MARK WAITE / PVT Marlene Rogoff addresses the Nye County commissioners. Advertisement

TONOPAH -- It appears a six-month moratorium on subsequent and contiguous parceling outside the Pahrump Regional Planning District will expire May 27 without a county ordinance in place to restrict development.

Nye County commissioners Tuesday voted 3-1 to reject a second draft of a proposed Division of Land Ordinance for areas outside the Pahrump Regional Planning District.

The sole dissenting vote was that of Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver. Commissioner Joni Eastley was absent.

The ban on subsequent and contiguous parceling, enacted Nov. 27, 2007, was designed to prevent developers from circumventing subdivision regulations by parceling up lots piecemeal to avoid having to build infrastructure.

The first draft of the proposed land ordinance was based on the Pahrump ordinance. Commissioners previously rejected that. Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman said this latest plan was "a 180-degree approach" from the first draft, using Title 16 of the Nye County Code as a framework.

The latest draft incorporated recommendations from county engineering technician Oz Wichman about road requirements and from Planner Kelly Harris about what constitutes legal and physical access to a property. Document submittal requirements were also covered.

"We did not take any performance standards in Pahrump," Lohman told commissioners.

Dave Richards, representing CivilWise Services, urged the commission not to ban contiguous parceling.

"When you're confronted with contiguous parceling you've always had the right to review that and make the judgment whether this person is trying to get around subdivision requirements," he said. "You can say 'we'll approve your parcel map but you still have to abide by subdivision requirements.'"

Nevada Revised Statute 278.464 states a county commission may by ordinance decide whether to approve subsequent parcel maps for properties subdivided within the last five years.

Amargosa Valley Town Board Chairwoman Jan Cameron suggested adding a sentence stating, "additional requirements not to exceed those for subdivisions may be imposed upon the granting of subsequent parcels for which a waiver is granted."

Lohman endorsed that language, suggesting it would allow each parcel map to be considered on its merits.

Marlene Rogoff, a real estate agent from Las Vegas, objected to a provision that parcels couldn't be sold until all provisions of the ordinance were complied with.

"Once the application has been made, which means it's been surveyed and the application is in planning, we have the right to start selling those parcels," Rogoff said. "When I was at the last meeting of the association of Realtors they likened it to a developer putting up a high rise, and he can't sell any units until the building is completed."

Rogoff said only a tiny percentage of land between Amargosa Valley and Beatty is private property, holding up a map to illustrate her point. Rogoff said she represents a client who wants to build a motel on Vanderbilt Road, just south of Beatty, and needs to subdivide 65 acres into three parcels. The Division of Land Ordinance would prohibit that, since the property has already been subdivided from a 148-acre tract in 2006.

"They're not going to be able to develop. They're going to be financially harmed. This is a project that's throwing the baby out with the bath water. These projects would benefit the local area -- Beatty," Rogoff said.

County Commissioner Gary Hollis had problems with discussing the ordinance outside of Amargosa Valley, the main targeted area, though Carver said it pertained to everyone outside of Pahrump.

"We tried to set up workshops with this before you went into the public hearing, but the board elected to just march ahead and do the public hearing," Nye County Manager Ron Williams said.

Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos then made the motion to reject the bill.

He talked about the problem in Pahrump -- referring to the situation in the 1970s, when lots were parceled up without infrastructure improvements -- but then criticized the additional bureaucracy created by the ordinance.

Williams noted there is now a law in effect requiring the donation of water rights when parceling up land.

The laissez faire attitude toward development continued into the planning session.

Commissioners approved a tentative large parcel map to subdivide 320 acres into eight 40-acre parcels for Anglo Enterprises of Nye County on Ranch Road and Power Line Road in Amargosa Valley. Anglo Enterprises also won approval to subdivide 653 acres into 14 parcels ranging from 40 to 58 acres on Weiss Boulevard.

Ron and Sally Murphy were granted permission to subdivide 40 acres into four 10-acre parcels in Ash Meadows. The Murphys also received waivers of legal and physical access requirements, road construction requirements and a requirement to remove trees and obstructions from road right-of-way.

Afterwards, Liakopoulos expanded on his remark about rejecting the ordinance due to government bureaucracy, in which he blasted the planning department for stalling progress in Pahrump.

"We've got businesses that have been approved, and they've been approved for a year, and they haven't broken ground," Liakopoulos said. "The RPC and planning have killed, totally killed, entrepreneurialism in Pahrump."