TONOPAH -- Solar Millenium officials said the Amargosa Valley area plan would interfere with the siting of their two, 250-megawatt, solar power plants, but Nye County commissioners said they would negotiate a development agreement with the company, superseding the area plan approved Tuesday.

"This is not law, this is a plan. You are free to make decisions that are different from this plan," Amargosa Valley Town Board Chairman Jan Cameron told commissioners. "The plan is a concept as to how our community as a whole feels they would like to go forward."

So why adopt the plan? The resolution states it is a guide toward future land use decisions over the next 20 years, without restricting private property rights or limiting the right to enter into any development agreements. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management would have to consider the plan when making decisions.

The plan intends to limit parceling to a minimum of two gross acres except in specified higher density areas on the perimeter of town, to conserve the underground water supply. Water-intensive, hazardous waste-producing types of development would be specifically discouraged.

When commissioner Joni Eastley asked if the plan was enforceable, Dave Hall, chairman of the Amargosa Valley Planning Committee said, "Not really. What we would encourage people to do in the community is to continue to meet, continue to develop a plan so it best fits the character for Amargosa Valley so it changes. We wanted to at least develop a starting plan. We didn't want to have an empty desert."

Doug Bradley, representing the Funeral Mountain Ranch, had concerns about 3,000 acres designated for agricultural use where there is no water available.

Developer Jon DeLee said, "this is setting the groundwork for zoning. I believe that is mentioned a bunch of times by the people who drafted the document."

DeLee said the Nevada Revised Statute references everything from taxation to impact fees to eminent domain that would be possible with an area plan.

"The fact this plan has no teeth may not be true at this point, in my interpretation," he said.

Eastley said the Amargosa Valley town board back in 2000 made the deicision not to form a regional planning commission like Pahrump. Nye County isn't interested in expanding the Pahrump RPC into Amargosa Valley either, she said.

Jason Higgins, project development manager for Solar Millenium, said his company made a presentation to the town board in March, held a three-day open house at the LongStreet Casino in May and conducted spring surveys on biological resources. They also participated in fundraising efforts in Amargosa Valley, he said.

Higgins had problems with areas designated residential overlapping the area his firm wants to use for the solar project and roads planned throughout their area.

Carlos Pineda, Solar Millenium senior director for Nevada projects, said their project would put Nye County on the map for solar development.

"What we're talking about is channeling millions of dollars through the stimulus plan," Pineda said. But the company is hustling to get the permits from the BLM to break ground by the end of 2010, the deadline to access stimulus money.

Pineda said the quarter-mile setback designated in the plan between any residential areas and the "special development area" for solar energy projects, together with the areas designated rural residential, had the potential to squeeze the area on which to put the solar power plants.

"Even if something is providing guidance, once it's passed into law and a map is adopted, it can really slow up processes from moving forward," Pineda said. "We think the development agreement is the right thing to do and this is the proper place to hammer out these issues."

Pineda said their legal counsel, the firm of Lionel, Sawyer and Collins, raised some issues. Eastley wouldn't accept the document, in keeping with a county commission policy only to accept documents submitted in advance, not at the meeting itself.

"When the public hearings were conducted on the area plan what were your comments then? Why wait until the last minute to submit some legal protests?" Eastley asked. "You had a lot of opportunities to be heard on the record in the process and during the Amargosa Valley planning committee meetings."

Cameron reiterated, "there is nothing in this plan to keep Solar Millenium from doing its project in Amargosa Valley."

Cameron said the border of the special development area was actually moved south from Frontier Road to Farm Road to accommodate the project.

"We fully believe they can resolve any of these problems with a development agreement with Nye County," Cameron said. "We realize the boundaries of their project are larger than we had scoped out."

Amargosa Valley welcomes industry and enourages solar developers, like Solar Millenium, she said.

Shelia Rau, a member of the Area Plan Committee, said the plan was modified when Solar Millenium came into the picture. Rau said there are some people with a NIMBY attitude -- not in my back yard -- and some who advocate, "nowhere on the planet Earth."

But she said, "It's a whole feeling the people of Amargosa embrace that project and doesn't have any problem working with a resolution to do the project. It's good for the area, it's good for the county, it's good for the environment and you don't often get a win-win project. I don't think this plan is an impediment for them."

Commissioner Butch Borasky said he would make the motion to approve the plan, providing it's only a guide or tool, not set in stone. It passed 4-0. Commissioner Fely Quitevis was absent from the meeting.