Fast-forward to 2017 and county spokesman Dan Kulin says the development agreement, expired or not, is enough to immortalize public access to the parks, but the county is still seeking the public access easements.
They have remained elusive, however.
Southern Highlands Development granted ownership of the parks to the community’s homeowners association years ago. The move has shifted the annual burden of more than $1 million to maintain the parks onto homeowners but has also given them control of the parks.
Olympia Companies vice president of planning Chris Armstrong said he expects the HOA board to approve the easements at its meeting this month. He blamed the yearslong delay on difficulties drafting a contract pleasing to all parties.
“The intent was always to have the easements recorded,” he said. “It should all be buttoned down shortly.”
County’s leverage questioned
Construction on the sports park will begin this month, Armstrong said.
If the park isn’t open by June, county commissioners say they will stop issuing building permits for homes in Southern Highlands. If permits are frozen, Armstrong said, Olympia Companies will violate several of its contracts with homebuilders.
“So we don’t really have any option,” he said. “We want to build the park.”
The county reports that a grading permit has been issued for the park and that plans for shade structures, walls and lighting are being reviewed by the building department. County commissioners are scheduled to receive an update on the park’s construction at their Wednesday zoning meeting.
Mike Kosor, who has lived in Southern Highlands since 2011, has little faith commissioners will halt the developer if the project falls behind schedule. The county stopped issuing permits after a similar deadline passed 2012, but commissioners reversed the decision within two weeks.
The completion date has since been pushed back multiple times without a stoppage in the issuance of building permits. As of July, three-fourths of the available permits had been issued.
“The county has demonstrated repeatedly that it won’t hold up its end in stopping permits, which is the only leverage it has,” Kosor said. “And that leverage is rapidly running out.”
Kosor said a better protection would be to have the Olympia Companies post a bond for the project, like it has when building other parks. The county could call the bond if construction stopped and finish the park itself.
Armstrong said his company had no plans to post a bond, which county spokesman Erik Pappa said came as a surprise.
“We remain confident the project will be completed,” Pappa wrote in an email. “Some permits have been issued and work is already underway.”
Amenities eliminated
As the sports park’s opening date has receded further from its initial January 2008 deadline, its amenities and size have been diminished. Gone are plans to build shaded spectator seating, a second parking lot and a lighted baseball fourplex complemented by two practice diamonds.
Jenny Pelcher, a Southern Highlands resident and former Silverado Little League board member, said it was disappointing news for league families. They have to travel to Silverado Ranch to practice and play games.
Last month, county commissioners pledged $6.6 million in public money to build a similar fourplex in Mountain’s Edge. While those fields will be closer, Little League rules forbid Southern Highlands teams from using them, Pelcher said.
“You might as well build a wall at Mountain’s Edge,” she said. “That’s not in our boundary, and we can only practice in our boundaries.”
Armstrong said the sports park’s amenities changes after the recession hurt land sales planned to fund its development and construction. He said the park will still be a “first-class” facility with three lighted soccer fields, a basketball court, a playground and a splash pad.
“I think it will be the jewel of Southern Highlands,” he said.
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.

Southern Highlands parks confuse county staff
Clark County has had a difficult time keeping track of parks in Southern Highlands.
An amendment to its development agreement with Olympia Companies in October 2015 stated that contracts guaranteeing public access to seven existing parks were recorded. A year later, after scrutiny by community resident Mike Kosor, county attorney Robert Warhola acknowledged that “an error was made” and no such agreements were recorded for any park.
Until late August, staff believed that Olympia Companies would post a bond to construct Southern Highlands’ long-promised sports park. It wasn’t until a Review-Journal reporter spoke with the company and learned they had plans to post a bond that the county found out.
The county also missed the mark on how much tax credit Olympia Companies had remaining.
Earlier this year it reported that the company ran used its last credit sometime between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2016. This week, the county reported that its previous calculation was wrong and Olympia Companies still had close to $1 million in tax credits remaining.