands in Southern Nevada. Currently, there are more than 20,000 acres available for auction that were approved by Congress years ago. But lawmakers in Clark County, State government, and Congress want BLM to release more without much consideration of the consequences. For years, the Sierra Club and Great Basin Water Network have raised concerns about the plight of existing residents who are managing higher costs of living, skyrocketing utility bills, heavy traffic, and uncertainty about water availability.
“Bill proponents didn’t mention the word water one time during the hearing,” said Kyle Roerink, executive director of Great Basin Water Network. “We can’t fill Lake Mead with housing rhetoric. AJR10 is not a bill that will benefit existing residents, ratepayers, taxpayers and the environment. There are better things to do than kowtow to developers that want a federal land feeding frenzy.”
Vinny Spotleson, Chair of the Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter said, “People in Southern Nevada know we have a water crisis and want to protect our desert. Sprawl harms our land and wastes our water. We are urging legislators to oppose AJR10.”
“A city’s strength isn’t measured by how far it spreads out, but by how deeply we invest in the roots of it’s communities and people, and how boldly it defends the beautiful land and clean air for it’s children,” said Minjia Yan, a real estate professional and resident of Southern Nevada.
“Until there is a guarantee that costs are reduced for working people, there is no guarantee that to build housing on these lands, that these houses will be attainable and available for the communities that need them most,” said Ben Iness, Coalition Coordinator for the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance. “We need summary eviction reform, strong habitability laws, really putting limitations on the number of homes corporations can hoard in our community. Purely building will not solve our affordability crisis.”
GBWN and allies from PLAN, Sierra Club, and the Nevada Environmental Coalition after the hearing on AJR10.
