Nye County commissioners won't consider the Pahrump zoning map until June 20, but they have already expressed concerns over the recommendations by Hogle Ireland consultants.

A second Pahrump Regional Planning Commission meeting to consider the zoning map has been scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 30. The RPC is attempting to make recommendations to county commissioners.

RPC Chairman Mark Kimball said he wanted to assure the public "the RPC is very committed to doing a very comprehensive and thorough job."

The RPC may or may not be able to reach a firm conclusion by June 20. The 48,600 notices sent out to property owners stated the map would be reviewed by commissioners June 20; postponing a decision past that date would mean sending the notices out again, at a cost of $1 apiece including postage and handling.

This next time the back rooms of the Bob Ruud Community Center will be open for any overflow crowd.

Kimball said Hogle Ireland will be asked to make a list of errors and corrections on the map, make a list of requests from the public with which they agree and one of items about which they disagree.

Kimball told commissioners Tuesday: "That study may be flawed in some ways. I know mixed use is going to be a controversial part of that study and we may have to make a different recommendation than Hogle Ireland is presenting."

The mixed-use zone proposed on the 2004 master plan includes about 12 percent of the area in the valley. Much, which lies along many major thoroughfares, is being proposed for residential zoning.

Commissioner Joni Eastley said, "I questioned (Hogle Ireland) whether they actually put their feet on the ground in the area they're rezoning and I didn't get a satisfactory answer."

"Every time we've been out there we've basically done field surveys," said Kathy Lotte for Hogle Ireland. "Early on we spent two full days doing pretty extensive surveys of the entire area."

A major complaint is about areas that are zoned residential that perhaps should be commercial.

Commissioner Butch Borasky said while Highway 372 has been zoned commercial, areas on Wilson Road near the hospital will be zoned VR-20.

Borasky added that he had a discussion Public Works Director Samson Yao and Hogle Ireland consultants about areas on Homestead Road that should be commercial, but the consultants wouldn't budge.

"They took our master plan, they took all that apart," Borasky said. "Now the mixed use that had the potential to be residential or commercial is now dropped down into a lower category, RE-1."

"There's a lot of people who purchased property on these main roads. Although they haven't done anything, that doesn't mean they're not going to. They want the hard zoning to do it," Borasky added.

Nye County Manager Ron Williams urged commissioners not to discuss the zoning map at the Monday meeting. He said they would show a prejudiced attitude on the subject before the June 20 session.

Planning Director Jack Lohman kept reinforcing the importance of having infrastructure to get plans approved.

"We could zone them down to mirror what's written on that land use plan, but that doesn't mean they're going to get a building permit to do anything because they can't subdivide it unless they got the subdivision infrastructure in," Lohman said.

Lohman said properties in areas marked mixed use on the master plan were never legally zoned mixed use.

"It'll be zoned single family, the lowest density, which is what it is now, it's open use," Lohman said. "Then when they come in with a project, they can up-zone it from there."

Lohman said property owners whose property was formerly zoned open use and will now be single-family residential won't pay any more tax on that property. Only property owners whose property has been rezoned from residential to commercial will pay higher taxes, he said.

Lottes said Hogle Ireland is reconsidering a lot of properties.

The consultants will present a detailed list of individual properties about which comments have been received, identified by parcel numbers. There will be instances in which the RPC will agree to their recommendations, while Lottes said they will be looking for direction from the RPC where there are disagreements.

"There will be a number of properties we'll put forth where we think there should be a recommended change but we would like their thoughts about it," Lottes said. She said some corrections to the map involve catching up with approved projects or zone changes that have been approved previously.

"Then when we get to the (county) commission, you go through that same process again. You put forth your recommendation but they're the final decision makers," Lottes said.

Borasky said the county doesn't want to lose all the money spent on the rezoning so far, or have to spend almost another $50,000 on re-noticing property owners for more meetings.

"Hopefully, we can resolve the issues between now and then. I hope Hogle Ireland makes a really good faith effort this time to address everything that was done at the last meeting," Borasky said.