For the longest time, the proposed site for Turnberry Associates’ Fontainebleau hotel-casino was nothing more than overflow parking for construction equipment and materials from the nearby Turnberry Towers, which — if you have a better data stream than ours — you can view via a live Web cam. (Ah, the wonders of technology.)

In any event, an empty lot was a definite improvement on its precursor: the rotting hulk of the El Rancho … site of the last Vegas gig of Judy Garland, for those of you with a morbid disposition.

Despite the presence of former Mandalay Resort Group president, arts patron and humanitarian Glenn Schaeffer as Fontainebleau supremo-to-be, some of us were starting to wonder if this was another of those will-o’-the-wisp casino projects.

Wonder no more. Reliable sources say it will come before the Clark County Commission on September 6.

You can read Turnberry’s plan in full detail. Salient points include:
• 2,929 hotel rooms & 959 condo units
• a 725-foot hotel tower
• two pool decks (plus “cascading water features”)
• 777,445 square feet of convention space — the third most on the Strip
• 5,559 parking spots (27% fewer than planned)
• a Zen garden

That last item is my favorite bit, since it reminds me of one of the key locales in the great series Babylon 5
(warning: requires Flash). Visitors to Fontainebleau may need some Zen-like quietude: it’s right under a flight path.