The desert habitat conservation plan up for consideration by Nye County commissioners would quickly put a moratorium on development in the fee area, developer Tim Hafen charged this week.

County commissioners have scheduled action on the desert tortoise habitat conservation plan at 10 a.m. Tuesday during their regular meeting in Pahrump. The argument could get heated, enough to make a tortoise retreat into its shell.

A map of Pahrump Valley shows areas largely east of Highway 160 and the southwestern edges of Pahrump as desert tortoise habitat.

Developers in those impact areas would pay $550 per acre or $220 per acre for desert tortoise mitigation under the plan. But opponents of the plan are most concerned over a provision that would require an environmental impact statement for any project once 100 acres are developed in the area.

The provisions would be in place until a permanent, multi-species habitat conservation plan is drafted for Pahrump Valley, a process expected to take three years.

"It was pointed out to us that once that 100 acres is gone -- and that's for a three-year period during the period of this temporary habitat conservation plan -- nothing else happens," Hafen said. "Think about one developer going in and buying up that 100 acres. The rest of the valley has a moratorium. That completely stops any home-building, anything else, in the fee areas."

The plan isn't just an issue affecting developers but any landowner, Hafen said.

"We think we'd like to see this plan just stopped and start on the long-term plan, because we think this thing is too faulty to mend or correct, and the reason we think it's faulty is because the maps they've used are not up to date," he said.

Nye County should stay with the status quo, without the current plan, until the multi-species plan is completed, Hafen said. Otherwise, he said a landowner who has arranged financing and a contractor to build on his property may have to then pay thousands of dollars for an environmental impact statement, which could take two years.

Nevada District 36 Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, said he respects Nye County Natural Resources Director Jim Marble's work, but said the plan he brought back from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is unacceptable.

"Anyone who wants to disturb a half-acre or more, say you have a house and you have a barn and you want to put in a little horse stable, a little roping arena. If you disturb a half-acre or more under this HCP plan, you have to go down there and pay a desert tortoise fee, which could be $250 or $550," he said.

Then, after the 100 acres is developed in the tortoise impact area, Goedhart said, "That means no one else can disturb any land in that area for up to 36 months."

"I think there's a lot of people in Pahrump who don't know how draconian this is," Goedhart added. "I don't think we need to be threatened by federal officials who say we're going to put this noose around your neck."

Goedhart predicted it will lead to widespread clearing of property by landowners so wildlife officials can't claim its desert tortoise habitat.

Hafen said his Indian Roads development alone calls for developing 120 acres of residential housing and 40 acres for a sewer plant, inside the high fee area on the south end of Pahrump.

Marble said the short-term plan was designed to allow landowners to develop some acres legally in the desert tortoise impact zone. The standards were set by the Council on Environmental Quality in Washington, D.C., he said.

Marble said he hopes the plan will be implemented in such a way that small property owners will be able to develop land in the desert tortoise impact areas, so the 100 acres would go farther.

"People that have pending applications, if they want a few acres, they'll be able to use (part of) that 100 acres. People who have large developments, they want to use all that acreage, they won't be able to," Marble said.

Bob Williams, state director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said it's urgent to enact a plan to prevent the continued disturbance of land used as desert tortoise habitat.

Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis made the statement Nov. 6 that commissioners needed to approve the draft plan before Williams "comes in here and brings in his storm troopers."

"We tried to identify projects and how many we know about, based on past history we estimated would develop in that fee area. We estimated only 70 acres of disturbance in the fee area," Marble said. "However it turns out that there's a couple of developers that want to do large projects in the fee area we didn't know about."

Marble said only the Hafens and Focus Development Group submitted comments on the plan by the end of the comment period Dec. 4.

The Focus Property Group, which has 900 acres on which it is planning a development of up to 5,800 homes, is outside the boundaries of the plan, but Marble said there is an intention to expand the boundaries to the Nye-Clark County line.