Focus Group offered to build an elementary school, a fire station and widen the two-lane section of Highway 160 coming into Pahrump. But Nye County Commissioner Patricia Cox said Wednesday the number of planned lots per acre for the Gateway Project is too many for the area in question.

Mark Fiorentino, senior vice-president of government affairs for the Focus Property Group, said the Gateway project would have a maximum build-out of 6,200 housing units at the southern boundary of Nye County. The Gateway project would be an investment of $2 billion, considering land purchases and infrastructure, he said.

Fiorentino said the plans are for lots ranging from a minimum of 4,000 square feet and up. Cox said if Focus Group wants to build 4,000-square-foot lots, they will be able to build eight homes per acre, and that's too high a density.

"I don't feel this is what Pahrump needs to have in our valley," Cox said to applause. "I understand you're bringing in a nice project. I understand you're bringing in amenities. I have a problem going into that high a density."

"I have reservations allowing eight units per lot," Cox said. She said Pahrump officials have been moving in the direction of three to four houses per acre. Residents also want more than three-foot setbacks, Cox said.

"I don't think we should move to Las Vegas standards, to the high density standards," she said.

Commissioner Candice Trummell said, however, that it may be an advantage to have development that's less spread out to make it easier to provide services.

"Residential development doesn't pay for itself. The way we're planning on developing is very sprawled out. Any time you're going to have 10,000 people spread out over 10 miles, it's going to cost more to provide police protection, fire protection," Trummell said. "I think it may be time to look at doing something different where we have developers in certain areas providing a little more density so we can provide a little more services."

Fiorentino said if the county sets a minimum of 8,000-square-foot lot sizes and allows no deviation, it would be very constraining.

"We would not propose lot sizes in front of you that nobody wants. We won't build lots and hope somebody will buy them. There's a distinct market of people that want to live in that type of community," Fiorentino said. "It's not true to say that because we're allowing 4,000-square-foot lots to a minimum we can get to eight lots per acre. That's impossible. The RPC prohibited that with their motion."

Regional Planning Commission member Mark Kimball said his board made a motion to recommend approval of the amendment to the master plan and zoning change for the Gateway project. But he said, "We were concerned with not making Pahrump look like Las Vegas, not having a sea of roofs."

Kimball said he thought Focus Property Group had a very professional approach, well-thought-out architectural drawings, great landscaping and a willingness to work with the community. The RPC board was willing to go to six lots per acre as a fair compromise for what the company was offering to build in amenities, he said.

A temporary zoning change was approved for the 900 acres from an open use and highway frontage district to a mixed use zone, which expires in six months if the county and Focus Property Group don't agree on a development agreement. A conditional use permit was also approved for the 72-acre casino on Highway 160 and Manse Road. Cox voted against the motion.

The project would abut the proposed community college site to the north. Trails would lead up to Carpenter Canyon.

Fiorentino said there would be 44 acres of open space, 25 percent more than is required. It will cost $500,000 per year to maintain the open space, he said. Fiorentino outlined a plan for building baseball fields with lights built and maintained by Focus Property Group, tennis courts, basketball courts and bike paths.

Fiorentino called it "a model to use to measure other projects as they come forward."

Focus would build the parks, the infrastructure, while individual builders would construct the homes, he said. But Fiorentino said the development would have strict codes mandating setbacks, different colors of homes, pedestrian access, a ban on turf in front yards, while homes visible from streets would need architectural enhancements.

"We will improve Highway 160 very early in the stage of this development," Fiorentino said. "At a point of roughly half a mile of getting to our site it narrows down to two lanes. We will pick it up at that point and take it up to the end of our project and we will develop it at full width at our cost."

A flood protection facility would be built on the east side of the development along with at least one retention basin, he said.

Focus Group will pay up to $500,000 to build a fire station at the south end of Pahrump, Fiorentino said. While most companies would say no, his company also told Nye County school officials they could build an elementary school.