The good news was that Charles Bailey could offer thumbs-up after the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission voted 4-2 last Wednesday to endorse his plans for a recycling yard across from the county landfill on East Mesquite Avenue.

But Bailey technically needed five votes for a positive recommendation on a master plan amendment. He also submitted a request to change the zoning, which requires a simple majority.

RPC member Laurayne Murray, who represents the Pahrump town board, was absent. The Nye County Commission will consider the application Dec. 19.

Bailey, who said he owns 77 recycling yards in the U.S., wants to convert 2.4 acres from general commercial to heavy industrial at 1650 E. Mesquite Ave. for a metal scrap and recycling facility.

"That is a perfect location for a recycling facility to handle material," Bailey told the board.

But planner Beth Lee said if the landfill closes and moves to another location, the zoning stays with the land as heavy industrial. She noted there are parcels zoned residential 330 feet to the north and 1,625 feet to the southwest.

Consultant Dave Richards, of CivilWise Services, said the recycling facility, with a 15,000 square-foot building, would be a light use for a heavy industrial zone.

Kimball said he had been struggling to find ways to allow the recycling center but put a time limit on it. County planners couldn't figure out how to do that legally.

Besides the county landfill across the street, Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman said there are gravel pits in the vicinity, but he considered those temporary uses as well.

"You can't look at what's there today and then plop a piece of this heavy industrial land there," Lohman said. "You end up with some offensive business in the area zoned general commercial and residential."

While RPC member Norma Jean Opatik said reclaimed landfills have been converted into other uses like golf courses in some places, such as around Sunrise Mountain in Las Vegas, County Commission liaison Butch Borasky didn't see that happening on East Mesquite Avenue.

Borasky noted Ron Murphy Construction Co. has a gravel pit across Mesquite Avenue, "which will be there until there's no more gravel to pull out of the ground."

Bailey concurred: "Even 25 years from now, I doubt if all those rock pits are going to be filled up."

Richard Lopez, from the Nye County Public Works Department, said the county has to monitor methane gases for 30 years after the closure of the landfill. He conservatively estimated the landfill would remain open until 2018. That would be nine years longer than the landfill was originally expected to be there, due to recycling of bulk materials like wood, metal and cardboard. Pahrump Valley Disposal also redesigned the landfill.

RPC member Nevada Tolladay, one of two members to vote against the proposal, said, "We just really need to stay with the plan. Heavy industrial uses need to be placed in areas determined to be susceptible for heavy industrial rather than change the uses to fit the enterprise."

Nye County commissioners Sept. 19 rejected an application by D&G Car Mine Ltd. for a vehicle impound storage lot at 2771 E. Charleston Park Ave., also east of Highway 160 but farther south of Bailey's proposed facility.

RPC member Carrick "Bat" Masterson said there isn't enough heavy industrial zoning in the master plan. RPC member Jacob Skinner said Bailey's project, right across from the dump, could promote recycling.

Richards seized on that: "It's recycling. It may clean up some of the properties in town with the cars. There's not a place to dispose of those at this point."

Pahrump Valley Disposal has a metal bailer at the landfill for bundling up appliances like refrigerators and stoves. Smart Auto Salvage and Recycling has a recycling yard on the west end of Pahrump.

But Bailey said his service is badly needed in Pahrump.

Recently, Bailey said, " We took 620 tons of metal out in seven days, logged and baled."

His plans would include an eight-foot steel fence around the property, landscaped buffering, concrete to prevent oil leaking onto the dirt and some security cameras to prevent copper thefts.

Bailey told the RPC, "That whole area is industrial whether you like it or not ... I've been doing this for 41 years and I can tell you I really know the business well. Our corporation is not fly by night."

Lohman suggested there are 80 acres of vacant property farther east of the property that is undeveloped and already zoned heavy industrial.

Bailey said he doesn't need 80 acres. "I'm not interested in running a Taj Mahal," he said.