MARK WAITE / PVT Bob Regan points to a historic road that will be cut by two 40-acre parcels in Crystal Heights. Advertisement

CRYSTAL -- For the time being, development in Amargosa Valley is as free as the wind blowing through the empty desert.

Developers welcome the less burdensome regulations, though a few local residents worry about future growth.

Hans Seibt, who developed the Desert Retreat RV Park on the north end of Leslie Road in Pahrump among other extensive real estate holdings of his company, HSLV Development, said he has plans to build affordable housing on 80 acres in Crystal Heights, which is part of the northeastern part of the Amargosa Valley township.

It would comprise manufactured housing in a gated community with a clubhouse and swimming pool.

"Pahrump is getting totally tied up on red tape," Seibt said in a telephone interview. "Right now you have people out of work, a tremendous construction slow-down and people who want to build. It takes them 20 to 24 months to get a permit."

In Pahrump, Seibt said he sold 17 acres just north of Rosemary Clarke Middle School in November 2005 and the new owners still haven't received a permit to begin construction on a townhouse project.

The new zoning that took effect in Pahrump last June also shot up the taxes on a 30-acre piece of commercial property Seibt owns south of Rosemary Clarke Middle School from $2,600 annually to $38,800.

"I'm seeing a lot of people who work at the test site, work at Yucca Mountain, work at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, it's only 21 miles from Crystal. A lot of these people are looking to live somewhere. To me Crystal is a perfect place to make a living," Seibt said.

However Bob Regan, a landowner of 20 acres in Crystal Heights, said he would continue to fight any major development plans. Regan said development plans are being rushed through to divide up smaller lots than the Amargosa Valley area plan now under discussion would allow. He claims 60-foot rights-of-way between 40-acre parcels indicate extensive subdivision plans are in the works.

On July 3, Nye County commissioners approved applications to divide up 193 acres in Crystal Heights into 20 parcels, with each 40-acre parcel split into four lots ranging in size from eight to 11 acres. The next step is usually to subdivide them further.

Regan vowed to fight any developers stirring up dust during the construction phase. Seibt countered, "There's going to be less dust after the construction than before."

Seibt accused Regan of confronting one of his surveyors with a shotgun.

Nye County Road Foreman Dave Fanning said developers building on 40-acre parcels or larger are only required to rough cut a road.

Regan said the type of dust in Crystal Heights makes it unsuitable for large-scale development. He predicted the valley would be out of compliance with environmental standards on particulate matter in the future, as the Pahrump valley is now.

The Nye County Commission approved a master plan with a minimum of five- and 10-acre lot sizes on the northern end of the Pahrump valley, north of Roadrunner Road, something that would apply to places like Crystal Heights, Regan said.

"They're not required to do any impact studies, historical, cultural, environmental, anything," he charged.

For now Regan, is growing grapes in a small vineyard on his property and has plans to eventually raise cattle.

"We don't have the road work, we don't have the infrastructure. We don't have the support. Amargosa -- we're out of sight, we're out of mind," Regan said.