TONOPAH -- Developers were advised by Nye County commissioners Tuesday they will have to provide legal road access to parceled lots in Amargosa Valley before the new parcel maps can be recorded.

Commissioners cleared up a handful of parcel map applications that were held up due to technical access issues.

Consultant Dave Richards, from CivilWise Services, representing LCF Horticulture Holdings, was told a 130-foot patch of Brushwood Road would have to be improved off Tamarack Road to provide legal and physical access, before a five-acre parcel could be subdivided into four acre-and-a-quarter lots.

That application set the precedent for five others.

Richards wanted a definition of physical access. He wrote to the Planning Department that Nye County may not have constructed the road and doesn't maintain the right-of-way but there is legal and physical access.

Richards said his client is willing to construct the roadway along the frontage of his parcel but it's unreasonable to expect the applicant to construct roads the county hasn't built in the past 26 years.

"If we're going to redefine acceptance, it's going to affect what a lot of property owners can do with their properties," Richards told commissioners Tuesday.

Nye County Public Works Department engineering technician Oz Wichman said the county doesn't have a maintenance history on the last 130 feet of the entrance to the property, which doesn't give the county a prescriptive right to cross it.

Nye County Manager Ron Williams said many years ago, when Harry "Button" Ford was county road foreman, if someone built a house and got septic service, the county brought in gravel. When Ford was replaced by Bob Wickendon, the county began to look at the financial impacts of all the "un-built roads," he said.

"The county figured out if you want roads you'll have to figure a way to get them built," Williams said. "Ultimately it will be the taxpayers that pay the burden of putting in those roads."

Amargosa Valley Town Board Chairwoman Jan Cameron said her panel had requested roads be extended to the end of the parcels.

Nye County surveyor Kevin Haskew said approving the parcels without legal access would give property owners the right to adversely affect a neighbor's property.

Likewise a parcel map for Growing Investments LLC, to subdivide five acres into three 1.2-acre and one 1.4-acre lot between T and T and Powerline roads was approved, contingent upon showing legal access.

County planners studied a possible route to the property from T and T Road via Silverado Road.

Commissioner Gary Hollis became irate when Commissioner Butch Borasky made the motion to deny a waiver of a requirement to provide right-of-way for a tentative, large-parcel map to divide 208 acres into a 40-acre parcel and four 42-acre parcels for the Diana Hartzell trust in the Ash Meadows area.

The road department recommended road rights-of-way be dedicated to the county, then brushed and cleared of debris 15 feet across so a four-wheel drive vehicle can travel the road.

Williams said this area has a very primitive access. He asked if commissioners want to open it up to development by putting in a road on a section line. Consultant Jerry Pribila, from CivilWise Services, said he was working with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on an access road down a section line.

"People cannot be denied access to their property whether it's BLM, Fish and Wildlife or somebody else. There is case law to go with that," Hollis said.

Hollis and Commissioner Pete Liakopoulos voted against the motion to deny the waiver.

Ron Murphy withdrew his application to divide 40 acres into four 10-acre parcels in Ash Meadows, to get advice on requesting a waiver. Planners also noted there was no legal access to the Murphy property, the conditions of approval called for improving Crystal View and Pup Fish roads.

The county will review a $70,000 performance bond posted by John Buchanan, manager of the Clay Management Trust, to make improvements on Cayuse Street and Saddle Lane after one year to see if it should be increased.

Commissioner Joni Eastley voted against that motion, joined by Borasky.

"I don't want to bond for roads. I want that to be a requirement for a developer," Eastley said.

Finally, Badger Mining Corp. was cleared to divide 125 acres into a 114-acre parcel and an 11-acre parcel in Ash Meadows.

Planner Kelly Harris said regarding this parcel, both roads into the property are county maintained; there are no access issues. The parcel wasn't previously divided and isn't bound by the six-month moratorium on contiguous or subsequent parceling, planners noted.