NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The amount of land available for development in Southern Nevada is running out.
Governor Joe Lombardo and former President Donald Trump have recently highlighted this issue, sending it into the spotlight.
Experts say releasing federal land in the area could solve the problem. I went to speak with locals on this issue.
Carl Darett lives in North Las Vegas on the edge of town near the 215 and 15. He has lived in the area for more than 10 years.
North of his neighborhood is open land, some of it owned by the federal government.
"I do wonder about it, and I wonder about how far we can go with the population and still sustain it," Darett said.
While development continues in North Las Vegas and other corners of the valley, it's clear they can only build so far.
In the map below, the yellow areas are Bureau of Land Management (BLM), or federally owned land, in Nevada — which is most of the state.
Zooming into Las Vegas, we are surrounded by several conservation areas, wildlife ranges, and some BLM land.
Every year, BLM does release some land at auction, but usually only hundreds of acres a year according to a county report.
Last month, business leaders and economists spoke on the issue at the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance's annual Perspective event. One of those experts was Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis, who said:
"Today, there are 36,219 acres left for development in the valley, and let's be clear, not all of those are actually developable... If this doesn't make us nervous, I think that it should. This is how many acres we absorb every year historically going all the way back to 1970."
"We have plus or minus eight years of developable land left, what is the result? Prices going up," Aguero continued.
Governor Lombardo has written the Biden administration pushing for more land releases. At a rally in Las Vegas on Friday, former President Donald Trump mentioned it as well.
"Governor Lombardo has sent three letters to the Biden-Harris administration asking them to open up some of this land...We are going to open up large portions of land," Trump said. | 
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A RCG Economics study done in 2023 says economic development, growth and infrastructure will be impacted by 2030 if Nevada's land supply does not increase.
"I do wonder about it and who owns it and why it hasn't been developed," Darett said.
He said he wonders what will happen with the open land near his home but also thinks that maybe we will see more development building up instead of spreading out.
"At some point in time you have to be a realistic and there has to be some limit to how far urban sprawl goes," Darett said.
I also reached out to the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association. They sent us a statement on the topic:
It’s true that the BLM manages the majority of the land in Nevada, including significant areas outside of Las Vegas. This land ownership plays a key role in the current land availability issues. The BLM’s inefficient land disposal process is a major challenge. It’s not just the limited amount of land, but the difficulty in accessing it in a timely manner that exacerbates the problem. This inefficiency means that even if land is available, it may not be usable quickly enough to impact the housing supply.
Additionally, the limited availability of developable land in Southern Nevada drives up land prices, which averages around $1 million per acre and can reach up to $1.5 million in certain areas. This high cost of land is a significant factor in the overall housing market prices and makes homeownership less attainable for many working families.
Tina Frias
CEO
Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association
