KVIG Informative

A 3,500-home development near Red Rock Canyon fought off two decades of opposition and lawsuits to reach groundbreaking. A magistrate judge says at least one county commissioner tried to quietly stop it anyway — and got caught.

Grading work is underway this year on the long-disputed Blue Diamond Hill housing project, according to the project’s developer. Clark County finalized a development agreement for the 3,500-home community, spread across nearly 2,000 acres, in July 2024, following an $80 million settlement between the county and developer Gypsum Resources.

The commission approved the agreement 6-0, with Commissioner Justin Jones abstaining. Jones had previously worked to stop the project, and a magistrate judge later ruled that Jones and the county covered up those efforts, according to court findings reported by Save Red Rock, the advocacy nonprofit that has opposed the development for years.

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The development traces back more than two decades, through multiple failed proposals, lawsuits and a scaled-back home count that dropped from more than 5,500 units to 3,500. Jim Rhodes, the developer behind the project through his company Gypsum Resources, previously sought to build even more homes atop the hill before facing sustained opposition from environmental groups and nearby residents.

As part of the current plan, Rhodes’ development team is building a 4.5-mile connector road linking the new community to Blue Diamond Road, intended to route traffic away from the scenic stretch of State Route 159 that cuts through Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The road would cross federal land, and the developer is still working with Clark County to secure a right-of-way from the Bureau of Land Management.

Save Red Rock and other advocacy groups say they still oppose the project outright, even though the county’s settlement with Gypsum Resources legally obligates it to allow the development to proceed.

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Some nearby residents have taken the opposite position, arguing a modern master-planned community would be a cleaner outcome than the active gypsum mine that has operated on the hillside since the 1920s.

Twenty years of litigation bought Blue Diamond Hill’s opponents a smaller project and a court finding that at least one commissioner tried to stop it. What it didn’t buy them was a stopped project — grading equipment is already on the hill, and the homes local advocates spent two decades fighting are now, finally, getting built.