Court Opinion

ID: 9796556
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:59:58.490655+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:36.749850
License: Public Domain

*832Maupin, C. J.,
dissenting:
I cannot conclude that the district court erred in ruling that the vacation of streets and the relocation of a public park required formal amendment of the Redevelopment Plan for the Downtown Las Vegas Redevelopment Area.
The majority holds that formal amendment to a redevelopment plan is (1) mandated only for material deviations from, or changes to, a redevelopment plan; and (2) material changes to a plan do not include subsequent “administrative interpretation and filling in of details.” While I agree that a material change in a redevelopment plan stimulates the formal amendment process, I believe that certain aspects of the redevelopment project approved by the City of Las Vegas Downtown Redevelopment Agency implicate the amendment process. I am also concerned that the majority’s view of the agency’s discretion to effect “administrative interpretation’ ’ paints its authority with too broad a brush.

DISCUSSION

NRS 279.608(1) permits cities and counties to amend or modify redevelopment plans upon the recommendation of the redevelopment agency. As noted by the majority, this statute does not clearly establish a standard setting forth the events that stimulate the formal amendment process. However, NRS 279.572 requires, inter alia, that redevelopment plans show the amount of open space to be provided, the layout of streets, the property to be devoted to public purposes and the nature of those purposes. Facially, without a legislative statement of the requirements that trigger the formal plan amendment process, it would seem that vacation of streets and the relocation of a park depicted on the approved plan map would constitute a material change in the plan.
The majority relies upon three case decisions in support of its ruling today: In re Bunker Hill Urban Renewal Project IB,1 Paris v. Community Redevelopment Agency2 and Old Omaha Ass’n v. City of Omaha.3 The court in Bunker Hill observed:
[S]ome flexibility in the final plan so far as it [shows open spaces, limitations on buildings, and property to be devoted to public purposes] is essential to avoid the necessity of con*833stantly seeking amendment by the legislative body each time that some unforeseeable exigency arises. . . .
It cannot be seriously argued that the final plan must be a compilation of blueprints or working drawings, representing final engineering studies, primarily because the agency is not the one who does the building. The final plan is not required to be precise from an engineering standpoint but only as reasonably precise and detailed from a planning standpoint as may be expected in light of ‘ ‘the complexity and diversity of the conditions which will be encountered.”4
The Bunker Hill court noted that the amendment process would take over two months, and our majority now embraces a “theme” in the California cases that would “spare” redevelopment agencies from the “burden” of constantly amending redevelopment plans. I disagree with this “theme” approach. First, important due process rights are implicated because effectuation of a redevelopment plan involves the power of eminent domain. Second, two months is not an unreasonable burden on a public agency to protect important private property rights. Third, the vacation of streets and relocation of parks are not “details” intrinsic to an individual component of a redevelopment process. Fourth, the vacation of streets and the relocation of public parks are not events that occur “constantly.”
In Paris, the redevelopment agency refused an application to partially convert an existing building to include a movie theater facility. The agency determined that the proposed use conflicted with a resolution prohibiting movie theaters within a certain area. The California Court of Appeal rejected the landowner’s contention that the resolution effectively amended the redevelopment plan without the required formalities. In my view, the resolution at issue in Paris was more akin to a zoning decision, not a full-blown amendment to the redevelopment plan itself. In Old Omaha, the Nebraska Court of Appeals determined that a change in use from a previously approved single-story, parking garage to a multi-story garage did not implicate the formal amendment process. Both Paris and Old Omaha involve details concerning the use of existing parcels within an improvement district. The decisions and resolutions of the agencies in those cases would not require formal amendment to a redevelopment plan adopted pursuant to the Nevada statutory framework.5
*834Here, however, the approved plan, in addition to giving the Redevelopment Agency authority to exercise eminent domain powers, requires the city to assist the Agency in implementing the plan by “opening, closing, vacating, widening or changing grades of streets, alleys and other public rights-of-way.” The plan further allows the Agency to establish “traffic circulation, traffic access and other development and design controls necessary for proper development of both private and public areas within the Redevelopment Area.” Finally, the plan provides that the Agency may cause parks to be constructed within the redevelopment district. These are very broad powers, some of which I conclude go beyond the scope of the authority created by the Legislature.
The ability to amend under NRS 279.608 is quite specific in terms of the procedure to be followed. However, there are no stated criteria in this statute governing when the amendment process is required, other than the statement in subsection (3) that “substantial” changes must be submitted in a written recommendation for consideration by a city or county government to amend the plan. Thus, I believe NRS 279.608 and NRS 279.572 must be read together to determine legislative intent. As noted, NRS 279.572 requires that redevelopment plans show open spaces, layout of streets, size, height, number and proposed use of buildings, number of dwelling units, property to be devoted to public purposes, other covenants, conditions and restrictions, etc. While changes in the use of individual dwelling units and building sizes may involve mere details not requiring resort to the formal amendment process, vacation of streets and relocation of public parks depicted on the approved map are entirely different matters. Certainly, vacation of streets and relocation of parks are not “details” falling within the parameters of at least two of the case decisions upon which the majority relies. I therefore cannot conclude that the Nevada Legislature, acting in the best interests of the people of this state, intended to vest the Redevelopment Agency with such powers without going through a publicly noticed amendment process.
As indicated by the majority, affidavits of the executive directors of the California Redevelopment Association and the City of Reno Redevelopment Agency were made part of the record in the proceedings before the district court. That testimony discusses the need to keep redevelopment plans general to promote flexibility, quick response to changing conditions, and to avoid the need to initiate formal amendment procedures in connection with each new proposal for private development. Generality of such plans, according to these witnesses, enables a redevelopment agency to avoid the unnecessary depletion of agency resources that would result if every transaction required the scrutiny of a formal amend*835ment process. In my view, these considerations are not at play in this case. First, the vacation of streets and relocation of public parks are not measures that interfere with the flexibility to quickly react to private development opportunities within a redevelopment district. Second, as noted, the formal amendment process is not necessarily required in every instance where the agency makes arrangements with individual developers or other persons and entities involved in redevelopment issues.

CONCLUSION

Because redevelopment plans involve the drastic step of taking or “condemning” private property for ultimate partial or full reconveyance to private enterprise, the scope of a redevelopment agency’s discretion is critical to the protection of the due process rights of property owners that find themselves within a redevelopment district. I would hold that a plan, which provides for vacation of streets and relocation of public parks depicted on an approved plan map without stimulating the formal amendment process, gives the agency discretion beyond that conferred upon it by the Nevada Legislature.
Thus, I believe the district court correctly ruled that the proposed project in this instance materially changed the plan and, accordingly, implicated the formal amendment process.

 389 P.2d 538 (Cal. 1964).

 213 Cal. Rptr. 432 (Ct. App. 1985).

 513 N.W.2d 329 (Neb. Ct. App. 1994).

 389 P.2d at 559 (citations omitted).

It should be noted that the Nevada redevelopment statutes require that plans of redevelopment show limitations on type, size, height, number and proposed use of buildings. NRS 279.572(2). Under Paris, decisions concerning changes in such uses would amount to changes that might, but would not necessarily, require initiation of an amendment process.