RICHARD STEPHENS / PVT A view of Bombo's Pond. Advertisement

Nye County Commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve a parcel map for a planned 82-room motel, cafe and bar with limited gaming overlooking a scenic spring off Vanderbilt Road just south of Beatty.

Commissioners Joni Eastley and Roberta "Midge" Carver voted against it.

"This is a subsequent parcel map and it should not be approved," Eastley, who represents Beatty, said.

The commissioners had imposed a six-month moratorium on subsequent and contiguous parceling, but it was allowed to expire at the end of May. Commissioners elected not to pass a Division of Land Ordinance governing future parceling to replace it.

But the planning department report notes commissioners may use state statute to disapprove a second parcel map filed within five years after the first one.

On April 4, 2006, commissioners approved a parcel map for the owners, Victoria Capital Corp., subdividing 149 acres into a 62-acre parcel, an 83-acre parcel and a four-acre parcel.

At that time, former Commissioner Patricia Cox said the property shouldn't be parceled up if it affected the public's use of Bombo's Pond, a local fishing hole.

There have been residents trespassing across the proposed motel site to get to the pond, though it's accessible from Vanderbilt Road. Eastley expressed a concern two years ago that there wasn't anything in the original motion addressing the pond, but she voted to approve that parcel map.

The latest parcel map divides 65.24 acres into a 39.8-acre parcel, another one 18.9 acres and the 6.44-acre parcel targeted for development.

Commissioners approved the motion subject to approval of the plans by the state water engineer. On another motion, they voted unanimously to approve a waiver of requirements to provide contour information.

Nye County Planner Kelly Harris recommended approval of the parcel map application with conditions, mostly relating to designation of flood zones, drainage channels, percolation tests and maintaining Vanderbilt Road as a public road.

Realtor Marlene Rogoff said she is talking with the Best Western motel chain, which is interested in having lodging at the site, halfway between Pahrump and Tonopah. The motel would front on Vanderbilt Road with decks overlooking the pond to the rear of the property.

Ed Ringle, owner of the newly-refurbished Death Valley Inn in Beatty, which was formerly the Burro Inn, has also been in talks about acquiring a Best Western franchise. Rogoff said the franchise would be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Vanderbilt Road is just south of the narrows entering Beatty, a mile north of Airport Road. The pond and the motel site lie on the west side of Highway 95. An active talc mine is farther west down Vanderbilt Road.

Rogoff said the public will still be able to use the pond for fishing as the road was dedicated to the county.

The 40 acres around the pond itself belongs to the state Department of Transportation; it was a former gravel pit filled up by a spring.

But local NDOT employee Brad Hunt warned the Beatty Town Board June 11, if the state office received any more complaints about Bombo's Pond, it would be fenced off.

"NDOT is thinking of fencing off the area due to problems with people firing off guns and shooting wildlife," Rogoff told commissioners.

Rogoff said the company waited patiently for the county's six-month moratorium on parceling to end.

"The company feels it's already been severely damaged by the requirement to withdraw the first application Oct. 9, 2007, after spending thousands of dollars on soil tests and all the other things," Rogoff said.

She said she had financing last fall that dried up, but a new source of funding has been identified for the project.

Members of the Southern Nye Conservation District have asked to remove tamarisk surrounding the pond.

That area could be transformed if all the projects on the drawing boards come to fruition. Rupert Bragg Smith, who built a Corvette driving school in Pahrump which sold in 2004, has plans to build another track on land he owns on Airport Road along with an Old West-style saloon.