A representative of a realtors committee trying to streamline the county planning process said talks went better than expected during an initial meeting with Planning Director Jack Lohman and Public Works Director Samson Yao recently.

"It went extremely well, quite frankly," Darren Shelton said.

Shelton volunteered to be on the committee formed by the Greater Las Vegas Board of Realtors Pahrump advisory group, along with Paula Glidden, Karen Spalding and Michelle Ege.

Ege said the committee wanted to know most of all, "Is Nye County user friendly?"

As Ege recalled, things have changed a great deal in the 14 years since she moved to Pahrump, when the only rule was a well had to be the right distance from the septic tank.

On this day, a construction company owner was having a lengthy discussion with the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission on a request for a three-foot variance to convert the old Division of Motor Vehicles building into a bar.

Applications for seemingly trivial things like a waiver allowing a six-foot side yard landscaping setback on Cortina Street instead of 10 feet are often heard by the RPC.

Chairman Mark Kimball acknowledged parking and landscaping requirements under the county code form a lot of the requests for exemptions and waivers, which are being addressed in the discussions. Waivers on setbacks are another frequent request.

Kimball directed Lohman to present recommendations on revised landscape requirements by September during a special RPC meeting last week.

Shelton said a survey he circulated among builders showed timing of their plans was a major concern.

"Their main common complaint was that the timing was, in their opinion, excessively slow to get their projects through," Shelton said.

But he added, many plans were incomplete, were submitted under fraudulent pretenses or used incorrect engineering reports.

Shelton said Yao told the group larger plans have to be sent off to a third-party consultant for review, resulting in some delays.

Yao told them 75 percent of the delays were caused by the applicants themselves.

Others in the community, like longtime developer Tim Hafen, said the county has 21 days to review plans, but after that period often comes other questions and another 21-day delay.

"Public works and planning, in my opinion, are way more difficult to work with than they need to be. Part of the reason is they don't have a set plan," Hafen said.

But Shelton said the planning director showed them a flow chart he developed on the planning process. Hafen had his own flow chart, an eight-step procedure ending in the certificate of occupancy that can often mean plans going back and forth from planning to public works to the building department.

"It's difficult. It's not user friendly. It's not conducive to trying to getting things done and handled," said builder Ken Murphy of Shadow Mountain Construction, during a break in a recent county commission meeting.

"Anything, that's not a residential house is a problem," Murphy said.

When it comes to dealing with utility companies like Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada and Valley Electric Association as well as the county planning department on a project, Murphy said, "Put them all together and it's not worth doing."

Gina Reilly, representing JPL Engineering Inc., said 197 parking spaces would be needed under Nye County Code for the proposed Basin Commons shopping center, a fast-food restaurant and retail complex between the new Home Depot and Basin Avenue.

A similar project in Clark County would require only 128 spaces, she said.

"This amount of parking is extremely excessive, given the population of Pahrump, the size and intended uses of the buildings," Reilly stated in a letter to Al Balloqui, director of the Pahrump economic development group PAVED.

Likewise, Reilly criticized a requirement to landscape 15 percent of the net acreage for an industrial park on Smart Way and Kyle Way.

"Again, no other local jurisdiction has such an overall minimum of net area requirement," her letter said.

Dave Richards of CivilWise Services, who regularly spars with the RPC on behalf of clients, said the planning director should have the ability to waive county code requirements over issues like parking and landscaping without making developers wait for public hearings.

"They're taking the most minor things and making them roadblocks," Richards said. "Every site is different, every site is going to lay out different, and there needs to be some tolerance, some variance from the exact code that we can deal with administratively rather than through public hearings."

Sometimes delays can shoot down projects, Richards said.

The owner of C.R. Homes was celebrating after Nye County commissioners in March 2007 approved a zone change for 30 acres at Basin Avenue and Blagg Road, where Bradford Freeman planned to build 360 condominiums as part of the Mountain Springs Condominium project.

C.R. Homes was to get the contract.

The Pahrump Regional Planning Commission initially approved the project in December 2006 by a 3-2 vote after opposition from nearby residents on 2T Ranch Road. The Nye County Commission was scheduled to hear the application in January 2007 but continued it to February. In February, the application was remanded back to the RPC, which needed to recommend the zone change by a super-majority vote. By the time it went back through the process of getting RPC and county commission approval in March 2007, Richards said the financiers for the project pulled out.

Committee members say they're not out to lop heads.

Some builders and consultants were hesitant to be quoted for fear of upsetting county planning.

One said, "There's just so many gray areas where it's not defined in the ordinance, so you really can't fault planning and public works. They have an ordinance that's shot full of holes."

The consultant complained impact fees are excessive and need to be paid up front. Ordinance 302 was passed by Nye County commissioners in August 2005, levying impact fees totaling $1,961 per residence.

Balloqui helped push through a zone change that will enable a 50,000-square-foot, enclosed shrimp farm to open in a rural residential zone on Oakridge Avenue south of Manse Road.

But Balloqui added, "I'd rather go see a dentist than have to go through our planning."

Balloqui said McDonald's and Burger King would find it hard to open under today's parking requirements based on gross square footage including the kitchen, rather than seating. Richards said he has been in talks with representatives of the Popeye's and Carl's Jr. fast food chains about locating restaurants here.

Balloqui said it isn't all Lohman's fault, the planning director is merely enforcing ordinances passed by county commissioners that were poorly thought out.

"They have just choked business out because the only reason someone would come to Pahrump is because it's easier and less expensive. It's not easier, and now it's more expensive because we're asking for more than Clark County," Balloqui said.

Realtor Bob Little said it costs $20,000 in fees to develop a quarter-acre lot, $30,000 for a half-acre and $40,000 for an acre, including impact fees for the county and Valley Electric, soil tests and everything else.

"Planning and public works can only do so much. It's the Nye County Commission that approved these fees," Little said.

Little produced figures he claimed showed how county planning procedures were turning away development.

He said out of 1,290 building permits that were requested in 2007, only 825 actually went on to plan checks. So far this year, only 455 of the 649 building permits requested went on to further plan checks.

But committee member Karen Spalding said that isn't a fair conclusion, since some of the projects may be canceled for other reasons, like a lack of financing.

When it comes to retail space in Pahrump, Little said, "It's cheaper to do business in Denver, Colo., than Pahrump, Nev."

Despite the warm, fuzzy feeling after the initial meeting with planners, Shelton still had his doubts.

"The county is giving the impression that it's anti-growth," he said. "That is for the most part still true. However, in our subsequent meeting they have brought to light several things that I don't think the general public is aware of."

"It came to the point things were not moving forward," Glidden said. "Sometimes it would go back through the system several times.

"Also, we think some of these problems could be solved up front. We're asking them to look at the whole process from when you come in the door and you're assigned a planner."