Bipartisan federal law looks to speed up home building in Nevada

LAS VEGAS – On Feb. 14, in a Northwest community being developed from federal land to the new Skye Summit residential community, Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) held a press conference to announce and celebrate the bipartisan Accelerating Appraisals and Conservation Efforts (AACE) Act being signed into law – a bill they led in Congress. The AACE Act will help address Nevada’s housing crisis by cutting red tape to speed up federal land transactions and lower housing costs. Lee wrote and led the AACE Act in the U.S. House and Cortez Masto led the companion bill in the U.S. Senate.

Skye Summit was once federal land and is in the process of being developed by Olympia Companies for housing, including entry-level homes. More than 3,000 homes will be built on this desert land. Model homes should be ready by the end of 2026, and early 2027.

In Nevada, more than 80% of the land is owned by the federal government. The Department of the Interior (DOI) oversees hundreds of millions of acres of public land nationwide, but before it can complete any land transactions, it must first guarantee that these transactions are done at fair market value. With growing demands, the agency has had to rely increasingly on private appraisers who can only work in the specific states where they are credentialed — unlike full-time federal appraisers, who have been able to work quickly and easily across state lines for decades.

“We made a commitment to lower the cost of housing and passing my AACE Act is one step toward building housing and lowering costs,” said Lee. “Thanks to a strong partnership with Senator Cortez Masto and our local housing advocates, we’re now cutting red tape to more quickly unlock federals lands for housing, conservation, and infrastructure projects at no additional cost to the American taxpayer.”

The AACE Act will:

• Allow DOI to contract with private appraisers appropriately credentialed in any one state or territory to perform appraisal duties across all states and territories. 
• Tackle federal appraisal bottlenecks that undermine housing, infrastructure, and conservation projects on public lands without spending additional taxpayer dollars by making more appraisers available. 
• Require DOI to continue to prioritize working with local appraisers, unlocking the enhanced flexibility provided by the bill only when no qualified and cost-competitive local appraisers are available to perform needed services. 

“Now that the AACE Act is law, it will cut through red tape and make it easier to build affordable housing, to open new businesses, and to support conservation projects in Southern Nevada,” said Cortez Masto. “I am grateful to Congresswoman Lee and our partners in the community who helped get this bipartisan legislation across the finish line.”

Lee and Cortez Masto were joined by Nevada Housing Coalition Executive Director Maurice Page, Southern Nevada Home Builders Association CEO Tina Frias, and Olympia Companies Executive Vice President Chris Armstrong.