Pahrump Regional Planning commissioners Wednesday voted 4-2 to approve a zone change for a Desert Investments residential and commercial project on 120 acres on East Thousandaire Boulevard, but they needed five votes to recommend approval to the county commission for the master plan amendment.

Pahrump Town Board representative Laurayne Murray was absent..

The Nye County Commission remanded the project back to the RPC Aug. 15, to try to resolve flood issues. The property lies in flood zone A, which means it sits inside the 100-year flood zone with no base flood elevations determined according to the flood insurance rate map.

Again, consultant Dave Richards, of CivilWise Services, said his client would pay for studies on the flood zone. He asked for a dense VR-8 zone -- the densest residential zoning -- for 82 acres of the 120-acre development, to allow property to be set aside for retention basins and drainage improvements.

Planner Steve Osborne said the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn't recommend development in a flood zone. He added the 20 acres requested for multi-family residential zoning in the project would constitute spot zoning, as the surrounding land is mostly VR-20, demanding 20,000-square-foot lots. The RPC motion to approve the project was based on the condition that the 20 acre multi-family section was changed to a VR-8 zone.

"If FEMA and flood control all had that opinion, no development would happen in an A zone. We wouldn't have Artesia or any of those (projects) because all of those were in the same flood plain. They went through the same process of flood plain and drainage mitigation," Richards said. "Development is viable in those zones; the only thing A zone is, is it doesn't have a base flood zone elevation."

The Focus Property Group project is up-gradient from the project proposed by Desert Investments.

Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman wanted to see the engineering studies first before granting the zone change and master plan amendment.

"It's a chicken and the egg thing. Until the studies are done, we don't know if any of this property can be developed," Lohman said. "It seems like the cart is before the horse in this case. The study should be done first before the rezoning."

Richards again told the planning commission the county will have to review the technical studies before approving the tentative maps.

"If at any time you don't agree with any of those studies, the process we go through for engineering and so forth, you still have an opportunity to evaluate whether we go forward or not," Richards said. The developer just wants to know whether to proceed with the "heavy expenses" involved in the studies, he said.

The developers will be entitled to a certain density if the county approves the rezoning, Lohman said.

"It's kind of counterproductive to move forward and not know what kind of environmental constraints you're going to have," he said.

RPC member Dan Schinhofen said he liked the idea of the 20-acre commercial strip on East Thousandaire Boulevard but noted there are also five-acre parcels in that largely undeveloped area between Hafen Ranch Road and Highway 160. RPC member Carrick "Bat" Masterson said there is an overabundance of commercial properties right now, and he didn't think the multi-family residential zone was appropriate in that area.

Ernie Becker V, part of a family of five generations that developed projects in Las Vegas and Southern California, said his company has experience designing residential and commercial projects to mitigate flooding concerns.

RPC member Norma Jean Opatik said if anyone can build in that area, the Becker family can. But she also wanted multi-family residential stricken from the zone change.

Nevada Tolladay, one of two RPC members to vote against approval, told Becker, "The argument VR-8 or VR-10 is necessary to make the project viable, I'm not sympathetic to that because this is a self-inflicted consequence. You're fully aware this situation existed when you began looking at this piece of dirt. There's much flatter pieces of property." Richards indicated he will appeal the proposal to the Nye County Commission, which has final approval.

Nye County Commission liaison Butch Borasky told the RPC members, "If they can mitigate the drainage it's a whole different proposal. That's why I asked to have it sent back."

"It's a matter of economics and expense. Anything can be developed," Richards said.