News - June 24, 2025 - by Ray Hagar

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Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson had a big stake in the land-sale amendment inserted recently into the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" by U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City.

The proposed land sale included 14,000 acres of federal land in Washoe County that would be added to Sparks, with much of that ear-marked for affordable housing in a community already bursting at its city limits.

Amodei's congressional district includes Sparks and much of Northern Nevada, but his amendment included putting up for sale a swath of land in Clark County, which is not in his district.

The move upset some of Nevada's congressional Democrats who represent Clark County. They said they were never consulted before Amodei's move and felt Nevada was getting short-changed in the bill's congressional reconciliation process. So after some public complaining, the Nevada land-sale amendment was struck from the "OBBB."

Lawson, obviously disappointed, called the Congressional kerfuffle "a roller-coaster ride," on Nevada Newsmakers recently.

"I was a little surprised," he told host Sam Shad.

Lawson added that the failed amendment has put Sparks in an economic lurch.

He said he understood some of the Democrats' concerns, then added:

"But at the same time, we need a bill, and we need land. I mean, we're seeing the median house prices now going over $630,000. So it's simple supply and demand. There's no magic wand to do affordable housing other than supply and demand."

The median cost for a home in Sparks is $569,000, according to Realtor.com but Lawson's quote is still in the ballpark.

Losing out on the 14,000 acres in Amodei's failed amendment, coupled with Nevada's current property-tax cap, could spark a series of circumstances that could led an economic catastrophe in the next decade for Sparks, Lawson said.

"If the property-tax system doesn't get changed, and we don't get any land or any combination thereof, we could see a disaster in probably 10 to 15 years," Lawson said. "We won't have the land, so we will have to try to grow vertically, which means prices goes up, which means the cost of housing goes up."

Lawson lauded the work on land bills done by Nevada's Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Amodei, the only Republican in Nevada's delegation. But he also understands the politics that rule Congress.

"I kind of understand that you're playing a team sport, and that's what it is at the national level -- and at the state level -- for that matter," Lawson said. "You're a D or an R, and that's the team you play for.

"I wish it wasn't that way," Lawson said. "That's not the way I operate as a local (elected official). I mean, I represent all the citizens, not just the ones who are in the same party.

"It's just the way it's done today," Lawson said about the congressional process. "I wish things could get done because we need a lands bill in the worst way for Sparks. I mean, we're going to be out of land pretty soon."

Lawson's toll road bill

Lawson supported and pushed a bill in the recent Nevada Legislature that would have allowed for the construction of a 13-mile toll road from northeast Sparks to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Complex.

TRI, which has become the economic engine of Northern Nevada, is nine miles east of the Reno-Sparks metro area on the Interstate-80 corridor and home to major tech companies like Tesla, Switch and Google as well as logistics and distribution centers like Walmart and FedEx Supply Chain.

The toll-road idea was seized upon because Nevada Department of Transportation funding was not available. More importantly, traffic between east Sparks and the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center in Storey County had become overwhelming -- and frightening, Lawson said.

"If you're not doing 75, you're getting run over," Lawson said. "So it's a little scary."

An average of almost 40,000 vehicles traveled on I-80 between TRI and Sparks each day in 2023, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

Before the Tesla Gigafactory opened at TRI in 2017, the daily average was less than 26,000 vehicles per day, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Yet Lawson's toll-road bill went nowhere at the Legislature. It didn't even get out of its first committee -- the Assembly Growth and Infrastructure Committee.

"What I heard was that certain people (state legislators) said, 'I have to run for re-election and this is too much like a tax,' " Lawson said, giving a reason for the bill's failure.

It was reported in a major publication soon after the bill failed in April that Lawson "vowed to keep fighting for a new road."

Yet he said on Nevada Newsmakers that he will not re-introduce the measure at the next Legislature, in 2027.

"No, not by me," he said. "I got beat up for it."

The proposed toll road may follow the path of a new and popular connecting highway between Reno and Sparks -- the Veterans Parkway, Lawson said.

"It'll be like Veterans Parkway, you know that it was approved in the 1960s, and it didn't get built until 2000s," Lawson said. "And yet now you go on that road... and everybody loves it."

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