More than two decades after first announcing the concept of developing a new airport south of Las Vegas, the federal agencies overseeing the process are beginning an environmental review for the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport plan.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the Bureau of Land Management on Monday will publish notification of the beginning of the process in the federal register and have scheduled three public hearings in late July to gather testimony about the environmental impact of a new airport on 5,752 acres east of Interstate 15 between Jean and Primm about 30 miles south of Las Vegas.
The two federal agencies are acting as the joint lead agencies for the project that isn’t expected to be completed until 2037.
The reliever airport was first proposed in 2006 by the Clark County Department of Aviation which was concerned about what is now Harry Reid International Airport nearing capacity.
After the joint lead agencies initiated the process with the FAA’s publication of a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement on Sept. 5, 2006, the bid was launched. On Jan. 25, 2008, the FAA published a notice of availability of the draft purpose and need for working paper for the impact statement draft and on Aug. 4, 2008, the FAA produced a notice of availability of the draft alternatives working paper for the EIS.
Recession delays
That was about the time effects of the Great Recession began to take hold in Southern Nevada.
The FAA received a letter dated June 29, 2010, from the Clark County Department of Aviation asking the FAA to suspend any further work on the EIS. The reasons for the action included the local economic conditions in Las Vegas and Clark County, as well as other local fiscal and budgetary constraints.
In 2023, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic conditions in Clark County improved and passenger usage at Reid International have returned to pre-pandemic conditions. Earlier this year, county officials confirmed that the environmental review process would resume and put the county on track for the future airport, which would include two runways and a terminal building in the Ivanpah Valley.
Airport planners have not determined which airlines or what types of flying would occur at the new airport and how it would coordinate with Reid.
July meetings
Three public scoping meetings are scheduled in July.
The first will be online from 6-8 p.m., on July 29. The next two will be in-person meetings, July 30 from 5-7 p.m., at the East Las Vegas Library Multipurpose Rooms 1 and 2 at 2851 E. Bonanza Road, Las Vegas, and July 31 from 6-8 p.m., at the Primm Valley Casino Resorts Ballroom in Primm.
Public comments can also be submitted by mail or email with details to be publicized later this year.
It was in 2000 when former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D- Nev., who first took office in 1987 en route to a career that eventually would place him in the role of Senate majority leader, guided passage of what would become known as the Ivanpah Valley Airport Public Lands Transfer Act.
The area to be under review in the environmental study includes the 5,752 acres under consideration for the airport as well as 2,320 acres for flood mitigation infrastructure and a 17,000-acre noise compatibility area.
A representative of the Center for Biological Diversity has indicated the Great Basin region of the organization is particularly interested in monitoring work involving two endangered species in the area, the beloved desert tortoise and the white-margined penstemon, known scientifically as penstemon albomarginatus, a perennial plant that grows in three locations within the Mojave Desert, including the Ivanpah Valley.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at [email protected] or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
©2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com.. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.