Details about this story

• Source: New York Times
• Date: December 03, 2007
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Jesse McKinley , Griff Palmer
• Topics: Federal Government , Real Estate
• Data Types: Federal Data
• Description/Excerpt: Tens of thousands of acres of federal lands in the Las Vegas area have been sold under an unusual law pushed through Congress nearly a decade ago by the Nevada delegation. The sales have grossed nearly $3 billion and counting. To gauge the law’s impact since its passage in 1998, The New York Times analyzed data from the United States Bureau of Land Management, the landlord for the federally owned lands. The analysis covered the more than 29,000 acres sold under the law as of Nov. 1, as well as the $2.3 billion in expenditures allocated to projects as of Aug. 31 by the Department of the Interior, which oversees distribution of the money. More than $1 billion in proceeds from the federal land sales have been allocated for parks, trails and nature areas that often amount to public amenities - many of which elected officials say they would not have been able to pay for otherwise. The projects have enhanced property values, and benefited big-name developers, including Focus Property Group, the American Nevada Company, the Del Webb Corporation and the Olympia Development Group, all of which have bought large parcels of arid public lands and turned them into elaborate housing tracts.