The Federal Aviation Administration has raised concerns about the height of UNLV's proposed stadium.
Federal
regulations require that developers looking to build a tall structure
near an airport must first consult with the FAA. The agency analyzes
blueprints and determines if the proposed building poses any hazards to
air travel based on its height and proximity to the airport. The UNLV
Now "mega-events center" would be less than two miles from McCarran
International Airport.
The FAA doesn't have any authority over
local planning and building permits, so these aeronautical studies are
only a recommendation. However, Clark County requires FAA approval for
all proposed buildings in the county’s jurisdiction, which includes
UNLV’s Maryland Parkway campus.
Submitted plans for the UNLV Now call for a 205-feet-tall stadium.
In
a letter to university officials, the FAA said the stadium was too
tall, posing an "adverse physical or electromagnetic interference
effect" on flights coming in and out of McCarran. The FAA argued the
stadium as presented could affect departure and landing routes, block
radar and interfere with communication signals between planes and the
air-control tower.
The FAA requested that UNLV Now officials decide between two options:
•
Revise the proposal for a stadium no taller than 106 feet. (UNLV’s
Thomas & Mack Center was designed at a height of 104 feet.)
• Request another study for a stadium up to 168 feet, which is the FAA's "not-to-exceed height."
UNLV
Now's project leader Don Snyder said the university was well aware of
FAA's concerns but had submitted taller-than-expected plans to test the
FAA's building parameters.
"That's a very normal part of a
project like this," Snyder said. "We want maximum flexibility because
we're in the preliminary design phase."
The actual plans for the
UNLV stadium call for a turf-to-ceiling height of 195 feet, which is
still beyond the FAA's maximum height limit.
However, UNLV and
its developer partner, Majestic Realty, have always planned to sink the
stadium about 30 feet into the ground to create a "bowl" effect, Snyder
said. Such a stadium would fit within the FAA's parameters, he said.
"Just being close to the airport adds a few more hoops," Snyder said. "But I feel really confident we're on the right track."
This wouldn't be the first time the FAA had concerns about tall buildings in the Las Vegas Valley.
In
2007, developers behind the Crown Las Vegas resort concept had called
for a 1,888-feet-tall observation tower on the southern end of the
Strip, a few miles from McCarran. After the FAA study, developers scaled
back its plans to a 1,064-feet tower. The $5 billion resort, which was
scheduled to be completed in 2014, was scrapped in 2008.
In the
mid-1990s, developers of the Stratosphere scaled back their tower
proposal from 1,800 feet to its current 1,149-feet height. Developers
also decided to build the observation tower within the boundaries of the
city of Las Vegas instead of Clark County because Las Vegas has fewer
regulations for FAA approval on buildings.
Similar concerns from
the FAA during the early 2000s caused delays in building University of
Phoenix Stadium, the Glendale, Ariz., complex that is home for the NFL’s
Arizona Cardinals. In a more extreme case that happened a few years
ago, the city of San Diego forced a developer to chop 20 feet off of a
building that was built beyond FAA specifications.
Story and Reaction/Comments: http://www.lasvegassun.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment