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Residents, property owner challenge Red Hills liquor license approval at Mesquite council meeting
Summary
Speakers at the Jan. 13 Mesquite City Council meeting alleged the city approved a liquor license at Red Hills Commercial Center despite missing parking studies and easements; property owners and residents asked the council to revoke the license, while no formal action was taken at the meeting.
Marcus Bender accused the City of Mesquite of approving a liquor license for a Red Hills nightclub without required documentation and said the decision could amount to an unlawful taking. “Under the law no parking study equals no approval,” Bender said, arguing a mandatory parking study and recorded easements could not be found and that council members who voted in December overlooked code requirements.
Raylene Cipano of Nordic Beach Holdings, representing owner Erica Nicholas, told the council the property is commercial and not part of an HOA, and said she also could not find reciprocal parking easements or transportation and parking studies on record. “If the city cannot produce the documents required by the code, it has no lawful basis to issue or maintain any permits, conditional uses, liquor licenses, business licenses,” Cipano said.
Erica Nicholas, the property owner, said the absence of recorded easements and studies has blocked her ability to develop a family-focused business on the site. “There are no studies anywhere. There is no reciprocal parking easements,” Nicholas said, adding that requiring her property to supply parking for another business would be “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
The speakers referenced the Nevada Public Records Act and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution as part of their concerns about due process and transparency. Council did not vote on the liquor license or take formal action at the Jan. 13 meeting; the comments were made during the public-comment period. The council did not announce any immediate follow-up steps in response to the remarks during the meeting.
The record presented at the meeting contains competing claims: speakers for Nordic Beach Holdings said required parking studies and recorded easements cannot be produced, while Mr. Bender asserted the council previously bypassed legal requirements. No city staff produced documentation on the floor to resolve those claims during the session.
Next steps were not set on the record. Members of the public may request records under the Nevada Public Records Act; any legal determination about permits, licenses or takings would be resolved outside the council’s public-comment period or by subsequent council action or litigation.
