TONOPAH -- Nye County commissioners will be racing against the clock before a six-month moratorium expires May 27.

It bans contiguous and subsequent parceling of lots in three valleys.

Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman said his staff drafted a comprehensive bill at the request of commissioners. Public works language was adopted from Washoe County.

"We tried to cover all the bases for any future activity that may occur," Lohman told commissioners.

Commissioner Joni Eastley said the bill would address the problem of developers creating subdivisions but avoiding the improvements mandated in the subdivision ordinance by parceling up properties piecemeal.

"What started all this was a developer in Amargosa Valley who admitted he was filing subsequent parcel maps so he could circumvent subdivision laws," she said.

Enactment of the moratorium resulted in a rush of 57 parcel map applications for over 200 properties in Amargosa Valley.

Nye County Manager Ron Williams said a new state statute allows the county commission to consider subdivision requirements for a second parcel map recorded within five years of a previous one.

But other commissioners didn't like the added requirements in the bill.

"I don't think we should be putting in an ordinance that's more restrictive than state statutes," Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos said.

Lohman said it's only using the same language that has been in effect in the Pahrump Regional Planning District. Dirk Pearson, who said he plans to develop mining claims in the historic town of Belmont, teed off on that statement.

"Trying to put in Pahrump rules for far smaller areas does not make sense. It will kill development here," Pearson said by video conference from Tonopah. "We'll put our money into Esmeralda County or Eureka County."

Pearson called the bill "a planners dream" that will require the hiring of more planning staff.

"This is not Pahrump. It never will be Pahrump. It's not next to Las Vegas," he said.

Tonopah is nowhere near running out of water, Pearson said. He said the recharge rate in Ralston Valley -- covered by the moratorium -- from which Tonopah gets its water supply, is 7,000 acre feet per year, while Tonopah Utilities uses only about 2,700 acre feet. An acre foot is roughly enough water to supply two families of five for a year.

Real estate broker Trish Rippie said there aren't big developers like Focus Property Group moving into Tonopah.

"It's going to stop that little economic development we got going," Rippie said.

Eastley concurred: "We don't want to kill a fly with a sledge hammer." But she was surprised at Commissioner Gary Hollis' opposition, after Hollis supported the six-month moratorium on subsequent and contiguous parceling passed last November.

"I did not support a moratorium forever. I gave my support for six months to look into it," Hollis said.

Jan Cameron, Amargosa Valley town board chairwoman, suggested people parceling lots contribute some funds for future road building. The ordinance is more onerous than the subdivision ordinance, she charged, and would require paving isolated strips of road in Amargosa Valley.

County engineering technician Oz Wichman suggested merely tightening up requirements on developers to build gravel roads to county standards.

"Get this down to about a dozen pages folks can understand," Wichman said.

Williams said commissioners will have to revisit this item quickly, before the moratorium expires. That could mean setting a date for a public hearing at the next commissioner meeting.