MARK WAITE / PVT A sign advertises a shopping center at Thousandaire Boulevard and Homestead Road but there is no phone number to call for more information. Perhaps the developers are worried about getting calls from angry residents of Jocelyn Estates. Advertisement

The names of many of the streets in the Jocelyn Estates subdivision on Thousandaire Boulevard just west of Homestead Road are reminders of the search for prosperity: Money Street, Bank Street, Dollar Street and Cash Street.

But many of the residents of the subdivision aren't happy about a bit of free enterprise down Thousandaire Boulevard, specifically the plans to construct a 30-acre shopping center.

A group of subdivision residents showed up to voice their opposition at a June 14 Pahrump Regional Planning Commission meeting. The RPC board voted 6-1 to recommend the commission deny a request to rezone 40 acres of property from low-density residential to multi-family residential and 27 acres as general commercial. Only RPC board member Andrew "Butch" Borasky voted in favor of the application.

It was round two at the Nye County Commissioners meeting Wednesday. But this time, when opponent Darlene Miller turned in a petition she said contained signatures of 104 people opposed to the project, engineer Craig Stowell of CivilWise Engineering, said he had a petition with 166 signatures in favor of more commercial development in that area.

The plan is to construct a tavern similar to a PT's Pub and a convenience store with a gas station on eight acres at Thousandaire Boulevard and Oakridge Avenue; a seven-acre mini-storage facility and 8.4 acres for single-story duplexes or fourplexes.

Linda Mickelsen, who owns a pistachio farm on Thousandaire that would be the site of the development, said she still has trees in the ground but wasn't harvesting pistachios. Instead, she'd rather sell the property.

Mickelsen read a letter of support for the project from Jerry Scholtka, 2100 E. Cash Ave., who said he moved to Pahrump in 1967 and waited for more growth.

"Now you want to tell us you don't want more growth. If it wasn't for more growth, many of us wouldn't be here," Scholtka wrote. "I see many changes in growth appearing on my end of the valley. In my neighborhood hundreds of homes are going up. Along with the growth commercial growth is eventually needed also."

But opponent Calvin Morrison said the neighborhood is quiet, "there's no smoke, no hustle and bustle."

"We're not against the applicants rezoning their property to a use that's more appropriate to where they're in. It's grossly unfair to sit a general commercial area in the middle of an area that's zoned for rural living," Morrison said. He said there are plenty of other areas for commercial development.

But Cindy Allison said the project would eliminate the need for people living in the subdivisions planned for the area to travel to the center of town.

Concordia Homes of Nevada has plans to subdivide 800 acres as part of the Pleasant Valley subdivision' a sales trailer has already been set up on Thousandaire Boulevard and Homestead Road. Beazer Homes has plans to subdivide 586 residential lots as part of its Tesora Ranch Project east of Terrible's Lakeside Casino.

Residents told tales of what Pahrump Valley looked like when they first moved here. Allison said when her family moved from Las Vegas 38 years ago, there was only one resident on Homestead Road. She played at the old Nevada Cotton Gin where the Pahrump Nugget sits now, slid down irrigation ditches and stole watermelons from Tim Hafen.

"We all want the small town but we all shop at Wal-Mart," Allison said. "Homestead Road is already a traffic nightmare. The lack of services in the south will create more problems and traffic for the residents than having services there."

"When I purchased my land and put a house on it, I knew there was shopping eight miles away. I knew this was the price I'd pay," said opponent Tracy Kirkland, of 5831 Alicia St. "Jocelyn Estates is one of the nicest manufactured home developments in Pahrump Valley."

Stowell said the property owners really just want to change the zoning to neighborhood commercial, not general commercial. He said some property owners with land contiguous to the proposed development also want to change their zoning to commercial.

"My grandma lived on Linda (Street). She didn't expect to see a Champions Bar down the street from her," Clark said. "When we live in a small town it's eventually going to grow. Whether it's this commercial project or another project, we need commercial business in this town to get the revenue to do the things we need to do."

In addition to these developments, north of Thousandaire Boulevard on both Oakridge Avenue and Vicki Ann Road, Stowell wrote to Nye County planners that a parcel on Oakridge Avenue and Thousandaire Boulevard, owned by a client he represents, is the subject of a master plan amendment to rezone residential property to neighborhood commercial and general commercial. It has the potential of approximately 80 acres of development as a shopping center with a grocery store, home improvement store, clothing store or other retail businesses to fulfill the needs of the southwestern Pahrump Valley, Stowell wrote.