TONOPAH -- Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley urged fellow commissioners Tuesday to schedule a special meeting to address the contiguous or subsequent parceling of lots, following a rush of parcel map applications in Amargosa Valley.

Subsequent parceling means developers come in and initially submit a map to divide perhaps 40 acres into four lots. They then follow that up with a request to further subdivide those lots into smaller parcels, thus circumventing subdivision map requirements mandating roads and other improvements.

Commissioners only scheduled one regular meeting this month due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Their next regular meeting would be Dec. 4 in Tonopah, followed by a Dec. 18 meeting in Pahrump.

"One of the reasons we feel so sincerely that we need to get some planning controls in place in Amargosa Valley, under county code, at this point anyone can subsequent parcel without any penalties whatsoever. We are being asked to approve at our planning commission meeting 56 parcels," Cameron said.

Cameron said 49 of those parcel maps constitute subsequent parceling, 26 are following up on parcel maps approved last month by the county commission.

"If there's any way those (development) bonds can be revoked and these parcel maps pulled, we would certainly appreciate it," she said.

Nye County Manager Ron Williams said that's nothing compared to the situation when the county banned subsequent parceling in Pahrump, when there were 417 parcel maps submitted to county planners in one month.

"So I feel your pain. Today there's nothing precluding someone issuing a subsequent map," Williams said.

Cameron complained about developers not being required to construct roads. County planner Kelly Harris said under county ordinance, if a developer starts out with a 40-acre parcel he is only required to clear and brush 2 percent of the property for roads.

"That's why you're not seeing the roads completed," Harris said.

The Amargosa Valley area plan was again postponed for adoption by the commission. This time, Eastley said she had some questions about the plan, which Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman said was merely a rough guide anyway.

Cameron said the area plan was compiled with help from Skip Canfield, from the state planning department, using an area plan from Lincoln County as a template. A planning commission would then be formed, to draft a formal master plan under the Nevada Revised Statutes.

Eastley said Tonopah and Beatty town officials are looking at creating a master plan with no planning commission.

Commissioner Butch Borasky said the plan has been amended to include the Ponderosa Dairy. Paul Willis, who was representing the dairy, charged they were left out of the planning process.

"If this is just going to be used as an instrument to proceed with further attacks on the dairy, then I think we should look into where certain parts of this are going," Willis said.

Cameron said the area plan was formed over six months in publicized meetings. In fact Dave Hall, chairman of the area planning committee, is a farm manager for the dairy, she said.

Eastley said the area plan allows opportunities for dairies or similar operations to locate to Amargosa Valley and for the existing dairy to expand.

Eastley said concerns the plan may slight the dairy could be attributed to statements on page five, which talk about minimal restrictions on property owners, as long as development doesn't become detrimental to the good public health and water quality residents now enjoy. It expresses a need to look at flood zones located on property that could cause contaminants to be washed onto neighboring property.

A 100-year flood caused the release of contaminants from the dairy in 1999, an event remembered by many local opponents of the dairy.

Agricultural operations are listed as one of the land uses designated in the plan.

Some of the statements about water quality were included after haulers were dumping raw sewage from the Orange County Sanitation District as fertilizer at Funeral Mountain Ranch until the practice was stopped in 2004, committee member Sheila Rau said.

Before that, she said a company wanted to wash contaminants off materials from the Nevada Test Site up-gradient from the Amargosa Valley school, community center and public water supplies.

Rau told commissioners Amargosa Valley doesn't want to repeat the mistakes Pahrump made in its rapid parceling of lots without improvements by drafting its master plan.

A resident of Amargosa Valley since 1956, Rau said, "I remember when Pahrump went through some of these labor pains in trying to develop and we have watched as some mistakes were made, many of which were corrected."

Eastley pointed out Yucca Mountain was addressed in the plan, which talks about needing a revision to the county's emergency management plan to address hazardous cargo. It also talks about an increase in population and traffic if the nuclear waste repository is built.

But Eastley said a policy that water rights surrendered for parceling should be held by Nye County in an account for municipal use by the town of Amargosa Valley may not be required. Commissioners are thinking of striking a requirement to donate two acre feet of water rights for parceling lots under 4.5 gross acres.

Williams was concerned an Amargosa Valley master plan will be more work for county planners.

"How much work do you want to put into this? Do you want us to get into the planning business in Amargosa? There's a lot of work that has to be done other than a cursory review of this document. It has to be converted into a master plan format," Williams said.

Darrell Lacy, director of the Nye County Nuclear Waste Project Office, said his department could fund the planning. Former Nye County Assistant Planning Director Cheryl Beeman works at the nuclear waste project office.

County officials will consult with state planners about the Amargosa Valley area plan before reconsidering it.

"They did a great job but I don't think it has any legal status as a master plan," Lohman said.