So it seems the Las Vegas City Council is poised to hand yet another sweetheart deal to golf course developer Bill Walters, who has ironically said he’s been very “lucky” in his dealings with government over the years.

This particular deal stinks more than usual, since Walters wants to convert his Royal Links Golf Course in the northeast part of the valley into homes, homes that would be as close as 20 feet from the city’s Water Pollution Control Facility (read — sewage treatment plant).

Back in the late 1990s, Walters struck one of his classic deals with the city: He’d build a course on the city-owned land, which he’d get for reduced prices. In 1999, Walters bought the land outright from the city for $894,000, which was a song at the time, with one important, value-lowering restriction: It had to be used as a golf course.

Flash forward to now: The golf industry is sucking wind, but the homebuilding industry is off the charts. Walters sees an opportunity, one that he’s exercised at other courses he owns: Get rid of the links, and build homes instead.

So, in order to get the city to strike the deed restriction, he offers $7.2 million, which he says was the value of the land back in 1999 without the restriction.

Now, where have we seen this movie before? Oh, that’s right, Back to the Future II, where that rascal Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) tries to swipe a sports almanac from the future in order to win at gambling in 1985. Brilliant!

See, now that Walters has knowledge of the future (home prices skyrocketing, golf courses faltering) he wants to hop in the DeLorean and go back to 1999, where he’d pay what the land was worth back then unencumbered by the deed restriction, and get clear title to it. Then, in 2005, he’d sell it to homebuilders for a maximum profit, since city appraisers say it’s now worth between $24.1 million and $28.7 million.

City Councilman Gary Reese argues Walters shouldn’t be penalized for the increase in valley land values, which is a little like us at Various Things & Stuff demanding a house now worth $300,000 be sold to us at the 1999 price of $120,000, since it’s not our fault valley home prices have gone up so much.

Walters says the city should consider the $50 million he claims he’s put into the property since he bought it, but this is equally wrong. Walters and the city had a deal: The city would sell him the land at a reduced price, and he’d build a nice golf course. Both parties fulfilled their end of the bargain, and that’s the end of that.

Now, Walters wants an entirely new deal, one that would put taxpayers at a disadvantage. And what happens to taxpayers when Bill Walters wants the City Council to screw them? Well, they usually get screwed. That’s why everybody should watch what happens at Wednesday’s meeting very closely.

Oh, and another thing: According to the Las Vegas Sun, the city will have to put between $13.3 million and possibly as much as $71 million in upgrades into the sewage plant to comply with Clark County air quality regulations, since people will be living so close. That money was never budgeted because the Walters land, with its deed restriction, was always intended to be a buffer between homes and the smelly plant.

Clearly, Walters thinks his shit don’t stink. Tune in Wednesday to find out if he’s right.