Vacant Lots and Buildings Could Become Homes. Union Lobbyists Say Not Without Their Cut.
Veteran Las Vegas reporter Steve Sebelius and I don't always agree. But when he's right, he's right.
On Thursday, Steve tweeted about converting the old Grant Sawyer government building and “repurposing the land for much-needed housing.”
That raised an interesting question.
If the federal government owns nearly all the undeveloped land in Clark County and won't hand any of it back to Nevada, why not build on the vacant land and empty building sites already sitting idle across the valley?
As Steve put it in a follow-up post: “This should be a priority, with expedited zoning and permitting review and even waived fees to encourage infill development.”
That's common sense. So what's the hold up?
This Already Passed. Somebody Just Won't Use It.
Here's the part that surprised me. We're not asking for something new. Nevada already passed a law to do this.
It's called AB241, approved during the 2025 session of the Nevada Legislature.
It says if you own land already zoned commercial – like a dead strip mall or an empty office building – you get to build housing on it.
No year-long fight in front of a commission. No waiting on politicians to grant you permission to use your own land.
Most Republicans in the Legislature voted no. And I understand why.
The bill was sponsored by a Democrat leader. In addition, Republicans are protective of local control.
So a state bill telling county and city governments what to do can feel like big government overreach.
But this law doesn't hand out taxpayer money, and it doesn't build a single home with government funds.
All it does is clear away certain government red tape that’s been slowing builders down for years.
That's not bigger government. That's smaller government.
And I'm not going to oppose a good idea just because of which party wrote it. Nevada families need homes more than any of us need to score a partisan political point.
So Why Isn't It Happening Faster?
Here's where it gets interesting.
The Democrats running the Clark County Commission and the Las Vegas City Council haven't put this law fully into action here at home, where it matters most.
There's only one Republican on the county commission, so this isn't a Republican holdup.
Democrats in Carson City moved forward. Democrats here in the valley are dragging their feet.
A big part of the reason is that union lobbyists fought hard against this law while it was being written.
Not because they oppose more housing. They said so themselves. They opposed it because the bill didn't force builders into something called a Project Labor Agreement, or PLA.
Here's what that means in plain English: Only certain union contractors get to bid on the job.
Smaller local builders get shut out. Competition disappears. And the cost of building goes up. Not a little. A lot.
This isn't just a talking point.
Researchers at RAND, one of the most respected and nonpartisan research organizations in the country, studied affordable housing projects built in Los Angeles under a PLA requirement.
They found the PLA added 21 percent to the total cost of building the homes.
A separate study out of Connecticut found similar PLA-mandated school projects came in 19 percent higher than projects without one.
Think about what that means for a Nevada starter home.
If a home should cost $350,000 to build, a PLA could push that toward $420,000 or more.
The home buyer pays for that extra cost. Not the union. Not the developer. Not the politicians.
The home buyer does.
And it especially hits hard the young couple trying to scrape together their first down payment or qualify for a mortgage.
What This Comes Down To
A PLA doesn't make a home safer. It doesn't make it better built. It just makes it cost more to mollify a politically powerful special interest.
That's the last thing we should be doing.
Nevada has plenty of vacant land and empty buildings that should be full of new homes instead of sitting idle.
The law to make that happen is already on the books. The only question is whether we let it work the way it's supposed to.
Now, I'll admit I don't know everything about this issue. So if there's a solid argument against it that isn't just labor union lobbyist talking points, I want to hear it.
Send your thoughts to george@fogvegas.com. I read everything that comes in.
If somebody makes a case I haven't considered, I'll say so and adjust my thinking. That's how representative government is supposed to work.
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