MARK WAITE / PVT Sunset Mobile Home Park shares billing with the Pahrump Senior Center, on the sign at the entrance along West Basin Avenue. Advertisement

Regulars at the Pahrump Senior Center could have a lot more company in the neighborhood soon.

Curt Scheppman won approval by the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission recently for a zoning change and master plan amendment to expand the Sunset Mobile Home Park to develop a 143-space recreational vehicle park.

The existing 44-space mobile home park is at the site of the Pahrump Senior Center on West Basin Avenue just east of David Street.

The expansion would cover 12.5 acres of the 27-acre property. The vote to amend the master plan passed 5-2, Nevada Tolladay and Dan Schinhofen in opposition. The zoning change passed 6-1 with Schinhofen opposed.

Scheppman said the new impact fees of $3,600 for mobile home placement have limited the expansion of mobile home parks. He said there's also limited availability of mortgages on manufactured homes not placed on occupant-owned real property and an increase on his property tax bill from $4,000 to over $16,000.

By contrast, there's a heavy demand for quality RV accommodation, Scheppman said.

Scheppman told commissioners his goal wasn't to have overnight RV'ers coming and going. He pledged to have the new development coincide in style with the existing mobile home park.

Commissioners debated the definition of an RV park -- a temporary use -- in contrast to a mobile home park. There was also concern over the traffic flow on David Street, seen as a rural arterial way.

Scheppman referred to the ever-increasing traffic on Basin Avenue, a major east-west thoroughfare.

"Some day down the road those mobile homes will disappear and they'll be putting something there more commercial," he said.

As part of the conditions of approval, Scheppman was told to continue a 55-year-old age requirement for occupants; build a landscaped berm as a buffer; restrict the number of occupants per unit; and ensure the RVs are operable, sanitary and in decent condition.

Scheppman said his project supports the senior center. But he added, "My long-range goal is sometime they're going to outgrow the center. We would be a ready and able buyer. That would be a suitable clubhouse."

Patricia Parks, 160 N. David St., wrote a letter of opposition, on the advice of Commissioner Gary Hollis.

"I am a 65-year-old woman who purchased my home here on David almost two years ago for the sole purpose of a more quiet and peaceful life. I did my homework on what was in the master plan for this area," Parks wrote.

The worst she imagined in the neighborhood, she said, was expansion of the mobile home park. She said an RV park expansion would cause property values to fall and lead to traffic congestion.

"There is no way of controlling these people. If the entrance to this park is from Basin, think of the traffic problems on another two-lane road. Most of these people are elderly and do not move or drive fast," she wrote. "An RV park belongs on a developed road like 160 or 372, not on Basin or David."