A Bureau of Land Management easement grant that homebuilders must obtain to run utilities through federally controlled land in the Las Vegas Valley can take up to three years for approval, and a sizable backlog of requests contributes to the housing crisis, according to a national homebuilder that operates in the region.

The government’s process is bogged down by red tape, a lack of communication and cost implications for homebuilding, said a top Las Vegas executive for one of the major homebuilders in the valley, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of damaging the company’s working relationship with the BLM.

“There’s just very little communication of what the status is. We’ve had them take anywhere from 12 months to 36 months, and you really can’t get much feedback,” the ho

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