Southern Nevada has a problem. The federal government owns 88% of the land in Clark County. Out of 5.1m acres in the County, entities such as the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife control over 4.5m acres.  

Think about that. Essentially, all the land surrounding the largest metropolitan area in Nevada belongs to Washington, D.C.

This is a major contributor to why housing costs keep rising. It’s why some businesses struggle to expand. It’s why it’s difficult for Southern Nevada to control its own economic future.

And it’s getting worse, not better.

The Numbers That Matter

Of all these millions of acres only a small fraction are actually able to be developed. Analyses must account for things like terrain, distance to roads and utilities, and how long it may take to build for results to be reliable.

According to research commissioned by the Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission, Clark County has roughly 70,000 acres of developable land. However, official reports submitted to the state (conducted by RCG Economics), which use more strict filters, find that only about 23,000 acres are currently available for development and owned by private interests.

At current growth rates (~2,500 acres/year from 2017-2024), we’ll run out in less than a decade.

Southern Nevada researchers expect 380,000 new residents (which is roughly the current population of the city of Henderson) in the next 10 years. We need hundreds of thousands of new residential units. But we’re running out of places to build them.

How We Got Here

Around 1880, Nevada made a deal with Congress. State officials chose to secure the rights to land they expected would be the most beneficial in the future. In exchange, they gave up the right to lands elsewhere.

At the time, nobody knew Las Vegas, or Reno for that matter, would become anything. In fact, the University of Nevada, Reno was initially located in Elko, NV because everyone expected Elko to grow faster. Nobody imagined Reno’s, let alone Southern Nevada’s, growth.

Now, over 145 years later, we’re stuck with the consequences. The federal government controls more land in Nevada (> 80%) than in any other state. Utah comes closest at 64%.

What We Do Have: SNPLMA

Southern Nevada does have one advantage that other regions don’t.

In 1998, Congress passed the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA). The act allows the Bureau of Land Management to sell public land within a specific “disposal boundary” around Las Vegas.

This matters because of how federal land sales normally work.

Outside SNPLMA, selling federal land requires individual Congressional approval for each parcel. That’s an extremely lengthy, complex, and rare process.

SNPLMA changed this for Southern Nevada. Congress pre-authorized land sales within the disposal boundary. This enabled the BLM to work with local governments to identify parcels, appraise them, and auction them off.

This is why SNPLMA is a big deal. It’s essentially the only example of Congress creating this kind of pre-authorized disposal mechanism for a major metro area.

But SNPLMA comes with constraints.

First, it only applies within a specific boundary. Land outside that boundary (~93% of Clark County) still requires Congressional approval.

As of today, this boundary represents only 6.3% of Clark County. That means that the majority of development in Clark County has been limited to less than 10% of what’s potentially available.

Second, the revenue split from the land sales. Five percent goes to Nevada education. Ten percent to the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The remaining 85 percent funds conservation projects in Nevada, including purchasing “environmentally sensitive lands” elsewhere.

Here’s the irony: SNPLMA has generated over $4 billion since 1998. That money has funded parks, trails, habitat conservation, and wildfire prevention across Nevada. But Nevada has more land in federal ownership today than when SNPLMA passed. Because portions of the revenue get used to buy more land for conservation.

Third, SNPLMA started with about 67,920 acres available for disposal. Today, only about 28,000 acres remain. This process can be beneficial, but only so long as there is land to go through the process. The other factor that matters is whether the market wants to, or can, develop the land that is still available. Some of those 28,000 acres may be unsuitable for appropriate projects.

So SNPLMA helps. It’s better than requiring Congressional approval for every parcel.

But it’s not enough. Not when we’re running out of land in less than a decade. Not when we’re expecting 380,000 new residents in that same decade.

Why This Creates a Serious Problem

Land scarcity is a major factor that drives up land prices.

When you have limited supply and growing demand, prices tend to rise. Developers, businesses, and families must compete for the same shrinking pool of available parcels.

If land is limited, land costs will tend to be higher. When that happens, it’s harder for developers to make housing affordable. This is especially true for low-income areas.

We are seeing this play out right now. The blended median price of existing and new single-family homes in Southern Nevada hit $448,000 by the end of 2025. This is up over 40% since 2020. According to current estimates, we’re over 100,000 housing units short statewide.

You can’t solve a housing shortage without land to build on.

Additionally, land in federal hands doesn’t generate property tax revenue. It doesn’t support commercial development. It doesn’t create jobs or economic activity. It doesn’t go to housing.

When 90% of your county is off-limits, you can’t:

• Diversify your economy beyond gaming and tourism
• Build the infrastructure that population growth requires
• Attract businesses that need space to operate

You’re stuck competing for scraps while your tax base can’t expand to match your population.

What Washington Doesn’t Understand

The federal government doesn’t plan communities. Local developers regulated by local governments do.

The Bureau of Land Management isn’t an expert in understanding housing markets, economic diversification, or population growth patterns in Southern Nevada. 

Yet Washington officials control the land within our state. This forces local officials and private developers to jump through artificial hoops for permission to address local needs.

This makes no sense. The whole point of federalism (the principle that states govern themselves) is that local governments and residents understand local needs better than distant bureaucrats.

Why Efforts to Add More Land Keep Failing

Nevada’s Congressional delegation keeps trying. Both Democrats and Republicans have proposed multiple bills. Unfortunately, these recent attempts have not made much ground.

The latest attempt—the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act—would have released 25,000 additional acres for development while protecting 2 million acres for conservation. An 80-to-1 ratio in favor of conservation.

It died anyway. 

A partial reason is that environmental groups are staunch critics of development. 

But, it’s also because our Congressional delegates need to get the buy-in of out-of-state legislators who control Nevada’s fate. Getting this buy-in is a real challenge. Legislators from other states don’t understand the severity of the problem in Nevada. It’s difficult to understand what it’s like for almost 90% of your state’s land to be off limits, unless you’ve experienced it yourself.

Also, the SNPLMA is an agreement that is specific to Nevada. No other state has the benefits of pre-authorization of federal lands, where the proceeds are kept largely within the state. Because of this some in Washington DC look at the Federal land holdings in Nevada as a possible cash cow for the Federal government. 

Meanwhile, amongst the back and forth, Clark County is running out of land.

The Bottom Line

Southern Nevada is likely to run out of developable land soon.

Not because we’ve developed every acre available. But because we aren’t able to use the land that exists without the federal government’s permission.

You can’t build homes without land. You can’t expand businesses without land. You can’t grow your tax base without land. You can’t plan for new residents or economic growth without land.

And you can’t get land when Washington owns 90% of your county and won’t let go.

Nevada has pioneered habitat conservation. We’ve contributed more to land conservation than any other state. We’ve implemented the most productive water reuse program in the Colorado River Compact.

We’ve shown it is possible to be responsible, protect the environment, AND allow our communities to grow.

But only if we control our own land.

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