MARK WAITE / PVT Drew Alexander, left, and Dean Killmer brief Pahrump Regional Planning Commissioners about the Holiday Inn Express and Buffalo Southwest Grill project. Advertisement

Construction work could begin any day now on a Holiday Inn Express and Buffalo Southwest Grill, the owner said Wednesday night, after a waiver was granted by Pahrump Regional Planning Commissioners to allow shared parking with Wells Fargo Bank.

The project was previously shot down over a Nye County ordinance prohibiting liquor sales within 1,500 feet of a school or community facility. Manse Elementary School and the Pahrump Community Library are both within 1,500 feet.

Nye County commissioners in January 2006 amended the ordinance to cut the distance to only 200 feet for properties zoned as general commercial.

Nye County School Superintendent Rob Roberts protested the amendment two years ago, saying there are enough liquor establishments in town. But county commissioners felt the restriction would affect economic development along Highway 160, Pahrump's main thoroughfare.

Property owner Drew Alexander, of Amarillo Heritage House Venture, said he plans to build a three-story, 71-room hotel. The restaurant and bar would include 100 slot machines and a sports book, but no table games.

The hotel and restaurant are required to have 159 parking spaces but plans show only 123. Alexander said the bank has room, with 54 parking spaces while only 15 are needed.

Nye County planner Beth Lee said Dean Killmer, project superintendent for Desert Mesa Construction, informed her the hotel and restaurant were already the smallest possible footage for their design standards.

Alexander was also apprehensive about a comment for the record by Nye County Chief Deputy District Attorney Ron Kent that he would be limited to only 15 slot machines until the hotel is open.

Alexander said he would ask for a waiver from the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board. He wants to have full gaming as soon as possible to start enjoying the revenue, even while the hotel is still under construction.

Alexander said he expects to begin building both the hotel and restaurant at about the same time, but the restaurant would be completed more quickly.

RPC member Jacob Skinner asked to condition the approval on the completion of construction within two years.

The Buffalo Southwest Grill will be almost 7,000 square feet. The three story hotel will measure 13,240 square feet.

The RPC action is considered final unless there's an appeal to the Nye County Commission.

While the Buffalo Southwest Grill doesn't have to worry about the 1,500-foot requirement for selling liquor, car dealers Tom Saitta and Don Trudeau had to receive a waiver from that requirement to open a restaurant and bar across from the Saitta-Trudeau dealership, next to Romero's Mexican restaurant on 260 S. Humahuaca St. That property is zoned light industrial; the 200-foot requirement is only for general commercial.

Lee, from the planning department, said Water from the Rock Christian Fellowship is 139 feet away. But she said the planning department can work with the waiver because the bar and the church are on separate blocks and the one property can't be seen from the other.

Saitta said he plans to have the bar and restaurant separate, to allow for smoking in the bar. He will have a stage in the bar. The restaurant will serve American food.

Down the street at the old Nevada Division of Motor Vehicles building at 1360 E. Basin Ave., the request by property owner Michael James Pemberton for a waiver from parking and landscaping requirements for the proposed Silver Strike Tavern was put on hold since the applicant wasn't in attendance.

RPC member Norma Jean Opatik suggested there's undeveloped acreage on the property that could be used for additional parking and landscaping.