Gov. Joe Lombardo wants lawmakers to take up a host of issues in the special session starting Thursday, from cybersecurity to health care.

He also wants to revisit a measure he signed that finances a new housing tract for residents of a sunken North Las Vegas neighborhood.

Lombardo on Wednesday called the Nevada Legislature, which convenes for regular sessions every other year, into an extra period of lawmaking. His office said in a news release that the session will consider legislation “consistent with” several prior bills, including one from 2023 that financed a new subdivision for residents of Windsor Park.

The historically Black neighborhood has grappled for decades with widespread structural damage.

Lombardo signed the measure, Senate Bill 450, into law. It allocated $37 million for the development and allowed Windsor Park homeowners to exchange their houses for the newly built ones.

It also required the state to set up a program to pay the homeowners’ moving costs and to help arrange financing to pay off their existing mortgages.

Construction crews recently broke ground on the new 93-lot subdivision, located along Carey Avenue just west of Martin Luther King Boulevard.

‘Continuing relocation efforts’

In its news release, Lombardo’s office did not offer specifics on what exactly he wanted to address with Windsor Park-related legislation.

It listed SB 450 among the items that lawmakers would consider and provided this brief description: “Continuing relocation efforts for residents of Windsor Park in North Las Vegas.”

His official proclamation convening the special session also listed SB 450 among the matters to consider and provided a summary of the bill.

Lombardo’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Windsor Park was built in the 1960s over geological faults, and its homes, roads and utilities started sinking decades ago after groundwater was pumped from an aquifer. The neighborhood, near North Las Vegas Airport, is now laced with empty lots, cracked roads and damaged houses.

State Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, introduced the bill that financed the new subdivision. She could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

Spending deadlines

Last year, the Nevada Housing Division awarded the $37 million contract to develop the project to Community Development Programs Center of Nevada, a nonprofit affordable-housing firm led by former Las Vegas councilman and Raiders player Frank Hawkins.

North Las Vegas’ Planning Commission approved his project plans this past June, followed by the City Council’s approval in July.

The bulk of the project funding, at $25 million, was allocated from federal COVID relief funds that must be spent by the end of 2026 under the terms of Hawkins’ contract with the Housing Division.

The remaining $12 million came from the state and, under the contract, had to be committed for expenditure before June 30, 2025, and spent before Sept. 15, 2025. Otherwise, any unspent funds from that pot of money would go back to Nevada’s general fund.

Under the legislation, those unspent funds would revert to the state by Sept. 19.

Teri Williams, spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, which includes the Housing Division, previously confirmed that the state funds were spent.

More funding sought

Williams also confirmed that the project site was ultimately paid for with the state funds.

Hawkins’ firm acquired the new Windsor Park site this past April for $9.9 million. The purchase included a nearly 1-acre parcel on Carey that was not part of the proposed subdivision, which spans about 18 acres.

Earlier this year, during Nevada’s regular lawmaking session, Neal sponsored a bill that sought an additional $26 million from the state for the project. It also sought to extend, by two years, the deadlines to commit and spend the original pot of state funding.

She told the Senate Finance Committee in May that the deadlines had to be pushed back “so we can continue to finish the project” and that the additional funding was needed “to finish it in entirety.”

The measure, Senate Bill 393, ultimately fizzled out.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.

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