A residential subdivision of 177 one-acre luxury town sites planned around the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute about eight years ago has been scrapped.

Front Sight Management Inc. is banking on its growing membership to fill 2,200 time-share condominiums as part of a planned destination resort adjacent to the academy.

Plans call for a recreational vehicle park, 100-room hotel, restaurant, convention facilities, shops and 40 single-family residential lots.

The Pahrump Regional Planning Commission approved a zone change last week, converting 458 acres of Front Sight property from open use to mixed use and 20 acres to general commercial.

The company has 550 acres and a paved access road off the Tecopa turnoff.

The highway turnoff is in Clark County, but the development is situated at the far south end of Nye County.

"It is a resort development, it's not a subdivision where people are going to move to and occupy permanently," said consultant Dave Richards of CivilWise Services.

"What we're proposing are condominiums that will be time-share condominiums, two-week time shares," he said. "The major buyers are members of the Front Sight Firearms Institute, which has a worldwide membership. People from all over the world come there.

"They do currently have 8,000 members since several years ago it's been doubling in membership every year. They have conducted training of approximately 128,000 individuals throughout their training seminars and so forth."

Dr. Ignatius Piazza founded the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute in April 1996 on leased facilities near Bakersfield with 10 students in a two-day defensive handgun course.

A retired chiropractor from California and gun enthusiast, Piazza said he realized the need for firearms training for ordinary residents after a group of youths shot up his neighborhood. At least taking a course at the academy could change the minds of opinion leaders who may be advocates of more gun control, Piazza said during a previous newspaper interview with the Pahrump Valley View.

On the Front Sight Web site, Piazza states his company now trains more students than any other shooting school in the U.S. A new martial arts academy including a rappeling center debuted in 2004. Nye County Commission liaison Butch Borasky had questions over water during the RPC presentation. Richards said he will be contacting the three private water utilities in the area over servicing the project. There's also the chance the company will start its own, small utility company.

He said Front Sight has close to 500 acre feet of water rights, or more than enough for the development.

Front Sight will also provide a fire station and sheriff's department substation if necessary, Richards said.

"This probably will be a three- to a seven-year program. I know the owner is hoping this is going to be a three-year program," he said.

RPC member Norma Jean Opatik brought up the original plans for a subdivision where people could live around the shooting academy, much like a subdivision built around a golf course. Richards said that was before the Nye County line was moved in 2001, when part of the property was in Clark County.

That plan doesn't work out with today's economy and the needs of the members in the Front Sight program, Richards said.

"I think this, as a time share and as a hotel, makes a lot more sense. You may want to go out there and shoot your gun, you don't want to do it daily," said RPC member Carrick "Bat" Masterson.

During an interview in November 2002, Piazza said he already sold 57 or 58 platinum memberships, which included the one-acre home sites.

Borasky quipped that, since everyone staying there will own weapons, "In the video I saw, you will not need to lock your doors down there."